Vietnam Backpacking Tour Guides Once, Vietnam Backpacking Tour Guides Twice: Ten Reasons Why You.

Due to it's geography, Vietnam's climate varies greatly in different regions throughout the country, particularly north and south. The people you'll meet and places you'll visit will likely stay with you for a very long time. Backroads made the crazy logistics seem like a breeze. Most companies' trips in Vietnam and Cambodia are run by local operators.

As you browse our unrivaled selection of trips and dates, you can count on finding a trip in Vietnam and Cambodia that's geared exclusively to your choice of traveling companions. Thanks to our extensive connections in vietnam travel information (www.vietnam-travel.org) and Cambodia, Backroads takes you off the beaten track and deep into the region's culture in ways that traditional travel can never hope to do. We know the people and their customs, the legacy of art and architecture, the complex history and politics - and if we're not sure, our amazing local experts can fill in the blanks. That's why we designed our Buffalo Run tours - to get you off the beaten path, to introduce you to our favorite spots, to help you interact with real people and to have amazing cultural experiences.

When I first came to Northern Vietnam a few years ago, I rode my bicycle across the border from China (with my husband, Stephen). The French first developed Sapa town, the gateway to the region, as a hill station and cool summer escape from Hanoi's oppressive heat. Though I usually travel independently, I soon found that organizing a tour is the cheapest and most hassle-free option to go trekking to Sapa.

I can't say I miss the fuss and hassle of haggling with taxi drivers and trying to negotiate the confusion of a strange train station on my own. The train pulls into the station and a sea of tourists, both foreign and Vietnamese, pour out onto the platform. My driver dropped me off at the Sapa market, where a tiny H'Mong woman dressed in traditional clothing was waiting for me. I soon learned she was our trekking guide, also name Jane (though presumably, that's not what her parents call her).

Though we'd expected to trek all day with our group of seven, we kept crossing paths with the other trekkers we'd met at breakfast. After a meal that had consisted of great mountains of tofu, pumpkin, green beans, bean sprouts, mushroom stir fry and, for the carnivores in the group, fried pork, more rice was exactly what we didn't want. We pass tiny wooden houses where piglets, baby chicks, and puppies play in the dirt.

Some kids are shy or indifferent to our passing. Today's trek is much less hilly and far more satisfying than yesterday's. We are also further from Sapa town, meaning that we meet more locals and fewer tourists.

Though I enjoy the occasional party, this is what I was looking for on a group tour: meeting like-minded people with interesting observations about the world and our unceasing desire to explore it. We follow a steep road that winds up out of the valley floor, taking us back the way we came.