Sapa Tours, Sapa tours from Hanoi, Sapa package tours, Sapa Vietnam

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Welcome to our Sa Pa Tours Page

Since 1994, the Aussie based, Griswald's Vietnamese Vacations ™ & our REAL Kangaroo Café ™ offices in Ha Noi have offered genuine, small group, high quality tours to Sa Pa at very reasonable prices too. We specialise in singles, couples, small groups & are more than happy to assist families as well.

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The Kangaroo Café ™

ONLY at .....18 Bao Khanh St, Ha Noi

Our You Tube & Face Book pages are often updated & worth a squiz too !

Talk about the serenity ........

Getting real advice on travelling in Vietnam and the difficulties in doing it !!!

These days with all the self promotion & paid for but allegedly independent reviews on the many travel forums it's so hard to work out just who's who in the zoo. We've had way more than our fair share of grief & nonsense with the Lying Planet mob & Trip Advisor in particular. Trip Advisor are now crying in their beer about their recent fine of over 500,000 Euros for the many thousands of fake reviews (& that's just in Italy) & it's only the tip of the Camberg too.

Kwikchex & the Naked Hungry Traveller have been great in bringing the cash for clicks, Trip Advisor, LP & others to heel & it really is way overdue too. We've always urged caution about choosing what's right for you & these days it's unfortunately no less difficult when the mobs who are supposed to help us are just in it for the cash for clicks. It's time the shameless self promotion & paid for reviews on the various travel forums stopped & lets hope this time it does.

Over the last 20 years we've had thousands of people choose us for their tours.

Time & again (some for their 2nd, 3rd & 4th trip) many have said they chose us because they wanted to go with the tour operator & not just another ticket seller. They're always happy for the fexibility & security that comes with it. It makes all the difference in price, quality, service & Safety !

That's how we know - We're not like everybody else !

So, please beware of the many, nasty crooks that continue to copy us !

This just might be the page you've been looking for !

Being the actual tour operator you won't have to pay for any agents, hotel staff, taxi drivers, internet booking mobs & who knows who else's commissions. Our prices are stated clearly on our itineraries as are all the other important details like group size, what's included, what's not included, accomm details etc. It's all straight forward with us & any questions are easy to answer when you deal with the tour operator.

Please check out the many other options at ....

Handspam, Phoenix, the Sinh Cafe desk at every hotel in Viet Nam (yawn), Ocean Tours, the many Backpacker Hostel mobs, (yawning) another 100+ Sinh Cafes just in the old quarter (even more yawning but with a serious look of bewilderment too !), TNK, Moe Larry & Curly etc.

There's even tours being flogged in CD & dry cleaner shops & out front of the public dunnies too BUT in overall terms of quality & price, we reckon our tours are well worth a look !

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The Kangaroo Café

When in Ha Noi don't forget to hop over to the REAL Kangaroo Café ™. You'll find great Vietnamese, vegetarian & western food (at local prices), the coldest beer in Viet Nam as well as the latest information for travellers. Find out what to buy, where to buy it & better still, what the fair price for it really is.

Our Air Con Café is only at 18 Bao Khanh St & it's a great place to stop off & the KC staff are always keen to help with all your questions. While you're in the cafe you can pick up a Free local map & of course the important - Free Stubby Holder too.

Only at 18 Bao Khanh St Ha Noi

Some info about Sapa & the way we organise our tours.

Sa Pa is in the far north west corner of Vietnam and next to China. At about 1600 meters above sea level, the climate is cooler than in other parts of the country. We've got lots of great photos of Sa Pa and to see them please click on one of the thumbnails at the bottom of the page. There's a number of misconceptions about this wonderful area in the northwest of Vietnam. Many people talk about and refer to the "weekend" markets at Sa Pa. It often gives the impression that they're in the same place & the markets are only on the "weekend". Neither is entirely accurate.

The biggest advantage of these week end activities is for the tour mobs that run them. They can maximise their profits by herding their customers onto busses & driving them up to the area en masse. The biggest problem with this, of course, is that the tourists, because of their large numbers, are unable to see & take advantage of a lot that's on offer. In the past these tours were really the only way to gain access to this wonderful area. However, time waits for no one & in recent times we've been going mid week to avoid the crowds & the feed back we get from our guests is that it's spectacular.

Our Alternative Sa Pa tours - a nice change from the same old ......

We've got 2 & 3 Day Hotel & 3 & 4 Day Home stays. Our prices start at $129 P/pers, twin share.

(Please email us for a comprehensive itinerary)

Our tours include Bed & Brekkie, lunch on the trek, hotel tranfers, 4 berth soft sleeper train & the best views on the mountain.

We meet at our Cafe & then it's off to Ha Noi Train Station & there's only 1 station, no matter what the Lying Planet says. We like to leave from the Cafe a bit earlier (Justin Case) & that's when the difference between us & everyone else starts to show but it doesn't end there !!!

Instead of lurking around the public entrance to the station we take our guests to the Mango hotel for a drink in their private, AC, VIP lounge & enter the station through the hotels private entrance .....

Much nicer that way we think.

