I was wondering if the duty-free shop is easily reached when we arrive at Hanoi Noi Bai Airport. I know that at some airports duty-free is geared to outbound passengers only but at Bangkok and Colombo (Sri Lanka), it is easy to access on arrival (in SL you actually walk through the duty-free before picking up your bags). Anyway with the restrictions on liquids in carry-ons and my preference to not have them in my checked bags, can I buy a bottle or two when I arrive HAN at 10 PM?

I am almost certain that you can do this in Hanoi. I know that I bought upon arrival in Saigon and I think I did the same in Hanoi last winter.

Craig, I can't remember whether you can buy upon arrival - when I was there you could not. But do be VERY careful about what you buy. They have fabulous prices on expensive liquors, but read the labels carefully. One of the bottles of single malt scotch I looked at said "made in Scotch Land." A bottle of XO cognac had misspellings and words run together. The Vietnamese have different ideas about intellectual property than we do.

Ultimately, we found no liquor (that we would drink) that we thought was genuine.

I thought someone said you could edit by hitting the "back" button. No success here.

The first sentence above should read "I can't remember whether you can buy upon arrival - when I was there we did not."

I don't think you will be able to purchase duty free items after arrival at HAN. But I am not 100% positive. I laughed at Kathie's comment above...and she is correct. You should check EVERYTHING carefully that you buy . One of my Vietnamese friends bought a computer in the US even though PC's are much cheaper in Hanoi. I asked why and she said that new computers in Hanoi are "gutted" and the name brand boards, memory, video cards, hard drive, etc. are sold and cheap parts are used as replacements.

I bought a bottle of liquor in Seoul airport and it was not a problem to put the bottle in the overhead bin. I did the same thing in Siem Reap before we headed back to Hanoi. Both places had very inexpensive duty free alcohol and it was the "real thing".

bottle of what?? cologne?? dish washing liquid?? tide?? mouth wash??

I can confirm now that there is a duty free shop next to the baggage carousels at Nobai (Hanoi). We actually ended up buying in Seoul however, and carried on with no problem.

Buying in Seoul was a good idea. Glad to hear you are now "on the ground" in Hanoi!

I want to buy perfumes, wanted to check if they are good at bangkok duty free or Hanoi duty free?

You dredged up a really old thread! In general, you are better of starting your own new thread rather than adding on to a thread that is 8 years old!

I wouldn't buy anything at Hanoi duty free - most of their merchandise is fake.

Bangkok has a lot of duty free options. I would buy there.