Around 160km far away from Hanoi, set in an idyllic valley surrounded by hills and soaring mountain peaks, Mai Chau is home of peaceful ethnic minority villages among paddy fields and mountains, which is a tempting indigenous community-based tourism destination nowadays. This is a great place for a short hideaway from Hanoi’s hustle which helping you have a closer touch to the Northwest of Vietnam.
Next to Mai Chau valley is Pu Luong nature reserve, which is blessed with rich forest, limestone panoramas, magnificent rice terraces and breathtaking scenery. You can best connect your Pu Luong nature reserve exploration with Mai Chau valley on a 2 - 4 day journey from Hanoi.
Thung Khe pass view to Mai Chau valley
Are you looking for the best tour for you through Mai Chau & Pu Luong nature reserve in Northwest Vietnam? Let's get our pre-designed Mai Chau tours reviewed for some suggestions for what is possible when you travel to Hoa Binh Province. Discover more of the local culture on an in-depth experience that can show you every aspect of the countryside, its beautiful rice terraces, ethnic minority villages, from food, lifestyle, to hidden trekking routes.
Get inspired with our Best Tailor-Made Private Mai Chau Tours below. Don't forget we can tailor-make itineraries or design new Mai Chau tours to suit your travel interest
Would you like to explore natural sceneries of mountains & valleys; and learn about authentic local cultures? You can have a good reference of Mai Chau day trip from Hanoi to enjoy Mai Chau valley's landscapes....
You are looking for a nice place of beautiful natures for trekking & biking funs, Mai Chau valley is the destination you can think about for your weekend break with 2 day Mai Chau excursion ! Let's come & have enjoyable experience with us !!!
The trip is a great hideaway from the daily routines of stressful work, city life for a nice exploration of natural landscapes & local cultures in Mai Chau valley & Ninh Binh. Let's come and have interesting experiences with us !
Book NowFrom: Call3 days/ 2 nights - private tour from Hanoi
If you love off-beaten-path destinations & adventure fun for your Vietnam holiday, this intensive trekking tour to Mai Chau & Pu Luong should be your ideal choice for exploring pristine natures with the adventure activities of trekking & biking to untouched rural villages in less touristic attractions of Mai Chau & Pu Luong national park.
Book NowFrom: Call4 days/ 3 nights - private tour from Hanoi
This 3 day Mai Chau Pu Luong Trekking Tour is a great trekking trip to remote villages of Pu Luong Nature Reserve and Mai Chau valley area. You will have impressive cativation of natural landscapes of mountains, valleys of beautiful terraced fields & waterwheels; and more interestingly get to know more anthentic cultures of local ethnics living there. Let's come and discover with us...
Book NowFrom: Call3 Days/2 Nights - private tour from Hanoi
Location: Mai Chau is a mountainous district of Hòa Bình Province, which is located at about 160 km from Ha Noi to the NorthWestern.
Population: around 63.000, with the majority of which is Thai people.
Area: approx 520 sq.km
Weather: The average temperature here is around 24.5°C with the highest temperature is around 31°C in the summer while the lowest temperature is an average of 18°C in the winter.
Special features: temperate weather, beautiful scenery, mountainous landscape, outdoor activities and unique ethnic local culture.
Top Things To Do In Mai Chau & Pu Luong - Vietnam
1. Stay in villages and have experiences with local life
As a leading community-based tourism destination, almost families in Mai Chau’s villages offer accommodation as local homestays and restaurants in their stilt houses which let tourists have a closer approach to local life here. All stilt houses are spacious, clean and built in traditional architecture. They are fully equipped with clean blankets, pillows, which is fairly accommodated for the travel group, friends or families stay. Have a local stay, enjoy local meals with specialities, do a shopping for beautiful local handicrafts and witness how locals live their life, even you can join and learn how to work like them with farmwork or traditional manual textile manufacturing, all your experiences in Mai Chau wouldn’t be more authentic than that, would it?
2. Biking around the valley
Bicycle rental for travellers is also commonly available in Mai Chau for anyone who loves new discoveries. The electric car is also a great alternative to explore Mai Chau but cycling is much more interesting indeed. Exploring Mai Chau by riding pass main paths which connect stilt houses in villages, finding your own quiet corner in the valley among rice paddies and mountains or getting away from the crowds, take your time on untouched trails and stop by for having your own photos with beautiful landscape surrounding might be the greatest pleasure you'll have in Mai Chau. It is surely a healthy outdoor activity that you can not ignore when you’re staying in this valley.
3. Join traditional dancing with locals
Mai Chau attracts tourists not only by the peaceful and charming natural beauty but also by the distinctive of the local culture here, which is represented through people daily life and their passionate spiritual life with featured music and dances as well. Two among the most common traditional dancing in Mai Chau is Xoe Dancing, which is combined with colourful fans or scarves, and Sap Dancing (also called bamboo dancing), which is added with dances through bamboo poles, which harmoniously get along with melody and rhythm. Don’t hesitate to join in the fun and enjoyment of the traditional dances with locals here as it is indeed exceptional experience, which lively shows the richness of the cultural and spiritual life of residents here.
4. Enjoy meals with local specialities
When talking about Mai Chau, it’s surely deficient if we don’t mention the culinary culture here. The favourable natural condition has created signature Mai Chau cuisine that attracts a lot of tourists. There are numerous local dishes in Mai Chau that you must try when travelling here. They are not only simply stunning dishes but they also stand for the essence of Thai people’s cuisine. Each of them possesses different special taste, which surely brings to you unforgettable experiences with local food here.
