Inside Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, a Hotel With As Much History as a Museum

Stay Here For

A Hanoi hotel with plenty of history.

For well over a century, there was no question about it: if you belonged to the upper crust and were visiting Hanoi, you booked a room at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi. This grand hotel has been Hanoi's plushest address since opening in 1901, and while in recent years a slew of high-end hotels have joined its ranks (the Capella Hanoi appeared across the street in 2022), few manage to deliver the same level of hospitality as this old-world charmer.

If the stuccoed ornaments and louvered window shutters don't give it away, the doorman's "bonjour monsieur/madame" upon your arrival surely will: The Metropole is a time-tested relic of Hanoi's past as the capital of French Indochina from 1902 to 1945, and it’s replete with history, from its role in the Vietnam War and as a literary backdrop. 

The hotel leans heavily into this with a sidewalk bistro (La Terrasse) that looks as if it's been plucked straight out of Beaux Arts-era Paris, and a checkerboard-floored patisserie dealing in too-pretty-to-eat bon bons and pungent cheeses. Hanoi's oldest French restaurant, Le Beaulieu, still sits under the crystal chandeliers of the hotel's ground-floor dining room and dishes up its dégustation menus with all the classic bells and whistles: a 700 bottle-strong wine list, for example, and crêpes suzettes flambéed right at your table.

Luckily, this is all balanced with a heavy helping of Vietnamese culture, so you're never really left second-guessing where in the world you are. Many staff members walk around in silky ao dàis, Vietnam's tunic-like national dress, and you'll find body scrubs made from local herbs on the spa menu. The Spice Garden, with tables spilling out onto the courtyard, specializes in Vietnamese classics (try the banana blossom salad), and the scent of fresh lemongrass hits your nostrils as soon as you step into the lobby.

In that way, little has changed since the likes of Somerset Maugham and Noël Coward sought refuge here: a stay in this perfectly manicured bubble of fine restaurants, plush rooms and white-glove service lets you dip in and out of Hanoi's rip-roaring buzz on your own terms.

How to Make the Most of Your Cardmember Benefits

Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi is a member of The Edit by Chase Travel℠, a collection of hand-picked hotels with premium benefits for Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers. Customers who book a stay at The Metropole through The Edit will earn 3 points per dollar and receive special benefits, including daily breakfast and a $100 property credit, along with early check-in, late checkout and a room upgrade, when available. Check out how these benefits came to life during our stay at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi.

The Room

Spread across two buildings, The Metropole has multiple sides. The oatmeal-colored Opera Wing was added as an extension to the original building in the 1990s, and has a separate lobby for guests who've booked a room in this side of the hotel. While rooms here are a notch more spacious, they do lack the nostalgic tinge present in the Heritage Wing—and given that you're staying in one of the most storied hotels in all of Southeast Asia, you might as well go all in on old-time charm. Not only do its rooms, with their rotary-dial phones, hardwood floors and 1920s Indochine-inspired wood carvings and textiles, do a better job channeling the building's historic lure, but a recent top-to-bottom refurb also means their amenities—smart TVs, mood lighting and sleek fold-out bar cabinets—are much more up-to-date. 

Additionally, Heritage Wing rooms in the Grand Luxury category (and above) come with a host of complimentary privileges, including round-the-clock butler service (you can ask them to polish your shoes or draw you a bath) and evening cocktails and afternoon tea at Le Club Bar. If you're willing to really splurge, the one-bedroom suites, some named after luminary guests who've stayed here throughout the years, offer double the floor space and better views. The Graham Greene suite, for example, opens to a small balcony facing nearby Con Coc park, while the Somerset Maugham suite comes with a small rooftop garden overlooking the hotel courtyard.

The Features

The courtyard pool is a welcome amenity on a hot, humid afternoon.

Don't miss: A cheese platter (or a steak frites if you're feeling peckish) and a Lillet Tonic (with Lillet Rose, grapefruit and rosemary-flavored tonic water) at La Terrasse, the sidewalk bistro wrapped around the Heritage Wing. From here, you have front-row views over the kaleidoscopic streets of the French Quarter.

Favorite features: The courtyard swimming pool, a very welcome perk during Hanoi's sticky summer afternoons and especially enjoyable with a glass of something cold and crisp from the seemingly endless wine list of the adjoining Bamboo Bar.

Can't stop thinking about: The Path of History tour with the hotel's resident historian, which takes place twice a day and is complimentary for in-house guests. On an hour-long guided walk around the Heritage Wing, you’ll learn about the hotel's early beginnings in the French colonial era, and the horrors it went through during the Vietnam War. Particularly moving was a visit to the underground bomb shelter, which protected high-profile guests during air raids, and was only rediscovered during a renovation of the Bamboo Bar in 2011.

The Vibe

Hit up Angelina for a nightcap.

The drink to try: La Terrasse's egg coffee, which was first concocted by the hotel's bartender, Nguyen Giang, as an alternative for cream-heavy café au lait when dairy was scarce during the First Indochina War in the 1940s. Made from frothed egg yolk and condensed milk, this sweet caffeine hit tastes a lot better than it might sound.

What are guests wearing? While you'll see plenty of guests in khaki shorts during the day, the vibe smartens up considerably in the late afternoon, when high heels, sundresses and linen shirts fill up Le Club Bar and Le Beaulieu, which enforces a smart casual dress code.

The souvenir shop to hit up: Hanoia, a homegrown lacquerware specialist, stands out between the French and Italian luxury labels lining the hotel's ground-floor arcade. Pop in to browse some of the gorgeous vases, tea boxes and bracelets made using traditional lacquer techniques.

People watch from the al fresco La Terrasse.

Fast Facts

• Number of rooms: 364
• Number of pools: 1
• Fitness center? Yes
• Spa? Yes
• Salon? Yes
• Number of bars/restaurants: 6
• 24-hour room service? Yes
• Childcare and kids club? No kids club, but babysitters are on call