Tet in Northern Vietnam: What to Expect, When to Travel, and How to Prepare

Each year, as winter softens its hold on the Hoàng Liên mountains and the first plum blossoms open along stone walls and village paths, Vietnam moves into its most meaningful season. Tết Nguyên Đán, the Lunar New Year, marks a time of renewal, homecoming, and intention.

In the northern highlands of Sapa, Ha Giang, and the wider border regions, Tet shapes the rhythm of daily life, travel, and community celebration. For visitors, understanding this period allows journeys to unfold with greater care, respect, and connection.

When Is Tet in 2026?

In 2026, Tet begins on Tuesday 17th February, marking the start of the Lunar New Year.

Although the official holiday lasts several days, preparations begin weeks in advance and the effects continue well beyond the celebration itself. Travel patterns, accommodation availability, and village life are influenced for up to three weeks around Tet.

What Is Tet and How Is It Celebrated?

Tet marks the beginning of the lunar calendar and a turning point in family, agricultural, and spiritual life. Across Vietnam, people return to their ancestral homes, clean and repair houses, and prepare food that carries memory, care, and meaning.

Altars are refreshed with kumquat trees, peach blossom branches, incense, and offerings. Kitchens fill with the slow scent of simmering broths and sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. The first days of the new year are spent visiting relatives, offering good wishes, and resting after a year of work.

One of the most visible customs during Tet is the giving of lì xì, red envelopes containing small amounts of money. These are given primarily to children, but also to elders and unmarried adults, as a symbol of good fortune, health, and prosperity for the year ahead. The red envelope itself carries meaning, representing luck and protection, rather than the monetary value inside. For children, receiving lì xì is a moment of excitement and joy, often accompanied by blessings for growth, strength, and happiness.

In the mountains, Tet aligns with a pause between farming cycles. Fields rest, tools are set aside, and time is made for family gatherings, storytelling, and preparation for the celebrations that follow.

What Tet Means for Travel in Vietnam

Travelling during Tet requires thoughtful planning and realistic expectations.

In the days leading up to and following the New Year, transport networks become extremely busy as families return home. Buses, trains, and flights often sell out far in advance. Many small, family-run businesses close for several days so that owners and staff can spend time with their families.

For travellers, preparation makes a significant difference. Booking accommodation early, allowing extra time for journeys, and accepting a slower pace can turn disruption into an opportunity to witness daily life at a meaningful moment in the year.

The Ha Giang Loop After Tet

The Ha Giang Loop is one of northern Vietnam’s most iconic journeys, and Tet brings a sharp rise in visitor numbers.

From around two days after Tet, the Loop becomes extremely busy. Homestays and hotels fill quickly and often reach full capacity. Roads see heavy traffic from tour groups, motorbikes, and domestic travellers returning from holiday.

For approximately ten days after Tet, riding conditions can feel congested, and accommodation options are limited. Those planning to travel during this period should book well in advance. Travellers seeking quieter roads and a more spacious experience may prefer to arrive before Tet or wait until later in the season.

Sapa During and After Tet

Sapa follows a similar rhythm.

From the second day after Tet, the town and surrounding valleys experience a significant increase in visitors. Hotels fill, trekking routes become busier, and transport costs may rise.

This period of heightened activity usually lasts around ten days, after which the region gradually returns to a calmer pace. Travellers hoping for quieter trails and deeper village engagement may wish to plan their visit outside this window.

Village Festivals After Tet in Hmong and Dao Communities

After the main Tet celebrations each spring, villages around Sapa begin to host their own cultural festivals. These gatherings are deeply rooted in local tradition and follow village-specific calendars rather than national schedules.

Festivals typically begin early in the morning and continue through the day. Larger villages host especially lively celebrations, drawing neighbouring communities together. Events include a wide range of cultural activities and folk games that emphasise health, strength, and skill. Physical ability is highly valued, as agriculture remains central to daily life in the highlands.

