Lanjia Lodge

Lanjia Lodge, Chiang Rai, Thailand

Our rating: Simple

Lanjia Lodge is an eco-friendly, community-based lodge in northern Thailand looking out over the Mekong and into Laos. It has been built in a traditional village style that is in harmony with its setting within a Hmong and Lahu community. Each of the four guest houses have four bedrooms with modern comforts yet still retain their authentic Hmong design. Guests of Lanjia, which means peaceful in the Hmong language, are able to discover one of Thailand's most progressive hilltribe cultures. 

The lodge offers far more than bed and breakfast and instead guests participate in a full range of activities including trekking, bike riding, birdwatching and handicrafts and gain first-hand experience of how tourism can play a positive role in the preservation of ancient cultures. Lanjia has been established to improve the quality of lives of hilltribe villagers and to achieve this the lodge is working with the Population and Community Development Association (PDA) - one of Thailand's most respectable and diverse non-government organizations. Staff (or hosts as they are more commonly referred to) of Lanjia are proud and welcoming Hmong and Lahu local villagers who take care of all guests and activities and have grown up in the area and know it as home. A percentage of revenue from guests' stays is used to support community projects to improve local living conditions for the hilltribes. The overriding philosophy of Lanjia is of a visible, genuine and sustainable interaction between guests and villagers.