My partner, Jan and I are planning on being in Hanoi April 2010.

We will be hiring a bike to ride from Hanoi to Sapa and then a few other places and then back to Hanoi in the 2 weeks we will be there.

Can any recommend a guest house in the old quarter of Hanoi?

Also any guest houses on the raod to Sapa and once in Sapa?

Thanks in advance.

__________________
Cheers.
Ross Moorhouse.

Ride reports from my trip to Vietnam....

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eam-real-49945

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eam-real-49945

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-vietnam-49956

Hi Ross
Myself and my girlfriend did that same trip about 7 years ago. I can thoughly recogmend it. There is heaps of guest houses in the the old part of Hanoi, which is a great city by the way. I don't remember where we stayed on our way to Spa but there is towns and Guest houses so don't worry.
Have a great trip
Dan

I was in Hanoi 3 weeks ago. I stayed at the all new The Drift Backpackers Hostel.
It's not really in the old quarter, just 10min walk from there, but I really enjoyed the walk as I found Hanoi a nice place to walk (comming from Bangkok everywhere is nicer to walk...)

The rooms and bathrooms are shared (1 bathroom with 2 showers per room, 8 people per room).

I can highly recommend this place. Havn't found anything similar in 2 months in the region. Last days I stayed there (nearly 2 weeks in total) the price was 5.50$. Not the cheapest you can find in Hanoi, but there you have free wifi on the room, free computers service, nice bar, movie room, etc etc and everything is clean.
Everything is new with western standards as they opened The Drift about 3 months ago.
And the staff is really nice, Tiff, Keneth, Thao, Nyung +++

Home
Also have a group on Facebook.


In Hanoi we bought 2 Minsk bikes (will be on sale in Saigon when we get there in 3 weeks). To go to Sa Pa it's a too long journey to do it in 1 day. Don't expect to do more than 300kms in a single day in Vietnam.
We leved from Hanoi too late and stopped 50kms after in Son Toy. The day after we started at 8:30 and reached Sa Pa at about 19:30.

In Vietnam 4x4 taxis and buses are . Taxis are criminals on wheels and the buses are hard to overtake on twisty roads as they use every mm of tarmak and NEVER use the mirrors.

I really enjoyed the north of Vietnam, lucky you to travel there

__________________
___________/)____/)___/)____/)/)___/)___/)________
"Cosas que escapan a los que sueñan solo de noche..."

Thanks for the advice guys on the guesthouses.

We plan to ride to Sapa over 4 or 5 days just taking our time and taking in the country and the people.

I have to remind myself I will not be on the R100 so we can not do lots of saddle time.

__________________
Cheers.
Ross Moorhouse.

Ride reports from my trip to Vietnam....

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eam-real-49945

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...eam-real-49945

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-vietnam-49956