Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel

Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi Hotel

In the morning, coffee arrives at the window of a room in the Heritage Wing, and the city outside is the same one guests have been looking at since 1901: the Old Quarter a short walk one way, Hoan Kiem Lake and the Opera House the other, Cat Linh's quieter streets beyond. The hotel has stood on this corner of Hanoi's center longer than almost anything else standing, split across two buildings, the colonial Heritage Wing and the newer Opera Wing, assigned only when guests check in. That continuity is what nothing else in Hanoi can borrow. Le Beaulieu, the hotel's French restaurant, has held a place on the MICHELIN Selected List for three straight years and pours from a list of more than 600 wines, including over 100 Grand Cru Classés; Spice Garden covers Vietnamese cooking, and angelina mixes cocktails with an extensive whisky collection. Elsewhere there is an outdoor pool, a spa with sauna and steam room, and a fitness center. The 358 rooms run from Luxury rooms to the 689-square-foot Prestige Suite, and a security deposit is collected at check-in rather than folded into the fine print. Childcare is available for the families who come, but the hotel reads better for a couple after a proper dinner and a walk to the lake than for anyone wanting a resort day by the pool. It does not soften Hanoi for its guests; it puts them in the middle of the city and lets it do the rest. Built in 1901 and split across its colonial Heritage Wing and newer Opera Wing, the Metropole sits between the Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake, with a MICHELIN-listed French restaurant no other Hanoi hotel can match. Better suited to a couple's proper dinner than a poolside week.