One Month at the Ramada by Wyndham, Ha Long, Vietnam

In 2022 while living in Vietnam for a bit, My wife and I went on one of those infamous Ha Long Bay cruises that has very mixed reviews. We ended up loving the experience thankfully, but we were only in Ha Long for the cruise itself, so we didn’t get the chance to explore the actual city of Ha Long.

This time around, my wife wanted to just relax for a bit away from the hustle and bustle (and I away from the horrible air) of Hanoi, but still within relatively close distance to Hanoi to minimize travel time. So we decided to drive to Ha Long and spend a month there, with no laid out plans for what we’d do once there.

My wife’s requirements for where we stayed were that it had a decent kitchen so we could cook, and I wanted a decent gym and swimming pool. I figured we’d be looking at more of an apartment complex, but my wife found an apartment suite at the Ramada by Wyndham in Ha Long city that seemed like a really good fit, so we decided to book it for a month.

Ramada Hotel & Suites by Wyndham Info

• Address: To Hien Thanh, Tran Hung Dao, Thanh Pho Ha Long, Vietnam
• Official website: ramadasuiteshalongbay.com

Ramada Hotel & Suites by Wyndham Halong Bay View

The Location

The hotel is located just off the Bai Chay highway. You can’t access the hotel directly off the highway though, and need to head off to a main road that circles back to the hotel.

There’s what I believe is a man-made pond/small lake near the hotel, but the beach and most of the attractions like museum, shopping mall, and restaurants are a bit of a walk, or short drive away. There is a big mostly outdoor food market within walking distance though, as well as your standard assortment of small Vietnamese shops and restaurants just about everywhere.

The hotel is also quite close to Sun World Ha Long Park by car, which is a popular amusement park in the area.

The Lobby

The lobby of the hotel is quite modern, clean, and nice.

To the right of the lobby there’s a restaurant / reception area, with a bar just a bit further down. The restaurant on this floor, as far as I’m aware, is mainly for a-la-carte dining, with the main restaurant on another floor. Oddly though, the actual floor number for the main dinning area is different depending on which elevator you take. 🤔

To the left when you enter is a seating area with a bunch of couches and seats (pictured below looking towards the entrance, with the seating area on the right of the pic).

The Main Restaurant

We only ate at the main restaurant once, and only for the breakfast, as we had a kitchen in our apartment suite that we planned to use as much as possible.

Breakfasts in the main restaurant are your typical buffet style, with an ok selection of food. The breakfasts in the a-la-cart restaurant in the lobby on the other hand, and as the name suggests, are, well, a-la-carte! Which restaurant breakfast is served at depends on the day of the week, and the hotel’s occupancy. IIRC, the buffet breakfast in the main restaurant is typically only served on weekends, as that’s when occupancy at the hotel goes up.

As far as the quality of the food goes, it’s not bad, but it’s not great either. It’s just ok. The selection also contained mostly Vietnamese food - with a tiny sprinkling of Western stuff (like pancakes and toast), which is fine being that we were in Vietnam, but I would have liked to see a bit more variety as I’m not huge on Vietnamese breakfasts. Even my wife, who is Vietnamese, wasn’t a huge fan of the breakfast buffet here.

All in all, I’d say unless you get a really good discount on the breakfast buffet, I’d skip it and find a local place to eat.

The Gym

The gym was actually much better than I was expecting. I’m used to hotel gyms being small, cramped, and not very well equipped, but the gym at this Ramada is a pretty decent size, and had some decent equipment - both free-weight and machine.

As you enter, there are a few cable machines for shoulders, chest, and legs…

Followed by a few treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and a rowing machine along a wall with windows.

And then to the left of the aerobic machines is a dumbbell rack, two dumbbell benches, and a Smith squat rack.

While I’m not a huge fan of Smith machines, hey, better than nothing! Overall, pretty decent gym, and thankfully, equipped with air conditioning!

The Pools

The hotel has two pools - an indoor heated pool, and an outdoor roof-top pool.

The Indoor Pool

The indoor pool is located on the same floor as the gym, and as it’s heated, means the entire floor is quite warm - which is why it’s really good that the gym is air conditioned. Without that AC, the heat from the pool makes the gym unbearable.

Now while we didn’t actually make use of the indoor pool, it did look nice, and it’s certainly a good size pool.

