We only have great things to say about this Hotel. It is clean, warm in all respects, simple, but beautiful. It provides everything you need for comfortable stay. The staff is great – especially, Kenny (I hope I am writing his name correctly), who speaks excellent English and will do everything to help you with all sorts of questions and accommodations. The moment we stepped in that hotel we were greeted by warm smiles by all the members of the staff, help with luggage and offer for coffee and tea, check-in was quick and easy, Kenny offered to upgrade our room at no extra cost, which was great. Their breakfast is pretty good – choice of eggs or pho soup and some fruits and sweets. They also offer tea and coffee throughout the day, which was great when we needed a warm drink when the weather was cold. They will help you with tour purchase to Ha Long and Sapa. Even though they charge more than on-the- street travel agencies, we did not mind because this hotel really cares about its reputation and will never sell low quality tours. The location is great – almost everything is within walking distance. They will also accommodate you for further stay when you come back from the tours. We would like to thank all the people who recommended this hotel on Trip Advisor – we think that was a great choice for us. And thank you to the Hotel’s team, and especially Kenny – we miss you! We will definitely stay in that hotel again.
A couple of tips to first travelers to Vietnam. First of all, if you are on the budget, like we were, you can get from the airport to the Hotel (and back) for just $2 by minibus. Minibus stop is a couple of blocks from the Hotel near Vietnam Airlines office – literally 5 min walk. But, I think the last minibus departs at around 7pm – you should check with them. Second, the cheapest taxi is MaiLinh (for some reason Vinasun was always more expensive) – do not take any other taxi, they will cheat you. Be ware of the bicycle rickshaw – they will tell you it is only 15,000 VD for a ride, but will charge you 10 or 100 times as much. We were brought to a place with no people in close proximity and decided not to argue too much with them, since it seemed a bit dangerous, so we paid 150,000 VD instead of 15,000 VD as was agreed before. A traveler told us that he was cheated to pay 1,500,000VD for a 10min rickshaw drive.
When you pay, watch how much you are giving to the vendor (especially in formal establishments), even say it out load, because they will take your money and then will try to persuade you that you gave them different amount. Since many Vietnamese bills are similar in color and have so many 0000, it might be easy to get confused. For example, you give them 200,000 – they will tell you, you only gave them 10,000, since these 2 bills look similar. 500,000 is also similar with 20,000. We got cheated in the shop at Cu Chi tunnels (HCM) and in the Water Puppets Show theater (Hanoi). Also, be careful on the streets – I was hit by a car that just drove away without slowing down.
And one last tip. Arrange all the travel within Vietnam in Vietnam – any Hotel or travel agency will be happy to purchase whatever tickets for any type of transportation, and arrange hotels in any city. If you do it on your own, it might be cheaper, but could be a lot of hassle. Also, do not stay in cheap hotels. We stayed in $15 room and were very disappointed (see our review of Phuong Hong in Rach Gia).