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Almost every Dong Van homestay sits in one of two places. Down in the old quarter, where you can walk to the square after dinner and to the bánh cuốn stalls at six the next morning, or up on the hillside around the town, where the views are and the nights are quieter. You mostly get one or the other, and I’ve done both, since Dong Van is my second night on nearly every loop.
On a first loop I’d sleep in or right next to the old quarter, and two of the five below are there. The other three are above it, one just up the steps and two on the edge of town, because the view from some of those rooms is what a lot of people end up remembering about Dong Van.
Dong Van is also a town, a real one with hotels, bars and a market building, and a lot of what gets called a homestay here is a family guesthouse with the family living downstairs. That’s fine. The handful that are old houses, or where the family actually cooks dinner and sits down with you, are the ones I’d look for.
- Quick Answer: The best Dong Van homestay depends on whether you want the old quarter or the view. Le Petit Home, a restored hundred-year-old house, and Mèn Mén are a short walk from the old quarter, Dong Van Cliffside House sits just above it with bungalows, and CiCi homestay and Dong Van Hmong Homestay are on the edge of town for the views and a family dinner. Expect 80,000 to 150,000 VND for a dorm bed, 300,000 to 600,000 VND for a private room, and up to 2,000,000 VND for Cliffside’s best bungalows.
- The five, by area:
- Old quarter: Le Petit Home (Tổ 6 Làng Tre, 5.0, 93 ratings) and Mèn Mén Homestay (63 Phố Cổ, 4.5, 136).
- Just above it: Dong Van Cliffside House (Tổ 5, 4.5, 252). Bungalows over standard rooms.
- Edge of town: CiCi homestay (4.7, 218) for the view, Dong Van Hmong Homestay (4.4, 209) for the family dinner.
- Other names you’ll see:
- Nostalgia Dong Van Homestay: central, with family rooms for six, and not one I send people to.
- Dong Van Panorama Homestay (4.7) and Plum Hillside Lodge (4.5), both up in Xóm Mới.
- Aladdin Homestay (4.4): colourful private rooms, cold without the heated topper.
- Dong Van homestay prices, 2026:
- Dorm bed: 80,000 to 150,000 VND.
- Private room at a family homestay: 300,000 to 600,000 VND.
- Room, dinner and breakfast at the Hmong Homestay: about 300,000 VND.
- Dong Van Cliffside House: 300,000 to 2,000,000 VND, depending on the room.
- Family dinner: 80,000 to 200,000 VND a head.
- Before booking:
- An electric blanket or heated pad on the bed from November to March.
- A private bathroom. At the old houses it’s often shared.
- Steps and slopes, if you’re carrying a suitcase.
- Weekends from late October to the end of November, when the town fills up.
- Hotels and hostels: Aurora Boutique (4.9) and May Boutique (5.0) for a hotel, Bình Minh (4.7), CND (80,000 VND dorm) and Hagiang-holic (tents and dorms) on a budget.
5 Dong Van Homestays I’d Book, Old Quarter First
Two in the old quarter, one just above it and two on the edge of town, and all five are places I’ve stayed. I’ve added the Google ratings, as of September 2026, so you can check them yourself.
Homestays in the Dong Van old quarter
Le Petit Home
- Tổ 6 Làng Tre, a few minutes’ walk from the square
- 5.0 on Google, 93 ratings.
It’s a Dao family house over a hundred years old, restored with a lot of care, and of everywhere I’ve slept in Dong Van it’s the one that feels most like somebody’s home.
There’s a fireplace in the main room, four bedrooms, and the kind of common space you end up sitting in all evening.
Dinner is hot pot, and they’ll do a vegan one, and breakfast runs to pancakes and French toast, which after two days of rice and pork is not nothing.
The catch is that the rooms share bathrooms and the walls don’t stop much sound, and it isn’t cheap for that, though they tell you all of this before you book. I’d bring earplugs again.
If it’s full, Old houses homestay on Phố Cổ is the rougher version of the same idea, a traditional wood and rammed-earth house set back from the main street.
Bathrooms are shared and outside, the beds are hard and there are no meals, and in return it’s about the cheapest private room in the old quarter, from around 150,000 VND.
Two short walks start near the door, one through the rice fields and one up to Đồn Cao, the old French fort above town, and the fort one, first thing in the morning, is my favourite view of Dong Van.
Mèn Mén Homestay
- 63 Phố Cổ
- 4.5, 136 ratings.
This is where I stay when I want the old quarter and a view from the same room.
It’s on the edge of the old quarter, five minutes’ walk from the square, and the windows look over rice fields and mountains, which is unusual this close to the centre.
Rooms are clean and plain. I book a double, because the big family rooms are the cold ones in winter, and every bed has an electric blanket, which you’ll use.