Music, dancing, shared meals, and rice wine are all part of the day. Perhaps the most anticipated moment comes with the unveiling of newly handmade traditional clothing. Months of winter are spent preparing these garments, using indigo-dyed organic hemp and intricate silk embroidery. Each piece reflects patience, identity, and pride in craftsmanship passed down through generations.

Alongside these traditional garments, some young women choose modern fabrics and bolder styles, often affectionately referred to as the “glitter girls”. Their presence adds humour, creativity, and a living sense of fashion to the celebrations.

Hmong New Year festivals mark the end of the harvest and the beginning of a new year in the Hmong calendar. They are a time for honouring ancestors, strengthening community bonds, exchanging small gifts, and reflecting on the year that has passed while setting intentions for the one ahead.

For visitors, these festivals offer a rare opportunity to witness culture as it is lived, not staged. Respectful behaviour, local guidance, and patience are essential, as these gatherings remain first and foremost for the communities themselves.

Planning Your Journey Around Tet

Tet can be a rewarding time to travel in northern Vietnam when approached with awareness and care.

Accommodation should be booked early, particularly in Ha Giang and Sapa. Flexible itineraries allow room for transport delays and business closures. Travellers who align their journeys with local rhythms often find deeper connection than those moving too quickly.

At ETHOS, our experiences are shaped in close collaboration with Hmong and Dao partners, following the seasonal cycles of land and village life. Some travellers arrive before Tet to experience quiet mountain days. Others choose to come later, when village festivals bring colour, movement, and shared celebration back to the valleys.

Listening to the people who live here remains the foundation of meaningful travel, whatever the season.

Cherry Blossom Season in Sapa: When the Highlands Turn Pink

A Winter Transformation in the Sapa Highlands

There is something very special about cherry blossom season in Sapa. Each year in December, for around fifteen days, the highlands change completely. Cold air settles over the mountains, winter winds sweep across the valleys, and suddenly the landscape glows with soft shades of pink.

Against the grey skies and misty hills, the blossoms feel even more striking. The contrast between winter’s chill and the gentle flowers makes this season short, calm and deeply memorable.

A Landscape Painted in Pink

During this brief period, hillsides that are usually green or quiet become lively with colour. Walking through Sapa at this time feels like stepping into a different world, where nature slows down and invites you to stop and look more closely.

Wild Himalayan Cherry Blossoms Explained

The blossoms seen in Sapa are wild Himalayan cherry trees, known scientifically as Prunus cerasoides. They are sometimes called sour cherry and are native to Southeast Asia.

Where These Trees Grow

These cherry trees grow only in temperate climates at elevations above 1,200 metres. Their natural range stretches from the Himalayas through to northern Vietnam, making Sapa an ideal home for them.

Planted along tea hills, the trees bloom just once a year, which is why the season feels so precious and fleeting.

The Best Place to See Cherry Blossoms in Sapa

O Long Tea Hill and O Quy Ho

The best place to see cherry blossoms in full bloom is O Long Tea Hill in the O Quy Ho area, about 8 km from Sapa Town. Here, rows of tea plants sit beneath flowering cherry trees, creating a peaceful and unforgettable scene.

Early mornings are especially beautiful, when mist drifts through the hills and pink petals glow softly in the cold winter light.

Snow in Sapa. Truth, myth and the quiet magic of a rare winter

Winter in the Highlands. Mist, Frost and Quiet Days

Winter in the northern mountains of Vietnam arrives gently. It drifts into the terraced valleys on slow banks of mist, settles in the hollows of bamboo forests and chills the ridge lines of the Hoang Lien range with a sharp, crystalline breath. At this time of year, life for Hmong, Dao and Tay families becomes more reflective. Fires burn low in earthen hearths, animals are sheltered, and preparations begin for the new agricultural cycle that follows the Lunar New Year.

