Hotels in Hanoi

We flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, arriving at around midnight. We tried phoning a couple of guest houses recommended in the Lonely Planet, but of the 5 we called, two didn’t answer and three had no vacancies. We decided to go with a spruiker who was trying to find guesthouse customers at the airport. Given our poor luck, with the enticement of free breakfast, free internet and free (hour-long) ride from the airport, and encouragement/reassurance from another Australian couple, Keith and Caroline – Keith had stayed there before and booked specifically – we took our luggage and climbed in the car.

When we arrived at a hotel that was not the hotel that Keith had stayed at and booked a room in, we had conversations with the driver and hotel owners in the street for about half an hour. The hotel owner apparently owned 5 hotels in the district, and these two (we were outside two, side by side) had vacancies, where the one Keith thought he was booking had no vacancies. We agreed to stay the night, as it was too late to find somewhere else. Before we took our bags upstairs (4 storeys of stairs!) Keith and Caroline worked out that if they were going to go to Halong Bay, and spend time in Hanoi before they flew to Hong Kong, they had better go the next day (or by this stage, in about 6 hours), so we decided to go to. We negotiated to pay $50 for a 3-day/2-night tour – much more than we would have paid at any other time of the day – then went inside.

As we walked into the building with the hotel owner, he asked what our plans were. We told him that we planned to go to Sapa, then get the train down to Hoi An, before heading west into Laos. Within moments he had booklets out, and was writing prices on a piece of paper, and seemed insistent upon having us commit to a guided 3-day tour to Sapa for $250, a flight to Hoi An for $130, and a $50 bus ride from there into Laos. In addition to the $100 for the Halong Bay tour (as the $50 was each – not together), that brought us to $530. We told him it was too late, and we would have to think about it. He tried to entice us with a free night of accommodation if we bought all that (very kind, being that it was already 2:30am, and at 7:00am we would leave to go to Halong Bay). We told him we could talk in the morning, and went upstairs to repack, as we were able to leave our luggage at the hotel during our Halong Bay tour. Of course, by the time we reached our room – 4 flights of stairs - we decided that we would commit only to the Halong Bay tour.