We just completed a really wonderful half day trip hiking with our lovely local guide Cha among the villages and rice fields near Sapa. So much information and we really enjoyed and appreciated meeting with a local family. Highly recommend this trip to anyone wanting a genuine connection and experience.

Words can hardly do justice. To be in such beautiful terrain with an expert guide from one of the local tribes; to share a meal with indigenous people in their own home; to raise a glass with them and share laughter and the pleasure of food from their land. The chance to experience for a few hours a life so rooted in nature and so beautifully simple. These are things that Ethos laid on for us, tailoring each day’s activities to our own specifications. Everyone in the organisation was delightful: welcoming, friendly and genuine. Our guides in particular - My and May Linh - were such fun to be with. It was really hard to say goodbye after two remarkable days. Thanks to everyone at Ethos.

My wife and I went on the Buffalo Valley trek in April with our guide Cha. It was an incredible experience and the highlight of our trip to Vietnam. The trek itself was really enjoyable with varied terrain and beautiful views. There are some challenging parts of the hike—nothing too bad, but some uneven rocks and small creek crossings. Our guide made us walking sticks that helped quite a bit. The cultural aspect was so authentic and so much better than what you get in Sapa town. Our guide was Hmong and so was our homestay family and lunch host. You get to learn a lot about Hmong culture in a way that is otherwise watered down or hard to find in the over-touristy town. We would absolutely book another homestay experience with Ethos. They are a great organization that gives back to the ethnic minority communities of northern Vietnam.

Experience the Rich Culture of Sapa with an Unforgettable Tour Embark on a Unique Journey: If you’re seeking an authentic and immersive experience that allows you to discover the rich culture of Sapa’s ethnic minorities, look no further! We had the incredible opportunity to spend time with the Hmong people, and it’s an experience we highly recommend. Don’t hesitate—book this tour right away! Exceptional Two-Day Trek: Our adventure led us through breathtaking mountains and verdant rice fields in the Sapa area, guided by the wonderful Me. The trek is well-planned and deeply engaging, offering firsthand insights into the local lifestyle. Meet Incredible People: The team, including our guide Me and the rest of the organization, are genuinely proud of their heritage and are enthusiastic about sharing their stories and traditions. You’ll find yourself eating and sleeping in the homes of real families who consider it an honor to host you. Socially Impactful: The tour is not only a journey for the soul but also supports the local community economically. The costs of the trip directly benefit the families you meet, making your participation a meaningful contribution to their livelihoods. Authentic Accommodations: Be prepared for basic amenities when it comes to sanitary facilities and sleeping arrangements. This aspect adds to the authenticity of the experience, allowing you to live just like the locals. Unforgettable Connections: Our time with Me was truly special—she is the best guide we’ve ever had! Her care, coupled with our fun interactions, made our experience uniquely memorable. Additionally, Hoa’s assistance in planning our trip was invaluable, making everything smooth and enjoyable. Conclusion This tour offers more than just a trip; it’s a profound way to connect with and support a wonderful community while being part of something truly special. Book your tour and prepare to be amazed by the warmth and beauty of Sapa and its people! Best wishes, Tijn&Sophie

We had an unforgettable experience doing the one day trek around the rice fields and having lunch with a local Black Hmong family. Pang was so much fun and a great tour guide for the day, incredibly warm and helped us communicate with the family with ease - we plan to stay in touch! Sa and Me were so welcoming as our hosts for lunch and made some of the most delicious food that we’ve had throughout our entire trip across Vietnam! Ethos’ mission is brilliant and we’re so pleased we went with them to learn more about these family’s cultures and way of life. Unmissable experience if you’re in Sapa!!

Cannot recommend this company highly enough. They gave us a truly unique experience, which we will never forget. From the first email contact with Hoa, to the briefing with Phil and Cha before our tour began, we knew that we had found a special tour company. Tra, our Hmong guide was beyond exceptional and we learnt so much from her. The lunch with the Hmong family was an authentic and special experience. To be welcomed into their home and have the opportunity to share a meal together and have conversation was an experience that is hard to put into words. What a privilege to receive such warm and generous hospitality. Don’t go to Sapa without doing a trip with Ethos. It was a highlight of our holiday.

Very pleasant 1 day trekking in the rice fields and hills around Sapa. It felt very authentic, with the family lunch (actual tour guide’s family!). Our guide was very knowledgeable and happy to answer all our questions. The idea behind the tour and all the projects that Ethos is following make us feel very proud to be part of it. Recommended!

