Hanoi is full of small 3 and 4 star hotels, but La Siesta stood out with the title of Tripadvisor’s
#1 hotel in Hanoi. Does it deserve the distinction? Stay tuned to see for yourself.
After living in Saigon for seven years, Hanoi’s layout still confuses me sometimes,
but you won’t need to worry about that at La Siesta as it’s location is near
perfect for tourists, especially if it’s your first time to Hanoi.
On it’s namesake, Hang Be Street, the hotel is in the middle of Hanoi’s Old Quarter.
This is the neighborhood that attracts tourists of all walks of life and is located
centrally enough to reach plenty of famous sites. Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son temple
are a short walk away while a trip to the Temple of Literature
or the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum by taxi won’t cost you more than two or three dollars.
The hotel was opened in 2019 and has 49 rooms, a spa, one restaurant and one rooftop bar-
and there are more than a few reasons why I really do love this hotel. First,
so many new hotels in this category these days look like they’re practically 10 years old after
a year of operation- but not La Siesta. It could have opened 2 months ago had I not known better.
I’ll note also that the night after I was there in April 2021,
they were fully booked, so it’s not as if they’ve been empty during the whole of COVID.
Surely like many of you watching, I always book hotels through whichever site
gives me the best value, in this case it was Hotels.com- obviously they are not a sponsor,
but there’s a reason I need to mention them. The hotel has a lot of different room categories and
at the time of booking also participates with Hotels.com & Expedia’s VIP program.
This simply means if there’s a room upgrade available upon check in,
I might be able to get it. Because of this, my first impression was outstanding. Quiet often,
hotels will forget about the VIP status on the reservations, but not La Siesta.
I checked in around 20:00 and was offered one of three rooms. The category I booked,
plus two categories higher and without hesitation they offered to let me see the rooms before
choosing. This was my first indication that perhaps the Tripadvisor ranking was warranted.
As you’ve already seen, the lobby is decorated in blacks, whites and greys which continues
throughout the hotel giving it a modern but classic vibe. There is a spa at the rear of
the ground floor, but it was closed due to COVID regulations. So, after my tour of available rooms,
I actually turned down a Duplex suite and chose a Junior Suite simply because I love
having a balcony- if you need a bit more space though, the Duplex looked really nice.
Most of the rooms in the hotel are compact, but they’re laid out really well to take advantage
of every square inch. I’ll also note, I always do my room filming as soon as I arrive at the hotel
before I mess it up. Normally, I need to go around the room and tweak a couple things,
but this room was setup exactly as you see it, perfectly.
The balcony was small but was simply a nice spot to have some fresh air.
With the exception of the summer months, evenings in Hanoi are anywhere from cool
to chilly. One note about the location. This street and many streets west and south of it
are a pedestrian only zone at night on Fridays and Saturdays. It’s a quick 5 minute walk to
where you’ll be able to catch a taxi and when I departed to catch my train to Sapa at 21:00,
the staff insisted on carrying my luggage the two blocks for me and waiting until my taxi arrived.
The Junior Suite features a small dining or work table as well as a real faux fireplace- real as in
it does light up and become a heater for the room. The coffee and tea station is setup with
the basics with an additional list of items you can request if you’d like for free. I requested
some coffee pods for the Nespresso-esque machine and they were delivered very quickly.
The room doesn’t have a massive amount of storage space, but if you don’t mind
having one bag out like mine was- I think it’s more than enough room for a couple.
The bathroom is split into the toilet room, the open vanity area
and the shower room. I appreciated that every surface, nook and cranny was spotless
and loved the lack of plastics. The complimentary water was in reusable glass bottles
and even the garbage bins were cleverly lined with newspaper instead of garbage bags.
The design of the hotel is clearly a modern take on Colonial Indochine style-
but being from New York myself, it also struck me as a nod to say the 1920s Manhattan- when
the Chrysler Building was being built and Subway Tiles were a standard practice, not just a fad.
So, after filming it was almost 21:00 and I hadn’t had dinner yet,
so I ordered room service- which I need to admit I’m usually skeptical of
in a three or four star hotel. I ordered a western style chicken dish and a fried rice-
kind of a backup plan as they were priced well. I’ll admit I was stunned when the food arrived.
Yes, it’s presented nicely- but then the taste, it was genuinely delicious.
If you’re enjoying this video so far, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. The next morning
brought me to the top indoor floor for breakfast. There was a fairly wide variety of foods available
in their buffet as well as cooked to order egg and noodle soup dishes available- again,
impressive for the level of hotel- not to mention the restaurant itself is beautiful and offered 270
degree views of Hanoi. My room rate didn’t include breakfast so when the bill arrived and it was only
80.000vnd- around $3.50 I was impressed, expecting the price to be at least double that.
Above the restaurant was the rooftop bar which was open and operating at night.
Forget the bar though, I would go just for the views.
In the distance you can see how close we are to Hoan Kiem lake, surrounded by the Old Quarter. So,
I think it’s pretty clear what I think about the hotel. It’s an outstanding value for the money
and truly a hotel anyone would be comfortable in. If your normal budget is $40 a night,
spend just a bit more and enjoy your nights at La Siesta. And, if your budget is normally
far above $200 per night, I’d still recommend a couple nights here. You really won’t be missing
much compared to most five star hotels in Hanoi and you’ll be saving a bit of cash. If there is
one downside to the hotel, it’s accessibility. If you have any mobility issues, it might pose
a challenge given it’s in a pedestrian zone, keep that in mind. Lastly, I am thankful and impressed
that not once did a single member of staff mention Tripadvisor or anything about a review. The
service was just good- and for overall value, yeah- this might just be Hanoi’s best hotel.
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we hope to be making reviews for a long time to come. Stay tuned for the Flip Flop Score.