Sapa Village Guide

The Village Guide to Sapa

If you’re only staying a short time and want authentic Sapa (as authentic as can be these days), then you need to skip the main town. We had started in the main Sapa town, but quickly moved out to the Village of Su Pan. Initially, I thought I’d be able to put everything Sapa into one blog, but I quickly realised the Village is so different and so created the village guide to Sapa for people who want to see the differences.

As a family with kids who love to roam free, the village life suited us much better. Plus I was able to get far more work done than I had in the towns where there was always so much to do (and eat).

If you ask my kids what they’ve loved most since we left An Bang beach, they will happily report that roaming in the rice fields in the village of Sapa has been their favourite time. We took over 2,000 photos in two and a half weeks. Each day we took a walk up a road, down a road or someplace new. The kids were totally safe roaming up and down the pathways. It was a dream come true. As I’ve looked back over our photos I get another wave of emotion. It was just such a good time for us and we highly recommend it for families!

Staying out in the Villages

If you stay out in the villages, you’ll quickly fall in love with the gorgeous views. You can’t miss them, they are in every direction. We stayed in an area called Su Pan. There was a small village store here and not a lot else. This town is near the hydro dam and a waterfall. It made for a great spot to explore. If you’re braver than me, you might hire a motorbike and explore a bit further. I still have to write a blog on the time I crashed an electric bike into parked motorbikes - but this is why we didn’t hire bikes.

We’d highly recommend checking out a homestay or lodge out in the hills. They are all more basic than what I’m used to in the Western world, but they are nice all the same.

Ours had this incredible view from the bathtub. Click here if you’d like to see current Agoda pricing for A Tao Ecoland.

The views were great from the bungalow and the bathtub - June 2020

We spent a lot of time hanging out with the locals up the road at Sau Meo Mountain View Homestay (we liked their dinner portions more). They also have a swimming pool. It’s basic, but it’s a pool!

I’d happily recommend you stay with this family if a homestay experience is what you’re after. Su speaks amazing English, she is also a tour guide. I hope she sets up her own tour guide business soon. If you’d like to support a local to run her own trekking business, please message me and I’ll pass on her contact details.

We loved spending time with the locals at Sau Meo Family Homestay - Sapa, June 2020

Another place worthy of your attention is Sapa’s Soul. We didn’t stay here, but we did do some exploring and this family seemed really lovely and genuine. They have a family room with a private bathroom on the lower level and it would be fine if you were planning to stay a weekend!

Eating in the Villages of Sapa

Where we stayed in Su Pan, everyone had the exact same menu. The only difference was pricing and portions. We ate at a few different places and the food was the only thing that got a little boring after a couple of weeks in the country.

Most people won’t have this problem, but if you decide to spend a good week or two out there like we did, be prepared to eat the same food day in, day out!

We love Sau Meo because they gave us HEAPS of food, plus fed Rimaha Happy Water.

Be prepared for no cafes, no restaurants and not a lot of anything. This equals less spending and for us it was awesome.

We had a small village store about one kilometre from where we stayed. There was also a little place (a bit like a garage) that had fruit. We got some of the best tasting peaches I’ve ever eaten out there. This was fresh and sweet and straight off a farm.

Drinking water in Sapa

Great news! The water in Sapa is great. We got by using our Grayl. The locals say just boiling the tap water is fine. We are water snobs, I can’t stand council water supplies eeek. So the Grayl was good for us!