While I was traveling through SE Asia I had met a group of 5 people that I had traveled with for about 3 weeks. Half of the group arrived in Hanoi 1 day before the rest of us. The first group of people that arrived in Hanoi emailed us that they were staying in the Kangaroo Hotel in the historic Old Quarter. So when Howard and I arrived in Hanoi we headed from the airport in a taxi to the hotel. For any traveler looking for an area to stay in around Hanoi I would suggest the Old Quarter.
The rooms are really cheap. The prices depend on how many people you have per room. The rooms cost $3, $6, $8 or $10 US dollars per night. My room was pretty simple, but seemed to be pretty clean. The highlight of the hotel was that there was free internet! I was so used to going to internet cafes and having to pay that it was cool just to walk down to the lobby and use it without leaving the hotel! There was also a television in my room! I wasn't used to watching t.v., and so when I got back from "Beer Junction" I felt like I was magnitized to it. They had some programs in english so it I really didn't care what was on t.v.!
Each morning the staff cooks breakfast for you too. They cook eggs or toast for you. Then you can choose either tea or coffee. They have a little kitchen on the bottom floor with 2 tables. It is small, but it feels like you are eating in a family's kitchen.
There is also a travel agency that is run out of the lobby of the hotel. This travel agency lines up trips to Sapa (on the Vietnam/China boarder), Ha Long Bay, and bus tickets/train tickets to go to the South of Vietnam. We all booked a trip through them to get to Ha Long Bay, and I also bought a bus ticket from Hanoi to Saigon that included 3 stops along the way (Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang). They also can assist you in getting your Visa's to enter China, Laos, or Cambodia.
When we booked the trip to Ha Long Bay, the Kangaroo Hotel had a bus pick us up at 7am. The cool thing was that they let us leave our backpacks at the hotel while we took the 3 day trip. When we got back to the hotel we were a little dirty and needed a shower. We were all leaving that night to another city, and they let us (5 of us) use a room and shower to get ready to leave for free! They were very nice to let us do that!
Contact information for the hotel
Kangaroo Hotel
71 Hang Luoc Street, Hoan Kiem- Hanoi
Tel: 84-4 8258044
email: [email protected]