Name: Van Long Resort
Address: Gia Van Commune Gia Vien District,, Gia Vien, Gia Vien, Gia Vien, 40000, Vietnam
Rating: 3

24-hour reception

Smoke-free property

Garden

Terrace

All Spaces Non-Smoking (public and private)

Electric car charging

General

Room service

Rooms

Laundry

Dry-cleaning

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Restaurant

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Parking

Location

At the resort

Van Long Resort

Gia Vien

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

12-beds

13-beds

14-beds

15-beds

16-beds

17-beds

18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

20-beds

21-beds

22-beds

23-beds

24-beds

25-beds

26-beds

27-beds

28-beds

29-beds

3-beds

30-beds

31-beds

32-beds

33-beds

34-beds

35-beds

36-beds

37-beds

38-beds

39-beds

4-beds

40-beds

5-beds

6-beds

7-beds

8-beds

9-beds

king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

4-bedrooms

5-bedrooms

6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

Ninh Binh's not so far from Hanoi, you can easily go back after full day tour in Tam Coc or Trang An. If you plan to stay couple nights to enjoy lovely and peaceful local life, please stay away from this hotel. Even the local also avoid this dirty, no service, outdated venue. The staffs don't even know how to run and the owner just does not care.

No, No, No

Unfortunaly this hotel was booked in advance.  They brought us to a builiding in the back.  Empty swimming pool(s) with garbage and molt.  Broken toilet on the way, deserted tenniscourts which was not used anymore in many years.  All furniture broken.. Because we didn't have other options, we had to take dinner in the resort (it was a national holiday).  Must say, the food was ok.  Lucky none of the guests went to the kichen otherwise.......  No management & staff does't have a clue how to serve guests.

No service, outdated, dirty & deserted.  Stay away.

We stayed at a lovely nearby resort, but wanted some variety for dinner, so walked over to the Van Long Resort.  It was dark and deserted, except for a large tour group that was eating in one of the rooms.  We were told to sit outside with the tour bus drivers.  The table we were directed to was dirty, but I thought we might still stay since we were already there.  Then bugs started swarming around the table.  I asked to be moved inside, and they set us up at a small table near the large communal tables being used by the tour groups.  The waitress kept going through a bunch of table cloths trying to find one that was less filthy than the others.  I have never seen such a filthy set of tablecloths in my life!  Full of grease stains, caked on black dirt, food particles!! By this time, I just wanted out of there.  If the front dining area was this filthy, I couldn't imagine what the kitchen looked like.  My 20-something daughter seemed embarrassed to walk out, so I stayed for her sake, but refused to eat the food.  After a few bites, she too decided it wasn't good and we paid our bill (even though we never received half the food we ordered and paid for) and left.  It was the only food that my daughter ate that I didn't, and in 24 hours, she was in crippling pain, cramps, and diarrhea.  Be forewarned, this place is filthy and disgusting.

Terrible!

Unfortunately, everything about this hotel misses the mark.  In our experience, the Vietnamese who work in tourism are wonderful, extremely competent and go out of their way to meet all your needs.  This was not the case at Van Long Resort.  

We arrived in the afternoon to a nearly empty facility.  They have multiple buildings on the grounds and it was eerie to walk around and see dark buildings, empty pool (no water), and no people.  We finally found someone in the restaurant, and found out that they typically cater to large tour groups from other parts of Asia who get bussed in around 2 am (waking up any one else who might be staying there) and then bussed out the following morning to go to Halong Bay or elsewhere.

They have no idea of how to handle other types of tourists.  The English-speaking staff booking tours (a German man) was so negative about everything (even complaining to us about the management!) that anything he shared with us we took with a large grain of salt. His local knowledge is limited and the tours are outrageously overpriced for what you get.  Since the facility is about 15 km outside of Ninh Binh, and there is no computer readily available to guests, you have other no other options until you can get access to either.  We booked a 12-hour tour to Kenh Ga and Cuc Phong for the outrageous sum of $90 ($45/per person), and this didn't even include lunch.  The 12-hour tour ended up being only 7 hours, and the car was a piece of junk.  The English-speaking tour guide was from the national park and was fine, but this was literally the first time they had sold this tour, and they asked us to provide a reference on whether or not the guide was any good!  Amateurish at best.

Of course, making mistakes and learning is part of the journey, but we would have been much more at peace with this had they not overcharged us by so much.  This is not Hanoi or Saigon, so they shouldn't be charging Hanoi/Saigon prices.  

Dinner was terrible.  The room was glum and smelled moldy.  When they showed us the room, the first thing the staffperson did was go into the bathroom and flush the toilet.  The tub didn't drain, the TV did not work and we had to ask for towels.  Unless your Vietnamese is good, don't expect to communicate with the staff, who have very little to no English.  

We were so frustrated with their lack of service, we forfeited the room charge that we had prepaid, and called up to Hanoi to arrange our travel back, rather than risking more involvement with the staff.  We contacted Sunshine Travel in Hanoi (Alex Nguyen was awesome), and they sent a colleague from Ninh Binh to talk with us within 15 minutes after we hung up.  That person ended up telling us about a terrific boat ride in Van Long Reserve, for $3/per person, that we took the next morning before our car picked us up.  That boat ride was magnificent, and it did not occur to anyone at Van Long Resort to even suggest it to us...yet, they sell tickets to it at their restaurant!   This left us feeling that they would rather overcharge us for tours that don't deliver on what is promised, rather than possibly selling us something that we would actually enjoy.

On this one, we'll chalk it up to our own ignorance about Ninh Binh, but hopefully others can learn from our bad experience.  Options in Ninh Binh may also be limited, but at least you'll have options and if you don't like what you hear at one hotel/tour operator, you can at least go down the street and talk to another one.

Van Long Resort

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