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 Traveller's Tales: Advise for travellers in Vietnam
Heed our handy tips on safe travel in 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,
and Phan Thiet 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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| J Baker |
31 May 2005 |
Stayed at Riverside Hotel Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
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HCMC is a great place, although traffic very hectic. When crossing the road don't hesitate or you will never make it. KHAI Silk was a great store for handbags, although expensive.
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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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| C Scott |
28 May 2004 |
Stayed at Novotel Garden Plaza Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
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Vietnam is a wonderful country to visit, but one must be careful in Ho Chi Mihn City. I met the most dishonest street "guides" here and it's best to only take metered taxis if you need transport beyond walking. A metered taxi should cost about $3-4 USD from the airport to downtown and $2 to the Novotel. When you get out of the airport, you have to beat off the unofficial drivers begging for a ride to get to the metered taxi area that generally come unsolicited. If it's not metered, they have a tendency to change the price once you arrive or drastically over inflate the initial fee.
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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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| L Hodes |
25 January 2004 |
Stayed at Best Western Chancery Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
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Beware of the traffic. The best way to manuever is just to walk; the mopeds and cars will go around you. A sidetrip to the Mekong is nice way to get out of the city.
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| J Loo |
30 December 2003 |
Stayed at Halong Bay Hotel - Halong, Vietnam.
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There is nothing much in Halong City. We joined a tour from Hanoi who promised to take us to Cat Ba and to have a seafood dinner on boat. But, when the van picked us up, he told us we couldn't do that because Cat Ba island is too far and other excuses. So, please make sure whatever tour you signed up, make sure you insist they write full details on the receipt. The tour agent will promise the world as long as you signed up with them. Dont rush into it, look for a couple of tour operators and compare the prices first.
PLEASE take the airport taxi and not some taxis who promised to bring you to the hotel. We fell for that and he will quote USD10.00 for the taxi fare but when you reach the destination he will insist you pay for his toll fare about USD20.00!! + USD10.00 for the cabfare. Ripped off!!! Normal airport taxi is only USD10.00 including the tollfare.
We told him to take us to Dan Chu Hotel but he took us to Kim Tin (some crappy hotel) and told us it was Dan Chu. Since we paid everything thru asia-hotels.com, He said we need not pay anything as they are subsidiary of Dan Chu. Told us some stories that there are some sick guests in Dan Chu and we could not check in there. Their motive is to sign you up for tours. So, we insisted that they call Dan Chu so that we can speak to them, then out of the blue, they say now Dan Chu is available. So we fled as fast as we could.
Guess what, when we check into Dan Chu, we related the story to them, they said it is very frequent that this thing happens to their guests. Another woman heard of our plight and she remarked, "You got hijacked too?
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| D Bressem (1st call) |
15 September 2003 |
Stayed at Bong Sen Hotel - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam.
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Don't take a taxi next to hotel! Many of them will cheat you. Often the taxi meter is manipulated, so you are charged 2-3 times more than usual. Just walk 200 meters around the block. The fare to the airport is approx. 50.000 Dong. Often they demand $10 (150.000 Dong!) to take you there.
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