Life, in general, when in Hanoi Vietnam expect to start early. When visiting Vietnam, your day starts at 7:00 am. We think life starts so early because it’s scorching after 12:00 noon throughout Vietnam. I mean – it’s super hot and humid in Vietnam. Another reason sightseeing starts early is because the tourist destinations are in remote locations, and far from the cities where tourist stay. The roads are not well developed in Vietnam. Tour buses usually take one scheduled stop in each direction of the trip for buying souvenirs. So for these reasons, everything in Vietnam starts early.
Hanoi Vietnam Expect to Start Early
We found hotels start breakfast service at 6:0 am so the guests can leave early or can take early tours. If you have an exceptionally early start, ask for a packaged breakfast to take on the bus with you. Everyone is very accommodating at the hotels in Vietnam.
Vietnamese people are always ready to help
Remember to Get Plenty of Rest. Life Starts Early in Vietnam
Hotel
Our hotel was La Siesta, Hanoi, Vietnam was a great experience. Actually, in 2017, La Siesta was recognized as one of the best hotels in the world. We highly recommend this hotel we thought they were very professional and showed us lots of hospitality. Our reservation booked on Booking.com was a great rate. To find today’s hotel rates use Booking.com link on this page to find the current best rate.
Address: 94 Ma May St., Old Quarter Hoan Kiem Dist. Hanoi 10000 Phone: +84 39263641
We also booked our Ha Long Bay tour through the hotel and used it as a rest spot between our trips. Ha Long Bay we took a cruise on V Spirit Cruises
Our food tour Street Tour in Hanoi
Heat
Vietnam is sweltering even during the month of November. North Vietnam rainy season starts around the end of November, during our time in Hanoi it didn’t rain, but the temperature was hot (80 plus degrees and 60 % humidity.) Ho Chi Ming City only has a 3 % temperature variance at any time of the year. The temperature in Ho Chi Ming City, when we were there was 95 degrees and 85%. Ho Long Bay was hot and humid and perfect weather for kayaking and swimming weather. Sapa was hot and humid and rained. In Sa Pa, the hotel lent us rain boots, and we bought two rain-slickers for $1.50. The weather in all locations was excellent for sightseeing.
Cost
My daughter and I chose a trip to Vietnam because it seemed like an inexpensive and culturally different from any place we had gone. We were traveling to celebrate her Master’s graduation. Vietnam’s culture is entirely different from Western culture, and it was the 40th anniversary of America ending the Vietnam War. We wanted to see Vietnam. The locations in Vietnam we went to were Hanoi, Thị trấn Sa Pa and Ha long Bay, Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon and Vũng Tàu.
Our Sightseeing List
On the northern shore of the lake was Jade Island and across the red bridge lies Temple of the Jade Mountain (Ngoc Son Temple)
In the middle of Hoàn Kiếm Lake is Turtle Tower we didn’t go into it but walked around the lake.
To give you some sense of the size of the lake it was like walking Greenlake in Seattle or a small Central Park in New York.
Thang Long Water Puppet Theater
Trấn Quốc Pagoda
Inside the Temple
Below is a Hanoi Hilton Toilet
Prisoners Cell Under the French or The North Vietnamese, this is where John McCain was held as a prisoner.
One Pillar Pagoda
(no picture, it was on our sightseeing list, but we didn’t see it.)
What I enjoyed the most about Hanoi was people watching and the food. It did rain a little while we were there. The rain came down hard; we would duck into a place and stand and wait for the rain to stop.
Food – Food – Food
Every corner had new food, and unique sights to see and explore. The people loved to take photos and although I enjoyed the tourist attractions and historical or religious landmarks the people, food, old streets, everyday city life, sights and smells make Vietnam unique.
I’m always asked would I go back to Hanoi, Thị trấn Sa Pa, and Ha long Bay I would go back to Hanoi but not to Ho Chi Ming City for tourism.
More to come about Medical Tourism in Ho Chi Ming City or Saigon.
This post was last modified on February 23, 2017 8:01 pm