Guyen's Homestay - Hostel

A warm welcome here, very nice little homestay in bamboo, with comfy rooms and food showers, plus all you need there. Kevin was really concerned about making me feel well. Just be careful if you don't like loud music up to 10pm, they try to make it funky in the evening ; and it is not the most authentic, it is located with a group of homestays like a kind of center, a "village vacances"

Nice place to stay, probably the best one we stayed in during the loop (Motorbike trail in northern Vietnam close surrounding the border with China). Prices are cheap, breakfast included (at least it was included for me when I stayed) and the host is amazingly welcoming. Totally worth it. 3 showers/bathrooms and very clean. We loved our stance :) There is a nice restaurant just crossing the street.

The artificial village it's in has a lot of different homestays which accommodate big groups, so in the evening it's quite noisy. Room itself looks cool, walls made from bamboo, but you can find so much better rooms for that price elsewhere. I guess we would have enjoyed our stay much more if we wouldn't have had awful dinner experience. We ordered chicken with ginger and got boiled chicken without any flavour and it was disgusting. If we told that there's no flavour, they grated raw ginger on top. It would have been okay if it was cheap, but the chicken cost 250 000VND.

I was there off season, so I might not be a good reference: we were 2 people in the dormitory and no staff spoke English. But they were really nice, it was really calm and the food is absolutely delicious. They also had no problem with me cancelling my second booking. It is not a real village, but the houses are made by Hmong ethnic group in their traditional style and it is not to far from Meo Vac while being quiet. And for the karaoke, they stop it at 10pm, in every homestay, so no worries about that :)

The hostel is great. It's in Pa Vi village, which seems to attract more local people on cars and buses, rather than locals/foreigners doing the Ha Giang or Cao Bang loop. I preferred Pa Vi village more than Dong Van and Mae Vac because Pa Vi has more upbeat vibes, despite being a resort-esque village and not exactly an authentic tribe village. The hostel is good. The bathrooms were spacious, and although parking was limited, I could park my motorbike in front of the hostel. Their dinner (100k/person) was great, and the breakfast (included) was not bad either. Just like other "homestays", this is another commercialized homestay too, and I'm not being fuzzy about it. Personally, during my particular stay, there was a large group of other guests in my dorm who were loud / playing card games and kept lights on until 2AM. They also woke up early to leave at around 5AM, followed by the staff loudly cleaning up the place, so my sleep wasn't particularly good. I understand it's probably just one unfortunate night, but the whole village indeed seems to attract those who enjoy a night with karaoke.