The northern mountainous province of Lai Chau has lured domestic and foreign travelers with its stunning natural landscapes, special dishes, and friendly people, highlighting its three primary tourism products: community-based tourism, culinary tourism, and trekking tourism.

Community-based tourism

Lai Chau is home to 20 ethnic groups, each with their own cultural characteristics and each playing their own unique roles in displaying the daily lives, habits, and customs of locals in the province.

Sin Suoi Ho Village is an ideal display of these customs. The village was honored as a stand-out community tourism village by the Vietnam Tourism Association in 2019.

It also won the ASEAN Community Tourism Award this year.

Sin Suoi Ho is a Mong village known for the Trai Tim (Heart) Waterfall and he Son Bac May and Bac Moc Luong Tu Mountains.

The Mong people in Sin Suoi Ho live in wooden houses or trinh tuong houses made of clay, all of which are still built using traditional Mong architectural designs.

Visitors to the village often comment on the solidarity and hospitality of the residents, many of whom treat visitors as honored family guests.

Tourists mingle with Lai Chau locals

Nearby Si Thau Trai Village is also must-visit destination for visitors to Lai Chau, especially those keen on parachuting into the poetic landscapes of Binh Lu Valley and Tam Duong Town.

The imposing beauty of Si Thau Trai’s Tac Tinh Waterfall, terraced rice fields, and phrynium and galingale fields make the area one of the country’s most unique landscapes.

Visitors parachute over Lai Chau

Those preferring the countryside can visit the Mong people in Lao Chai Village, the Lao people in Phieng Tien Village, the Lu people in Tham Village, the Giay people in San Thang 1 Village, the White Mong people in Gia Khau Village, or the White Thai people in Vang Pheo Village.

Culinary tours – the quintessence of the northwestern region

Aside from its magnificent natural landscapes and special community-based tourism villages, Lai Chau is also known for unique, diverse cuisine which truly embodies the heart and love of Vietnam’s northwestern peoples.

The majority of the dishes most popular in Lai Chau feature all-natural ingredients collected from aforests, rivers, and streams.

Lai Chau’s cuisine features many characteristics unique to Vietnam’s northwestern region

Popular dishes in Lai Chau include dried meat, grilled fish, Chinese sausage, and five-colored steamed glutinous rice.

Each minority ethnic group and each village has their own ways of cooking, but all use a similar set of spices, including cardamom, mac khen (Indian prickly ash), hat doi (magnolia hypolampra seeds), and wild pepper.

Trekking tourism

Trekking is, perhaps, the most popular adventure activity in Lai Chau, allowing visitors to truly envelop themselves in the towering Pusilung, Bach Moc Luong Tu, Putaleng, and Ta Lien Son mountains.

Lai Chau is a trekkers' paradise

Journeys passing through wild forests, mighty fog and clouds, and border landmarks make trekking in Lai Chau an unforgettable experience for visitors.

Trekkers prefer conquering high mountains in Lai Chau

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