Hanoi Reviews ( 50 reviews )
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Have to say...didn't really like Hanoi, or Vietnam for that matter. Maybe it was just my experience, but it seemed the people weren't as friendly as surrounding countries - although I have heard this from other people as well. Spent a few days there and it was ok... be careful about rip offs in Vietnam - there are a good few. |
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Hanoi is great! Get used to the beeping of the horns! |
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I wasn't impressed with the service given to us by the staff of the Hanoi Queen Hotel. I felt that other guests in the hotel were prioritized and it affected my Hanoi experience entirely.
On the first day of our stay in Hanoi, we asked the hotel operator (ROSE) to please hire a trust-worthy motorcycle driver to take us to our desired destination for the evening. She promptly assigned us to one of the hotel staff members (I think he was a relative of theirs who stayed in-house). We had asked for the rate for the motorcycle service prior to leaving the Hotel. Once we were taken to our destination that evening (we had requested to be taken to one restaurant), the driver jacked up the price by more than 300%! We were surprised and it had ruined our evening entirely. The next day, we had requested for the same motorcycle service and the hotel operator was giving us the same driver. We say NO THANK YOU right away.
We were not impressed with the facilities of this hostel. The room had a cabinet for clothes but did not have a metal bar to put our hangers on. The cabinet was useless. Another thing we noticed was the bathroom door was partially made of glass. One could easily see the inside of the bathroom despite the tint on the glass. It did not provide privacy at all.
By far the greatest offense the owner of this hostel did happened the day we were leaving Hanoi. There were two owners/operators of the hotel, DAVID and ROSE. Up until this point, it was ROSE who was paying attention to us. A few moments before leaving, DAVID had asked us to open our email, the email we used to book the hostel, the same email we used in correspondence with hostel world. Once we opened our private email, he immediately opened the hostel world comment email (this same email I am answering right now) and then started clicking the EXCELLENT button on all the headings! We felt violated! He was blatantly tampering this ratings sheet so his hostel could have an EXCELLENT rating!
I would NOT RECOMMEND this hostel to other tourists/travellers. I was deeply disappointed with their service. |
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Hanoi seems to be a compact, culturally interesting city, with French bread and other goodies available as well as local food (some very good), but it is easy to get ripped off (taxis and street vendors). Traffic is chaos but not entirely dangerous. Highlights include water puppets and Christmas outside the cathedral. Air pollution is bad (as in China), however. |
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Hanoi is....Hanoi. Nothing's like it, no city beats it |
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A city with amazing culture. Feel in a place where French, Chinese & IndoChina culture met. Also, a city with powerful energy! |
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Hanoi is a great city, with its own vibe and nothing like saigon, there arent an abundence of tourist restaurants etc. which makes it so much more fun, and the shopping is great |
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The property was very nice to stay in, the front desk staff were very helpful and friendly all the time. They had free internet and breakfast was included with the rooms. Good place to stay. |
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The food is great. No MacDonalds, Starbucks etc. If your in the old quarter, you must try 187 Hang Bong for food! It's not the liveliest place at night. Things pretty much close around 11 o'clock, but theres a few places to go to. I don't think it will appeal to everyone, as you can pretty much see what you need to see in a few days before moving on. |
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With the French colloquial style buildings - Hanoi really is a cool place to visit. If you want to go to good club check out 'New Century' and also check you price for taxis and your change. |
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Great location, great price! |
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Great place, totally manic. Great food, great beer, great people. Go there now. |
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the city must have been paradise before the locals could afford motorcycles. now, bring earplugs! |
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Fascinating place. Dirty and full of noisey motorbikes but also full of life and interesting things to see. Very friendly people. Wish we could have stayed longer. |
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i loved hanoi,
The french influence is very romantic....it's busy and crazy and fun.The history is amazing...well worth the time there. |
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We really enjoyed our stay at Hanoi Guesthouse... nice place though the rooms and bathrooms are a tad too small and beds are a little old... but the excellent service and hearty breakfast more than made up for that.. Really appreciate Ha's help in planning our entire trip to Vietnam as well as giving us many tips on shopping and site-seeing while we were there! Excellent service from Ha! Ha, you're truly a gem! We definitely want to come back to Hanoi and stay at the Guesthouse again! Thanks a million! |
