Sapa Green Valley Review (with the Sapa Vietnam Rainbow Slide in Thung Lung Xanh)

Sapa Green Valley (Khu Du Lịch Thung Lũng Xanh Sa Pa or Thung Lung Xanh for short) is a small park on the North-East side of Sapa, Vietnam. It is home to one of the famous “Rainbow Slides” in Vietnam that you’ve probably seen all over Instagram.

This is our review of Sapa Green Valley as a Canadian traveling family of 5 who has visited our fair share of theme parks in North America, Europe, and Asia. (At the end of this post is our photo gallery from our visit to the park)

Our Quick Overview of Sapa Green Valley Park

• Give yourself 1-2 hours (that’s going to include multiple trips up the steps and down the rainbow slide). If the rainbow slide isn’t your thing, this park isn’t for you.
• The rainbow slide alone is worth the $5 admission if you like high-speed rides
• Besides the rainbow slides, there is a karaoke area that our boys loved, and some gentle swings (more like swings you might pose on for a photo rather than a thrill ride)
• There are plenty of photo opportunities throughout the small park with the rice fields and mountains in the background.
• There’s a cafe in the parking lot for refreshments
• If you’re not planning to visit Sa Pa already, this is not worth a sleeper bus trip out from Hanoi.

Our boys (16, 14, and 11) enjoyed the slide but said that now they’ve tried it, they wouldn’t need to make a second visit.

Like many theme parks in Vietnam, Sapa Green Valley focuses on Vietnam’s culture, folklore, and legends. It is not primarily about rides like most theme parks in North America.

Expect plenty of photo spots with Northern Vietnam mountains and lush green rice terraces in the distance, depending on the harvest season. We visited in late November, and the fields were all still green. In some years, harvest has already started in November, and the fields are yellow with the stocks left behind from the rice.

 

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Admission Tickets for Sapa Green Valley

At only 100,000 VND per person (about $4-$5) with a discounted rate for kids under 1.2m tall (about $3.50 for kids under 48 inches) it’s worth the stop if you’re looking for something to fill a couple hours, and it has one of Vietnam’s iconic rainbow slides which makes for great video for social media to share with friends and family (who wonder what you could possibly be up to with your kids in Vietnam… just saying).

You can buy tickets when you arrive and pay with cash or a pre-loaded payment QR code app called Moreta. Alternatively, you can buy tickets ahead online if you don’t mind the transaction fee and would prefer to pay with a credit card. You’ll need to buy through a 3rd party since the park doesn’t have a website, and most 3rd parties include the visit a part of a package with other attractions or with transportation to and from your hotel.

We were staying on the north side of Sapa already (and the park is downhill from the city), so we walked and bought tickets at the gate, but Grab (Vietnam’s Uber) is a common option here if you’re staying in Sapa near the lake.

The Rainbow Slide in Sapa Green Valley

The rainbow slide is worth the $5 admission fee itself. It’s the second-longest one (that’s what we’ve experienced), with 3 hills from top to bottom (the largest, both for width and length, was in Mongoland in Dalat). This slide will allow 2 or 3 people to go side-by-side at a time (while the one at Mongoland could easily accommodate 8-10 riders at once.)

You’ll ride down the slide on an innertube with a strap woven between the handles like a seatbelt (for what that’s worth). The slide is a one-way trip, so you’ll walk back up the stairs to ride a second time.

The Thung Lung Xahn rainbow slide is unique because at the end of the slide, you’ll crash into a pile of (what look like) bean bag chairs to slow down your momentum – that’s almost as much fun as the slide itself.

There are multiple places to get great video of someone riding the slide. We would recommend video from the top of the slide or the bottom, but our biggest win was finding that if you stand on the octagonal suspended bridge (midway down the slide) you can get great video of the while rainbow slide experience.

Edit that video together with some video of the person on the slide holding a phone or a video from the top or bottom, and you’ll have a great rainbow slide video to add to your Vietnam vacation collection.

Rainbow Slide Tip: Photos and Videos

We found the best spot for photos and videos while people are riding the rainbow slide; the “floating” glass bridge near the Golden Hand. It looks like this from the bottom and gives you a great opportunity to be around the middle of the slide.

What else is there to do at Sapa Green Valley (Thung Lung Xanh)?

There are plenty of great photo locations with statues looking over the mountains and rice terraces, intricate carvings and sculptures, fountains, and karaoke – our boys’ next-favorite activity after the slide.

Dinosaurs:

It’s not a theme park in Vietnam unless it has dinosaurs. Sapa Green Valley was no exception.

Karaoke:

The karaoke is in a covered hut with a sound system and a projector showing lyrics on a screen. Our boys didn’t know any Vietnamese songs or words, but they just tried their best and had a blast. There weren’t very many other people at the park, so we weren’t disrupting anyone else’s visit (and the workers were entertained.

Cafe:

There’s a small cafe (think more like a cooler with drinks, a freezer with ice cream, and a few bags of chips). I (Adam) enjoyed an iced coffee there while our boys did the slide on repeat.

Pictures from Thung Lung Xanh (Sapa Green Valley)

I’m not planning on visiting Sapa. Where else can I ride a rainbow slide in Vietnam?

There are a few places in Vietnam to ride the rainbow slides that have put Vietnam on the map on social media. Here’s a full list so you can find a rainbow slide in Vietnam, wherever your travels take you.

What else is there to do in Sa Pa? Plenty!