Apricot Hotel

Rooms and decor

The Apricot Hotel Hanoi sits on Hang Trong Street in the Old Quarter, an 8-floor French Belle Epoque building in cream and yellow with wrought-iron balconies and red-and-yellow flower boxes (apricot, hence the name). The lobby isn't a normal hotel lobby — it's a gallery, anchored by a 2-by-3-metre painting by Le Pho (1907-2001) and a modern sculpture by Diem Phung Thi. The room to book is the Premier Lake View, 35 sqm at around $165 a night, done in Indochine cream-brown-and-gold with a King bed, sofa, desk and minibar. Real art carries through into the room: a genuine Mai Trung Thu (1906-1980) piece on the wall plus black-and-white photographs of 1930s Hanoi. The marble bathroom has a jacuzzi tub, rain shower, a Toto Washlet and the house apricot-and-frangipani scent, and the window looks straight onto Hoan Kiem Lake and the Tortoise Tower — best after dark when the gold lights come on.

Food and amenities

There are 4 restaurants. Dinner at La Lavande, the French room that holds a Michelin Plate, runs a 5-course set menu at around $69 a head — foie gras banh mi, duck confit, a pandan creme brulee, the kind of French-Vietnamese crossover the kitchen does well. The Apricot Bistro and Spices Garden round out the lineup. The headline amenity here is the art itself: the free guest Art Tour at 16:00 daily, led by the curator Anh, walks 30 key pieces in about 90 minutes. She'll tell you the collection started in 2015 on a roughly $6 million investment across four eras of Vietnamese art — pre-1945 French colonial, 1945-1975 war period, 1975-2000 post-war, and 2000-onward contemporary. It's the rare hotel that doubles as a museum.

Location and getting there

You can't do much better for an Old Quarter address. It's a 1-minute walk to Hoan Kiem Lake, the Tortoise Tower and Ngoc Son Temple, with St. Joseph's Cathedral about 5 minutes on foot. Noi Bai International Airport (HAN) is roughly 30 km out, a 35-45 minute taxi ride. Evenings tend to end on the L'Etage Rooftop Bar on the 8th floor — indoor and outdoor seating, open 17:00 to 24:00, with the house Apricot Hanoi cocktail (apricot brandy, lime and tonic) at around $11 and soft jazz. From up there you get the whole lake lit gold, plus the red The Huc Bridge. Come morning, walk a lap of the lake at 06:00 when the tai chi crowd and the older locals are out — it's friendly and easy.

Things to know before booking

The rooms are the main trade-off: they start at 28 sqm, tighter than the JW Marriott's 48 sqm — comfortable for a couple but snug if you like to spread out. Only two small elevators serve all eight floors, so there are real waits at the check-in and check-out crush. And there's no full swimming pool, just a jacuzzi, which matters if a morning swim is part of your routine. None of these are dealbreakers for what Apricot is, but go in knowing them.

Our take

For the money, Apricot is the most distinctive stay on this list — over 1,000 Vietnamese artworks, a 1-minute walk to Hoan Kiem Lake, four restaurants with a Michelin Plate among them, and a rooftop bar over the water. The 9.0/10 across 3,500-plus reviews holds up, and from around $166 a night it's strong value for this address. Best for couples who like art, foodies after the French room, and anyone curious about Vietnamese culture who'd rather stay inside it than just visit a museum.