11 of Vietnam’s best eco hotels to book for your next escape

Booking a hotel is no longer just about the location or the size of the pool as more and more travellers seek out properties for their green credentials.

In Vietnam, there are eco hotels scattered across the country, from rustic ecolodges to urban boltholes. Here, we’ve selected 11 of the best.

It might only be a short boat hop from busy Nha Trang, but this Six Senses resort feels subsumed by nature. Its plush bungalows lie in dense forest over a half-moon bay of soft golden sand, well placed for watching sunsets over the ocean. There’s no access except by boat and no other resorts in sight. It is also playing its part in protecting this environment. Last year, the resort was awarded the HICAP Climate and Biodiversity Action Award for its work in cataloguing and monitoring some 300 species of fauna and flora in the surrounding forests, including the discovery of a new species of wild turmeric (now named Curcuma sixsensesensis) and nine cycad trees – now protected by the government as ‘Vietnamese Heritage Trees’. In addition, the resort is powered by 800 solar panels, has its own organic vegetable farm and beehives, upcycles waste and runs a series of community engagement programmes.

More information: Pool villas from around £691 per night; sixsenses.com

The cave-pocked pinnacle islands of Ha Long Bay, jutting from the bottle-green South China Sea, are a must-visit for most visitors. The only way to see them properly, however, is by boat or seaplane, neither of which have unimpeachable green credentials. Bhaya’s cruises are an exception, offering a choice of two-to-four-day eco-minded cruises of Ha Long, Lan Ha and the Gulf of Tonkin. The luxury level is high – floor-to-ceiling glass windows, fine dining, balcony decks – but there’s a zero-plastic policy, too, and Bhaya supports local organic farms and women’s organisations, as well as the Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project (preserving one of the world’s most endangered primates). The operator is also a key player in the IUCN’s ‘Action for Green Ha Long’ campaign, which sees tonnes of waste removed from the bay every year.

More information: Two-day cruises from around £125 per person (cruise only); bhayacruises.com

Read next: 7 reasons you should visit Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

UNESCO-listed Hue’s most beautiful boutique hotel is also among the city’s greenest. It sits in the lovingly refurbished mansion of the former French governor – a wonderful mix of Art Deco and Modern design – across the Perfume River from the Imperial City. Rooms preserve their original design, making use of recycled hardwoods and recovered 1930s French fittings and furnishings. The loveliest sit in the main building, including the Voyage en Chine suite in lush teak wood and French ceramic tiles, with a balcony poised for sunsets over the river. On top of all that, Azerai also uses renewable energy, recruits its staff from the community on its doorstep and utilises supply chains that support local products and businesses.

More information: Rooms from around £130 per night; azerai.com

Read next: The most beautiful places to visit in Vietnam

While Sapa and Ha Giang are now busy rural escapes in northern Vietnam, Mai Chau remains under the radar. It’s hard to see why. The landscapes are just as magnificent, with limestone mountains dropping to brilliant-green rice-filled valleys, each scattered with tiny villages where Indigenous White Tai, Hmong, Muong, Dao and Tay people live much as they have for centuries. There are lots of options for green stays too, offering interaction and activities within these communities. Mai Chau Ecolodge (one of a chain) is among the most conscientious. Bungalows made from biodegradable palm thatch and recovered woods overlook a valley of glistening paddies surrounded by forest-covered mountains, while outdoor lighting and utilities are powered by solar-generated electricity. Some 90% of the staff also belong to local minority groups, who receive training and opportunities.

More information: Rooms from around £73 per night; maichau.ecolodge.asia

Read next: 7 of Vietnam’s best walking and hiking routes

Not all green-minded stays in Vietnam are rural. This plush old war correspondents’ hotel next to the French Opera House in Ho Chi Minh City has eliminated single-use plastic from its bathrooms, which now use brushes, combs and razors made from wheat husks. It also became the first hotel in the city to launch a refillable glass bottle programme, setting up refill stations for guests. There is history too. The Caravelle was used as the HQ for many of the US news corporations during the Vietnam War, when reporters would gather at the rooftop bar for cocktails with a view of the helicopters swooping over the Saigon River. The best rooms are in the 1959 Art Deco building, furnished with 1960s period sofas, cabinets and pile carpets.