TL;DR: 10/10, highly recommended. I will most certainly come back, and when I do I know with whom to book. During my museum visits in Hanoi, I came upon the Ethnology Museum, which takes a look at the minorities in Vietnam from a very academic and distanced view. This is fine as an introduction, but I kept wondering "when was this", "where are these peoples now" and "how do they fit within the modern vietnamese society". The trip to Sapa and the tour by Ethos really helped me answering, at least partially, many of these questions. I say partially because obviously the history of these peoples and their way of life cannot be understood in 3 days. Anyway, do yourself a favor and book a trekking trip with local Hmong people and experience their lifestyle and traditions yourself. Everyone I met was very welcoming, friendly and surprisingly fluent in English :) Ethos provided an amazing experience to do just that. I randomly heard about ethos and went there to hear about possible trips. Hoa sent me a bunch of recommendations only a few hours later and I booked a trip for the next day. Everything went super smooth. It started with a very interesting introduction by Phil about the history and context I'm which these minorities live. Then we went with Ker to visit her village and her beautiful family. Her baby Su was so incredibly cute :D We are very grateful that we could get a glimpse into her life. She was willing to speak openly about her lifestyle and traditions. And was also interested in knowing about us, and about how our lifestyles differ in many ways but also are similar on many others. Thank you Ker, Hoa and Phil and everybody at Ethos, for this experience. You guys are great. - Sergio & My

Cannot recommend this company highly enough. They gave us a truly unique experience, which we will never forget. Cha, our beautiful Hmong guide, was beyond exceptional and we learnt so much from her. Don’t go to Sapa without doing a trip with Ethos. They are so accommodating and easy to talk to and will help you find the best trip to suit you. It was a highlight of our holiday and we would go back to Sapa again, just so we could experience more of their authentic experiences.

It was an amazing homestay with May Lie (sp?) She gave us fantastic food and warm hospitality with her joy and love! We fell in love with her family too! And her kitty. It’s a basic place and I was cold because of the cool rainy weather. I warmed by the fire and under cozy blankets though. It was such a cross cultural moment that I will never forget! Wa in the Ethos office kept us spellbound with stories of the area. Such a fascinating conversation!

Our Ethos trekking experience was beyond our expectations. So great! Our best friends did the same trek in 2016 and spoke so highly of all the great work that Ethos is doing for the community. We highly recommend for anyone that want a truly authentic Sapa trekking experience. Ethos does not go where the hordes of tourists go, as that is how the authenticity is lost. We made a personal connection with our guide/homestay host and her family. She will be forever in our hearts. We will be back and will forever be proponents of Ethos. Do yourself a favour and contact them, you won’t regret it

After a lot of research, I picked Ethos to book a trekking in Sapa. It was a wonderful experience!! Before going on the trekking, we got a briefing with some background information on the area and the history, which was very helpful and made us understand our experience more. Our guide, Cha, was amazing. We learned a lot from her about the Hmong culture and she always made us feel comfortable. The families which welcomed us for lunch and for staying overnight were so kind and heart warming. We did the buffalo valley Trek and the views were also amazing, despite a little fog. I recommend ethos (and Cha as a guide) 100%!!!

Wow, what an amazing organisation! Firstly, everyone who takes part in the trek is being paid. This means your money is going straight to your hosts and your guide who are both minority groups who are often the folks benefiting the least from tourism in Sa Pa, despite their culture being the main draw here. Anything else is going towards programmes to better these folks' lives, and we heard how much of an impact this organisation has had on people straight from the horse's mouth. They are not my stories to tell so I won't share them here, but it is clear this organisation is the real deal and has positively impacted a lot of people. Before our trek Hoa provided us with tea and gave us an amazing history of the Sa Pa region and the minority groups of the Hmong and Dao. It was so great to have all these pieces of information in a larger historical context. Our guide was My, who was amazing. She regularly checked in with us to see how we were doing and customised the walk to our needs. She answered our many questions about Hmong culture and nature as well. We even foraged some of our food for our lunch as we made our way to our host. Our lunch with Xùa, our first host, was so warm and welcoming! Our guide, My, translated for us, and we got to ask a lot of questions about Xùa and vice versa. We got to briefly meet her husband too, who was very kind! We got to help with cooking and loved being a part of things. We then stayed the night with Ly, Lu, and their son So, where we got to help make dinner, and stay for the night. We'd never made fried spring rolls before! After dinner we played cards and haven't smiled this much for ages. Language was no barrier here, as laughter became the language of choice. We were then given simple but extremely comfortable accommodation with loads of warm blankets. Despite our hosts owning very little of their own it was very clear they were giving us everything they could to make us comfortable. We were so beyond grateful. It was beautiful to be welcomed into someone's home like this. The next day we had a beautiful breakfast before we left (it was very clear that this abundance of food was made specially for us, as folks primarily eat rice with some vegetables most days). We were always encouraged to have more despite the fact that the left overs could be used for their next meal. We then hiked to our next host for lunch, and had a wonderful varied walk down through the bamboo forest and rice terraces, seeing a lot of wildlife and livestock! Sao greeted us warmly and we had another great meal with her. We got to use the baby fern leaves that we foraged with My in our lunch. We then made our final trek back up the hill, which was challenging in the mud, but My navigated us through it so well and let us go at a pace that worked for us. After the trek we were offered a hot shower and Hoa kindly arranged transport to the train station for us so we could catch our night train to Hanoi! We cannot recommend this experience enough. The name of our trek was the Buffalo Valley Trek, but we are fairly certain that any of the treks Hoa or Phil help you choose will be amazing. They're very good at tailoring things to the needs of their customers. Our tip is simply to remember, be as kind, respectful, and grateful as you can be during your trek, because this experience is a huge privilege. One last thing - I want to address that some folks in (the very few) lower star reviews complain there are cheaper trek options, but in my partner and I's extensive research, we found none of them give back to the extent that Ethos does. We have zero regrets in paying a touch more and feel it is entirely worth it. You may see Phil's passionate responses to bad reviews, and we can now say that it is very clear that he is quite rightfully protective over the minority groups he works with. This is not a tour for anyone who feels entitled to a Western experience despite being in the East - it is beautifully immersive, humbling, and genuine, and we hope to do it again if we come back this way. Thank you again to Ethos for doing what you do - we are inspired to find more ways to give back to the places we travel to, especially where it is most needed. Note: we asked permission of our guide and hosts to take these photos that we've included in our review :)