In this subdued season the highlands reveal a quieter beauty. Frost rims the grasses at daybreak and thin ice patterns appear on still water. Yet none of these common winter signs can prepare you for the rare and gentle arrival of real snow.

Sorting truth from trend. Snow, frost and the digital mirage

Over the last decade, social media has woven a complicated tale around Sapa and the prospect of a winter snowfall. Photographs of icy railings on Fansipan or frozen bamboo at O Quy Ho Pass are often shared under bold claims that the town itself has been blanketed in white. Visitors arrive with high hopes, sometimes shaped more by digital imagery than by the lived realities of the local climate.

These icy scenes have their own beauty, but they are usually frost or rime. Frost forms when moisture freezes onto cold surfaces. It can create a sparkling, sculptural landscape that feels almost otherworldly, especially on Fansipan where temperatures regularly dip below freezing. These frost events occur several times every winter above about 2,800 metres and they are a natural part of life on the mountain.

Snow is different. Snowflakes form in the cloud itself. They fall, gathering on rooftops, footpaths and terraces. Snow transforms the world with softness rather than sharpness. It also happens infrequently in Sapa town, which is why many frost events are mistakenly promoted as snowfall. At ETHOS we believe that honesty honours both the mountains and the people who call them home. When snow truly arrives, it deserves to be understood in the context of how rare and precious it is.

Genuine snow in Sapa town. Four real events since 1990

Once we strip away frost events, sleet, cold mist and the noise of tourism marketing, the list becomes far more modest. Only four snowfalls have been verified in Sapa town since 1990. These are supported by the Vietnam National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, by climate logs and by the memories of families who live and farm here.

What follows is a clear record of those events, along with detail on how long the snow fell and how long it lasted.

1. March 16, 2011. A brief and gentle snowfall at around 1,600 metres

This was a short, late-season event that surprised many residents. Snow fell for about an hour in the late morning and lightly dusted the roofs and shaded corners of Sapa town. With the sun still strong in mid March, the snow melted entirely before the afternoon had passed. Although delicate and short lived, this was a genuine snowfall, confirmed by official observers.

2. December 15, 2013. A moderate and memorable night of snow

On this cold winter night, snow formed in the early hours and continued until sunrise. Between three and five centimetres settled across the town centre, while the road towards Thac Bac at around 1,900 metres received seven to ten centimetres. Children woke to a world softened by white. Most of the snow faded away by early afternoon, although hollows and forest edges held onto their pale covering for a little longer. This was the longest lasting town snowfall since 1990.

3. February 19, 2014. A short lived but authentic winter moment

This was another verified snowfall, although very light. Between half a centimetre and one centimetre gathered on cars and rooftops before melting almost immediately. The snow fell for less than forty minutes. It is sometimes confused with the frost and residual ice that appeared on nearby passes that same week, but the snowfall in town was real, if fleeting.

4. January 24 to 25, 2016. The largest modern snowfall in Sapa town

This was a remarkable winter event driven by a strong cold surge from the north. Snow fell for many hours through the night and into the morning. In the town centre eight to twelve centimetres settled. Higher regions above 1,900 metres saw more than twenty centimetres. Sapa town kept its winter coat for around thirty six to forty eight hours. North facing areas held snow until the morning of 27 January. This is one of the very few moments in living memory when Sapa experienced genuine snow cover that lasted more than a single day.

These are the only four events in over three decades that meet all the conditions of genuine snow. Tested against community knowledge, confirmed by meteorologists and visible in photographs that show clear snowfall and accumulation within Sapa town itself, they form a quiet and honest history.

Fansipan. A mountain that keeps its own winter story

The story changes dramatically as you climb. Fansipan rises to 3,143 metres, which places its summit in a climate zone entirely different from that of Sapa town. Here, temperatures fall below freezing much more often. Clouds wrap themselves around the ridge lines with icy intensity. Proper snow, not just frost, falls several times a decade.

When we remove frost events and retain only verified snowfall, the historical pattern becomes clearer.

