Thon Tha village

Thon Tha is a Tay village a short ride from the centre of Ha Giang town, set among rice paddies and bamboo groves in a wide, flat valley. It has more than a hundred traditional stilt houses, many roofed with palm leaves, and nearly all residents are Tay.

The village has been run as a community tourism site, and in 2026 it was named the best community tourism village of 2025 at the VITA Awards of the Vietnam Tourism Association. The award recognised what the village has been doing quietly for years: welcoming guests into family homes, sharing food, and letting visitors see daily life in a working Tay village without turning it into a performance.

For travellers doing the Ha Giang Loop, Thon Tha makes a natural first or last night. If you arrive in Ha Giang town in the afternoon after a bus from Hanoi, you can ride out to Thon Tha in 20 minutes, walk the lanes before dinner, sleep in a stilt house, and start the mountain roads refreshed in the morning. On the way back, it is an easy place to decompress after days on the plateau — flat paths, quiet evenings, and a pace that feels very different from the stone mountains.

The Tay here still keep up then singing (hat Then) and the tinh lute (dan Tinh), both important parts of Tay culture. Ask your homestay host if there is a singing evening during your stay — it is usually informal, with the family and perhaps a few neighbours, and it is one of the genuine experiences you can have here.

Walk the village lanes between the stilt houses and through the rice fields. The paths are flat and easy, good for families with young children or anyone who wants a gentle day. In the rice season the fields are a vivid green; after harvest they are golden stubble. Eat dinner with your host family — the food is simple and home-cooked, and eating together is part of the welcome.

This is a living village, not a museum. Ask before photographing people or going into a house. Keep noise down in the evening — families go to bed early here.