I'm off to Hanoi in may, prefer to stay in the old quarter, mid range, possibly 2 days, then halong bay 2 days, 1 nite, then return to hanoi, 1 more day, then fly down to Danang for 5 days in city/ beach area.(hoi- an)

Any suggestions, comments welcomed, my first trip to vietnam !

thanking you in advance

regards songhklasid.

Agoda or HotelsCombined

Lookfor somewhere near Hoan KiemLake

Don't stay at Brother's hotel or Sister's hotel.

Actually the hotel itself is not bad, but the staff are HORRIBLE. Very aggressive. I saw some Euro people arguing with the staff, and I thought it was going to turn into a fist fight, no joke. You are basically forced to book all tours and transport through the hotel at an inflated price. And then they straight up lie to you about costs during the tours (still low costs, but I just don't like being lied to).

We ended up there due to the taxi scam of "The hotel you want is sold out, I'll take you to this other place". The place looked fine, so we decided to stay.

Personal experience

Guoman hotel, Hanoi had like the presidential suite for 220'000'000 VND (2 Nights)

On a budget then there is the Hang Nga Hotel,

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-hotel-14825734-hang_nga_hotel-i

worked out to be about $25 a night but a nice place.

It's been about 5 years ago since I used to travel regularly to Hanoi though.

Edit: Do not use any other taxi firm except for "Hanoi Taxi"