We take the night train from Ha Noi & we only ever book the best available, 4 berth, soft bed, A/con, cabins & they're really quite nice. Most people comment that they're pleasantly surprised by the standard too. Only after you're settled in your cabin will our staff say good night !

Check out our YouTube Chanel for lots more stuff about our Sa Pa tours & scroll down below for some recent hotel pics too, they're really worth a squiz !!!

The strange things is that we often find tourists who try to move into someone else's cabin & it's not a bright thing to do, not at all. We don't have problems at the station so you won't either & if someone mistakes your cabin for theirs ..... we'll fix that & quick smart too.

The main point of this is that we don't leave our guests stranded in Ha Noi or up in Lao Cai either. On your way home, one of our staff will again, take you to your cabin & ensure that everything's OK before saying goodbye.

On arrival at the border town of Lao Cai you won't have to fight for a seat on the bus either. You'll simply walk across the road & have a tea or coffee while you wait for the bus to leave. Again, no hassling, no arguments & no uncertainty - we take care of all the hassles for you.

(Please email us for a comprehensive itinerary)

Loan & Nick (our partners in Sa Pa) as you can see, have a really lovely hotel run by her & her wonderful family who'll take great care of you. Loan was the first to hire the local H'mong people as guides & we we really happy with that. Like Loan, we felt that it was time they had an opportunity to do something else besides just making & selling Handi-crafts.

It's their villages we go to so who better to introduce you to their neighbours than the H'mong people themselves. The standard of the hotel is great with loads of charm & the pictures will show you just how nice it is. The fire places are a real treat when it's cold & our staff will even light them for you while you're in town having dinner at one of the lovely restaurants if you wish.

We're not interested in the large groups & we're not alone there either. It's not fair on the tourists, the Vietnamese & especially on the minority groups. The backpacker tours are still going strong if that's what you want, but it's not what we do. When you go for your trek, the largest group we take is 6 but more often than not it's 2 or 3 & in that way everyone gains.

It's really difficulty to take groups of 20-30 people into the areas we go & we simply don't want to. Doing things the way we do ensures that we come & go when & where we/you want & that we don't harm or disturb the area or people involved. We're always welcomed back to the villages & often stop for a chat along the way with hill tribe people we know.

We're well known & liked in the area for a number of reasons but mostly because we genuinely care about the people. This is great for travellers because they get a genuine opportunity to meet & interact with some remarkable people. Because of the small groups we take, our treks are loosely structured so that you can take full advantage of each new situation as it unfolds.

It's your holiday and we think it should be a real adventure.

The Sa Pa Markets

In Sa Pa, as in every town in Vietnam, there's a market every day. Vietnamese people hate food that's not fresh & simply won't put up with it (just why we do again ?). They go to the market every day & in Sa Pa it's no different. Except that on Saturday nights they have a thing called the Cho Tinh (Love Market) & the various hill tribe people go there to try & win a heart.

It's very charming & not to be confused with the Australian tradition of getting drunk on a Saturday night a going the grope on some poor unsuspecting member of the opposite sex. Saturday night's alright (Thanks Elton) for lots of people & for lots of reasons. In Sa Pa, Saturday night's alright too & all who go there say they'll never forget it.

Bac Ha & other week end or minority market places

Normally people go to see the “Sunday” market at Bac Ha which is very good. However these days there are lots of western tourists there which is understandable. You’ll have a choice to visit either Bac Ha or another one. The other market is your fair dinkum hill tribe market. Smaller than Bac Ha but much more authentic & without all the backpackers.

It’s an early start for the drive to either place & both are a bit wild with people riding on horses & buffalo. The markets are packed full of interesting things to buy, like the famous Viet Cong black pyjamas as well as lots of beautiful handicrafts by the various groups. You’ll see lots of groups including Lo Lo, Giay, Flower H’mong, Nung, Tay as well as H’mong. In the afternoon you’ll drive back to Lao Cai to board the train to Ha Noi.

Emailing us about your tour - This bit's important - Please read the following !!!

For a long time now, we haven't been able to reply or send email to Hotmail accounts, the emails just keep bouncing back to us. We know that the Hotmail mob (as do all the others too) get millions of spam emails each day to the millions of free email accounts they have & so the filtering they use has to be very strong to try & protect them & their customers from spam, phishing, the many internet scams & even those crazy Nigerian love letters !!!

It seems better with other Free Email accounts like Gmail and Yahoo etc, but with most of the Free Accounts & because we send you copies of our itineraries as attachments, our emails can often end up in your spam folder.

Often attachments can be malware, a virus just a head ache so we understand the security aspect of this.

With normal email software please check that your settings allow you to receive attachments so we can send you some comprehensive itineraries including all the relevant details of our tours including the price too, of course.

People emailing from where they work may want to check to see if they have permission to receive personal emails & attachments during work time so you might like to add your personal email address too. The free accounts are OK but there's really nothing better than your own account & at about $2 a week, it's not such a bad idea.

And lastly, we know it's old fashioned but the best form of communication is still the spoken word & it's really worth a try. For just $1 or $2 call us here in VN (our Numbers are below) if there's anything you'd like to discuss.

Around Town Pics

In the village pics

The Latest 2015 hotel pics

People Pics