Mu Cang Chai, in Yen Bai province, more than 300 km North of Hanoi capital, is known as a real paradise in Vietnam. This place is popular with tourists thanks to its charming scenery all year round, diverse culture and many festivals including unique activities. Every year, Mu Cang Chai welcomes thousands of domestic and foreign visitors to visit and experience, all of whom have extremely interesting and wonderful experiences when visiting this land. And if you are planning to travel to Mu Cang Chai, here are the things you need to know.

Mu Cang Chai

The right time to travel

It can be said that Mu Cang Chai is one of the few places with beautiful scenery all year round, so you can freely decide when to pack your backpack. In the spring, the air is cool, the sky is clear, young rice sprouts are growing on the water, hundreds of flowers bloom, then in the summer, green rice grows, creating terraced fields surrounded by green. During the harvest season around early June, the fields seem to be covered with a layer of glass on the surface, looking like a giant mirror illuminating the whole sky. Finally, in winter, wild peach blossoms fill the forests, creating an extremely poetic scene.

Mu Cang Chai in the ripe rice season

Weather conditions in Mu Cang Chai

Because it has mountainous terrain and located in the Northwest highlands, the climate in Mu Cang Chai is always cold all year round, the temperature sometimes drops as low as 0 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature in Mu Cang Chai also hovers around somewhere around 28 – 29 degrees Celsius. So when coming to this highland land, prepare yourself with warm items and a thick jacket.

Mu Cang Chai in the rainy season

Budget planning for Mu Cang Chai trip

No matter what purpose you come to Mu Cang Chai for, be it sightseeing rice fields or experiencing cultural identity, you must prepare for yourself a very detailed and solid budget to be able to easily spend and prevent risks from occurring. Below are the budget suggestions we offer for your reference to have the best trip to Mu Cang Chai.

First is transportation costs. Assuming the starting point is the capital Hanoi, there are two popular ways you can choose to get to Mu Cang Chai: Take a bus or ride a motorbike on your own. To take a bus, it will cost you about 400,000 – 500,000 VND for a round-trip ticket. The advantage of this option is that you will have a safe trip and sleep comfortably until you arrive. If you love adventure and freedom, you can choose to ride a motorbike, the cost of gasoline is about 300,000 VND. The advantage is that you can see extremely majestic scenery along the way. However, the downside is that it will be quite dangerous when the road has many passes and twists and turns.

Transportation

Next is the accommodation cost. In Mu Cang Chai, there are many places providing accommodation services for tourists with price categories suitable for many different budgets. However, the accommodation cost for tourists that you should prepare to have a comfortable place to rest after a long day of exploring is somewhere around 400,000 – 600,000 VND/person. With such a price, you can book a room at many homestays and hotels that offer rooms at similar prices.

Accommodation

An indispensable cost for any travel trip is the cost of food. To keep your stomach full and experience as many specialties in Mu Cang Chai as possible, prepare a budget of about 1,000,000 VND/person. This is a quite reasonable budget and you can experience almost all the delicious dishes here. Budget may vary based on guests’ dining capabilities.

Foods

And finally, that is the cost of the experience. In Mu Cang Chai, there are many activities waiting for you to explore, so to be able to do your best on this trip, prepare a budget of about 600,000 – 1,000,000 VND to be able to participate in all the experiences and all game services in Mu Cang Chai.

Interesting places and activities in Mu Cang Chai

Coming to Mu Cang Chai, you will experience the most interesting places, each place will have its own unique features and will bring unique impressions to you.

First, you can experience immersing yourself in activities of going sightseeing the long terraced fields located on the hills. This is the place that can be said to create the brand for Mu Cang Chai. In each different season, the terraced fields will have different colors, creating unique beautiful scenes. Come here, breathe in the smell of green rice and take beautiful photos for yourself.

