My experience on a sleeper train

Hi zesties!

Recently travelled to Sapa and thought I’d share about my experience on the sleeper train. This wasn’t my first overnight train experience in Southeast Asia and I sorta knew what to expect. That said, I was happy to find that the train ride was pretty good overall!

First things first, why I picked the sleeper train > bus.

1️⃣ safety — although highly unlikely, accidents can happen and I felt like the train might be a safer option.

2️⃣ privacy — the train cabins give you slightly more privacy than a packed bus, especially if you get a private cabin.

3️⃣ experience — I have a thing for long train rides. It’s a different way to explore the country and there’s a certain charm to it. Although it’s an overnight train and there’s not much in terms of views, it’s still such a unique (and slightly disappearing) mode of travel that I really appreciated.

Bonus: value (?) — this is slightly debatable, but since you’re staying overnight on a train, you save on accoms. However, train tickets are also more pricey than bus tickets so hard for me to argue for this.

✨Operator: Chapa Express

I picked Chapa Express because they had the newest cabins. What this meant was the toilet was V clean and it was generally better maintained than the other operators.

✨My experience:

Before the trip, the operator reached out via WhatsApp to share the tickets and provided super detailed instructions on where we should head towards once we’re at the train station. They were also very responsive and helpful throughout.

We took a shared cabin from Hanoi to Sapa and a private cabin back to Hanoi. The private cabin costs more than the shared ones but it made such a big difference for me. I’m quite an introvert and got bunked with another local who was super chatty. She was friendly which I really appreciated, but I was exhausted and in desperate need of peace and quiet to recharge.

In the cabins, they provide bottled water, some snacks, basic toiletries kit, earplugs and even a welcome drink (soft drink or beer). There’s an outlet for you to charge your phones too!

Aircon was not the strongest but definitely sufficient. We got to experience fansipan’s aircon for abit (different operator) and Chapa’s is as definitely weaker. However, the toilet at fansipan was… not great (cramped+hot and humid). Chapa’s toilet had better ventilation and space. It was also pretty clean even in the morning!

if you’re a light sleeper or get motion sickness easily, the sleeper train might not be for you, but i found the constant movement pretty soothing and fell asleep without any issues.

The train stopped at Lao Cai station the next morning and we had a driver waiting to pick us up to bring us to Sapa (this is a separate add on to the train ticket).

Overall it was pretty seamless and I would love to do this again.

things you should know

✔️ they’ll ask you for your drinks order for the morning as though it’s part of the package, but it’s not. You’ll have to pay for the coffee/tea so do take note!

✔️ Lao Cai station is NOT within Sapa. It’s about another 1hr by car to Sapa village from Lao Cai station

✔️ I’d recommend getting motion sickness bands — the car ride up from Lao Cai to Sapa was on winding roads which caused some nausea for both of us. The bands really came in clutch here 💯

In case you need it, I booked the Chapa Express through Seek Sophie here: https://www.seeksophie.com/a/l62o

Sa Pa #travel #traveltips #travelrecommendation #sapa #train