The Hotel itself is nice, and seems pretty new. It is in a safe neighborhood. There really is not too much to do here. I spent two nights and it got pretty boring. I guess my biggest complaint about the hotel is that most of the staff do not speak English very well. I asked the front desk if they could give me any information about taking a bay cruise for the day. They seemed to know next to nothing about it. Fortunately, I asked again the next morning and there was another person that could speak English better and he also provided me a few options for a day trip on the bay. It actually worked out pretty well, I paid the hotel, they then had a taxi come pick me up at the hotel and take me to the boat, and had another one ready to pick me up when the boat came back (the taxi fares were already taken care of). The only disappointment was that the hotel had told me that my 6-hour boat tour would include 5 stops, but the Captain would only agree to take me to two. Still, I enjoyed the tour. Hotel was nice and the included breakfast was decent. Most of the guests seem to be Koreans and Chinese group tours and the hotel doesn't seem too experienced with helping individual travelers not speaking Vietnamese. However, if you try a few times, you may get help with a boat tour. They also helped me get a ride into Hanoi. All in all, the Palace hotel did meet my needs and I would recommend it.