1. How to avoid the taxi scam

The taxi from the airport to the down town area, especially the old quarter is $15 or 25,000 dong at the time of writing. Our Taxi driver activated the meter when we started pulling away from the airport, even though the official controlling the taxi rank had just quoted me the prices above.

I asked the driver why he turned the meter on but his English (I’m guessing intentionally) was so poor I couldn’t understand his response. So I just left it – I’m not the sort of person to create a fuss about a few extra few dollars. When we arrived I gave the taxi driver 250,000 dong and he pointed to the meter and said no, the fare is 450,000 dong. I argued a little bit but then realised there’s not much I could do, so I just huffed and puffed and gave him the meter fee.

As he was getting our bags out of the car, I started writing his number plate down along with the telephone number spread out across the back window. As he saw me doing this he reached into his pocket and immediately gave me 200,000 dong back. My girlfriend said the driver looked like he was about to cry…. which I’m guessing was from fear of losing his job.

The next time you arrive in Hanoi, make sure you have a pen handy :)

2. Finding a Hotel in Hanoi

There are so many hotels and guest houses in the old quarter – the place you want to be if you want to be in the middle of the action – it’s overwhelming. On the last 2 trips I’ve got a taxi to Hang Be, a road in the middle of town, that’s full of cafes and bars. We go into one of the cafes and I set me girlfriend up with the bags. While she is enjoying her Orange Juice I go of and start checking out different hotel rooms near by.

The beauty of this is you can really bargain hard, especially if you are staying for a few days. The fact you haven’t got your bags with you makes it look like you are changing hotel… you already know the score. I normally check out 5 or 6 hotels and I always find a room that is far better than the rest I’ve seen for a similar rate.

Always check out the room, ask for quotes for 1 night and then proceed to ask for a discount for longer stays. Also, always ask them to give you a discount for no breakfast… as the breakfast is always included in the rate. The breakfasts offered by most hotels in Vietnam, and in fact the rest of South East Asia are mediocre. I personally like to get a further discount on the room in order to have verity in the mornings (or afternoons if I’ve had a beer the night before). There’s nothing worse than getting stuck with a shitty breakfast for 5 days.

I hope these 2 small tips help when you next visit Hanoi :)

Have you got any travel tips worth sharing?