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 Traveller's Tales: Advise for travellers in Hanoi, Vietnam
Heed our handy tips on safe travel in Hanoi, Vietnam. You may read about travel warnings, health, what to wear, travel with kids, travel with pets, local weather, local government, medical information and traffic information in the area.Also, you might want to read our
Central Vietnam city guide,
Halong Bay city guide,
Hanoi city guide,
Ho Chi Minh city guide,
Phan Thiet city guide,
and Hoi An city guide.
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| A Randall |
01 June 2005 |
Stayed at Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Hanoi can be quite confusing, I found it hard to get my bearings thus would recommend at least a City Tour to familarise yourself once you arrive. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is closed on Mondays and Friday-my cyclo driver was unaware of this-also negotiate the price for the cyclo drivers before you depart-it might end up cheaper just taking a taxi-and you won't get wet. I found the Old Quarter to be very busy and confusing to negotiate-I ended up booking a day tour with Sinh Tours-13 US for the day-Hanoi doesnt seem to be set up for Western tourists-there were few signs in English-and restaurants were hard to find-ended up eating in the hotel mostly. I travelled by myself-and found it a bit of a culture shock to be honest-if I went again, i would go in winter to avoid the oppressive heat-and consider a tour-i have travelled to Thailand/Laos/Cambodia-this was the least tourist friendly place that I have visited.
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| I Schubert |
29 April 2005 |
Stayed at Lucky Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Be prepared that the boat rowers at Tam Coc try to sell you t-shirts and table clothes whilst you are "trapped" in the rowing boat. This can be a bit annoying.
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| H Pilling |
03 February 2005 |
Stayed at Green Park Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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If you take the "group" Dragon boat tour in Hue for 25.000VND (which is really more fun because you get to meet a lot of interesting people from all over) what they don't tell you is at all but one of the 5 historic sites they take you to, you have to buy a ticket to get in for 55.000VND, plus at 2 of the sites you have to hire a motor bike to take you there. Most of my fellow tourists felt a little cheated by all the hidden costs...just remember, you get what you pay for!
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| A Kwan |
26 September 2004 |
Stayed at De Syloia Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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It is recommended that you book your airport transfer beforehand from a trusted source or from the hotel itself. We boarded a mini van which promised to take us to De Syloia but end up in the Old Quarters having a heated argument with the operator. They tried to convince us that the hotel right infront of us IS De Syloia. We remembered clearly how the hotel should look like in asia-hotels.com website and it looked nothing close to that old-looking motel he pointed out (definitely not worth the US60/night we are paying for). Furthermore, there was no signage to confirm that. Just then, someone from inside that motel emerged with a De Syloia name card and introduced himself as a staff. He said it was a high tourist season and so the hotel is fully booked (which is impossible as we had email confirmation from the hotel itself). He insisted that they bring us to another hotel under the same company whereas we insisted they bring us to the right location.
After a long struggle, we eventually get dropped off somewhere near and made our way to De Syloia on foot.
The amazing thing is that they had the namecard of De Syloia (which looked exaclty the same as the real thing after seeing one for myself at the hotel itself). They probably had prepared name cards of various major hotels to be in this
"Hijacking business".
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| W Corner |
12 April 2004 |
Stayed at Lucky Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Make sure the taxi taking you from noi bai airport to the lucky hotel does not drop you off at a different hotel (namely the pacific hotel). Be vigilant if you suspect this to be the case, keep close attention to where the taxis take you.
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| C Fisher |
13 September 2003 |
Stayed at Lucky Star Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Hanoi is a gorgeous city with much more Western appeal than HCMC. I had some very beautiful clothing made for me in some of the many shops along the main streets. It was a nice, comfortable feeling in Hanoi. Beware, however, of postcard sellers. A young boy put his hand under the strap of my dress to distract me while his friend was aiming for my purse on the other side. A sharp response is all that is needed to shoo these young ones, but beware all the same.
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| D Nguyen |
12 July 2003 |
Stayed at Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Watch out for Hanoi taxi drivers. They will drive you around for a longer distance to get more money. You could pay 2 to 3 times amount you are supposed to pay if you don't know the direction. Have a map ready and instruct them to drive.
Hanoi's Hilton taxi drivers are good, they did not drive around.
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| H Aladwani |
13 March 2003 |
Stayed at Sofitel Plaza Hanoi - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Ate at Bobby Chins, nice atmosphere, good food, friendly service.
Got around by any taxi flagged down in the street. Very convenient.
Took a tour to Ninh Binh which included a small boat ride (2 per boat) down a river. At the end of the river locals were very adamant that you purchase 2 drinks and a small bag of munchies for your oars people. I disliked this immensely. First of all they sell these 3 items for $3 which is a lot of money for those items. Secondly I have read that often the oars people do not eat or drink the items and simply return them at the end of the trip to the vendors for a fee, therewith taking the tourists "for a ride". Nobody liked this feeling and was extremely irritated by it. It would be much better if we simply gave the oarsmen $2 at the end of the trip.
Also we stopped at a Tourist Shop along the way. There were some girls doing the stiching. These girls get only $10 per month! for working a whole day, while the work they do in one day gets sold for $4. I think that is total exploitation! Again, everyone was shocked at this. The tourist shop of course charged much more money than outside, no problem, but as long as it passes on some of the money to the girls - which at $10 a month it obviously didn't do. I can guarantee you that you will lose much tourist business as a result of such exploitation because it will come out on the internet eventually.
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| L Sew nam |
13 March 2003 |
Stayed at Lucky Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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The people in Hanoi were not violent or dangerous. But they always tried to squeeze money from tourists wherever they were from. So I would like to advise those taking taxi or trishaw in Hanoi. I had all negotiated for a fixed price but the driver or rider did not keep their words. One taxi driver tried to pass off a 2,000 VND as 20,000 VND as a change to me. One trishaw driver changed his words of 15,000 VND to 15 US$.
The low priced seafood stalls were worthy to patronize. However, it was unpleasant that almost every one who went with me to Hua Lu boat ride was "forced" to buy table clothes from the boat operator.
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| R Egger |
26 December 2002 |
Stayed at Melia Hanoi - Hanoi, Vietnam.
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Good weather and location, be careful at restaurants that do not have prices on the menu, they will double or triple charge you!!
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