Next is Khau Pha Pass, where you can challenge yourself with paragliding. This is one of the most interesting activities when coming to Mu Cang Chai. When flying high above, you can see the panoramic view of Mu Cang Chai with ripe rice fields and blooming flower forests, all blending together and bringing a once-in-a-lifetime experience.Khau Pha Pass

Exploring the 60-year-old bamboo forest is also an experience that is hard to miss when coming to Mu Cang Chai. About 20 km from the town center, the bamboo forest has existed for more than half a century. It can be said to live with the development of Mu Cang Chai, attracting many tourists with its green beauty and tall penetrating sky bamboo trees. This place is also a famous supplier of bamboo shoot specialties to the North.

If your body is feeling tired, reward yourself by soaking in the hot water at Tram Tau hot spring. The completely natural underground hot water stream will help relieve stress and these types of activities can restore the spirit extremely well for tiring days of exploration.

Experience cuisine activities in Mu Cang Chai

The culinary flavors of the mountains and forests always give those who want to experience extremely different and unique activities, which is why the flavors of the dishes in Mu Cang Chai always bring great specialness and always makes diners nostalgic and want to experience it again.

Culinary flavors

That famous delicious dish is Mu Cang Chai sausage. Unlike other types of sausage, the sausage in Mu Cang Chai also has a combination of the smell of wood and the coldness of the highland weather, creating a unique flavor.

Mu Cang Chai sausage

In addition, other dishes that can be mentioned such as grilled pork sandwiched with wild trees, grilled chicken, Mu Cang Chai black chicken, Mu Cang Chai sticky rice,… are all the most quintessential things of this land. All dishes have a very special flavor, the taste of the mountains and forests, rustic but extremely delicate and attractive.

Typical drink that you must try in Mu Cang Chai

When mentioning Mu Cang Chai, we cannot help but mention the extremely delicious and attractive wines. Fermented by the highlanders themselves, the taste of the cups of wine will make you hot and extremely excited. In addition, the ethnic people in Mu Cang Chai also have many extremely unique and delicious drinks that you will definitely experience if you set foot in this land.

Wine in Mu Cang Chai

Accommodation service in Mu Cang Chai

Accommodation services in Mu Cang Chai are currently quite stable and meet the needs of each group of tourists. There are many homestays and hotels with many segments from affordable to high-end, for groups of two people to collectives. The advantage of places to stay in Mu Cang Chai often has one thing in common: they often have extremely beautiful views, there’s nothing better than those activities of waking up in the morning to the sound of birds chirping and with a straight view out to endless terraced fields, right?

Accommodations

Special festivals and activities in Mu Cang Chai

As a sacred land in the highlands, Mu Cang Chai has many unique cultural festivals taking place each year to honor national identity and attract tourists to experience.

Every September, the terraced field festival takes place in Mu Cang Chai to express gratitude to heaven and earth for giving people a bountiful harvest while also displaying and promoting products and culture values to all visitors. Throughout the festival there will be extremely interesting games and activities to create the deepest impressions for visitors.

Highland market festivals are also regularly held, where many highland products will be displayed that visitors can freely choose and buy for themselves extremely unique and meaningful products that can be used as a gift for loved ones.

Highland market festivals

Summary

Choose a safe route for yourself and those around you: To get to Mu Cang Chai, there are many options, choose the most suitable and effective option to get to Mu Cang Chai.

Be careful when driving: Most tourists who choose to explore Mu Cang Chai often like to use motorbikes, because Mu Cang Chai has many winding roads and is located on steep slopes, so it will be very dangerous. Please slow down and pay close attention to ensure your safety.

If you are a nature lover and have a passion for always searching and exploring new worlds, a trip to Mu Cang Chai, a piece of Vietnam’s natural land, will be a constant idea. Give yourself a comfortable amount of time to explore all the wonderful things through local activities here, the beautiful scenery and wonderful people.

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Truly beautiful and breathtaking scenery from terraced rice fields, mountains, hills and streams, The suitable place for study ethnic people, Amazing experiences for trekking, taking photograph, joying homestay

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