kclaudia

I'm planning about my next trip to Hanoi in August. I do really need professional suggestions here for hotel and guide in Hanoi.
Thank you for all your help.

Kathie

We stayed at the DeSyloia, a small boutique hotel in a good location. We liked the hotel and the staff were very helpful. There is also an excellent restaurant, Cau Cau, in the hotel.

We didn't use a guide in Hanoi - you really don't need one. Get yourself a good guidebook instead.

cram

Last November we stayed at the Sunway, reasonably priced, a good hotel, well located, with a good evening restaurant and not too noisy for your night's sleep.
We had a guide, but I tend to agree that you do not really need one for Hanoi. Actually, walking around town on your own is a very agreeable experience in Hanoi, which is a safe and charming city, by the way.

khtodd

We just got back from Hanoi a little while ago... I'm going to post our detailed thoughts about it coming soon to our trip report in progress: Honeymoon in SE Asia trip report...

Anyway, we stayed at the Sofitel Metropole - and thought it was fantastic.. a beautiful hotel with great service... we stayed in the classic Metropole wing which was very nice... I gather the newer Opera wing's rooms are a little larger, but they don't have the history - but I don't know forsure since I haven't seen them myself...

We had a guide for one day in Hanoi - actually the second day we were there... I'll post his contact info in the trip report... but, I agree with the previous posters - you really don't need a guide here... although, for the price (about $20 for the day) it was nice to have him because we got a little bit more insight into the Vietnamese culture - especially when we asked to have lunch at a local place and he decided to join us...

But, as in theprevious posts, it is very easy to walk around Hanoi - especially the old quarter... it feels VERY safe and it is very charming... some people in the nicer shops will speak English, however most people you meet on the street speak on Vietnamese...

CFW

khtodd, We're just starting to plan a trip to Vietnam in January, so am looking forward to your trip report. If I remember from your other posts you were a big fan of Sergeant Kai, as we were. Would love to find a great guide like him in Vietnam, particularly for the Mekong Delta area. Did you go there?

kclaudia

Thank you for all inputs.
Is it neccessary to get anyone to drive for us? sorry for this stupid question..if we dont need a guide, i wonder we can go deep in their culture?
khtodd, how about the food over there?

Kathie

In Hanoi, you'll only need a driver for out-of-town trips (like the Perfume Pagoda). In town, walking and taxis will be fine. Can you get into the culture? Sure, talk with people - you don't need a guide to do that. Do read before you go!

khtodd

unfortunately, I couldn't get any advice about guides in Hanoi before we left... so we just got one through the hotel - they have a big list of English speaking guides, and they just call down the list to see who's available...

Our guide in Hanoi was good, but a very style than Sergeant Kai... although it seems that the Hanoi people in general had a slightly different style than most of the Thai people we met... the Thai people were so open with their thoughts and emotions... it took a little longer to break that "wall" with our Hanoi guide...

You definitely don't need a car in Hanoi - although our hotel tried to sell us on theirs for the day with our guide... Many of hte sights are located in clusters - so you can take a taxi to one cluster and walk around, then a taxi to another one and walk... We actually enjoyed the walking and took less taxis...

Unfortunately, this trip, we only had time for Hanoi... so no delta for us...

The food in Vietnam is fantastic... I can still taste the Pho Bo we had each morning for breakfast - it was a great local place - stay tuned for the Hanoi section of the trip report for all the details - I"m going to look at the map and give the location of the place - it actually took us quite a while to find one on the first day... Also, our guide took us to this amazing Bun Cha place - not that he took us there specifically, but we just happened to walk by it as we were looking for lunch... it's traditionally a breakfast food, and most Bun Cha places were closed by lunchtime... It was around the area of the "Hanoi Hilton" but I'll try to post the location in the full report...

Neilnguyen

Dear,
I am an authentic Vietnamese living in Hanoi now. I've read all previous posts and I am truly satisfied with most of them. They are all true that you don't need a tour guide in Hanoi. Instead of that, you should buy a guide book and read about what you are interested in.Then point out where they are in Hanoi. When you reach here, you should buy a map ( USD 1). Then do it on your own.
About the hotels, there are various hotels here for your choices. The best ones are Daewoo Hotel, Metropole Hotel, Horison hotel. But the price is very high. The standard ones are Desyloia, Sunway, Baoson...
About driver, you only need him when you want to get out of Hanoi to visit the countryside.
If you are not sure about anything in Hanoi or other cities in Vietnam, feel free to contact me at anytime. I am willing and happy to help you.

Cheers,
Neil Nguyen

CFW

What is Bun Cha?

khtodd

Bun Cha is sort of like a sweet/sour soup that you add noodles, lettuce/fresh herbs, and (in the best place we had it 3 types of port - there was grilled pork belly (sort of like bacon but not smoked or cured), pork patties which were ground up pork with ginger, garlic and other herbs, and grilled slices of what appeared to be pork loin, but it was hard to tell...

It was very different than when we get it in the US - basically a noodle soup with a grilled pork chop on top, usually overcooked... everyplace in NY that I've had it, it's a travesty

kclaudia

Thanks everyone..
one more stupid question..how about ice/water in Vietnam?

hobbes

We were in Hanoi in April and stayed at the Nikko - largely coz the Metropole was sold out over easter weekend. We enjoyed the Nikko coz service was great and we got a corner room which was huge and had a view. Fabulos deals are available for the Metropole and if you can get one it is well worth it to stay there (tho when it is full service does drop a tad due to the sprawling layout)- the best rooms are old wing (hugely atmospheric) and garden facing (as street facing can be noisy). We used a guide for a half day's walking tour thru the French quarter including the jail and the Temple of Lit- he was a college student and we enjoyed meeting him. He provided some perspective on what youth in Vietnam thinks about nowadays which we enjoyed. You can contact him on email [email protected]. His name is Jung pronounced Zoom. We also had a fabulos driver for a day - very convenient for dumping shopping in the car. He also droped us to the airport. His rate for a full day was juts a little more than what the hotel charged for airport transfers only. His name is Khinh and his cell number is 0913309282.

CFW

Hobbes, Would love more details about your trip. Did you visit anywhere else in VN? We're just beginning planning for a two week trip in January.
We have Hilton points & could stay at the Hanoi Hilton for free. Is it worth it to pay & stay at the Metropole instead? Would appreciate everyone's opinions. Thanks!

hobbes

CFW, your own thread is highly recoed! We saw the Hanoi Hilton from the outside and location wise there is little to choose between the Metropole and the HH as they are very near each other. I did not see the rooms. As I mentioend we'd wanted to stay at the Metropole but ended up very happy with the Nikko - esp coz we would prob not have got that kind of service (early check in, late check out, room upgrade, etc) at the Metropole on a wkend they were at 120% capacity. If you can use your Hilton pts for something else consider that else a freebie is always great. We made up for it by having drinks in the Bamboo Bar at the Metropole one night and the famous afternoon tea the day we left - both highly recoed. We did Halong Bay for a day - tho I enjoyed the day I was not overwhelmed. My friends who did both the Perfume Pagoda and Halong Bay found the Pagoda more enchanting. We really enjoyed our afternoon with the guide. I did a bit of shopping. Our Water Puppets eve which was the show followed by Green tangerine was awesome. The other thing we enjoyed was the show we saw at the Opera House. In all it was a good trip. Restaurants are great - would strongly suggest u buy yourself a Luxe guide, very useful. I think 3 days in Hanoi was relaxed yet we had stuff to do.