Green Homestay — Hotel in Hải Phòng

Lovely place which I strongly recommend to anyone looking for a simple and nice place to stay, relax and recharge away from the city and noise.

The place is small but very beautiful, the owner extremely kind, helpful and really lovely. Good English from his side. Unfortunately the other team and family members did not speak that well, so he had to run here and there many times to deal with all request from all his guests. Always with a smile and nothing seems to be too much for him.

The room is simple and exactly what you need, small terrace where you can have dinner or a drink. The pool is well maintained and doesn’t stink of chlorine like most other ones. Barbecue place by the pool, charming lighting by night, very quiet and accommodating.

We felt that having a chat was always very easy with the owner who helped us a few times during our stay. Motorbike rental was cheap (120k /day) and same quality as anywhere on the island.

Only downside were few things:

Disgusted by the beach, unbelievable amount of rubbish which is so sad to see. We wanted to have a nice walk and ended up not even sitting there. We literally saw fishermen discharging their net and plastic bottles onto the beach :/ Place is called “Green homestay”, although the garden is green, this is slightly misleading as we expected something sustainable and eco friendly which is not the case and a few things should be improved: Don’t change towels everyday, don’t provide plastic sachet toiletries and toothbrushes. Instead place refillable dispensers for shampoo, shower gel and hand soap, and only clean room, change towels, give tooth brush upon request, unless guests are staying longer. They have 2 dogs on site and few cats. They are adorable and make the place feel home! The wife however didn’t seem very friendly towards them but rather annoyed by...

The host was a polite, honest and very professional man. The housekeeping came every day and did a good cleaning, bringing fresh towels and drinking water. The service was more like in a 2-3 star hotel. The food at the homestay was alright and, honestly, we didn't find anything better in the village. The breakfast was quite european style (proper bread, fried eggs, pancakes, coffee, tea...) and for dinner, I liked the tasty and fresh chicken pho soup. The host also provides tours to diverse attractions and rents scooters. All this is always at a reasonable price and very reliable. The village itself doesn't have many attractions so you would've to take a taxi for 150000 one direction to any place you would like to visit on the island. At the homestay, sometimes there might be some issues with gecko noises on the roof of your house at night or with burning garbage in the neighborhood backyards but considering the proximity to the jungle and the village charm in general it is a lovely place to spend some time and in any way much nicer then the always busy and noisy Cat Ba City. At the homestay, the internet connection was quite fast and the television was equipped with netflix.

In my opinion, the best time to come to Cat Ba Island is mid of April when the weather on the island is not too hot and the island is not much occupied by tourists. You should also avoid local holidays and weekends as one-day tours from big city Hanoi could turn a visit to any attraction into a struggle. One day, I would like to visit this homestay and Cat Ba...

The property is at the beginning of the island and it has a very convenient bus stop just 3 min from it by the main road where all buses from Hanoi city are coming and drop you there, now have in mind the as it is at the beginning of the island everything is far from it, when I say far, I mean 15/20min by motorbike or 45 min by walk with up and downs and a long drive road... However, it is an experience as they do provide motorbikes everyday (since I love to drive specially through this type of island, it was not a problem for me as the road is comfy and so nice!). The family who runs it is so nice, the man try his best to accommodate every single request, and his niece is the best any little animal come across to your room (as ofcourse you are in the middle of the mountain......) Call her she will rescue the insect/animal and take it out of your room, do not forget to give the kid a tip!!! The rooms very clean and all necessary the pool could be a bit cleaner but it was okay enough. Big tip; avoid to go there at June as it's Vietnamist holida time and every day are having dinners outside the pool until late and early mornings are a bit chaos with all kids screaming since early. But I am sure from July August which is European session must be amazing in there as it's so so so peaceful! Also, they helped us with the tour to the island (whole day tour with lunch and kayak and snorkeling...) Super enjoyable with the company!!!! Good...