More information: Rooms from around £98 per night; caravellehotel.com

Read next: 9 of the best things to do in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

With its big resorts and busy tourist crowds, Phu Quoc island is no longer the undiscovered beach treasure it was a decade ago, but there are still some small-scale toes-in-the-sand hotels that do a good job of lowering their impact. Mango Bay is a great example. Its rustic-chic, thatched-roof bungalows come complete with hardwood breakfast decks and sit in one of the island’s few remaining stands of tropical forest, trickling down to a secluded beach. Its hot water is heated via solar power, wastewater is filtered through its reed beds, organic waste is composted, glass is recycled and the resort has worked hard to help rehabilitate the reef and forest, planting thousands of trees in the case of the latter. In addition, some 80% of its staff come from the local commune.

More information: Bungalows from around £74 per night; mangobayphuquoc.com

Read next: Vietnam’s best beaches and islands

Preservation of the landscape was central to the construction of this remote luxury resort, not far from the upcoming beach destination of Quy Nhon. Foliage was lovingly uprooted and replanted to make way for the 73 lavish wood and thatch pool villas – many of which echo Indigenous Cham styles of architecture – and the stilted Bà Hai Vietnamese restaurant. Some 50,000 more native bushes and grasses were propagated, and the resort even planted rice fields, complementing its kitchen garden. So it’s no wonder that the Zannier’s environs reverberate with frog and cicada choruses and birdsong. The hotel also has its own water recycling plant, and it runs education programmes in the local villages, reportedly providing the surrounding community with 4,000 hours of English-language classes per month.

More information: Villas from around £244 per night; zannierhotels.com

Sapa has been a draw for nature lovers for decades. Its high mountains are covered in lush rainforests and drop to deep, river-cut valleys home to Indigenous communities and some great walks. Like the destination itself, this ecolodge is all about nature and community. Its bungalows sit on a high ridge terraced with rice fields, offering superb sunset and dawn views. Topas also employs around 100 people from nearby villages, all of whom are given complimentary accommodation (with kitchen gardens on site) and schooling in English. Ingredients and produce are likewise locally sourced, electricity is largely solar-generated and wastewater is filtered through sand and plant beds – which are a haven for amphibious life. The bungalows even have their own rainwater and greywater treatment systems, with the collected rainwater filtered and stored for use in showers and washbasins.

More information: Bungalows from around £175 per night; topasecolodge.com

Vietnamese people call the wonderful landscapes of Ninh Binh ‘the inland Ha Long Bay’. The only difference is that its soaring limestone pinnacle mountains loom not over the ocean, but rice paddies and meandering lotus-flower-filled rivers that wind around peaks and cut through stalactite-dripping caves. Tranquil Tam Coc garden sits in the heart of it all – rice fields at the foot of the pool, lakes all around, mountains on every horizon. There are only a handful of rooms, ranging from bungalows in the palm-shaded garden to family villas with sweeping mountain views. As well as having its own organic kitchen garden and water recycling facilities, the lodge is heavily involved in local reforestation. It is also active in the community, sourcing much of its decoration and furniture from local artisans and employing and training local people.

More information: Bungalows from around £163 per night; tamcocgarden.com

A cool lobby bar, a hipster neighbourhood on the doorstep and rooms with wall-spanning glass and wonderful skyline views. This new urban high-rise in the heart of one of Ho Chi Minh’s hippest neighbourhoods looks the part and has one eye firmly on the city’s business community. But it also has substance to back up the flash. Wink holds Vietnam’s highest LEED certification (a gold rating), with guests invited to dispose of their recyclable waste correctly, so it can be easily sorted. Rooms are free of single-use plastic, and the hotel also works with local organisation PlasticPeople to recycle plastic waste into useful objects and furniture, from desks and bins to trays and building materials. Facilities are in place to store bicycles and support electric vehicles. Stays are also great value too, with a location just 15 minutes’ walk from the French-colonial sights of District 1.

More information: Rooms from around £42 per night; wink-hotels.com

This low-key resort, set within a small village surrounded by lush rice paddies, combines the bucolic with the boutique. It’s also within half an hour’s cycling (bikes are complimentary) of both Hoi An’s UNESCO-listed Old Town and the beach. There’s a pool, a dining room overlooking lovely countryside, and the loudest noise is the chirruping of birds. Bungalows are constructed and decorated with naturally sourced, renewable or recycled local materials (local woods, bamboo, artisanal ceramics and rattan) and plastics are kept to a bare minimum. This attitude extends to the kitchen too. Veggies are grown onsite or sourced from local markets; waste is recycled, with kitchen refuse used for compost in the vegetable garden; and water is filtered for use in the garden and the fish ponds.

More information: Rooms from around £46 per night; hoianchic.com

Read next: 9 of the best things to do in Hoi An