Vietnam's Luxury Sleeper Train: CHAPA Express
📍Sapa, in northern Vietnam, is home to the world's highest rice terraces and Fansipan, the tallest mountain in Indochina, and is also near the border with China. It takes 8 hours from Hanoi to get there by sleeper train🚂
This is my first time riding the popular luxury train!
📌Sapa sleeper train trip
Departing Hanoi Station 22:00 - Arriving Lao Cai Station 5:55
Arriving at Hanoi Station 21:15 → Boarding at 21:30
・When I boarded, I was given a welcome drink of cinnamon tea and chips, beer, chickpea snacks, and bananas.
Wine and other items are sold in the cart for a fee 🍷
On the way there, I was so excited to be on my first sleeper train to Sapa that I could barely sleep, like I was on an excursion...
I was woken up 30 minutes before arriving at Lao Cai, and took a 1-hour CHAPA shuttle bus from Lao Cai to Sapa, which can hold about 10 people!
(If you book the shuttle bus on CHAPA's official website, it comes with a free round trip)
*These 30km or so are mostly winding mountain roads, so if you get car sick, you'll need to take medicine ⚠️
📌Return train
Departs Lao Cai Station 21:30 - Arrives Hanoi Station 5:25
I was picked up at the hotel around 17:45, so I relaxed in the Red Dao bath, a herbal bath using Sapa herbs 🌿 at the Victoria Hotel, which is well known for its Victoria Express, and then took a sauna and shower to get ready.
Then it was a 1 hour ride up the mountain road🚐
We arrived at Lao cai at 19:00 and went to the two-story Terminus Restaurant in front of the station🍽→There's a Trip Advisor sign so you can easily find it🦉It's really delicious😋
CHAPA express also has a lounge, but there's nothing there except drinks, so I recommend staying at Terminus restaurant until the last minute💡→There is a shower in the CHAPA lounge, but it really feels like a restroom, so I strongly recommend getting ready in Sapa🚿
🚂 We got our tickets at 20:45 and were able to board. The temperature inside the car was different on the way there and back, so it's a good idea to bring warm clothes🧣 I was really fast asleep on the way back💤
As for the price of the sleeper train to Sapa, it was 45,000 yen round trip from Hanoi to Sapa for two people.
It's a little expensive, but personally I was excited to ride a train that looked like a scene from Harry Potter! There are many other types of sleeper trains besides CHAPA express, so why not enjoy a trip to Sapa depending on the number of people and your desired price🙋🏻♀️✨
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