Re: Hanoi - Best hotel location?
Location, location, location.
Near restaurants, sights, museums.
Galaxy Hotel?
Win Hotel?
Salute Hotel?
DeSyloia Hotel?
We like reasonable, charming hotels.
Thank you for your thoughts re above.

I advise you following yours:
01 - DeSyloia
02 - Salute
03 - Galaxy
04 - Win

==> Location + Charming hotel

I stayed at the DeSyloia in November and highly recommend it.

I stayed at the de Syloia in Feb this year and liked it. Good facilities, great location. Ask for a room on a high floor facing away from the road. One word of caution - when we were there some floors were under renovation. Check status. Also, surf the web for the best available rate then correspond directly with the hotel - they bettered it for us. I loved Hanoi - enjoy your trip.

Definintely DeSyloia. It is about a 15 minute walk from the Lake/Old Quarter. Transportation is cheap if you need it, but we walked everywhere during our visit.

My wife and I stayed three nights at the Galaxy and found it to be just fine. Good food, immaculately clean, good service. We had a room overlooking a park with a busy intersection -- what a circus! The Old Quarter begins just outside the Galaxy's front door.

The Salute is charming, right near the lake (2 mins walk) has an elevator, great breakfast all for US25 per twin on www.vietnamstay.com-pay when you arrive! We stayed Sofitel Metropole US125 and compared to Salute we paid far too much. The rooms At Metropole were small and although the hotel is 4 star we wished we'd saved our money! We had 3 nights at Salute, 4 nights at Win hotel (five flights up and no elevator) two nights Metropole & Salute is the best value & best location after our 2 trips to Vietnam. You do not need to pay more than US30 for a classy little hotel in Hanoi, close to everything.

I was just going to post a query re: Salute Hotel. It looks great from the website, but have found no guest opinions on it, despite googling.

It's recommended by Rough Guide, FWIW...
and, I think I'm going to book there for my trip in Nov.

good luck. from your above post, it looks as though we have fairly similar itineraries....it'll be interested to see all the advice from the fodorites for your trip!

I'm actually deciding now between the De Syloia and the Salute for a stay in December - the Salute is really cheap ($35/night) at about half the price of the Syloia and seems to be more centrally located. Is that right? Any more recent thoughts?

Lyndie, you mentioned the Salute Hotel. Is this Majestic Salute or just Salute? Which one is better, Win or Salute? We're looking for a clean, safe, small hotel near the lake that has a balcony where we can sit and enjoy the view. Thank you.

Salute Hotel (not Majestic Salute):
vs Win Hotel

Salute Hotel: better rooms, elevator, better breakfast, located on "shoe street" and near the Water Puppet show. Has nice bathtub and shower but frequently no hot water for bathing (just tepid) when we were there 12/04. I had booked a deluxe room with balcony but did not receive the room with balcony. One king size bed, sofa and coffee table, dressing table. Room large but no view, but quiet. Didn't complain as was so excited just to be in Vietnam and forgot to question about the balcony. Hardly stayed in the room as out and about.
Nice hospitality from hotel people.

Win Hotel: better location if you like shopping on Hang Gai (silk street) in the Old Quarter. No elevators, has balcony with view to the street. Breakfast not that great. Hot water for bathing all the time. Just toilet and shower room combined. Internet cafe just a few doors down the street. Stayed there about 6 nights 1/06. Nice hospitality from the hotel people.