For my 2011 trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand I will be doing most of the traveling with a small group tour. In my usual fashion I decided to arrive in Hanoi, our first city on the tour, a couple days before the tour begins.
I had the option of staying at the hotel the group tour will be staying at, which is the Hanoi Movenpick. I'm sure this hotel is great, otherwise our tour coordinator wouldn't have chosen it, but I wanted to experience a couple nights smack in the middle of the Old Quarter at a locally operated hotel.
That's where my Fodors research comes in handy...The Elegance Hotels are highly recommended by lots of posters on the Fodors board and ranks high with Trip Advisor too!
Last week I sent an email to two of the hotels in this boutique hotel chain http://www.hanoielegancehotel.com/. The Sapphire (formerly the Hotel Elegance 3) and the Diamond (formerly the Hotel Elegance 5). If the speed of their responses is any indication of the level of service at this hotel I know I made a right choice.
I chose to contact the Sapphire because after viewing a map it looked to be the closest to the Movenpick (the group tour hotel). BUT, the Diamond is the newest property in the chain, having just opened in May 2010 and it is getting alot of good buzz on Fodors.
After hearing back from both hotels I choose to go with the Diamond. The price was right and I could book an airport transfer directly with the hotel, a plus since my arrival time is 10:30pm. Another plus for the Diamond is that there is a roof top restaurant/lounge with a (supposedly) good view of the Old Quarter.
So, with my extra/early hotel nights in Hanoi booked and my flight schedule straightened out the next step in my Asia trip planning is the restaurant research!
No comments:
Post a Comment