A Vietnam "sleeper" Bus

If you have been following along, we just spent a few days exploring the beautiful region of Sa Pa. Vietnam which is known for gorgeous rice fields and sunning rice terraces. Our journey there involved an overnight train ride, so on the way home we decided to be just as adventurous and booked a sleeper bus!

You can find these all over Vietnam. They are affordable, our’s being about $12 USD per bunk, and if you are looking to embrace a unique form of travel, this may be for you!

We originally booked a Mickey Mouse theme bus which we thought would be so cute for the girls, but that happened to be broken down so upon arrival at the bus station in Sa Pa they let us know we’d be getting on neutral themed bus, but with the same setup inside.

Upon entry everyone is required to take off their shoes and you are given a bag to keep them in. All luggage fits under the bus and you have enough space for a small carry on in your bus bunk with you. Some people fit 2 adults in a bunk, but I think that would be a little tight for a long journey in my opinion. We booked 2 and both Colin and I shared our bunk with one of the girls and that worked out really well.

The bunks themselves were mostly clean, you are provided with a blanket and pillow and 2 bottles of water. Each bunk has an AC vent and when the bus is on, it feels very comfortable inside. There is also lighting and USB chargers provided - and ours has a TV that we weren’t able to turn on. So not much to say about entertainment.

Some disclaimers. For someone over 5’8 this might be a tight fit for you. Also if you get car sick easily, the bus had a sway pretty much the entire time. Colin was fine (who gets car sick often), but our oldest daughter wasn’t feeling too well through the mountains so we gave her a small dose of kids dramamine, she napped, and woke up feeling fine. Just something to be aware of!

Another note is there are no bathrooms on board but you make 2 bathroom stops at rest-stops along the way. We put both of our kids in a pull-up (they are still young enough to not think twice about wearing one when we ask them to) just as a precaution, but they both were fine and we all got off at rest stops to stretch & use the bathroom. Rest-stops also had some local food stalls and a few prepackaged snacks/drinks if you needed something to eat.

Once we arrived in Hanoi, it was an additional hour to make it across town due to city traffic, so keep this in mind! I would say overall we were pleased with our experience but would probably choose the train if we had to pick between the two just for more space to move around though the bus was much cheaper.

Hope that helps! Let us know if you end up going on your own bus adventure. We’d love to hear about it!