Cat Cat Village: The Most Well-Known Old Town in Sapa

Cat Cat village is a residential area of the H’ Mong ethnic group in Sapa town of  Lao Cai province. 

It used to be called Cat Cat hamlet. This village is currently one of Sapa’s most popular places to visit.

When people travel to Cat Cat village, tourists can enjoy the peaceful natural scenery and also learn about the unique culture of the local ethnic people.

How to get to Cat Cat Village

Cat Cat village is about 3 km from the center of Sapa town, approximately 315 km from HaNoi capital and 2000 km from Ho Chi Minh city. 

There are several ways to get to Cat Cat village from Sapa: You can take a taxi or rent a motorbike to drive.

To get to Cat Cat village, people can rent a taxi at the Sapa bus station or in front of the Sapa stone church. Renting a car costs about 150,000 VND for one way or 200,000 VND for both ways.

Tourists can also rent a motorbike for a day at the Sapa bus station for between 80,000 and 150,000 VND to get to Cat Cat village.

People can also go trekking from Sapa and enjoy the beautiful scenery along the way.

How much it costs to get into Sapa’s Cat Cat village

You must buy a ticket to enter the village when you get there. Adult tickets cost 70,000 VND, and children’s tickets cost 30,000 VND.

There are several maps at the ticket counter. The map is handy, so you should get it for free. There are all of Cat Cat village’s tourist spots marked on the map, so your trip can be more manageable.

Cat Cat village has a lot of fun things to do

Explore H ‘Mong houses

First, hold back at the village gate. It is where people’s traditional arts and crafts, such as weaving linen, knitting, painting, and forging are preserved.

The H’Mong people of Cat Cat village also make silver jewelry. Local people have passed down these skills to create unique silver rings and necklaces from generation to generation.

Inside the village, you’ll see the natural beauty of Cat Cat, with its terraced fields, stone paths, small streams, and even giant water wheels.

Try on brocade costumes

When you go to Cat Cat village, trying on the clothes of the H’Mong people is fun to experience.

These are the costumes made of brocade with four primary colors: blue, red, white, and yellow, with many designs and creative patterns.

Cat Cat village has grocery stores where tourists can rent brocade costumes and take pictures with children from different cultures.

The beautiful poetry of Silver Falls

Cat Cat Waterfall is one of Cat Cat village’s outstanding attractions. It is a tall, swirling waterfall with white, milky water that falls like Silver. 

The French found this waterfall and named it Cat Cat waterfall.

Enjoy coffee in the mountains of the Northwest.

Cat Cat Village has many cafes like Nha My and A Phu, and Gem Valley Homestay.

Those cafe houses are located in the middle of nature and have been designed especially for the area.

• My and A Phu’s House

At the bottom of Cat Cat stream, two cafes bring to life the lives of the characters My and A Phu from a well-known Vietnamese story.

My and A Phu are the two main characters in A Phu Couple written by writer To Hoai.

The two characters represent ethnic people living in the Northwest mountains who love to work and desire freedom.

The colonialists and feudalists took advantage of My and A Phu and forced them to live in poverty. They also treated My and A Phu as enslaved people.

Ultimately, Both My and A Phu still want to live with vitality, affection, and aspiration. They have strongly dared to stand up from their shackles and find a new life.

My and A Phu’s House has modern architectural details that bring the Northwest mountains to mind and traditional ones.

If “My House” shows how gentle and beautiful H’Mong girls are, then “A Phu’s House” shows how strong and manly ethnic boys are.

• Gem Valley Homestay

Gem Valley is where the owner lives, runs a cafe, and exhibits his paintings.

The lovely cafe is located in the middle of Cat Cat village, so when you open the window, you can see the natural beauty of the whole town.

Traditional cuisines in Cat Cat village.

Cat Cat village is popular with tourists not only for its beautiful, peaceful scenery but also its well-known traditional foods 

When going to Cat Cat Village, tourists must try many notable dishes.

• Corn alcohol

Corn wine, also called “happy water,” is a typical drink among the H’mong.

H’mong people cook the corn seeds until they expand. The wine will be made after all the bases are mixed and kept warm for another six days.

In Cat Cat village, local people traditionally make corn wine with unique leavening ingredients from the H’Mong ethnic group. It tastes very sweet and fragrant.

• Buffalo Meat Upstairs Kitchen

Buffalo meat is one of Cat Cat village’s most famous specialties every tourist wants to try and take home.

With a complicated first step, spices that are common in the Northwest are used to marinate buffalo meat. The meat is then put on a fire to smoke and dry.

The buffalo meat upstairs kitchen has a nice dark brown color, is sweet and soft, and has a unique taste that reminds you of the smell of smoke in the kitchen. This unique taste will stay with you for a long time.

• Fruit of some kind

Cat Cat village has the typical mountain village climate, and many fruits grow there.

Visitors can try delicious fruits like plums, peaches, grapes, green apples, etc., when they come here.

This place also serves many other tasty foods, like grilled meat, five-color sticky rice, chestnut cake, men men, and lam rice.

All of these dishes are favorites among tourists.

Which season should people visit Cat Cat Village?

The climate in Cat Cat village is humid and temperate subtropical, so the weather is cool all year.

Going to Cat Cat Village in the spring, you can see the cherry blossom gardens and plum flowers in full bloom.

In the summer, people can see the bright yellow canola flowers in the fields.

Cat Cat village will have beautiful golden rice fields, cool weather, and rushing waterfalls in the fall.

When winter comes, the beautiful Cat Cat village is covered in ice, white snow, and hazy clouds.