Confirmed Fansipan snowfall years since 1990

Meteorological logs, summit staff reports and independent observations show genuine snowfall in the following years.

2013 to 2014 winter

Fansipan experienced several snowfalls between December and February. Accumulation typically ranged from five to fifteen centimetres and the snow often lingered for one to three days.

January 2016

This was the same cold surge that brought heavy snow to Sapa town. Fansipan recorded more than twenty to thirty centimetres of snow at the summit. Because daytime temperatures remained below freezing, the snow lasted several days.

December 2017

A genuine and heavy snowfall of around ten centimetres settled on the summit and remained for one to two days.

December 2020 to February 2021

This period brought multiple snowfalls. One early February event reached around sixty centimetres, thought to be one of the deepest recorded layers on Fansipan. Snow remained in shaded areas for two to four days.

December 2022 to January 2023

Two separate cold surges created light to moderate snowfall at the summit, with layers lasting between twelve and forty eight hours.

January 2025

A clear snowfall was recorded at the summit with a light to moderate layer lasting less than twenty four hours.

Although snow on Fansipan is not a daily winter occurrence, it is markedly more frequent than in Sapa town. The upper mountain sits in a cooler band where genuine snowfall happens often enough to form part of the mountain’s seasonal rhythm.

How long does snow really last

Even in strong winters, snow in Sapa town is a brief visitor. Most events melt within a few hours. Only the 2016 snowfall created a lasting layer that held for around two days. Fansipan is more resilient. Here, snow can remain for one to three days in most genuine events and longer in the heavier winters of 2016 and 2021. Frost, by contrast, can linger for many days, but frost is not snow and has a different feel entirely.

Why Sapa becomes so special when real snow falls

Snow and the Rhythm of Mountain Life

When snow does arrive in Sapa, the mountains take on a rare and delicate quiet. Terraces that for most of the year glow green or gold are softened with a pale blanket. The scent of woodsmoke drifts further in the cold air. Hmong and Dao families step outside to watch the sky, sometimes amused, sometimes reflective. Children gather snow into cupped hands and carry it indoors for a moment of delight. Daily tasks continue, yet with a lightness that comes from witnessing something so unexpected.

A More Reflective Way of Travelling

Snow softens the familiar and invites us to look again at the world we think we know. It encourages slower travel. Fireside meals become comforting rituals. Walks through the valleys feel more contemplative. A simple cup of warm herbal tea becomes a moment to savour. These are the things we hold close at ETHOS, because they reflect the lived wisdom of our community partners.

When is snow most likely to fall

Snow is always rare in Sapa town and should never be the sole reason to plan a journey. Travellers who arrive with that expectation risk disappointment because snowfall cannot be predicted reliably more than a day or two in advance. Still, some months hold more potential than others.

The Best Months for Snowfall

Snow in Sapa and on Fansipan is most likely between mid December and early February. These months mark the heart of the northeast monsoon, when cold air masses travel southwards and occasionally collide with moist air over the Hoang Lien range. If snow falls in the town at all, it almost always happens within this window. On Fansipan the same period brings the best chance of genuine snowfall, although frost appears regularly from November through February.

Travelling with the Right Expectations

The right approach is to travel for the culture, the landscapes and the generosity of the communities who welcome you. If the mountains choose to offer snow, consider it a gift rather than a guarantee.

Honest weather, honest storytelling

At ETHOS we believe that clarity helps deepen respect for the land and its people. Snow in Sapa is rare, beautiful and short lived. Frost and rime are part of the highland character and deserve their own appreciation without being mistaken for something else. Fansipan holds a wilder winter, but even there the whiteness arrives and fades on the mountain’s own terms.

These mountains do not need embellishment. Their truth is richer than any advertisement. Whether the terraces lie green, gold or white, the winter season in northern Vietnam invites travellers to slow down, look closely and connect with the communities who shape their stories among these hills.

