After having spent a little over one month in Luang Prabang, it was time for a new adventure for us. We were looking for workaway opportunities in the neighboring Vietnam and Cambodia, when our friend sent us a message asking us to join him in Vietnam, where he had found the perfect workaway experience on an island in Halong Bay. That made our decision a lot easier, so after getting the invitation letter (required for the visa) a few days later, we were off to Hanoi.
Given our flight was supposed to land at 20:00 and we also needed a day to do some shopping, we knew we had to book 2 nights in Hanoi. And we found a really nice place called Impressive Hotel, right in the middle of Old Quarter, the most popular area in Vietnam’s vibrant capital.
Although the name may be a bit of an exaggeration, this hotel is quite chic and a really good option for spending a few nights. It’s not the cheapest place to stay in Hanoi, then again we weren’t looking for that, since those places aren’t always the cleanest.
The 7 stories high hotel is located near St Joseph Cathedral and it has 25 rooms. The location is excellent, there are a lot of bars, restaurants and cafes within walking distance. Good to know, customers really do love them so they have a score of 9 out of 10 on Booking.
Having just landed and not having SIM cards with mobile data on then, we had to rely on the offline map for navigation. Although we had a bit of trouble finding it, it turned out it was really easy to get to. It was just a 10 min walk from where the airport transfer bus dropped us off.
As soon as we arrived, we noticed the staff here is really nice and helpful. They went through the map with us, indicating the main points of interest and answering all of our questions. During our stay, they did everything they could to help us with different things, such as buying and setting up SIM cards and renting a motorbike. In our 5 months travelling, we learned that this is not always the case in South East Asia, more than once we had trouble communicating with staff, not being able to get help with even the most basic things.
The room was clean and fairly spacious, decorated with modern wooden furniture. The bathroom was large enough as well and came with everything you’d expect from a nice hotel: soap, shower gel, cotton buds, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hairdryer, etc. Usually we don’t care about having a tv in our room, but this time it was different because it was the night of the Euro 16 final, which we really wanted to watch, so the flat screen tv that comes as a standard in every room was a big plus. It turned out none of the channels broadcasted it, so eventually we watched it online, but that wouldn’t have been possible if the internet connection weren’t as fast.
Breakfast was included and served on the ground floor both buffe and a la carte. They had omelets, scrambled eggs, ham sandwiches, different types of bread, butter and jam, coffee, milk, cereals and fruit, local soups as well. It was pretty good.
Overall, we had a great experience staying at Impressive Hotel and we definitely think it’s one of the places you should consider when coming to Hanoi because of the staff, location but also it offers really good value for money!
You can also find them on Facebook and we hope this article helps you if you need a nice, clean, comfortable and friendly place to stay while in Hanoi!
Wow! The hotel is brilliant. Love your photography too. Great :1