Taxi rate from airport

NEVER, EVER USE AN AIRPORT TAXI.

DON'T TELL ANYONE WHERE YOU ARE GOING.

Simply find, from an airline counter where the VIETNAM AIRLINES SHUTTLE BUS to HOAN KIEM LAKE LEAVES FROM.

DON'T TELL THE BUS DRIVER YOU NEED A HOTEL - find one using TripAdvisor.Com (to find out the price and reputation) then book direct. Write the address on a piece of paper (for the taxi driver).

Don't use HOTEL RESERVATION WEB SITE, either.

The VietNam Airlines Shuttle Bus will drop you at the VietNam Airlines office in Hoan Kiem (200 metres from the lake).

ONLY USE De Luxe, Ha Noi Taxi or Mai Linh Taxi. Ha Noi has about 140 cab companies and most are crooks. Ha Noi is a tourist scam city - makes New York and Las Vegas look honest. Never use a taxi where the meter is not mounted oin the dash board, ALWAYS ASK hotel, shop how much roughly to get to your destination.

AGAIN, never tell anyone where you are going at the airport!!!

Make a copy of your passport data page and visa; the hotel will want to keep your passport for the first night. On the second day give them copies and request the passport be returned as you need it for a Chinese visa. They might ask you to leave some money as deposit - this safer than leaving the passport with many standard hotels!.

P.S. The airport bus is around $3-3.50. Runs every 20 minutes. Taxis are whatever they can screw you for (including 'toll's for crossing the bridge!!!)

And watch for the pickpockets on the street.

Jaitch wrote:

NEVER, EVER USE AN AIRPORT TAXI.

Really? I read (after posting) on the forum that airport taxis provide a
reliable fixed fare service. What is your experience with them?

Jaitch wrote:

DON'T TELL ANYONE WHERE YOU ARE GOING.

What could typically happen if I were to tell where I am going? Just
curious.

Jaitch wrote:

Simply find, from an airline counter where the VIETNAM AIRLINES SHUTTLE BUS to HOAN KIEM LAKE LEAVES FROM.
DON'T TELL THE BUS DRIVER YOU NEED A HOTEL - find one using TripAdvisor.Com (to find out the price and reputation) then book direct. Write the address on a piece of paper (for the taxi driver).
Don't use HOTEL RESERVATION WEB SITE, either.

We already have a hotel reservation at the Silkpath and booked direct
with them. By the way is this a good choice? 

Also I will travelling with my wife and 5 year old daughter and
suitcases (the wife packs a lot) so I need to be dropped directly at my
hotel. Especially after a long flight from Paris.

Jaitch wrote:

The VietNam Airlines Shuttle Bus will drop you at the VietNam Airlines office in Hoan Kiem (200 metres from the lake).

ONLY USE De Luxe, Ha Noi Taxi or Mai Linh Taxi. Ha Noi has about 140 cab companies and most are crooks. Ha Noi is a tourist scam city - makes New York and Las Vegas look honest. Never use a taxi where the meter is not mounted oin the dash board, ALWAYS ASK hotel, shop how much roughly to get to your destination.

AGAIN, never tell anyone where you are going at the airport!!!
Make a copy of your passport data page and visa; the hotel will want to keep your passport for the first night. On the second day give them copies and request the passport be returned as you need it for a Chinese visa. They might ask you to leave some money as deposit - this safer than leaving the passport with many standard hotels!.
P.S. The airport bus is around $3-3.50. Runs every 20 minutes. Taxis are whatever they can screw you for (including 'toll's for crossing the bridge!!!)
And watch for the pickpockets on the street.

Thanks for this excellent advice.

I go into Ha Noi may be a couple of times a month on business.

Ha Noi - the home of the 'ticket assistant'. When airport was first introduced here, smartly dark suited men would approach outbound passengers offering to help them pay the
Airport Tax". Even if the tickets had the tax prepaid, you would be helped. Only USD$12 - no service charge. Said dark suited would disappear for 5 minutes and would return with official-looking receipts and tell the sucker passenger could now check-in.

Passenger arrives from airside. Stands in arrivals hall stunned with actually arriving. Another smart suit approaches. Can I help you in any way? Taxi> What hotel are you staying at?

High priced taxi at kerb gets the business and, if you tell them, the name of the hotel. Crooked driver phones ahead to a fellow crook who owns a white coat.

As taxi pulls up at hotel of choice, white coated man rushes up to car and explains the hotel is full because of guests overstaying, mechanical damage, you name it.

But rescue is at hand! White coat says the hotel has arranged for overflow guests to be housed around the corner. Taxi driver pops around the corner and discharges passengers helpfully carrying the bags in and making sure the front desk knows who got them the business.

Different scam. You actually make it to your hotel of choice.  As you walk in, a scruffy character follows you in and, as you wait to check in, scruff tells the front desk he introduced the guests to the hotel. Tip paid, guest pays.

As you have your hotel, you are well on the way to safe arrival.

If you want to use a taxi, ensure what the fee will be to the DISTRICT where the hotel is located. No hotel name, street name need be provided. (Avoids white coat scam)

Again, if you choose to take the whole, long, route by taxi MAKE SURE THAT YOU LET THE TAXI DRIVER KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THERE ARE NO TOLLS!

When you get to the long bridge leading over the Red River, THEN take your piece of paper and give it to the driver,

TOO LATE TO ARRANGE WHITE COAT INTERCEPTION!

I cannot advise on your hotel as my employer does hotel inspections and giving you a heads up could be considered as bias.

Ha Noi is rife with scam artists. Taxis with remote controls to push up the meter charges (some of those in Ho Chi Minh City). 

