Greetings. Thanks to your comments/suggestions my friends and I had a great long weekend in Hanoi/Halong Bay (Jan. 24-27) over the Tet holiday. Since we spent most of our time strolling thru the Old Quarter, eating, and getting massages, I’m just going to do a summary of our trip.

Hotel--Elegance Hotel 2
Great hotel at an affordable price. The location was unbeatable. We could walk almost everywhere we wanted to go. The rooms were clean and the daily free breakfast was great. The staff was extremely friendly and helpful. They were always willing to call places to either get us a reservation or see if they were open. I will warn you that the beds are hard.

Food
My friends and I live in Seoul, where the “western” food isn’t all that great. So we were very excited to eat things that we couldn’t get. Below is a quick review of some of the places we ate at:
--Pho 24- the pho was cheap and good, but I was hoping for more of a wow.
--Bobby Chinn’s- the meal was pretty good, but a little pricey for Hanoi (about $120 for three people). The highlight of the meal was meeting and talking with Bobby Chinn.
--KOTO-the meal was excellent. It was great to know that the restaurant was helping out the street kids of Hanoi.
--Le Club Bar @ Sofitel Metropole Hanoi-we had afternoon tea with the chocolate buffet all for $20 per person. It was amazing!!! We couldn’t finish/start the snacks that came with the afternoon tea because we were already full from the chocolate. Lucky for us, the hotel allowed us to pack up the cakes to take with us. And, the next day, the cakes tasted even better. Oh, the Sofitel is gorgeous. It has a certain old world charm.

Halong Bay
Thank you, thank you Dogster and Gailmo for recommending the Bhaya cruises. The boat was beautiful and our rooms were lovely. The beds were perfect (not too firm or soft) and warm. Since Halong Bay was cold and I was sleeping near the window, I was concerned I would get cold during the night, but I didn’t. The masseuse on board was good and strong. We opted to go Halong Bay on Tet, which was smart b/c I had a feeling everything in Hanoi was closed.

Overall, we had a great time. Since, it was the Tet holiday, a lot of the stores were closed and street vendors were gone. But, that suited us just fine. We enjoyed walking around and getting a feel of the city. Also, we were able to ring in the “New Year” with the locals and watch the fireworks. If you plan on traveling to Hanoi make sure you bring lots of dollars. You’ll be surprised by how many things are priced in dollars. Also, if you looking for a small travel guide, we recommend the Luxe guides. It’s small and compact, but crammed with lots of information.

Excellent. Your break sounds great. I'm so pleased you liked Bhaya. It's a nice way to do it, eh? Thanks for the follow-up. It's always nice to hear things went well. cheers

My son and I stayed at Hotel Elegance 2 last June when we visited and whilst it is only small the attraction is certainly the wonderful service you receive.

Did you eat at the Green Tangerine, it was highly recommended from the manager of HE2 and even though my son was a little tired we still managed to have a great meal. The weather was very humid but added to the evening.

Food at Koto's is good, did you get a copy of the recipe book, it has just been released here in Australia.

I loved Vietnam and would certainly love to go back and experience the parts that we did not get time to visit.

Sounds great! Thanks for your report.

No, we didn't get a chance to eat at the Green Tangerine b/c it was closed for the Tet holiday. And, one of my friends did pick up the Koto cookbook.

bookmark

Thanks for the excellent info, how cold was the weather? Coats needed?

Even though it was in the 50's, it was cold (I think it felt colder b/c it was really cloudy and the sun never came out). I layered up and wore a light coat. When were were at Halong Bay, I wore my winter coat.