Deep in the Trường Sơn mountains, inside the Saola Conservation Reserve, sits a village you can't drive to. A'ur, home to the Cơ Tu ethnic group in A Vương Commune, is reachable only on foot — a 12km jungle hike that takes five to six hours from the commune centre, about 120km west of Đà Nẵng. That isolation is exactly why the village's traditional culture has survived largely intact, and why it's now drawing curious travellers.
Tourism here started modestly in 2017, but a newer ecotourism programme has opened the village to international visitors. The whole community is involved through the Trường Sơn Agriculture Tourism Service Cooperative: villagers guide treks, cook, host, perform traditional music and teach farming and handicraft skills. Nothing is outsourced — the experience is genuinely run by the people who live it.
Arrivals are welcomed at the gươl, the long stilt house that anchors village life and doubles as a reception space. Hospitality is communal by design: every family contributes rice, chicken, vegetables, fish or herbal wine to a shared welcome meal, and a group of 20 guests might see households pool resources for a pig. Overnight guests split off two or three to a family in homestays.
Staying a few days is where it gets interesting. Visitors can plant and harvest rice alongside farmers, trek into the forest with guides to gather forest products, swim in streams and eat barbecue cooked over open fires in the jungle. The Cơ Tu see the forest as spiritually protected — a god guards it, and strict ancestral rules limit what can be taken — so gathering is done with restraint, a mindset the cooperative is eager to share with guests. Handloom weaving and crafts made from screw pine leaves are part of the handicraft sessions, led by residents like guide and weaver A Rất Thị Nghi.
The village isn't standing still, though. Cooperative members say funds are being raised within the community for English lessons, hospitality and cooking training, and waste management — all with an eye to greener standards. Travel agencies have signed on to bring more visitors, and accommodation upgrades are planned. There's a catch for guests: A'ur runs a 'Say No to Plastic' campaign, so leave the single-use stuff behind.
Who is this for? Travellers who want a genuine community-based experience rather than a staged cultural show — and who don't mind earning it with a solid day's hike through dense primary forest. It suits adventure-minded visitors with a few days to spare, ideally as part of a central Việt Nam trip combining Đà Nẵng or Hội An with the mountains. Comforts are basic, but the trade-off is fresh air, jungle streams and a way of life that has barely changed in generations.
Original reporting: Vietnam News Life
