Little Yen's Homestay

Great location and surroundings. Yummy breakfast. Nice massage.

There were several things we liked and disliked about this place. The liked ones... The personnel is very friendly and help you with all questions you have. The communication with them is great via booking app For example we texted to arrive after dark for dinner and they prepared the food so we could immediately start eating once we arrived. They offer very cheap and good massages. Compliments to the two ladies! The location in the valley is perfect and very close to the most beautiful part of the Ha Giang motor loop. If you want, you can order pancackes as breakfast!

Unfortunately there were also several things we disliked. The stay is on a ground that's shared with a lot of other homestays, hotels, restaurants, ... The place is completely focussed on tourism, which doesn't give you the local Vietnam vibe that we are looking for. In the middle of the terrain a karaoke bar plays music loudly until 10pm. Most people can't sing and it's a pain for your ears. The windows don't have glass. So relaxing before 10pm isn't easy (we advise you to go to the massage). The beds weren't of the best quality either. You feel the springs through the matras.

It was new and modern and suitable for bus tours and folks who like karaoke. this appeared to be what the majority of the people who stay here want.

The Tripadvisor reviews are misleading they are from 2018/ /2020 and now untrue and out of date. One expects a homestay to be a place with a personal touch where you can enjoy the hospitality of a family… The reviews say Yen herself is there, part of a lovely family, speaks fluent English and there are lovely home cooked family meals. ..this is not the case any more. This was why we booked it but this is what we found in November 2022…… It is now one of around 26 to 30 “ So Called Homestays ” in a modern rather sterile artificial “TOURIST VILLAGE" outside and cut off from Meo Vac. No Yen and no shops of any sort, or contact with Meo Vac town, but it was very popular with Vietnamese tourists as it is modern and the "VILLAGE" can cater for the large groups of bus tours that now frequent “THE LOOP” You have to park way outside the “gates” with the multitude of buses and cars… there was A LOT of them. ( and we were in the off season.) There is no choice other than their own restaurant, the evening meal was a mandatory set piece in a large communal dining area, expensive at 550,000 vdn for two …Beer 40,000 vdn, It looks good but was quite boring very chewy and smokey. The breakfast was either instant Pho or doughy pancakes with eggs.. no juice, bread, fruit, yoghurt or anything else.I had to pay extra for coffee !!. The beds were very hard and the room smelt very musty. The room was huge, bathroom OK, bed hard, pillow huge. English is very random. There were two deafening, simultaneous Karaoke’s which mercifully were stopped at (10.30pm)….as they were impossible to ignore. I’m not a party pooper but this was a bit much..But I guess it’s a fun place to meet people and party but don’t expect peace ad quiet. This is now nothing but a modern tourist trap, or great tourist progress, depending on your point of view.