Mai Chau Valley Retreat | Mai Chau Homestay & Eco-Travel Experience

Enjoy absolute peace away from bustling cities and then open your soul to the real nature in Hoa Binh with breath-taking landscapes such as lush valleys, imposing mountains, tea plantation, blossom, caves, streams, etc. Explore deeply the real life of Vietnam ethnic groups through a series of experiences like a local. Take a picture and record your sweet moments in Hoa Binh.

Best Things to Do and See in Hoa Binh

Exploring White Stone Valley

White Stone Valley (Thung Khe Pass) with white high peaks seems to connect with the sky, which makes anyone feel like standing in the middle of the chilly winter of some remote European countries. From a high position of the valley, you can totally admire a stunning view of the whole village blending with some imposing mountains and drifting banks of clouds as well. Besides the grandiose beauty of the pass, you can pay a visit to a local market on the pass to experience more customs and specialties in Mai Chau.

Trekking around Pu Bin

Soak in nature, it’s a must-do-thing to trek from this village to other villages. As a result, you will have a great chance to experience villages’ activities such as herbal foot bath, cooking demonstration, mua sap – a kind of dancing performance, etc. In addition to locals’ interesting activities, you can discover Love Valley covered with pine forest where stories of love began. It is adjacent to the lake, which makes the beauty of the valley become more poetic and seductive for travelers and lovers.

Visiting Thai Traditional Stilt Houses

It is a great opportunity to understand their cultures, living condition, traditional house’s unique architecture, and learn how they work in their terraced fields. Sometimes you can accidentally see local people feed the animal with sugar cane leaf for buffalo or banana leaf for chicken. We encourage you to share a hand on this to get more experiences. Especially you are served a welcome meal full of delicious authentic food here.

Best Specialties to Taste in Hoa Binh

Com Lam - Sticky Rice in Bamboo Tubes

It is cooked from hilly glutinous rice, having a unique aroma of coconut and coconut milk, a smell of sugar cane mixed with forest leaves. You can enjoy Com Lam with chicken, broth, pickled bamboo shoot,… but doting with sesame salt, which gives you the most delicious taste.

Grilled Da River Fish

Locals attach the fish to bamboo grids for being grilled on burning coal. The grilled fish is placed on a piece of green banana leaves blending with salt. The combination of fresh bamboo, banana leaves, and salt makes the dish really attractive.

Ruou Can

It is for sure that you will be impressed by its taste and the way people enjoy it. The taste of Ruou Can is different from that of other wine even including rice alcohol which can be quite bitter and stronger. The drink makes you easily get drunk sweetly but keep you conscious. Especially, people enjoy ruou can directly from a jar by using tubes made of small bamboos with a length of 1.2 -1.5m. As a traditional rite, enjoying ruou can helps people join each other.

If you want to stay away from the noise and bustling in the crowded and polluted city as well as desire to return to peaceful quiet life, Mai Chau( Vietnam) is a cannot-be-greater destination. Attractions in Mai Chau is so enormous that many people feel stunned for its strange charm that the nature has blessed.

Introduction of Mai Chau

Mai Chau is a mountainous district of Hoa Binh province, far from Hanoi about 140 km. Mai Chau is extremely endowed with a cool climate and the peaceful beautiful landscape, therefore, this place annually attracts a huge number of tourists. People know Mai Chau by rustic scenery, tranquil nature and friendly simple locals. From the height, Mai Chau town appears as a thumbnail picture with lush paddy fields, rolling mountain ranges dotted somewhere the shadow of tiny lovely stilts and green bamboo forests. Located in the northern Vietnam, the area less affected by the urban lifestyle, so guests can experience the cultural life together with the locals here through homestay.

Things to Do & See in Mai Chau

Lac Village

Lac Village is the key tourist attraction in Mai Chau, the accommodation of Thai minority. Tourists often choose it for homestay service to have opportunity to experience directly the local life, learn about White Thai’s culture and custom. Visitors can stroll or ride around, watching small stilts lying between corn and rice paddies and poetic streams. Overnight in Lac village, visitors will enjoy traditional dishes of the Thai people by the fire and Ruou Can( tube wine), submerged in the tune, songs and dance of Thai pretty girls.

Pom Coong Village

Pom Coong is also a beautiful village located in Mai Chau valley, containing more 60 stilts for tourists. At the foot of the stilts, Thai girls usually sit for weaving. This is the place selling local souvenirs for tourists. Similar to Lac village, in Pom Coong, visitors will have the opportunity to experience and feel the culture bearing Thai identity.

Chieu Cave

Lying to the southwest of Mai Chau town, Chieu Cave( Afternoon Cave) is really a stunning cave. From the entry, visitors can admire picturesque Mai Chau town below. Its name is because each afternoon, the sun shines into deeply the cave, lighting stalactites, creating a beauty of fairyland.

Mo Luong Cave

Just 2km from the Lac village, Mo Luong Cave is always one of the most popular addresses for tourists visit because of its beauty and convenience. Belong to Pu Kha Mountain, Mo Luang Cave makess a sense of strange for those who set foot on it due to the wild in the modern time. The most unique here is stalactites blocks as magnificent as meteorites, connect together into garish flowers, into the “waterfalls” of stalactites that nowhere has.

Go Lao Waterfall

This is a spectacular waterfall lies in the beautiful forest, flows from the height of 15m. The area below the waterfall has a flat empty lot where we can have an enjoyable picnic and then jump into the fresh water and play together.

Culinary of Mai Chau

You can enjoy traditional food right in motels, hotels that you stay. If not, you can come to Mai Chau Market to enjoy local dishes. However, the best option is eating at the homestay because you will be directly prepared Mai Chau’s specialties by the host with the standard flavor and cheap price. Another reason is the market is not always opened. Top must-try dishes in Mai Chau are: Com Lam ( rice cooked in bamboo), Xoi Mau(colorful sticky rice), Muong Pork, bitter bamboo shoots, hill chicken, grilled spring fish, Mai Ha alcohol…

How to Get there

Recently, tourism is more and more developing here, so the transportation is gradually improved and upgraded. Visitors can come here by coach, motor or car and then travel around the town by bicycle or motorbike because the town is small and has a diversity of topographic.

Best Time To Visit Mai Chau

As being a valley, Mai Chau’s climate is quite mild and pleasant. Summer is not too hot, and winter is not too cold. So you can travel here anytime of the year. However, the most beautiful time to explore Mai Chau is: -October to December: This time is the beginning of winter in Mai Chau, the air is quite cool and pleasant. Especially, you will have the chance to admire a romantic and stunning image of purely beautiful cherry blossoms, plum flowers overwhelmed the valley. - March and April: The moment for Bauhinia variegata blooms, the weather is quite pleasant. Especially this time, there are plenty festivals of ethnic minorities here.

Mai Chau Travel Tips

Summer time (June, July. August) with a high temperature of about 25-35 ° C, sometimes rains, so if you visit here this season, should bring sunglasses, hat, sunscreen, umbrella, raincoat. Also, when to Mai Chau you should remember to bring shoes for hiking or trekking for comfort as well as anti-bugs spray. You also should prepare a light coat for the morning and evening because Mai Chau is often cold at that period of time in day. You can take to try or photograph all of items displayed such as scarves, tutu, wallets, bows, crossbows, flute, gong buffaloes, gongs, horns and horn ... without fear of being noticed or complained.