If you walk with us, we will help you experience the mountains in their fullest honesty. Snow may fall, or it may not, but the warmth of a village hearth, the rhythm of a highland path and the spirit of the people who live here will always be waiting.

Sapa After Typhoon Matmo: Calm Skies and Open Roads

Sapa After Typhoon Matmo: What Travellers Need to Know

Was Sapa Affected by the Typhoon?

Many have seen dramatic headlines and assumed the worst, but here is the truth. The storm passed far to the north and Sapa was not affected. No flooding, no damage, no disruption. While the news focused on chaos elsewhere, the hills of Sapa remained calm.

Current Conditions in Sapa

The past week has been beautifully clear. Cool, dry air has brought crisp mornings and wide views across the valleys. Trails are quiet, the sky is blue and the rice terraces glow in the sun. It is one of the best times to be here.

Travel and Transport Are Running Smoothly

Roads are open, buses are operating as normal and motorbike loops are in full swing. Trekkers are setting off each morning and routes through the mountains are accessible.

If you were worried about cancelled plans, you can relax. Everything is moving as usual.

Life in the Villages

Workshops, homestays and local markets are all open. Families are cooking on wood fires. Children are walking to school. Life feels peaceful and grounded.

Travellers are being welcomed with smiles and hot tea, just as they always are in Sapa.

Should You Visit Now?

If you are travelling in Vietnam and wondering whether to include Sapa in your journey, the answer is yes. Do not let online rumours or overblown social media posts stop you from experiencing one of the most beautiful regions in the country.

Sapa is safe. Sapa is calm. Sapa is ready to welcome you.

Want to See It for Yourself?

If you would like a real glimpse of how Sapa looks right now, have a look at our latest video: https://youtu.be/ph3xV-8XEys?si=xsrPXkipq_cckyRP

And if you are dreaming of trekking through rice terraces, sharing meals with local families or exploring mountain roads on two wheels, we would love to guide you.

You can explore our experiences here: https://www.ethosspirit.com/create-your-experience

Sapa’s Golden Season: A Landscape Transformed

From Emerald to Gold

In the misty highlands of Sapa, the rice terraces begin their quiet transformation. What was once a sea of emerald flowing in endless curves along the mountains ripens into waves of gold. Each step gleams under the sun, a natural masterpiece painted stroke by stroke in hues of harvest and hope.

The Beauty of Change

Every season carries its own beauty. Summer’s lush green gives way to autumn’s golden promise. The terraces are more than fields of rice—they are living reminders of patience, rhythm, and the timeless connection between people and land.

A Harvest of Abundance

To stand before Sapa’s terraces is to feel the earth’s poetry. Growth, change, and abundance unfold before your eyes, offering both the gift of food and the reminder that every ending is also a beginning.

The Living Tapestry of Sapa’s Rice Terraces

Golden Season in the Highlands

Golden season is calling. Will you answer? Carved patiently into the mountainsides of northern Vietnam, the rice terraces of Sapa are both a landscape and a legacy. Built and tended over generations by the Hmong people, they transform rugged hills into sweeping steps of life. Each curve holds the imprint of ancestral skill and devotion.

Colours of the Season

In summer, the terraces shift in colour as new shoots spread in vibrant green, soft and delicate. As autumn approaches, the rice ripens into gold, glowing in the sunlight and breathing with the rhythm of the sky. The hills are never still. They change daily, painted anew by light and shadow.

More Than Beauty

The terraces are not just a spectacle. They embody the spirit of community. Rice in Sapa is not grown only for nourishment but as a shared endeavour. Families and neighbours work side by side, guided by tradition and necessity. Every grain carries the wisdom of countless harvests and the touch of many hands.

A Story Still Being Written

For the Hmong people, rice is not only food but life itself. It sustains the body, strengthens bonds of family and community, and connects today’s work to the memory of those who came before. These terraces are not silent fields. They are a story of resilience, belonging, and collective care—still being written in earth, water, and time.

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