Aerial view of winding terraced rice paddies with scattered farmhouses and a dirt road near Sapa, Vietnam.

Treks · Prices

How a trek is priced

Every trek is private, so we quote per trip once we know your dates and party size. This page shows what the quote is made of, which parts cost what outside our control, and how cheap quotes get cheap.

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Why there is no 'from' price on our trek pages

A private trek has a handful of fixed costs per day: a trek guide, a local guide, a vehicle for the transfers, the guides' own food and beds. Those costs are almost the same whether one person walks or six. Divide them by one and the price per head is high; divide them by six and it falls sharply. A single 'from' figure would be either misleading for a couple or irrelevant for a family.

So the trek pages show the four party sizes we quote for and the words 'On request'. Send your dates and party size and the quote comes back as one number for the trip, with the per-person figure next to it and every inclusion listed.

What a quote is made of

Line	What it covers	Shared by the party?
Trek guide	English-speaking guide, every trek day, plus their food, bed and travel	Yes
Local guide	Guide from the area on village and forest days	Yes
Vehicle	Private transfers named in the itinerary, fuel, tolls, driver's costs	Yes
Homestay or camp nights	Bed, dinner and breakfast, paid to the household or community	Per person
Trail lunches and water	Lunch on trek days, water and tea	Per person
Fees and paperwork	Village tickets, protected-area fees, border-area permits	Per person, some per group
Our margin	Planning, booking, support while you walk	Built into the total

The first three lines are the ones that shrink per person as the party grows. The middle lines are small per person and do not change much with group size. That is why the gap between a quote for one traveller and a quote for four is far larger than the gap between four and eight.

Costs we do not set, with sources

Some of what you pay goes straight to third parties at rates they set. These figures are from the sources named and dated below; check before you travel, because they change.

Item	Reported cost	Source date
Lao Chai – Ta Van village ticket, Sa Pa	75,000 VND per adult; 50,000 VND per child	July 2023
Bed, dinner and breakfast in a Hoang Su Phi homestay	about 500,000 VND per guest	September 2025
Homestay bed in Pu Luong	from about 120,000 VND to over 1,000,000 VND a night	June 2024 (agency listing)
Nam Ha local guide service trek, Luang Namtha	average around USD 30 a day, groups of 4–8	undated travel wiki

These numbers are included in our quote, not added afterwards. We show them so you can see that the money reaching the households is real and that the bulk of a private trek's cost is people's time: guides and drivers.

Sources: CafeBiz citing To Quoc, Sa Pa attraction tickets, 25 Jul 2023; VnExpress, Hoang Su Phi rice season, 15 Sep 2025; Pu Luong homestay list on a travel agency website, 11 Jun 2024 (agency source); Wikivoyage, Luang Namtha (travel wiki, undated) · checked 2026-10-03.

What moves the price, in order of effect

Party size. The biggest factor by far, for the reason above.
Transfer distance. Hoang Su Phi needs about six hours of driving each way from Hanoi; Sa Pa starts where you already are. Long drives are a vehicle and a driver for a full day.
Number of guide days. Adding a rest day or a loop adds a guide day; dropping a day removes one.
Season. Vehicle and guide rates rise around Vietnam's Lunar New Year and the harvest weeks in late September, when demand in the north peaks.
Extras. Porters, a Hanoi transfer for the Sa Pa trek, or a transfer from Na Teuy station for Nam Ha.

What is never in the price, and why

International flights and visas. You know your routing better than we do; visa rules change and should be checked on each country's official portal.
Travel insurance. We do not sell it. Buy a policy that covers trekking and emergency evacuation from remote areas, and read the altitude clause; our routes are village and forest walks, not summit climbs.
Hotel nights before and after. Many travellers already have them booked; we can add them if you ask.
Drinks and tips. Beer and soft drinks are bought in villages; tips are personal and go directly to guides and hosts.

How a cheaper quote is usually made

If another quote for a similar trek comes in much lower, one of these is usually why. None of them is necessarily wrong; you should just know which one you are buying.

Only one guide: a town guide who does not know the paths, or a local guide who speaks little English.
A shared group with other travellers, which divides the guide cost by more people.
Shorter walking days with more road transfers, which can look identical on paper.
Guesthouse strips rather than family houses, which changes the night but not the itinerary wording.
Village tickets and border paperwork left out of the price and collected later.

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Send dates, party size and the trek. We reply by email with one price for the trip and a list of what it covers.

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Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Why does your quote cost more than a group trek in Sa Pa town?

Because it is private, it carries two guides, and it includes the village tickets and transfers. A shared walk sold in town divides one guide among many people and often covers a single day.

Is a solo traveller's price much higher?

Per person, yes, because a guide and a vehicle cost the same for one as for two. The quote shows the full figure so you can decide.

Do prices change after we book?

The quote we confirm is the price you pay, unless you change the trip. Government fees that change before travel are the only exception, and the booking terms explain that.

How do we pay?

By bank transfer or card through a payment link. Your quotation lists the methods and the steps to avoid payment fraud.