Always ask the locals how much to your destination. I treasure the note a driver wrote on the vack of a worksheet for a fare - VND2,250,000 ($100+) - for a VND32,000 fare!

Another trick to beat meter scams is for one of you to continuously read out loud the meter readings so that you are immediately aware of a meter fiddle.

ALWAYS use one of the taxis mentioned above. NEVER use a taxi where the meter is NOT fitted on the dash (although with remote controls it doesn't really matter).

Pick-pockets are all over. If female they might wear a mask "to avoid the polluted air" which actually hide their faces.

Road kills are frequent. Cross at traffic lights, if possible. Ha Noi police are stiff with traffic light infractions, which make them safer, a little.

If you are going to the HCM Mausoleum note dress code (neat, no shorts, apply and no taking bags/cameras inside). You need a bag guard if you take things.

Watch street food.  Ha Noi street food is famous for something else - CHOLERA! So make sure where the vendor cooks food and washes dishes.

Crowded, busy vendors equate to safer food - no time for bugs to grow.

Hi All
'Jaitch' was mentioned everything very correct and clear..
Thanks 'Jaitch' for giving us a good guide..
Wish you be happy always...

Jaitch makes me feel smarter everyday. Thanks Jaitch for the tip.

Is it advisable to a carry a small wad of one and five US dollar bills
to pay for various transports in the city? Or are all payments in dong
nowadays?

You could pay 300 000 -500 000 vnd ( 15 -25 usd ) for taxi . Just negotiation with the driver. If you want to save money , you could take Airport Bus to bus station 1 Quang Trung street , and take taxi to Silk path hotel from 9-14 000 vnd /km . The Bus ticket is 3 usd.
Hope this help, for me Hanoi is very safe and nice.

Hi guys,
don't think that Hanoi is very safe and nice...
police special force (black uniforms) and traffic police (CS 113) was catches many arm from the motor bike gangs and youngsters here now days. even guns they founded during traffic checking in day and night.
Be care full and be far away from troubles can happens.
Wish you have nice & safe time here..!

Hi,

Taxi group have a promotion of 250,000 VND = 12 USD for go to Noi bai airport from old center in Hanoi. If you need the assisstant, please call me: jennifer: 0908066698. I can help you to call the driver of taxi to pick up you at your hotel.

Regards

Jennifer

Option 1- mini bus: you can take mini bus which is 40 000/person ($2).That is a 16-seat mini bus, you can find where it stops when you go out of Arrival Lobby and look on the right. There is the sign saying that you can take a seat with 40,000 VND. Well, not recommend if you are in hurry or have too much luggage. There is one bus every 30 min. The last stop of this bus is No.1 Quang Trung street which is near Hoan Kiem lake. You can walk from there to your hotel (about 10-15 min walking)

Option 2- Taxi: there are some reliable taxi companies such as Mai Linh or Taxi Group. It cost about $15. They are not scam, I'm sure


Option 3- Public bus - run by Hanoi Bus company, the ticket now is 10 000 VND = $0.5. But the last stop is in Cau Giay district,. From here you can take another bus No.9 to the city center (Hoan Kiem lake is the last stop). But not recommend when you have alot of luggage and pickpocket is really a problem

Hope this helps

Should not take the airport pick up of hotel. It's good but rather expensive. You should take the Airport taxi- cost around 350k VND. the cheapest taxi is Thanh Nga taxi (04 38 215 215) or Long Biên taxi (04 38 736 736) I usually take those. But I also heard that Mai Linh taxi have 50% off for the way from airport to downtown ( But im not sure if at this time  they still have that promotion)

Now a days MAI LINH also very high...
agreed with you Thang Nha / Long Bien and specially the My Dinh is cheap and gives good service too. besides the new company come to the market as Ngan Ha from Thai Thinh 2 and Tanh Xuan also good prices, services and meters are acurate... Hanoi Taxi / Mai Linh meters also not sure now days.. and drivers are very rudy...

Oh. really? I think that Mai Linh is good and meter pretty accurate but Iam a lil concern about the high rate and some of their new driver don't know the way LOL

Best option is take Terminal Bus, and drop down near city, then take Thang Nga / My Dinh or budget taxi to come to home...
It will be 40,000 d from Air port and some hundreds thousands as your distance.

or; if you are very familiar here, you can keep some good taxi driver's mobile No# then ask him to pick up you from air port (for this you should come the small out let at left side of the fence). the any taxi can come to that end as public road and pick you without pay any toll fare. I'm always take this and it cost me only 250,000 to Lang Ha (Thai Thinh) instead of 340,000 all other budget taxis takes.

Yeah, that's best way I think

Trang Vincom Village wrote:

Yeah, that's best way I think

Congratulations you become higher rank....

typically taxis from Noi Bai to Old Quarter run about 330k

The currency in Vietnam is đồng Việt Nam ₫ or VND!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_dong

The bus driver may charge you an additional ticket if you have a large lagguage, and buses don't run at night.

hELLnoi wrote:

The currency in Vietnam is đồng Việt Nam ₫ or VND!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_dong

Both are same, VND = d (USD = $)

hELLnoi wrote:

The bus driver may charge you an additional ticket if you have a large lagguage, and buses don't run at night.

Best way to get personal contacted driver to pick up it may cost only 200,000 d to 250,000 d. and more comfortable.

wvictor wrote:

Trang Vincom Village wrote:

Yeah, that's best way I think

Congratulations you become higher rank....

Thanks Dear!

Dear Trang
you most welcome. keep writing to hit ACTIVE MEMBER soon...
cheers