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A very intense city and not somewhere we would personally stay for more than a few days. Hectic pace and very cramped. The buildings are very characterful and there are some very interesting parts in the old town. Its very much how we expected Bangkok to be. All in all worth a visit (but not an extended one). |
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Hanoi is a vibrant and exciting city to visit for several days, but we enjoyed using it as a base for getting away to nearby Halong Bay and Sapa enormously... |
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Both here and in Ho Chi Minh I felt people were out to rip you off constantly. Taxi drivers, tour operators and hotels all trying to get that little bit extra from you - its like tourism has arrived but they haven't quite told everyone what to do with it yet. It is a beautiful country and could be so fantastic. |
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Stayed in Old Quarters is easily accessible to the Hoan Kien lake and the Dong Xuan Market (shopping). Not used to the honing.... and the congested vehicle (motorbikes). Have learned, must be brave when crossing the road.
Many many places to visit such as Halong Bay, Sapa & others..... So at least must spend minimum 6 days to move around.
I loved the scenery of Halong Bay and will come back again to stay there and also other places. |
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Hanoi is motorcycles city with air and noise polluted. Every vehicles on the street press their horn while driving. U have to extra carefull while cross the street. Not many to see in hanoi.
Halong Bay famous for its rocks islands compound. Semilar with Guilin in China & Krabi in Thailand. I prefer Krabi than Halong.
SAPA is suitable for adventure trip. Only buffalo, cow, pig, paddies field and local tribes u could see in SAPA. |
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i like the lake. i like the people. i like life... in hanoi. you will too |
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I loved everything but the traffic. It was really busy. |
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Very busy city can be quite daunting at first but great once u settle into the pace of the place. |
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Hanoi has alot of charm and character with its wide tree-lined avenues and its crowded markets in the Old Quarter. An ideal city and country for the budget conscious as one dollar goes a long way. The people are friendly, although the touts and cyclo drivers can be quite agressive. |
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Dear Staff at Hanoi Elegance Hotel, Please note that I have emailed the following message to Frommer`s Travel Guide. I will send a similar message to Trip Advisor shortly: "I wish to bring to your attention and highly recommend a new hotel in Hanoi, which has just very recently opened. I have travelled extensively but have never before taken the trouble to write to you or any similar organization to recommend a hotel, but I was so pleased with the great value and outstanding service of the Hanoi Elegance Hotel that I felt obliged to do so. There is more than one hotel in Hanoi called the Hanoi Elegance Hotel and I am only familiar with the one at 85 Ma May Street (a relatively more quiet street in the old quarter), www.hanoielegancehotel.com, email address:info@hanoielegancehotel.com. I do not know if it is anyway affiliated with any other hotel of the same name. The hotel has rooms offered at US$20 and $US$40 per night (with discounts negotiable for stays longer than several days). All rooms have desk top computers with free internet access in the rooms, and are quiet and spotless with polished hardwood floors and new furniture etc. The rooms on the front of the building have large pleasant balconies over the street. The service is friendly, professional and more enthusiastic than I have ever experienced. When we returned from being away from Hanoi for several days without a reservation and the hotel was fully booked, they bent over backwards to find us another room, to the extent of the Manager personally taking us to view the rooms at alternate hotels (sadly none of which compared to the Hanoi Elegance). As it happened because of our desire for flexibility and using Hanoi as a base for travel around Hanoi we were in and out of Hanoi several times and we had not made advance reservations so several times the hotel couldn`t accommodate us several nights on different occasions and consequently we stayed in 5 hotels in Hanoi ranging from the price of the Hanoi Elegance to US$100. None was nicer and none compared in value to the Hanoi Elegance Hotel." Thank you for looking after us so well in Hanoi. Yours truly, Greg Arsenault |
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Nice place just a little murky the whole week we stayed. Lots to see and do. |
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beware of overcharging and dishonest people |
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weather sucked but that was expected with it bein up north, same as most of south east asia... motorbike, coconut.......bananna?????????!!! |
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SAPA |
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Hanoi is not as hectic as you might think, in fact it's a welcome change of pace. Not the constant harrassment of the more tourist focussed areas, a polite no thank you is always accepted.
