Vietnam - Hanoi, Hạ Long Bay & Hai Giang Loop
The start of our five-month, honeymoon adventure exploring North Vietnam with our personal recommendations along the way.
Hello!
With both of us hitting 30 and recently just married, we’re taking some time out of the busy London life to break from being totally responsible adults and, instead, travel for five months across Southeast Asia. We’re writing this (very) informal, just-for-fun series of blog posts to hopefully help family, friends and others looking to follow in our footsteps in travelling these countries with our recommendations and thoughts in the places we’ve been. The advantage of travelling later in life compared to immediately post-graduation means you have a little more money in your pocket to make the trip more ‘comfortable’, which we’re hoping to take advantage of and give a slightly more unique perspective to the trip in what we thought was actually worth spending extra on.
We hope you find it useful as we trot across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia!
Let’s get started with Hanoi…
Hanoi
Andrew: 4/5 Beth: 4/5
We arrived in Hanoi from Hong Kong, and easily enough, we caught the airport bus 85, which took us minutes away from our hotel and cost 45,000 VND each (I would recommend). We decided to stay on Hoàn Kiếm Lake at La Sinfonía del Rey Hotel & Spa as it was the beginning of our honeymoon/ travels, and we wanted a little luxury to ease us in. The hotel did include a complimentary couples massage, which was the best we have both ever had, and also a great rooftop bar for cocktails and incredible views (I would not recommend the wine). The hotel’s location was unmatched and could not be more perfect. Breakfast was included, buffet style, with hot food to order. The rooms were super comfortable, and the staff were extremely attentive to anything we requested during our stay.
Hanoi is as busy and chaotic as you may hear about, and crossing the streets took a few practises and a lot of confidence (and hand-holding on my part), but this makes the city fun and charming. Restaurants and coffee shops are easy to come by, and you can ‘shop til you drop’ in the hoards of shops scattered around the Old Quarter. We did visit the Long Bien Market but found it very busy and crowded, and we didn’t have the same enjoyment of getting lost while walking around the streets.
We ended up walking through the whole city and only got a ‘Grab’ once. Downloading the Grab app works exactly the same as Uber and is super helpful for getting around without worrying about haggling over a price.
Our favourite part of Hanoi was taking the day slowly and stopping into coffee shops and restaurants. Many of the ones listed below were actually recommended to us by friends (thank you). We went to many more but have decided to list the ones we personally recommend to other travellers. We bought postcards from a little shop and stamps from the post office by the lake and began writing a few to family members while trying to find the best coconut coffee in the city (Hidden Gem Cafe).
Train Street is a must, although be prepared that you now have to buy a drink to wander down, this was still at a very reasonable price and helps the people who live/ work there. The Street Art Murals are just North of Train Street and seem to be a well-kept secret from other tourists. Free and beautiful. We spent an hour one evening at the Water Puppet Show, although we had mixed reviews about this from family and friends. Personally, we enjoyed it, and it was an easy activity in the evening. I recommend buying your ticket a few days before to get the best, cheaper ticket and the audio transcription when entering, as the show is in Vietnamese (unsurprisingly, we didn’t understand anything). We also walked past Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, although you must be covered up to walk around, so we skipped by this and headed towards West Lake, where we enjoyed an hour on Pedalos and drinking beer on deck chairs. On our last day, we visited the Hoa Lo Prison Relic, which took around 1 hour to walk through, and tickets only cost 30,000 VND.
We spent three days in Hanoi (an extra day after Ha Long Bay) and felt this was the perfect amount of time to walk around, see what the city has to offer and take the days slowly.
Points of Interest
Train Street - Map
Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre - Map
Street Art Murals - Map
Hoa Lo Prison Relic (Museum) - Map
Hoàn Kiếm Lake - Map
West Lake Pedalos - Map
Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum - Map
Accommodation:
La Sinfonia del Rey Hotel & Spa - Map
Food & Drink
Bahn Mi 25 - Map
Hidden Gem Cafe - Map
The Note Coffee - Map
Bun Cha Ta Hanoi - Map
Gau Coffee & Bakery - Map
MET Vietnamese Restaurant & Vegetarian - Map
Hanoi Coffee Station - Map
Poke Hanoi - Map
Ha Long Bay
Andrew: 5/5 Beth: 5/5
Considering this was a pseudo-honeymoon trip, we wanted to do Ha Long Bay in a little more luxury for a couple of nights, and despite having some contrasting views on the bay from other travellers regarding the high level of tourism, crowds or litter, we were very fortunate not to encounter any of it once we were out on the water, so perhaps here it is a case where in terms of money, what you put in, you get out. Our cruise provider was called ‘Elite of the Seas’, who picked us up from our Hotel in Hanoi via a ‘Luxury Limousine’ and drove us down to the bay to transfer to the boat. Here, it was busy for sure; I heard there were over 500 cruise providers operating in Ha Long Bay, so yeah, I wouldn’t be hanging around here any longer than you need to. Fortunately, once we were checked in, our bags were taken, and we were ferried off to the beautiful Elite of the Seas boat.
Elite of the Seas had a 5* white glove deck crew service that would literally welcome you by dropping petals on your head as you're walking up to the main deck before taking your bags to your rooms so you can explore the boat’s infinity pool. bar area, spa, restaurant and viewing platform. I thought it had a very modern, sleek, and clean interior, and the rooms were equally well equipped with Japanese-style toilets, air-conditioning, bathrobes, and more. The cruise itself had a 3-day itinerary starting from when we arrived:
Day 1: After arrival, we kayaked around the bay in the late afternoon before enjoying an 8-course dinner with a pianist providing a beautiful background ambience. This was followed by a cooking demonstration and live band entertainment in the evening.
