About Tinh Yeu Waterfall / Love Waterfall (Thác Tình Yêu)
The Tinh Yeu Waterfall (Thác Tình Yêu) was often referred to as Sapa’s “Love Waterfall” since the Vietnamese name quite literally translates to mean “love”.
Not to be confused with another “Love Waterfall” in Lai Chau (Tac Tinh Waterfall), apparently, this was considered a romantic spot, which was why the waterfall was so named.
I’ve also seen this waterfall being referred to as “The Golden Spring” because it flows on the Suoi Vang (Suối Vàng) or “Golden Stream”.
That said, they really seemed to play up the love theme here as it seemed that everything about the trail and the infrastructure concerning our visit had something pertaining to love.
After all, I noticed lots of signage throughout the trail reminding us of love, and even one of the stepping stones in front of the Tinh Yeu Waterfall was also shaped like a love heart.
As Tinh Yeu Waterfall itself, it’s said to be 100m tall with a bit of a spreading out fan shape on its way down.
The fact that we saw this waterfall maintain its shape definitely said something about its longevity since we saw it during the tail end of the Dry Season in mid-April 2025.
Indeed, this has been widely considered Sapa’s best waterfall, and perhaps the size and longevity combined with all the good vibes about love as well as the easy trail to get there (more on this shortly) all support this claim.
I’m also sure that its proximity to the Heaven’s Gate at the O Huy Ho Pass further added to this place’s notoriety.
The Tinh Yeu Waterfall Experience
So after going an open square-like area by the car park with toilets, lots of signs, and some swings, we then approached the ticket booth and paid 70k VND per person (as of our mid-April 2025 visit).
From there, we then followed a well-maintained paved path that gently descended over a series of moderate declines and steps.
Eventually after about 500m, the path descended into a valley or pasture where we saw water buffalos grazing as well as other tourists taking pictures of this idyllic scene.
The trail continued through this stretch before getting close to the Suoi Vang Stream at around 800m from the trailhead.
After getting around some ponds (with sounds of frogs in them), the path then veered to the left and went in the upstream direction.
At this point, there were trail forks at a handful of spots (where we had our choice of “bridges” or stepping stones traversing the Golden Stream), and we could choose where to cross or remain on the north side of the stream.
We found it easier to just follow the signs by crossing the second available crossing of the Suoi Vang Stream, and then stay close to the cooler streamside path along its southern banks.
At around 900m from the trailhead, we encountered a modest intermediate waterfall, which the trail climbed alongside.
Then, at around 1.2km from the trailhead, we started to get our first glimpse of the main Tinh Yeu Waterfall barely showing itself behind another intermediate waterfall and bridge.
Continuing to ascend up to the bridge, we then reached a mini-loop where we followed it in a counterclockwise manner getting to a nice lookout with a frontal view of the Tinh Yeu Waterfall first.
Then, we descended to more stepping stones (one of them was heart-shaped) as we crossed the Golden Stream right in front of the Love Waterfall.
Once we got to the other side, we then ascended steps to get back up to the footbridge’s other side, where we encountered another trail fork.
At this point, we kept right (not going back across the bridge) and descended to a stepping stone crossing just downstream of that bridge.
From there, we pretty much went back the way we came as we had to get back the elevation we lost on the way in.
Overall, we spent about a little less than an hour to do this trail covering a distance of about 3km round-trip (according to my GPS logs).
Authorities
The Tinh Yeu Waterfall’s trailhead resides in Hoang Lien National Park near the city of Sapa in the San Sa Ho commune of the Sapa District in the Lao Cai Province, Vietnam. Note that technically, the waterfall sits across the provincial border in Lai Chau Province. In any case, it is governed by the Vietnamese Government and recognized as an ASEAN Heritage Park. To inquire about current conditions, you may want to try the Sapa Tourism website or the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity website.
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