Hanoi > Caobang — THE BEST sleeper bus experience?

Looking to travel from one region to another while having a night’s rest without breaking the bank? 💸 One viable option when traveling in vietnam is via the sleeper bus!! 🚍😴

The good (oorrrr bad) thing is that there are many different types of sleeper buses; of various companies, price points, number of passengers, sleeping pod space, toilets available, bus timing, along with pickup and drop off locations.

This can allow some to choose their ideal sleeping bus based on their comfort and budget, but can also be overwhelming for others! So here’s a summary:

💻 Booking a sleeper bus -

I’d suggest to book the bus prior to heading to vietnam, to minimize the uncertainty of being able to book in time for your trip!

There are a few websites you can book from such as 12goasia, bookaway & vexere. What’s good about these websites is that they do show detailed pictures of how the bus is like, journey timing and hours + reviews from other people! We chose vexere compared to the other websites after much research of its ease of payment, and for that additional safety (they do refund you if transport service is not rendered).

This also means we get to choose which sleeping pods we preferred in the bus - we did not that there was a couple who didn’t manage to prebook their pods and had to sleep apart from one another 😵‍💫🥹

🚌 Choosing the bus company -

To be honest, we pretty much chose the bus company based on the sleeping pods and the number of passengers who will be on board (let’s be real, ~6-8hours with strangers + space constraints?? On top of being dirty??? hell to the no 4 sure)

We ended up booking the VIP sleeper bus for ~SGD 27 with 33 passengers for comfort, safety, space, etc.

🗓️ Bus timing -

I feel like this would be dependent on people’s preferences and budget!! We took the 9.30pm bus, which resulted in us arriving at 5ish am the following morning, our booked homestay was approximately a 7mins walk (they were agreeable for us to arrive during that hour so all was ggg). All we did was drop off our things and take a hot shower, and we resumed the rest of our day!

But if you prefer a good night sleep, and enjoy watching the views, perhaps booking an afternoon bus timing and arriving in the evening/night would be a better option 👌🏻

📍Pick up & drop off locations

We chose our pick up locations according to our itinerary, as we were exploring Hanoi city, we picked the closest pick up location for ease of travel + cost.

This was the same for our drop off location, also close to where we were headed to the next day!

🚍 Waiting for the bus

The tickets sent to us via email informed for us to reach 30mins earlier. However, we decided to head there 45mins beforehand to navigate and find our way to our bus in case language barrier, bus arriving early, other unforeseen bus related issues could affect our journey.

This also meant we had time to wipe ourselves down with wet wipes and change out into our pjs for the night, which was in this case was joggers and tank top. Also good to brush your teeth before heading up the bus so you’ll be more comfortable!!

Upon boarding the bus, larger baggage or luggages will be placed in the bottom storage compartments of the bus. You’d be allowed to bring up your little bag of valuables as long as they aren’t too huge.

You’ll also be asked to remove your shoes upon entering the bus, but disposable plastic bags will be provided for you to store your shoes!

Mid journey there would be ~15 mins rest stop to head to the toilet or grab a quick meal (which I heard can be quite overpriced and average in taste).

💫 Essentials and pro tips for the sleeper bus:

1. jacket or sweater 🧥🥶: the bus can be really cold at night, even with the blanket supplied.

- I wore a cropped tank top just in case I felt it was too warm for comfort, but ensured that I wore joggers to keep my legs warm even if I didn’t want the blanket (+ was worried about possible insects)

2. charging cables🤳 : charging ports are available at each sleeping pod for you to charge your electronics - it happens to be closer to corridor, so just take note to make sure the curtains are drawn and you’re watching out for your valuables!!

- I changed my phone case to the ones you could sling onto yourself, so if people tried to take it I could feel the tug even when asleep!

3. socks 🧦 : I wore sneakers up the bus, but we were asked to remove our shoes and place them in plastic bags for hygiene reasons, but I prefer to keep my socks on when walking around the corridor of the bus.

4. Bring an extra bottle of water and some snacks just in case we were hungry or thirsty! 🍱🍪

- but there will be a bottle of water provided in the bus.

🚨Cons of the sleeper bus

1. Noise affecting our sleep💥- at the start of the trip, the bus driver would call up his buddies and chat really loudly, he would also speak to the attendant of the bus really loudly as well, which made falling asleep slightly trickier.

Mid trip, the attendant would wake us up to check our tickets 🎟️ - I couldn’t understand what he was asking but I just showed him my ticket. But looking back I’m assuming to check our destination.

Near the last hour of the trip, the attendant would start banging at the sleeping pods and call out to the person to inform them that they have arrived their destination. Needless to say, the last hour we were kept up and on our toes.

💎 VERDICT

All in all, I would say it was quite a lovely experience, the bus was not jerky and I did not feel like I was being thrown around on the bus.

Light sleepers may not have the best night’s sleep, but if you don’t mind the noise, it’ll still be a decent choice of overnight travel to another region!

#vietnamtravel #vietnamrecommendations #hanoi #hanoiguide