Homestays in Vietnam

Ba Be Lake is Vietnam's largest natural freshwater lake - a 8km-long body of water set within a national park of karst limestone mountains, primary forest, and Tày ethnic minority villages in Bắc Kạn province, one of the most genuinely wild nature destinations in the northern highlands.

Bến Tre is the Mekong Delta's coconut capital - a province of dense palm groves, narrow canals, and traditional villages where coconut is processed into every conceivable product, explored best by bicycle on flat delta roads and by small boat through the shaded waterways.

Du Già is the most beautiful village on the eastern Ha Giang Loop - a Tày settlement in a river valley surrounded by limestone karst, rice terraces, and waterfalls, with some of the best homestay accommodation on the entire loop and a genuine community that exists independently of tourism.

Lô Lô Chải Village - one of Vietnam's most intact ethnic minority villages, home to the Lô Lô people at the foot of Lũng Cú's Dragon Mountain, with traditional stone houses, distinctive indigo textiles, and a culture found nowhere else in the world.

Mẫu Sơn is one of the few places in Vietnam where snow falls - a 1,541m massif in Lạng Sơn province near the Chinese border that experiences genuine subalpine conditions in winter, with frost, occasional snowfall, and a sea of clouds that makes it one of the most dramatic landscapes in the northeast.

The Moc Chau Tea Hills are vast rolling plantations of trimmed green tea bushes covering the highland plateau of Son La province - one of the most photogenic agricultural landscapes in northern Vietnam, especially at dawn when mist fills the valleys between the rows.

Muong Hoa Valley - Sa Pa's most spectacular trekking corridor - stretches 15km through terraced rice fields, H'mong and Giáy villages, ancient carved rocks, and the Hoa Stream. Vietnam's largest terrace system changes colour with every season.

Tả Van Village - home of the Giáy people deep in Muong Hoa Valley - is the best homestay base in Sa Pa. Surrounded by sweeping terraced fields, 10km from Sa Pa town, it offers an authentic overnight experience that most visitors to Cat Cat or Fansipan never reach.

Việt Hải is a completely isolated fishing and farming village inside Cát Bà National Park - reachable only by kayak through Lan Hà Bay or by cycling a jungle path through the national park, home to about 50 families who live without road access to the outside world.

Y Tý is a remote highland commune in Bát Xát district, Lào Cai province, sitting at over 1,600m and home to the Hà Nhì ethnic minority. Famous for spectacular sea-of-cloud photography, golden rice terraces, and the Lảo Thẩn peak (2,860m) - called the 'Roof of Y Tý' - it remains one of northern Vietnam's least-touristy highland destinations.