Sapa

Sapa's hotel coverage in this directory covers the French-era hill-station town in Vietnam's far northern mountains, built around terraced rice valleys and hill-tribe villages, with the Fansipan cable car as its best-known draw. It's a genuinely remote market by this directory's standards -- roughly 4-5 hours from Hanoi by road, or a shorter transfer once the Sa Pa train/bus links from Lao Cai are used -- so international-brand hotels here are few and command a strong premium over the town's many local guesthouses. Mountain and valley views, rather than a specific neighborhood, are the main differentiator between properties.