Mai Chau Tours

Mai Chau Travel Guide Information

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.

Golden Holiday Travel Team