The hot water tank runs out after about ten minutes, so the second shower is a quick one, and I’ve been second.
The restaurant downstairs isn’t always open, which matters less here than anywhere else on this list, because the old quarter is right outside.
Just above the old quarter
Dong Van Cliffside House
- Tổ 5
- 4.5, 252 ratings.
The one I’d send most people to, and the Dong Van pick in where to stay in Ha Giang. It’s built into the slope just above the old quarter in the local rammed-earth style, close enough to walk down for the evening and high enough to be quiet.
I’ve stayed in a standard room and in a bungalow, and I’d book the bungalow. The standard rooms are smaller and pick up noise from the common areas, and the bungalows have the view.
Rooms run from about 300,000 VND to 2,000,000 VND depending on which you take, breakfast is included and it’s a proper spread, and dinner is set menus at around 200,000 VND a head, with more food than I’ve ever got through.
There are steep steps between everything, so it’s hard going for anyone who struggles with stairs or a heavy bag.
On the edge of town, for the view
CiCi homestay
- On the western edge where the road comes in.
- 4.7, 218 ratings, reception 6am to 11pm.
A tall family house on the hillside, and the higher your room, the better the view, which is the whole reason to stay here. The lower rooms mostly look at the neighbours, so I ask for the top floor when I book.
Rooms are spotless, the showers are hot, the beds are heated, and the family will cook dinner and eat it with you if you’d like.
Breakfast is basic. It’s dearer than most of Dong Van, around 550,000 VND for a private room, and you’re about 2km from the old quarter, half an hour on foot along a small back road or five minutes on the bike.
Dong Van Hmong Homestay
- Above the town near Xóm Mới
- 4.4, 209 ratings.
This is the one to go up the hill for if you want the family dinner. A Hmong family, hot pot or a long table of dishes, corn wine going round with the traditional toast, and karaoke afterwards at a volume you can live with.
A room with dinner and breakfast comes to around 300,000 VND, which is about the best value in Dong Van. The rooms are simple and the showers basic, the beds are very good, and the view over the town at sunset is what it’s up there for.
Some tour companies use it too, so on some nights there’s a group at the table.
Where to Stay in Dong Van: Old Quarter or the Hill?
If Dong Van is your second night on the loop, which it is for most people, you get it for one evening and one morning.
You come in late in the afternoon and leave for Ma Pi Leng after breakfast, and the old quarter is at its best at exactly those two times. The lanterns and music on the square are finished by about eight, the bánh cuốn at 31B Phố Cổ is served from six until half ten in the morning, and on a Sunday the market fills the lower town from about five.
From the old quarter you walk to all of it. From the hill it’s a ride down in the cold, and the times I’ve stayed up there I’ve eaten at the homestay and not gone down at all, which is a nice night, just a different one. The full breakfast story is in the best food in Ha Giang.
The hill wins on views, on quiet, since the old quarter has bars and a couple of late karaoke rooms of its own, and on the kind of family evening you get at the Hmong Homestay. With two nights in Dong Van it’s easy, one of each.
There’s also the option of not sleeping in Dong Van at all. Lô Lô Chải, under the Lung Cu flag tower north of town, was named one of UN Tourism’s Best Tourism Villages in 2025, and Má Lé, on the road between Lung Cu and Dong Van, has a homestay in a house said to be around two hundred years old.
Either gives you the village night Dong Van can’t, and costs you the old quarter. The village picks are in the Ha Giang homestays guide.
Nostalgia, Panorama, Plum and Aladdin
These are the other Dong Van homestays you’ll keep seeing, and none of them made my five, for different reasons.
Nostalgia Dong Van Homestay
It’s the name more people search for than any other homestay in Dong Van. It’s central, it has big family rooms that take a group of six, and the car space is on a slope where you’ll want to chock the wheels.
For a night in that part of town I’d still take Mèn Mén or Cliffside, and it isn’t one I send people to.
Dong Van Panorama Homestay
Next door to the Hmong Homestay, with heated pads on the beds, good food and karaoke after dinner, and a view that’s partly behind trees from some rooms.
I’d put it second of the two, because on a hill you pick for the view, half a view is the wrong way round. A fair backup if the Hmong Homestay is full.
Plum Hillside Lodge
Often listed as Plum homestay. Round beds in odd little bungalows, split air conditioning that heats as well as cools, and English-speaking staff.
The bungalows are glass-fronted, so the blinds stay down. It’s comfortable and clean, and it’s a hotel. I’d book it for a couple who want a warm room with a view, and look elsewhere for a family dinner.
Aladdin Homestay
Rooms decorated floor to ceiling in bright ethnic patterns, a bathroom built like a cave, and a good hot pot. The private rooms are the thing to book, and they’re cold without the heated topper on the bed.
