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I'm arriving alone at Hanoi airport in the morning and I plan to search on foot for a cheap room with a fan.

What areas of Hanoi can I go to that have a variety and dense concentration of hotels, where rooms have fans and are relatively cheap by the standards of Hanoi, and which can be explored on foot?

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    To the people who have voted to close this question as opinion-based, I can not relate. It is a legit question for a backpacker to ask in what area he can find a cheap no-frills lodging. It is something that you would find in your guidebook for more standard places than the area around an airport and I am really curious to see the answers! A good answer could be s.th. like "from the airport walk south towards x street and you will see signs offering rooms" and what on earth is opinion-based about this? Close-voters please explain.
    – mts
    Apr 24, 2016 at 20:15
  • @mts For starters one should specify what one means by cheap. What is cheap to you might not be cheap for me. Secondly I think this question is unclear since the op fails to specify whether they are looking solely next to the airport or not, and how much they're prepared to walk. This is my 2 pence obviously.
    – JoErNanO ♦
    Apr 24, 2016 at 21:13
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    @davoz, it would greatly improve your question (and help it being answered / to stay open) if you could specify: 1) how far you are willing to walk on foot or what kind of area you are looking for (close to center, residential, bars around) and 2) what your understanding of cheap is.
    – mts
    Apr 24, 2016 at 21:22
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    A fan room is how a non-native English speaker might describe a room with a fan. Rooms with fans are cheaper than rooms with air conditioning, and more bearable than very cheap rooms without. A cheap room is (unless otherwise specified) a room that is cheap by the standards of the location, and a traveller might not know what that is before arriving. I can't believe I need to explain this to users of a travel site, this is ridiculous. Voting to re-open. Bros, do you even travel?
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Apr 25, 2016 at 12:35
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    @JoErNanO Like this one, you mean? Voting suggests that the majority a) like backpacking questions and b) don't like "closing questions just to make uppity noobs grovel" simply for daring to use words like "cheap" or "fast". If $30 is cheap for a Hanoi room with a fan, but more than the asker wants to pay, then the question has still been answered; on reading the answers, the asker will learn that they need to rethink their expectations in light of the facts.
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Apr 25, 2016 at 13:01

2 Answers 2

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You'll want to look around what's known as the Old Quarter of Hanoi. You'll find hotels and hostels of various levels of quality throughout the area. However, Ma May and the surrounding streets are probably a good place to start for backpacker hostels (and bars), as is the little maze of streets just to the north of St Joseph's Cathedral. The latter area is probably a bit quieter.

The Old Quarter is roughly the area in the black line on the map. Ma May is on the right in the middle, the cathedral is at the bottom. The airport is 30km or so to the north, and the main station just off the bottom left of the map.

It's all walkable, so long as you mind the scooters, but bear in mind that Hanoi can get pretty hot and sweaty for most of the year. You might find it best therefore to get your walking done early in the day.

Map © OpenStreetMap contributors Map of Old Quarter

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  • @davoz -- his advice exactly corresponds to my experience. I have traveled across Asia (and Europe), and Hanoi has the best value in hotels of any large city I've seen. A clean, pleasant dorm bed is $5, a nice backpacker's room is $10, and a boutique 3-star is $20 to $30, and they are all chock-a-block in the Old Quarter.
    – Michael Lorton
    May 1, 2016 at 7:46
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You can visit and book hostel at Hanoi Old Quater which is center of Hanoi and concentrate a lot of tourists when travelling in Vietnam.

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