Trekking through Tram Tau, experiencing the beauty of the "strip of clouds stretching across the sky" in Cu Vai village.

In Tram Tau, you can enjoy a hot spring bath while admiring the terraced rice fields.

Tram Tau is a mountainous district in Yen Bai province, located 110 km southwest of Yen Bai city and 31 km from Nghia Lo town. Tram Tau is considered a "hidden gem," captivating with its pristine beauty and numerous tourism potentials waiting to be discovered. Tram Tau has a strong potential for developing ecotourism due to its location in the steep terrain of the Hoang Lien Son mountain range, with an average altitude of approximately 800 m and the highest peak reaching 2,985 m above sea level.

Tram Tau also attracts visitors because of its cool mountainous climate in the summer. The winter is cold, with peak tourist spots where temperatures drop to 0 degrees Celsius, and snow blankets the high mountains and tree canopies, glistening in the sunlight…

Our first stop was the Cuong Hai Natural Hot Spring Area, spanning over 600 square meters.²Located in Luu village, Hat Luu commune, Tram Tau town, the resort offers rooms at listed prices ranging from 900,000 to 4.5 million VND per room per night. If you only want to bathe in the hot springs without staying overnight, the price is 80,000 to 120,000 VND per person. However, our group and other tourists who visited during this time were all satisfied. First, because of the romantic scenery with the mineral water baths right next to the gracefully winding terraced rice fields in their "golden season" of ripe rice. The rooms also made a good impression, meticulously designed down to the smallest detail, meeting the quality standards of a 3-4 star hotel. This is something not all private resorts in the north can guarantee.

“I never expected to find such an amazing resort in this remote village,” shared tourist Pham Hai from Hanoi. “It’s unexpectedly beautiful; if it were a little closer to Hanoi, I would come here more often with my family,” commented teacher Anh Dao, also from Hanoi. “Next time, we’ll bring our grandparents here so they can experience the amazing hot springs of Tram Tau,” said Sushi, the youngest member of the group, 12 years old, to her parents…

Off-roading in the rain, "hunting" for clouds swirling around the mountain peaks.

Having planned to experience the adventurous mountain climbing destination of Ban Cong commune in western Tram Tau - home to Ta Xua peak at an altitude of about 1,300m - our group did not stay overnight but continued on to Ban Cong to enjoy camping and sleeping in tents on the high mountain, waiting to "hunt" for clouds and watch the sunrise.

Our final destination was Cu Vai village, situated on a high mountain peak of approximately 1,300 meters in Xa Ho commune. The picturesque Cu Vai village, perpetually shrouded in clouds, lives up to its name in Thai, meaning "a strip of clouds stretching across the sky," with over 80% of its 46 households belonging to the Hmong ethnic group.

Although it's less than 20 km from the center of Tram Tau, the journey to conquer Cu Vai was even more of a "nightmare" than the road to Cong village because we traveled in the rain, and the worst part was having to drive off-road in a very bumpy, muddy manner!

While waiting for my convoy to be pulled out of the mud, a H'Mong father and son riding a Win motorcycle offered to take me to visit their village of Cu Vai first. It was quite an exhilarating experience as the Win motorcycle weaved through the deep mud trenches, sending mud flying up to my head, with a bottomless abyss on one side!

Finally, the whole group achieved their dream of conquering Cu Vai despite the rain and cold. We walked together for about 10 minutes along the only road between the villages, taking a few photos to check in on the early spring in the highlands… We said goodbye to the hospitable people here, promising to return to Cu Vai on a sunny day when the road up there is completed.

Additional information

Transportation: There are many ways to reach Tram Tau, but the ideal options are motorbikes and cars. From Hanoi, you can reach Tram Tau via Thang Long Boulevard, then National Highway 21 to Son Tay. After that, continue over Khe Pass to Van Chan District, then turn onto Nghia Lo Road to reach the mountainous area of ​​Tram Tau.

Accommodation: In recent years, tourism in Tram Tau has developed strongly, so accommodation options are quite diverse. Depending on your travel itinerary, you can flexibly choose from a number of guesthouses and homestays.

Cuisine: Five-colored sticky rice, Nam Thia fish, red rice with fermented meat, fern shoots, stream moss, shrimp paste... are all specialties you should try.

Some destinations in Tram Tau:

- Ta Xua: One of the 10 highest mountain peaks in Vietnam, located in Ban Cong commune with an altitude of 2,865 m.

- Ta Chi Nhu: at 2,979 m, it boasts complex terrain, lush green primeval forests, dwarf bamboo forests, and low-lying leaf forests with countless species of flowers.

- Cu Vai Village: a Hmong village located in Xa Ho commune, boasting a peaceful natural setting characteristic of the northern mountains and hills, often shrouded in clouds. The village currently has about 50 households, with rustic wooden houses and winding paths leading to every corner.

Linh Giang