Day 2: Breakfast and buffet, Cat Ba Island excursion, cycling tour, relaxing on a natural beach, boat viewing platform drone photos, a couples massage (a wedding gift from a friend, thank you), Vietnamese menu dinner, squid fishing on the boat, and live band entertainment in the evening.
Day 3: In the morning, we took a local rowing boat through a cave and into a cove, where we saw some monkeys chilling out before we headed back to the mainland and transferred back to Hanoi.
Of course, when booking the boat, we mentioned it was our Honeymoon and Beth’s 30th birthday, so the boat had a few little surprises, including the bed in our room having some fancy decoration made for both nights and being singled out at dinner both nights with the crew singing and presenting a cake to us—the other guests must have thought we were completely milking it (and yes, we were).
Heading back to land, you take another ‘luxury limousine’ back to Hanoi, where they dropped us off at our chosen hotel, this time Cheers Hostel, so that we could spend the night before our tour at 8 p.m. the next day.
Points of Interest
Cat Ba Island - Map
Accommodation:
Hai Giang Loop
Andrew: 5/5 Beth: 5/5
How do we even begin…
The Hai Giang Loop has been the highlight of our trip so far. We booked our tour through Cheers Hostel after extensively researching the best tours to fit the ‘vibe’ we wanted. We didn’t want our group to be too big, but we still wanted to meet like-minded people along the way while avoiding the big party groups. Cheers Hostel offered us exactly this!
We decided to stay the night before the tour at the hostel and booked a private room. This made things a little easier, but it is definitely not essential. Our group seemed big initially as we were debriefed and headed off for our 6-hour sleeper bus at around 9 pm, but we split up into smaller groups when the tour began. We arrived in Hai Giang at 3 am and had a very brief but comfortable (enough) few hours of sleep in the dorm. You will be tired and slightly sleep-deprived, but the coffee and excitement for the day easily get you through.
If you choose to have an Easy Rider (which we strongly recommend as if you go solo, you’re biking at high altitude and expected to keep pace), you will meet them in the morning when they hand you a helmet, and you clamber aboard the back of their motorcycle. Every Easy Rider is different, and their bike, too. My rider was much more shy and seemed to have the smallest bike going compared to Andy’s confident and well-experienced driver (often directing mine the correct way when he got lost). Whoever your driver is, by the end of the trip, you will love them endlessly and grow to communicate through broken English, charades and toasting drinks with ‘happy water’.
It isn't easy to show with pictures or videos the views you will see and how high up the mountains you will go, but it was breathtakingly beautiful and the most incredible experience. Along the way, you stop at various viewpoints for photos or snack breaks and have an hour each day for family-style Vietnamese lunch, which was always delicious and a great chance to chat with other travellers. You will have a numb bum, but they break regularly, so you are never driving for longer than around 45 minutes. Most of the driving felt very safe but on Day 2 it was much bumpier and a few roads were still being properly built. Nevertheless, despite something that initially was worrying me, I never felt that I was in danger. We did get very lucky with the weather. Day 1 was a little chilly but dry, and the following two days were hot and the weather was perfect for our waterfall dip at the end of the second day.
At the end of the first day, we had our own private room in a hotel, which had air conditioning and was very clean. In the evening, we had dinner with our group and had a few drinks whilst Andy challenged an 8-year-old to a very close game of pool. The second night was at a homestay, where we had a semi-private room and a shared bathroom. I really enjoyed this place as it felt more homely in a rural area, and we had a chance to enjoy karaoke, breaking out Britney Spears and Journey before downing too much happy water in the evening. There was honestly never too much pressure to drink lots or stay up late, and everybody enjoyed the evening however they wanted to, but to be honest, in most cases, including ours, you are so tired from the day's activities you conk out early, still some sore heads the day after for the final day of course.
On the final day, you will arrive back in Hai Giang around 3 p.m., and everyone will disembark on their buses throughout the afternoon. We headed back on a 4 p.m. bus to Hanoi and stayed a final night at Cheers Hostel because we arrived around 11 p.m. We never realised that we could have taken a bus to another location (Sapa or Ninh Binh was on our list), which we wish we had done instead, although the bus journeys would have been much longer.
It goes without saying that we highly recommend making time on any trip to Vietnam to do the Hai Giang Loop!
Here are a few top tips:
Check the weather and pack light. Things will get dirty and sweaty, but no one really notices or cares what you are wearing. Make sure you are comfortable. We wore trousers/ leggings the first day with a jumper/ raincoat. On the second day, we were both in shorts and a t-shirt, but we used a small sweat towel to sit on as the seat got hot and sticky on our skin. They provided us with ponchos if it rained, but we luckily did not need these
Don’t waste space in your bag with things like iPads and Kindles. I never used mine. Also, check what your tour company provides. Ours provided towels, which saved space as well as water throughout the day. You can easily buy things at stops along the way or in the small towns that you settle in for the evening
Make sure to tip your Easy Rider at the end. We heard that they recommend 500,000 VND per rider, so be sure to have cash on you for this
Bring sun cream and mosquito spray. In the homestay, Andy got very bitten!
Points of Interest
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Accommodation:
Organised by Cheers Hostel for the tour
Food & Drink
Traditional Vietnamese food provided by the Homestays & Hotel
Next, we’re off to Nimh Binh and Phong Nha, where we’ll share our experiences and recommendations in more rural Vietnam. Hopefully, we will experience some slow, scenic boat rides, trekking through jungles, and exploring caves.
See you then!
Andrew & Beth
Aw guys I loved this!