| L Ng |
10 December 2004 |
Stayed at Guoman Hanoi Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Water Puppet show was very enjoyable, highly recommended for anyone. Bobby Chinn Restaurant is a great restaurant with nice and friendly atmosphere. Handspan Adventure Travel offers great package tours to different places in Vietnam. Very good service and great price.
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| P Sohonie |
06 December 2004 |
Stayed at Melia Hanoi - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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The best thing about Hanoi at this time of the year is the weather. It's cool and dry. Not much to see, Ho Chi Minh's museum was closed for annual refurbishing and the one legged pagoda a big dissappoint. The fine arts museum was worth a visit. Halong Bay is a 3 hr drive, very picturesque. Restaurants - recommend Little Hanoi Cafe, Indo Chine, Emperor and Lotus at Melia Hotel.
Taxis are easily available and also enjoyed bicycle rickshaw rides in the evenings when it was wonderfully cool.
Shopping is the main focus in Hanoi. Excellent lacquerware, table linen and plenty of art galleries to choose from. Do be careful, prices vary by 100% for certain artists!! Difficult to figure out the art scene but the Vietnamese artists are worth buying. Copies are excellent, so don't hesitate to buy them.
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| M Miles |
09 November 2004 |
Stayed at De Syloia Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Excellent if slightly expensive Vietnamese food (accompanied by very nice traditional Vietnamese music) at the Nam Phuong restaurant which is a 5 minute walk from the hotel. Wouldn't recommend the food at the equally expensive Emperor restaurant (also 5 mins from the hotel) but the bar looked very nice for a relaxing drink or two. Excellent Italian food in a very nice courtyard atmosphere at Luno d'Autumno, and don't miss an ice cream at Fanny's at the south-west corner of the lake - great flavours !
Best museums we visited were the wonderfully abstract Ho Chi Minh museum (go upstairs to see what I mean !) and the excellent Museum of Ethnology with its array of displays celebrating the vast number of diverse ethnic tribes native to today's Vietnam.
Sit back and enjoy a relaxing shave for only US$1 at any number of Hanoi's barber's shops - not only will it be fun for you, but the local staff and customers will love the show!
Can't wait to go back to Hanoi and spend more time drinking in the vibrant culture, amazing buildings and incredible friendliness of the Vietnamese people. Viva Ho Chi Minh!
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| S Kerr |
23 October 2004 |
Stayed at Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Sua Hoa Restaurant is well worth a visit - not only good food & reasonable prices but it is run by street kids who are being trained.
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| S Wong |
13 October 2004 |
Stayed at Que Huong - Liberty 3 - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
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Try to use Vietnam Dong as much as possible when paying for cyclo rides or shopping at markets. If you use USD, you end up paying a little more. Beef noodle soup is the best at Pho Hoa restaurant, Pasteur Street.
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| B Fitzsimons |
02 October 2004 |
Stayed at Grand Hotel - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
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The tours available are a little limiting, Mekong delta and the Viet Cong tunnels were worth a visit. Did not have time for any thing else. Good eating places near hotel especially The Santa Lucia Italian place. If you have time look around before you buy, prices vary a lot. The market is worth a visit, however we bought things a lot cheaper in shops near hotel. Beware of motor bikes!
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| P Van der weeen |
25 September 2004 |
Stayed at Victoria Hoi An Beach Resort - Hoi An, Vietnam.
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Hoi An is the perfect town for travelers looking for good food and shopping. We took the tour to My Son, which is about an hour by car. The Tam Tam Cafe in the city center is highly recommended - both Vietnamese and western food at reasonable prices.
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| G Loebus |
11 September 2004 |
Stayed at Grand Hotel - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
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We tried the dinner buffets of several hotels as well as restaurants - all within walking distance. Our favorites were the dinner buffets at the hotels Caravelle and Majestic.
Transportation to other parts of the country are best via air travel, worst via open bus ticket. Except for air travel, all means of transportation are painfully slow. To see the country side close up we recommend hiring a taxi or private car with driver, it's worth the extra expense.
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| J Huynh |
05 September 2004 |
Stayed at Yasaka Saigon Nhatrang Hotel - Nha Trang, Vietnam.
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Boat tours to neighboring islands are definitely recommended (in particularly boat #4). For USD7-8 you can join the simplest boat tour, which covers four islands. The tours are entertaining, enjoyable and furthermore food is provided.
The Sailing Club is perhaps one of the most happening places during the night. It is situated next to the beach and is generally filled with foreigners partying early into the morning.
For seafood, Truc Linh on is not a bad place to feast on the latest catches.
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| C Usher-clark |
02 September 2004 |
Stayed at Rex Hotel Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
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We had two nights in Ho Chi Minh and I wish that we had been able to stay longer, but our whistle stop 3 week tour of Cambodia/Vietnam did not allow. Cu Chi are worth the effort (1/2 day tour about $20-25 for "non-backpacker budget" group tour depending whether entrance fee of $4 included or not) but watch which tunnels you go to. There are actually two sets of tunnels open to visitors - the Ben Dinh tunnels were actually used during the war, though they have been slightly widened and cleaned up since; the Ben Duoc tunnels are "reconstructions" built for tourism.
If you want to do the Mekong Delta you need to do at least a two day trip to get any real value out of it as it is quite a journey to get to the heart of it from HCMC. September 2 annually is National Day (when we were in HCMC) and was an amazing experience - it is the day that Vietnam declared its independence from the Japanese and French in 1945 and the city was covered in flags. It was a real family/party atmosphere.
Ate in Lemongrass (Vietnamese)/La Fourchette (traditional French) and the Mandarin (Chinese) - all in the Lonely Planet and all very good - but the Mandarin is noticeably more expensive and a little out of the way. Skip the water puppets here and see them in Hanoi.
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Traveller's Tales: Restaurants and eating places in Vietnam
