Realistic Asia

Fantastic location, friendly staff, delicious breakfast and OMG the bidet toilets were awesome. No kidding.

Terrific breakfast and very helpful staff. Very comfortable beds.

Terrific food and lovely staff. Comfortable bed and excellent amenities.

This hotel delivers a great, calming vibe right in the heart of the city. Walking or short tuk tuk to everywhere you might want to go.

OUr guide needed a audio device and the guests headphones to effectively tour this crowded sight. This was not provided. He did not bring any extra insights and expected us to simply read all the panels, etc. No editorial was offered!

The snorkeling experience is quite disappointing. In fact -- I would suggest you stop selling this as a snorkelling experience, - there are very few fish to see. Only small fish and some nice coral. I think this area is over fished by the locals. [ See all the fishing boats at night! ] The island is kind of over touristed , - too many tourists, for the size of the beach. Kind of a hectic wave of tourists getting off boats and sharing a very tiny beach.

This was my favorite day and activity. Riding bikes got us closer to the people and daily lifestyles. Was great that it was not very crowded with tourists.

The location was centrally located and the staff were the friendliest and most helpful!!

The rooms were large and very beautiful! Amazing experience!

Beautiful location and gorgeous rooms!

Beautiful views of the river!

We got the local flavor by visiting 6 or 7 different restaurants! Our guide was very friendly and knowledgeable.

So unique and educational! Beautiful scenery!

Our local guide was so friendly and informative, we learned so much about Vietnamese culture!

Great guiding. I just found Hanoi not as enjoyable as the rest of the tour

Very pretty and interesting

Beautiful area and enjoyed the hike through the caves. I was glad it was just one night

Excellent guide

Wonderful expert and great way to learn the culture

Fun ride and loved the market

Mesmerizing. Saigon at night with all the bustle from the city and lights was amazing

Didn’t really enjoy the was museum. Felt it was interesting but a bit one sided. The market was not enjoyable at all and could have skipped it

Beautiful property, expected high Thai service standards, and outstanding buffet breakfasts.

Quaint hotel in the old quarter - of course the street noise can't be avoided, but it does quiet down at night. Great location.

Super helpful to be taken through customs and immigration processing like a VIP, especially late at night after a long trip.

The staff here is outstanding. Unfailingly courteous, very helpful and very good English at the front desk. The location is the best. Right in the midst of the bustle of Old Town Hanoi and walking distance to a bunch of interesting stops. The room was comfortable (good mattress!) and quiet. Excellent air conditioning. We really enjoyed the roof-top bar for breakfast and our night cap in the evening. This place was a lovely refuge to return to after prowling around Hanoi or returning from a few days in the countryside.

This is a family homestay and they did a great job providing us with simple but very excellent dinner and breakfast the next morning. Simple accommodations, but plenty of hot water, good air conditioning. The bed is extremely firm (board with a thin mat over it), so a little like sleeping on the ground, but no rocks! It gave us good access to the area.

This is a really fun lodge. The room was all local materials and really nicely done. They got some laundry done for us and were generally just very helpful and accomodating. You have to be very comfortable with stone stairs without any railings to navigate from Registration to your room and to dining. The place is beautiful but be ready for some stair climber action!

The family bent over backwards to provide us with great locally sourced meals that were perfect. The accommodation is simple but very comfortable. It was a good location for our travel in and around Bac Ha.

This was the highlight of our trip in the North. The construction was beautiful, the room well appointed, the view over the village and rice fields from our room was exceptional. The night before we got here had been a little rough, so we really were grateful for this place. Good local fare in the dining room and Hanoi beer, which was welcome after the hiking.

They style themselves as being quite top tier. Almost. The place looks like it's been there for quite a while and is now under newer management. Certain areas are very sharp and well tended but not the whole place. It is clean and our room was very comfortable, though it hadn't been open for quite a while and was in need of a good airing out, which we provided. All good after that. The dining was quite adequate, but not very fresh or inspired the first night. Very short on vegetables, but we asked and they improved markedly the second night. There are not a lot of options for hotels around Ba Be it seems, and this certainly met the need but somewhere a bit smaller and busier might be more fun.

It was a place to crash for our last night before a very early departure towards home. It is very close to the airport. The staff was very friendly and helpful and the room was quite adequate for the mission. The top floor restaurant/bar had a fine view and is a great place for a beer, but the menu is depressing. Lots of fried and western type foods, nothing fresh or local to speak of. The things we ordered were safe and well prepared, but this was definitely the worst food on the trip. Perfect time for it though! We did walk the neighborhood a bit, and there didn't seem to be any other good options. This hotel absolutely served the purpose, but I would not call it a destination to seek out.

Arriving in the middle of the night, this was a godsend and greatly appreciated. Well worth the cost.

The walk around the villages was delightful. Tet in full swing and karaoke at full volume is king in every village. The water wheels were great to see from an engineering standpoint, though they were suffering from quite a bit of neglect, as they serve no purpose anymore, of course. Still, one could get the idea and admire the ingenuity of the design. The bamboo raft was most pleasant and we enjoyed it. Doesn't go very far, but it gave us a couple good photo ops.

Our longest walk of the trip (14 km) and it was lovely.

Bac Ha was a definite highlight. Great hiking, with an unplanned "happy water" stop at a local farm up in the hills outside Bac Ha. That was a hoot! We did NOT visit the Hoang A Tuong Palace, as it has been redone and not worth the admission or time. Walking around Bac Ha/Lao Cai was great.

Bac Ha Sunday Market was mind blowing! One of the largest markets we've seen anywhere, and everything you can imagine on sale. The highlight was shopping and then cooking lunch at a local family's home with Mu. (a long time friend of her's). That was really special.

Google Maps showed the shortest route to Ha Giang, but it was a very minimal road. We made it, but the 15 minutes for the longer route on bigger roads could have been worth it. We had lunch with another friend of Mu at their homestay, and it was one of the best meals of the trip without doubt. The village is surrounded by small rice fields and planting was back in full swing after the Tet holiday. A good hike around and we ended up at our Ecolodge, the best overnight in this part of the trip. Took a great hike, river and waterfalls.

The peaceful boat ride to the bat cave, (Hang Puổng) is a magical experience, even on an overcast day. We got the added fun of going further downstream the opposite direction, to the primary school in a small village just northwest of the lake. Mu had arranged with the teacher for us to deliver twenty sets of crayons and coloring books to her class. Items which are outside the budget but were greatly appreciated. Do not waste time on the Fairy Pond, unless you aspire to wall up and down hill through dense smoke from the fires of the food and souvenir vendors lining the path to and from the pea green, heavily polluted pond which has no natural outflow, so can never clean itself out. The newly built quasi-Buddhist temple (Đền An Mạ) is nicely built for tourist consumption, but has no local following or historical significance. Photogenic but not a big deal if you miss it.

The only bicycling available was rental bikes at the Saigon Ba Be Resort which were restricted to use on their limited grounds. We didn't bother. We did, however get a bonus on the way back to Hanoi, a stop at the Hua Ma cave, which is one of the longest tourist-accessable caves I've experienced. It has a good cement stair and walkway for access and is fully lit. No headlamp required. A cave purist will be horrified at the colored lighting, but the limestone structures and the size of the rooms are definitely highlighted by it.