Dong Van Homestay Prices in 2026
| What you’re paying for | 2026 price |
|---|---|
| Dorm bed | 80,000 to 150,000 VND |
| Private room, family homestay | 300,000 to 600,000 VND |
| Room, dinner and breakfast, Hmong Homestay | about 300,000 VND |
| Dong Van Cliffside House | 300,000 to 2,000,000 VND |
| Family dinner | 80,000 to 200,000 VND a head |
| Breakfast, where it isn’t included | about 50,000 VND |
Cash is normal, and there are ATMs in Dong Van. The town fills up on weekends from late October to the end of November, when Vietnamese visitors drive up for the buckwheat flowers, and that’s the one stretch I’d book well ahead. Most of the year a day or two is enough.
Cold Nights, Hot Water and Karaoke
Rooms in Dong Van aren’t heated, and from November to March the nights up here drop into single figures. What keeps you warm is the bed, an electric blanket or a heated pad under the sheet, which most of the good places now have, and it’s the first thing I ask about for a winter booking.
Plum’s bungalows are one of the few with air conditioning that heats. Big family rooms are the coldest rooms in any building, so for four people two doubles are warmer than one quad.
Hot water comes from small tanks in most of these places, and one long shower empties them, so I shower as soon as I’m in, before everyone else gets back.
Karaoke is part of the family-homestay evening, usually eight until ten, and it’s fine as long as your room isn’t next to it. At Honey Homestay in Ngài Lủng, a couple of kilometres out of town, it’s right beside the ground-floor rooms, and that’s one I’d ask a tour company to swap me out of.
And luggage. Cliffside’s steps and the steep unpaved lane down to Dong Van eco stone house are hard work with a suitcase, one more reason the big bag is better left in Ha Giang city, as it is on most tours anyway. If you’re coming by car or on a Ha Giang jeep tour, it’s worth asking where the vehicle parks.
If You’re on a Tour
On a tour the company chooses your Dong Van homestay, and I’d ask which one it is when booking, since you can look it up in two minutes.
Road Kings has put its groups in Dazzling Homestay, which is small, clean and a short walk from the old quarter. The big package tours use Hoa Cuong Hotel (4.0 on over 1,000 ratings), which has lifts and sits about a hundred metres from the square.
How the tour companies compare is in my Ha Giang Loop motorcycle tour review.
Hotels and Hostels in Dong Van
When somebody asks me for a proper hotel in Dong Van, I give them the two newest. Aurora Đồng Văn Boutique Hotel at 07 Tổ 2 has big clean rooms with two double beds and a plain breakfast, and May Boutique Dong Van Hotel has balconies, a rooftop and quick wifi. Both are a walk from the old quarter.
On a backpacker budget, Bình Minh Hostel, listed as SPOT ON 769, is central and very clean and will put soft mattresses on the bed if you ask.
CND Homestay at the western entrance is the social one, 80,000 VND for a dorm mattress and the same for dinner, with a fire pit and karaoke, and it’s cold, because most of it is open to the air.
Hagiang-holic on Trần Phú has tents and dorms, a café open from 6am, a very good grilled chicken, and walls you can hear through.
Dong Van Homestay FAQ
What’s the best area to stay in Dong Van? The old quarter for a first loop, since the evening square, the bánh cuốn and the Sunday market are all walkable. The hillside for views and quiet.
How far is Dong Van from Ha Giang city? About 150km by the standard route through Quan Ba and Yen Minh, a full first day on the loop. The route is in the Ha Giang Loop guide.
How many nights do you need in Dong Van? One on a standard loop. Two if you want Lung Cu and the Sunday market without rushing, and the day by day is in the Ha Giang Loop itinerary.
Do I need to book a homestay in Dong Van in advance? On weekends from late October to the end of November, yes. Most other times a day or two ahead is fine.
Why does the address say Tuyen Quang? Ha Giang province was merged into Tuyen Quang in 2025, so Dong Van addresses and map pins now show Tuyen Quang. Same town.
Is there vegetarian food? Le Petit Home does a vegan hot pot, and ToTo-Chan, down an alley off the square, is vegetarian.
A Message to Send in Vietnamese
Most of the places above are on Booking or Agoda, and a lot of the smaller ones answer faster on WhatsApp or Zalo, often in Vietnamese. This is the message I’d send, and it pastes as it is once you add your date:
Chào anh/chị, em muốn đặt một phòng đôi có phòng tắm riêng cho tối [ngày/tháng]. Phòng có chăn điện không ạ? Giá bao nhiêu và đã gồm ăn sáng chưa ạ? Em cảm ơn!
It asks for a double with its own bathroom on your date, whether the bed has an electric blanket, the price, and whether breakfast is included. If your night is a Saturday, add “tối thứ Bảy” after the date, since that’s the night in Dong Van that goes first.
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