An exceelent place to visit and the use as a base to explore other parts of Vietnam (Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, etc.). |
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Constant traffic noise from overuse of vehicle horns. |
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Hanoi is just perfect for relaxing and sightseeing. People are very kind, and weather is nice in Dec to Mar. |
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Hanoi is a great place to go to just kick back for a few days,see the sights at your leisure,relax in one of the many cafes.At night the city comes alive,plenty of bars and clubs to suit all tastes. |
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crowded city, not as developed as other Asian capitals such as Beijing or Bangkok, but has a unique backpacker feel to it |
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Really loved the people. Very, very polite and kind. Feel very safe in this town. Loved navigating across the streets amongst the scooters. Street vendors do NOT hound you - which we really liked. Nice that there aren't plice and military out with guns as will find in many other parts of the world. A very laid back city. |
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Hanoi is a bustling Southeast Asia city with it's local markets and great shopping. You'll find streets and districts dedicated to certain products such as Silk, Masking Tape, or Locksmith. But that's all it was for us. And the people are nice.
What many travellers agree is that Hanoi has one of the worst noise pollution around. Everyone is either honking or yelling at something. Cars and Bikes ignore street signs and traffic lights. Instead they honk at every street corner to let others know of their location. Many travellers will have a hard time adapting to this and crossing the street is difficult. Do it like the Vietnamese. Start walking and the automobiles will go around you. And keep your eye contact with the driver. Surprisingly, in Asia, they don't drive all that fast. Around 80kmh at the most. |
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can get ripped off alot...shop around before you book any tours! |
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Great city, friendly people, nice atmosphere. You will spend longer than you think!
(Some great trips to do out of the city) |
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Great introduction to Vietnam. Weather may be rainy, but great place to take in the food and some Bia Hoi! |
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Hanoi is fantastic, a place unlike any other. Amazing architecture, friendly locals and awesomely cheap. |
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Way more to Vietnam then Hanoi...so keep go'n, move out, move on!! |
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Good address for tourist to exloit Hanoi, Vietnam |
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Great place for a couple of days only. After that all of the mopeds and horns start to get a little annoying |
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I just really enjoyed everything about Hanoi, from the infinite number of entrepreneurs in this communist country to the seeming nonchalance of pedestrians walking across the swarm of bikers and cars when they go from one sidewalk to the next. It\'s just an awesome city. The water puppets are not to be missed! Very unique and interesting show. Didn\'t understand a word of the Vietnamese, but it was funny and entertaining, nonetheless. |
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A great, compact city with much to see and do over a period of a few days, perhaps a long weekend. The people are friendly and even though they try to sell you their produce they are not pushy or overbearing. A good base to have when going on 2-3 day trips to surrounding areas. |
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Taxi drivers were a pain to get to use the meter.
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i didn\'t hav ehigh expectations for hanoi, it totally blew me away. i love it. |
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prefect for dating around lake |
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Vietnam has it\'s own, specific style - very different from other eastern countries. It\'s worth to see. Our first impression in Hanoi was chaos, noise and lack of driving rules. It\'s really amazing and shocking. The life in Vietnam however is calm and peaceful.People seems to be pleased and without worries, just enjoying life.
Hanoi is good to experience the real vietnamise life.
Also recommend Ha Long Bay - great views. |
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