5. Hiking in Mai Chau countryside
Mai Chau and Pu Luong regions are particularly beautiful for hiking trips. From a simple walk to a multi-day hike with homestays, there is something for everyone and for all levels. As a couple or with your family, let’s discover this superb rice valley surrounded by beautiful limestone mountains covered with vegetation. Hiking is an opportunity to observe the country life. Depending on the season, you can observe the farmers plowing with a buffalo, transplanting or harvesting the rice.For a long hiking trip of adventure, we recommend you to do with a local tourguide who know well about the routes and show you interesting features of the region : local cultures, their way of life & their customs.....
6. Bamboo Rafting
Bamboo rafting might be one of great experiences in Mai Chau & Pu Luong that you should not miss. Joining a short journey on the stream and admiring the scenery from another view will bring a different feeling to you. What you need to do is take a life jacket, step on the bamboo raft, stay still on it and explore Mai Chau’s beauty with the help of locals who are paddling along the clear water stream. If you’re an adventure lover, you can definitely ask local to teach you how to control the raft and try it on your own. In general, it could be very slow and nice, just floating down the stream and not a lot of action, but somehow you will prefer it that way.
Best Time to Visit Mai Chau & Pu Luong - Vietnam
Actually, you can visit Mai Chau all year round, but from March to early May and from September to November are the best times to visit Mai Chau & Pu Luong due to amazing landscape with lush colours on beautiful rice paddies covered all around the valley this time. Spring (around January and February) is also a great time to be here as it’s bloom time of peach, plum blossom and bauhinia, a typical flower of NorthWestern in Vietnam.
Mai Chau - Pu Luong exploration with Golden Holiday Travel.
As a local tour operator, Golden Holiday Travel have operated plenty of successful trips for international visitors to Mai Chau valley & Pu Luong nature reserve from Hanoi.We have understood their travel needs & pre-designed a number of interesting Pu Luong -Mai Chau tours at reasonable prices. Some of our Mai Chau trips are focused mainly in Mai Chau area trekking, biking to remote villages with 1-3 nights homestaying in local families & enjoying their home-cooked local foods.The other excursions are connecting Mai Chau region with Moc Chau area or Pu Luong nature reserve or Ninh Binh for their more discovery of local attractions.
If those pre-designed Mai Chau Tours from Hanoi are not of your interest, please, feel free to email us with your travel request of your interested places to visit in Mai Chau, the activities you'd love to take part in ( biking, trekking, rafting), the accomodation that you would like to spend your night in ( homestay , hotel or resort) in this enquiry form, our travel team will soon reply you back with useful consultancy and customise a Mai Chau Tour with good offers to meet your travel demands.
We wish you a pleasant & enjoyable trip in Mai Chau & Pu Luong - Vietnam.
I hope you havent't forgot us. If you have I have included a photo of us in attach file.I promised to e-mail you when we get back. Sorry for the delay but we had so much shit to sort out when we've got back home.
Thanks very much for giving us a tour of Hanoi. Without you two, we would of missed a hell of a lot of Hanoi which we never had the time to explore.
When we were in the south, we came across a lot of English and Irish backpackers that were heading to Hanoi and we've recomended you and the taxi driver Binh to them. I hope they contact you two when they get to Hanoi and give you business.
So so much had changed since I left Vietnam. Some changes are positive and a lot of negatives but people link yourself and Binh will keep up the traditions.
I hope that you will get this e-mail. If you do please reply.
Since we've came home, I've had so many ideas about starting a business venture in Vietnam and and hoping that you might want to be be part of the it.
Alec (Hung)
Alec Hung & Challote from UK
Dear Ban,
Sorry for being late.
I tried to write you a letter several times, but I couldn't finish the letter. I don't know why.
I am still in winter vacation, so I have been very lazy, frankly speaking. And I miss you and the other good people I met in Vietnam. You cannot imagine how much it is!! As for our meeting, let's put it aside for my next trip, possibly that would be the coming August. At that time, we can have time to talk a lot about Vietnamese school system and other interesting things. Don't you think??
And I am so happy to know that you think my voice is tender in different songs... *^^*
By the way, how's it going with your new business? Is it going well? I'm sure you will be successful because you are quite ambitious and intelligent. You agree, Ban?? ^^
When my school starts, I cannot tell anything about Vietnam without talking about you to my students... I get impressed a lot, surely yu know that. Right?
I will attach the picture you took together in my next mail because my camera battery is out. Sorry about that!!
It's Saturday today. I wonder what you are doing at this moment in Vietnam when I am writing to you. Keep in touch often. OK?? ^^
Take care and be well & happy
Your friend,
Hwayoung Lee from Korea
Ms Hwayoung Lee from Korea
Hello Mr Ban, What a surprise to hear from you and a good one. yes I do remember you quite well....as Black Dan? Is this right? It has been 5 years since I was in your country. a long time, but I remember how bright and funny you were and also how polite!!! So, have you a family to look after now? A wife and some beautiful children? I hope all is well with you and you have plenty of work to do. I am taking a break at my work as it is Christmas time here and everything stops and family get together. I know you have TET around the corner and I wish you much success and good fortune for the next year. Which animal will it be next year for TET, I wonder? And which year you born in? I am still working with flowers. Iam known as a florist and my job keeps me pretty busy. I enjoy it very much as I love to make beautiful things from flowers and stones, dried things from Mother Nature and sometimes with man made stuff as well. It is quite funny that you emailed me at this time as I have been thinking of coming over to Vietnam alot lately and may do next year sometime. I missed out on a few places I would love to go ( Hoi Ann), and re visit some places I have been to last time. Are you still a guide? All the best.