Green Homestay Mai Chau — Hotel in Hoà Bình province

We had read and were told that Mai Chau is much less touristy than Ninh Binh, so that sounded great because Ninh Binh and Tam Coc really were some of the most horrendously touristy holes ive ever found myself stuck in. The bus ride from Tam Coc to Mai Chau is absolutely gorgeous, right up there with driving through the beautiful national parks in the US. However, i really need to stop believing the lies propogated by Booking.con and Google with regard to destination expectations. We arrived expecting homestays, meaning to stay in a traditional stilt house family home and pay for the privilege of eating their homecooked food with them. What we got after the bus dropped us off was a 'tour group cart' that charged us 50,000 dong for what tuned ot to be the 30 second ride to our 'homestay', and then a little boxy room with no personality of a lived in family room but also none of the basic amenities (no fridge, no tv) of a cheap hotel. So worst of all possible outcomes. We took a look at the dirty brown water in the swimming pool and the jagged metal and hanging wires littering the property and decided to escape on the free bikes although they didnt get us very far due to flat tires. We finally managed to explore for kilometres in every direction and found a couple of places offering coffee/juice, one nice lady selling delicious fried banana snacks, but nowhere offering proper food, thestuff that people in homes like to eat. We therefore were forced to return to our 'homestay' to eat because there is no other option. The menu at this 'homestay' almost exclusively caters to large tour groups with set menus at ridiculously touristy prices per person - mimimum 6 people. For an adult couple travelling independently (kind of like, you know, the people who actually started the whole 'Vietnam is a good place to travel' thing) the only options at this 'homestay' were fried spring rolls and fried chicken. Every other guest at every single fake 'homestay' we saw in Mai Chau ordered fried spring rolls, probably the most ubiquitous 'a little bit non western so aren't we brave' food items there is. I felt super brave so ordered a set and they were oily and bland. My wife was a chicken so she got the fried chicken and it was nugget meat, like in American chicken nuggets, even though we sat eating them while literally listening to the noises of all the real life chickens as they ran around the property and over the road. In the hard bed that night, we lay there sleeplessly while the rain clattered on all the metal strewen around the property, dogs barked all night and a cow in the field made what sounded like a nightmarish screaming sound until it was overtaken by the uneaten cocks crowing from 4am. In the morning light, we saw that the floor around the bed had flooded with dirty brown water, despite stilt houses being designed to avoid exactly that. For the traditional 'homestay' breakfast i ordered omlette and banh mi (it was that or instant noodles) and instead got 2 oily overfried eggs and slices of white american bread. I'd say Costco must be doing great business in Mai Chau, only i didnt see a single shop of any kind for miles around. In summary, if you want an authentic homestay experience, dont come here. If you want chicken nuggets and white sliced bread, visit a supermarket in any western town. And dont believe anything you read about this area on...

We arrived for mai chau for 3 nights and during the vacation we changed our plan and had to extend for one more night which was not a problem from the homestay. The staff was absolutely amazing, this what really makes the stay to be good. They help with everything we needed, even for example we accidentally dropped a plate of food, they immediately made a new one without additional cost. We also booked from there a drive to the area attractions, tien from the hotel took us to all the locations, he was unbelievable and very kind, highly recommended to go with him and the prices were very low. We only ate at their restaurant and it was very tasty and fair prices. The smoothies are amazing The breakfast included omelet or pancakes or noodle soup and a drink. (if you wanted pancakes and omelet it was not a problem without additional charge) They also offer free bicycles and motorbike for 150k per day. The views from the room are unbelievable. We very enjoyed our stay there. The room was nice but had a little bugs (one giant cockroach also, but they took care of it quickly without problems). Still highly recommended if you are in mai chau. Would give for service more than 5...

We really wanted to love this place, it's in a beautiful setting with a delicious cafe downstairs, however the cleanliness of the room left us really disappointed.

We checked in to a double room (2 double beds) and the sheets hadn't been changed on either bed. There were long black hairs through the sheets. If we had of seen the state of the sheets earlier in the day, we would have asked for them to be changed. However it was late at night so we didn't have a choice. We both had to sleep in one of the cleaner beds (the one with less hairs). The room also smelt very damp and the smell worsened towards the bathroom. The bathroom has a small opening that let in so many mosquitos throughout the night! The room wasn't lockable - only locks from the outside (via a padlock) which left us feeling a little uneasy sleeping in a room without a lock.

On a positive note, the hosts are friendly, scenery is amazing, rooms are spacious, breakfast was included, the coffee and drinks from the cafe are so delicious, it was easy to walk to other food options in town, bikes were free to use and it was very affordable. Even if you don't stay here, we recommend checking out the cafe and...