It was the best experience I've had in Vietnam so far. Very authentic and capable of making you see another side of this splendid country: the lifestyle of the Black Hmong community. Thanks to Ethos and the whole team for this incredible journey. It will remain in our memories forever. To all of you reading this, hurry and book a tour!

Incredible trip with Ethos and with our guide Mi! The weather was cloudy ++ but meet the people, learn about them and their way of life, feel warmly welcomed in families for lunch or foe the night, participate for the diners, enjoying their environnement was an exceptionnel experience. Thank you Mi for… everything! you re amazing, thank you Phil and Cha for your stories, and the discussions you shared with us, thank you Hoa for you kindness and caring ! We ll come back at the rice saison for sure !!

We had a great experience with Ethos. We did a 2-day spirit tree trek with the amazing Ker, who was so lovely and friendly and told us so much about the Hmong community. The trek was really beautiful, the clouds were really low and dramatic on the days we did it. The whole experience was way more authentic than we were expecting. A part of me wondered if it would feel packaged up in a way for tourists, but it really wasn't. We felt really lucky to be able to spend time with Ker and her family. We miss her already! A heads up for those considering it: they note that the trek is "Moderate to challenging" and it is! We thought we were confident hikers but found the steepness really challenging. very humbling!

We did a "Simply Hmong" tour by Ethos Spirit which guided us to a small Hmong village through beautiful landscape & rice paddies. Then we helped our host family to prepare & cook our lunch, some delicious local dishes. We listened to the stories, learned the Hmong culture, & their tradition. What a memorable experience! Thanks to our local guides who were so patient helping us and taught us many things especially to beautiful talented amazing girl @lythi.cha

Such a wonderful experience, well deserved incredibly high reviews! We learnt so much about the history of sapa, Vietnam, the communities, the impact of tourism - alongside a beautiful walk which was just the right level of challenge through rice terraces, buffalo tracks & jungle-like areas. All topped off with delicious food in an incredible hand-crafted family home and an authentic medicinal hot bath. I’m so happy we decided to experience local life with Ethos, it cost ever so slightly more, but I’m confident this will be used in the right way to support the communities we experienced. Please don’t take a huge group tour, there is exploitative tourism operating in this area. Research where you’re going, who with & how this impacts your guides. Thank you team :-)

I spent an incredibly educational, fun and geographically beautiful day with the Ethos team member Cha. She is informative, totally knowledgeable about the area, speaks local Hmong, Vietnamese, and English. She guided me on a day trip to an elderly man and woman in their house, and she carried all the food and made a multiple course meal inside the small house that the couple lived in. She cooked over an open fire fresh vegetables, made her own sauces, all the while translating my questions, and having friendly dialogue with the Hmong woman and man who lived there. We spread the lunch out on top of the hill and looked out at the beautiful mountainscape And laughed and learned about each other. This is the best Eco tour company in Sapa in my opinion, and I have used numerous tour companies. I highly recommend Ethos and in particular Cha for any trek or tour in the area. She is the best.

My girlfriend and I did the ‘simply hmong’ experience together. It was without a doubt the single best day we have had on our trip travelling southeast asia together. The experience we had was so inspiring, so thought-provoking, enlightening and truly life changing if you are open and receptive to learning from everything you witness during the day. Ethos are a fantastic organisation we feel proud to have been a part of. Hoa and her team are dedicated, passionate and fascinating with so much important knowledge, experience and culture to share and preserve. Their work is incredibly important and we would encourage anybody to do anything and everything they can to be a part of it too. Furthermore, our guide Pang was incredible. She was so communicative, funny, helpful, knowledgeable and a pleasure to spend the day with. The intimacy of spending the time to cook and eat with one of the village’s families is a truly special, unforgettable experience. They are so welcoming, so friendly and so genuine. We felt blessed to have shared their home and time with them. So - if you are still reading and needed any more convincing to reach out and get involved, please JUST DO IT! You will absolutely not regret it.