2 days AMAZING trekking Sapa from Hanoi with various options

Nobody showed up the train station in Hanoi for me and there was no answer by phone or text to numerous messages sent by both Viator and me earlier in the day because of their lack of contact. So, there are ZERO excuses that can be made. I quickly booked a hotel room across the street and a competitive tour for the next day and lost out on the first morning in Sapa because I had to spend it riding there instead of taking the train overnight as this tour supposedly offered. Be aware that if you book this tour, you could easily get stranded. Unforgivable.

When my partner and I go on holiday we like to 'eat out' and enjoy the food at various restaurants and our visit to Maderia this Christmas and New Year was no different. The Hotel has already had our review so now for the Restaurants. We stayed at the Hotel Allegro, just outside of Funchal and mostly had meals in the surrounding area, the best one being SOLARDO AJUDA, just a short walk from our Hotel, which we visited twice, the first visit because it was recommended by a lovely couple from Newcastle, which being a Sunderland Supporter was a risk but turned out to be one to return to, which we did, the food and wine being fantastic. The worst one was only a few more steps up the bank from the best one,the ODRAGOEIRO which served your meal on cold plates which didn't help the 'local' fish make a good impression. All in all we only had the one bad meal, but if you like football,or Sport in general, the PAUTA DOMINATE is the place to watch it. The food is good, beer and wine is also good with the four TV,s covering all the sports you want, the staff were loverly, always a welcoming smile, ever when we were just passing and which is where our Newcastle friends and ourselves spent time watching both clubs playing football.

This was an interesting situation. I reached out several times to the tour operator before the tour and did not hear anything until 2 hours before the expected start time when the tour company indicated they just received the booking. That sort of caused some stress. I had booked a month prior. The reservation was for my family and I (4 of us) to go to and from Sapa from Hanoi on the train and trek around the area. I understood the itinerary as different than it ended up. We were picked up, dropped off at a location, waited for a bus which ultimately came to get us - we were put 2 people in a "cabin." The cabin was a bed as wide as my arm and less than 6 feet long. It was incredibly tight for 2 adults to sleep and my husband and son could not extend their legs. We then got to our hotel after many hours of VERY little sleep. The hotel was lovely. We ate breakfast which was part of the tour - which was delicious. Then we were picked up an hour and a half later by a really great local guide who walked us around Cat Cat (this was supposed to be on day 2 of the itinerary so they switched it up - which is fine). She didn't really provide information but was a very nice person - she just walked us around. We spent the morning in Cat Cat which is a cool tourist town. Then went back to the hotel for lunch which was paid for as part of tour and was tasty. We didn't really know what was on the agenda for the afternoon. We had a lunch which we paid for as part of the tour at the hotel which was lovely. Then our "host" at the hotel - a very nice guy - recommended that we go to Fanisan mountain - which was not included in our tour but was very interesting. He got us a driver. Then had dinner at the hotel paid for which was nice. The meals were great and the hotel was lovely but I am not necessarily a person who wants to eat at the same place for every meal. Sapa is a cool town and if we were just going to stay there in Sapa it would have been great to try some restaurants. The way the tour read I think I thought we would be touring and trekking and eating out and about. The next morning the same lovely tour guide picked us up and we walked to her village. The hike was great and the village was great - Hmong village women with goods to sell follow you and help - which is nice - but then the expectation is that you HAVE to buy something from every person in the group that follows you. It would have been nice for the tour guide to at least explain that situation to avoid the discomfort that happened when we didn't want to buy as many things as they wanted to sell us. And they were aggressive. We ate lunch in another town which was nice. Then as part of our tour that we paid for we were supposed to eat dinner again at the hotel but the bus driver came to pick us up too early to take us to the train. The train was quite comfortable. It's a train so it's loud - but there were 4 beds (as opposed to 2) so we were thrilled. The tour company had said that they would get us a car from the train station to the airport. But then texted and said we were responsible for our own transportation from the train station. I complained because frankly we didn't have enough cash as we had been told the transportation was taken care of - and they got us the car. So in the end, they did most of what they said they were going to do. The tour guide was very nice - although It could have helped to provide a little more information - and frankly I would have loved more history about the place etc. - she just was a nice woman who walked us around. Eating every meal at the same hotel is not a great way to experience a town. It sort of wasn't really a tour. And this is quite a different experience than the other tours we experienced in Vietnam which were incredible so this is not the norm.