What a great hotel in a wonderful city. we booked this hotel for our children's first overseas trip and it didn't dissapoint.

the atmosphere is elegant, the rooms are large and well appointed, and the service is excellet.

being in the old French area of Hanoi is an advantage as it is easy walking distance to some wonderful sightseeing, food, and shopping.

a must stay

Please be aware: there are 2 Sofitel in Hanoi, and the Metropole (where I stayed) is definitely the better choice.
The Metropole is very well located in the city centre, close to the old town and other attractions as well as restaurants, opera etc.
The hotel has an old and a new wing. I highly recommend to stay in the old wing. The rooms there are classy in an elegant colonial style with all amenities. The rooms are small, but well furnished with high ceilings so you do not feel claustrophobic at all.
The breakfast is good and also afternoon tea is very good - they have a huge chocolate buffet!
Staff is very friendly (with some exceptions: concierge is not very friendly...but the rest of the staff is very friendly and helpful).
The pool area is nice, but very small - but OK for a city hotel.
Overall definitely one of the best hotels in Hanoi!

Simply put, if you can afford it you should stay here during a visit to Hanoi. It feels lovely and historic and the perfect spot from which to see the city. The service is wonderful, the rooms (at least in the Historic Wing, I didn't see the Opera Wing rooms) are impeccably designed, combining old and new materials. Very comfortable beds, especially by the hard-mattress Vietnam standards. We were in two rooms, the first 129 with a small balcony on the first floor, the second 329 on the third floor. These (and many standard Historical Wing rooms) are small but these are corner rooms so there was a lot of light and a lovely view.

The breakfast buffet was very nice, the bar and restaurants refined but comfortable. It is an excellent location within easy walking or pedicab distance to pretty much anything you'd want to see. The concierge is very helpful. I had no complaints, it really lived up to or even exceeded expectations (and I had high expectations!)

What a memorable experience we had from our 2 nights stay at the Sofitel Metropole. The Metropole is a first class, old-fashioned, French-styled hotel (built in 1901) located in the central part of Hanoi within easy walking distance or short taxi ride to shops, the Old Quarters, Hoa Kiem lake, restaurants and attractions.

As soon as we arrived at the hotel, we were being greeted by polite and helpful staff. Check-in was 'a breeze' and as we were slightly early, we were offered 2 complimentary drinks whist we waited at the poolside. We were then showed to our room by a lovely Vietnamese girl. The room is located in the Classic (old wing) wing, which had recently undergone a major renovation. Whilst the room was slightly small, it had all the amenities that you would expect from a First-class hotel. We just loved the classy interior decorations, bathroom, comfy bed and all that classic wooden period furniture. It was lovely to be greeted with chocolates and 2 bottled water whenever the room is made up. The only minor complaint is that the air-cond is not cold enough, even though we had it set at 18C, so we had the fan on during the night. The other complaint is the slight noise from the traffic and the non-stop 'pit-pit' sound from the cars' and motor-bikes' horns.

The hotel staff are all very friendly and the lady staff are beautifully dressed in traditional Vietnamese clothing. The Conceirge staff is very knowleageable and helpful in pointing out the local attractions and organising our 1 day trip to Ha Long Bay. Food at the hotel is reasonably cheap as we would not be able to get such value at a top class French restaurant in Australia. Imagine a pasta at US$9 and a chicken dish at US$12 !!.

My partner and I had a memorable stay here and would say that this is the classiest hotel that we had ever stayed in. Whilst this hotel is the most expensive in Hanoi, it deserve all the accolades that it had received in TripAdvisor. We would recommend the Metropole to anyone who value top class quality and is not afraid to pay for it.