What I was most interested in, and which was on the same floor as our suite, was the outdoor pool.

The Outdoor Pool

The outdoor pool has somewhat limited hours, with it being closed mid-day… presumably due to Vietnam’s infamous hot afternoons. If you’re not familiar with how things work in Vietnam, it’s common for businesses and some attractions to close for a few hours in the afternoon, and then re-open in the evening. This is especially true for restaurants and government offices.

But it is open early, generally around 6am depending on time of year, and then closes between 7pm and 8pm, again depending on time of year.

The pool is a decent size but certainly not huge, and has a nice view of the city and the bay. I think it’s an infinity pool? Dunno, but the view at night is actually quite beautiful, with the Sun World Sun Wheel lit up in the distance and the beautifully lit pagoda (out of view in the picture below), which is part of Sun World Ha Long.

The deep end isn’t super deep, I think it was less than 3 meters or so deep, and there’s also a super shallow (like maybe 2 inches of water deep) area for kids, which leads into the main shallow end.

The mornings from 6am to 7am or so are generally quiet, so it’s a perfect time to swim if you’re like me and like an early start and empty pool. It then starts to get a bit busier between 8am and 10am, as well as early night.

The Kids Play Area

On the same floor as the heated indoor pool and gym, there’s a small kids play area. It’s not huge, but it’s got a few toys and a slide, and is a good place to take the kids if you’re staying at the hotel. The play area has windows that look out into the indoor pool, as seen in the following image:

It’s also right opposite the gym, but unlike the gym, the AC in the playroom wasn’t working while we stayed there. So it was quite hot at times, and I’d therefore suggest making sure you’ve got water and that the kids are well hydrated… assuming of course that the AC is still not working.

Our Apartment Suite

Our apartment was a two-bedroom suite, with a living room, kitchen, and two bathrooms (one main bathroom in the hall and one en-suite).

The Main Areas

The suite was a good size, with the main bathroom off the entry hall, which leads into the dining area and living room. There’s AC units in the dining room, and both bedrooms, so you don’t have to worry about the heat.

The kitchen was pretty well equipped: a 3/4-height fridge, typical Vietnamese induction stove, microwave, rice cooker, and some pots, pans, and limited utensils.

They also installed a washing machine in a small corridor off the kitchen, but we needed to buy our own drying rack as there was no way to hang the clothes to dry otherwise.

The Master Bedroom

The master bedroom wasn’t huge, but it was still a good size. The en-suite bathroom was a big plus, but the window in the master bedroom overlooks the small corridor beside the kitchen where the washing machine is, so there’s not much of a view.

In fact, I really don’t understand this really odd (and frankly, idiotic) design choice, and can’t imagine why someone would approve a design like this where a window overlooks a small corridor, looking out onto the air conditioning pumps.

To give you a better idea of what I’m talking about, here’s what our view from the master bedroom was:

Like, WTF? 🤦‍♂️

Anyway, the bed was comfortable, and the room was clean and well maintained.

Note that the beds didn’t have any linens on them, which is because we were staying there as a long-term rental, as opposed to renting a hotel room for a few days or a week. If you do a regular vacation rental, you’ll get linens on the bed, and the room will be cleaned daily.

The Second Bedroom

The second bedroom was also a good size. No en-suite of course, however the view was better as it looked out onto the city and not a freaking corridor!

I mean ideally a view of the bay would have been nice, but a view of the city is probably still preferable to a view of a corridor.

My Verdict

So, despite the odd design choice of the master bedroom window, and the so-so breakfast buffet, I’d say the Ramada by Wyndham in Ha Long is a pretty good place to stay if you’re looking for a place to relax for a bit.

The Bay is a bit of a walk, or short drive away, but the hotel has a decent gym, two pools, and a kids play area, so there’s plenty to do at the hotel if you’re not in the mood to go out.

And if you are in the mood to go out, as I noted, you’re not that far by car from Ha Long Bay, Ha Long beach, the Quang Ninh museum, sports complex, VinCom Plaza, and Sun World Ha Long Park.

There’s also the big, mostly outdoor food market within walking distance, as well as your standard assortment of small Vietnamese shops and restaurants just about everywhere.

Final verdict: I’d give the hotel a 4 out of 5 stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️