Halong Hotel Reviews
A US$ 28 half day tour including a reasonable lunch with your own boat is very good value for money. US$ 75 for a return trip to Hanoi is expensive. Both tours were purchased at the hotel and the tourdesk was helpful.<br> <br> When you walk from the hotel towards the centre of Halong you come to four small shops offering massage for 5US$. As I was having my massage, the rest of the staff got hold of my wallet and stole approximatly US$ 100 in mixed currencies and my complaint lead to nothing. This particular shop closed up after I left and remained so during the rest of my stay,and the massage was not very good either so any one using this facilities should keep there valuables very close. Overall Halong bay is very impressive and beautiful.
There is nothing much in Halong City. We joined a tour from Hanoi who promised to take us to Cat Ba and to have a seafood dinner on boat. But, when the van picked us up, he told us we couldn''t do that because Cat Ba island is too far and other excuses. So, please make sure whatever tour you signed up, make sure you insist they write full details on the receipt. The tour agent will promise the world as long as you signed up with them. Dont rush into it, look for a couple of tour operators and compare the prices first.<br><br>PLEASE take the airport taxi and not some taxis who promised to bring you to the hotel. We fell for that and he will quote USD10.00 for the taxi fare but when you reach the destination he will insist you pay for his toll fare about USD20.00!! + USD10.00 for the cabfare. Ripped off!!! Normal airport taxi is only USD10.00 including the tollfare. We told him to take us to Dan Chu Hotel but he took us to Kim Tin (some crappy hotel) and told us it was Dan Chu. Since we paid everything thru asia-hotels.com, He said we need not pay anything as they are subsidiary of Dan Chu. Told us some stories that there are some sick guests in Dan Chu and we could not check in there. Their motive is to sign you up for tours. So, we insisted that they call Dan Chu so that we can speak to them, then out of the blue, they say now Dan Chu is available. So we fled as fast as we could.<br><br>Guess what, when we check into Dan Chu, we related the story to them, they said it is very frequent that this thing happens to their guests. Another woman heard of our plight and she remarked, "You got hijacked too?
Halong is one of Vietnam''s most expensive cities. Even in wintertime. May be you should take into account, to book only a one trip to Halong during your stay in Hanoi or to undertake a helicopter flight to Halong bay.
The destination is great. I would come bach again, but not in summer, as it was extremely hot.
Well if your going to Halong Bay I suggest you take a tour of the area in a tour boat owned and operated by the local Halong Bay people (as opposed to organising it through a hotel which will take a commission from the operators).