One of the most popular resort cities in Vietnam, Nha Trang, may well compete with most Mediterranean destinations for a beach holiday. Swim and sunbathe in Nha Trang come all year round. Even the local “winter” - the rainy season - pleases with a mild climate: precipitation is plentiful, but short-term, and the air temperature hardly drops below 23–22 degrees. The “dry” season is considered to be the most favorable for the rest - from March to September; trips to Nha Trang during the “storm season” - from November to February are the cheapest.
In the tourist, or European, part of the city, there is a hotel zone with a well-developed infrastructure, including shops and markets of various kinds, entertainment venues, beauty salons and affordable sandy city beaches.
One of the successfully operating hotels in the tourist zone, Aurora Nha Trang Hotel 2 * annually attracts guests from different countries due to its favorable location and low prices for accommodation. What is the Vietnamese "two-star" service and what services does the Aurora Hotel offer its guests? Should I choose this Vietnamese hotel for attractive accommodation prices? Tourists considering this hotel as a place of rest will probably be interested in the reviews about the Aurora 2 * hotel (Vietnam, Nha Trang), which the former guests leave on the forums.
About hotel
The hotel with the comfort level of "two stars" and affordable prices, Aurora Hotel 2 * (Vietnam, Nha Trang), managed to get a lot of positive reviews on Russian tourism forums. The hotel building provides 43 rooms with access to private balconies. The hotel building is relatively new: the year of construction of the white four-story building was 2005, and the capital reconstruction, according to the information of tour operators, was carried out here in 2015.
Aurora Hotel 2 * (Vietnam) is located in the center of Nha Trang, near the city square. The nearest international airport is a little over 26 km (40-50 minutes).
Infrastructure
The hotel infrastructure, in addition to a four-story hotel building, includes:
- Reception with round-the-clock work.
- A restaurant.
- A park.
- Outdoor terrace.
- Hotel lounge with TV.
- The shops.
- Equipped parking (free).
- Free safe at reception, luggage storage for large luggage.
- Dry cleaning / laundry / ironing.
- Currency exchange point.
- Car and bike rental.
- Travel desk.
- Beauty saloon.
- Smoking areas.
Access to Wi-Fi in the entire hotel is free, the speed of the Internet is quite decent.
Beach vacation
The entire urban beach area of Nha Trang is a continuous sandy beach that stretches more than 6 km along the sea. The cleanliness and infrastructure of local beaches are rated at a solid four. Tourists who came in the rainy season often complain of muddy sea water, which is not very pleasant to swim in.
The territory of Aurora Hotel 2 * (Vietnam) is located in the first coastal zone, about 300 m from the sea coast. There is a rather busy roadway between the sea and the hotel. The nearest beach is equipped with sun loungers and umbrellas, which are rented for a fee, and for guests of the Aurora hotel the price is significantly lower.
The beaches located outside the city have earned much more positive reviews. According to the stories of Russian tourists, “suburban” beaches are noticeably cleaner and more picturesque, the rest there is much richer. You can go to the suburban beach area of Nha Trang for the whole day by taxi, and the local “cabmen” are ready to wait for an additional fee to wait for their customers in the parking lot by the beach, and then drive back to the hotel at any convenient time. To such a trip was not too costly, tourists are advised to agree in advance on payment not by the meter, but in a specific amount of money.
Rooms
The hotel rooms are equipped almost identically and are divided into deluxe classes (a room with a view of the sea coast) and cheaper suites (a view of the city or hotel territory from the balcony). The standard hotel room is equipped as follows:
- Sleeping place for 2 or 3 people.
- Furniture: table, bedside table, chairs, wardrobe.
- Air conditioning, mini fridge, TV (satellite dish), kettle.
- Bathroom (bath and toilet).
- Free toiletries, bathrobe, slippers, towels are provided daily.
In general, the rooms in the reviews are characterized as spacious, furnished not with new, but not bad furniture. Bed linens and towels in the hotel are neat, fresh, not washed. Of the negative reviews, the following are most often mentioned:
- The hairdryer declared in the equipment will most likely not be in the room. You can take it for free by contacting the reception. You have to go for a hairdryer every time you need to dry your hair.
- Glazed front doors in the hotel rooms. The light from the corridor prevents some of the guests from sleeping.
- The client can replace the number they do not like for free, but this is done very reluctantly and only after an insistent request.
Staff: hotel staff reviews
Many Russians are surprised by the fact that there is no one among the hotel employees who understands Russian or speaks it, although in the city there are signs in Russian on literally every street. With "international" English, things are a little better - almost all of the staff at Aurora Hotel 2 * "speaks a little" in this language.
Another impression of the staff is a rather negligent attitude towards cleaning the rooms. There are frequent stories that the rooms are cleaned every day, but without household chemicals and “forgetting” to wipe or take out garbage.
From the positive impressions, it can be noted that the hotel staff are professionally polite, there are no cases of extorting a tip or missing items in the rooms.
Nutrition
Unlike the all-inclusive hotels beloved by Russian tourists, the Aurora Hotel 2 * (Nha Trang) provides its guests only breakfast. You can order a hotel room with a morning meal upon request, having paid extra for this service when booking, but you can refuse a hotel breakfast and eat completely in cafes and restaurants of the tourist area. What do the reviews on the forums of travel agencies say about food for guests Aurora Hotel 2 * (Nha Trang)?
- Paid extra breakfasts are very scarce. A small sandwich, scrambled eggs, canned fish or a plate of liquid local soup, a glass of “powdered” juice and the complete absence of hot drinks usual for Europeans - coffee and tea. Therefore, there are often tips not to overpay for breakfast, but to eat in cafes and restaurants of the city.
- In a completely different way, tourists speak of a grill bar, which is located right at the entrance to the Aurora Hotel 2 *. For a relatively small fee (at the entrance), visitors get a very decent buffet and the ability to cook any food on coals that are separate, right on the table.
- You can eat in Nha Trang literally on every street. Cafes and restaurants offer both exotic local dishes and familiar European ones. Separately, it is worth mentioning the pricing policy in restaurants and cafes of the tourist (or European) part of the city. The most expensive meal will cost in institutions that are located on the first beach line. The same dishes on the outskirts of the city are several times cheaper.
- Practical guests of Aurora Hotel 2 *, who do not trust the local cuisine too much, often bought more familiar products at local supermarkets. In the tourist area, this can be done without any problems - grocery stores within walking distance. But in the residential neighborhoods of a city, most often all food is sold in large or small markets, and these products may be more specific.
- What really is a lot in Nha Trang is various seafood. They are always fresh, caught by local fishermen. Preparing them in a hotel room, of course, will not work, but in Nha Trang there are many restaurants and outlets where you can try a wide variety of seafood or sea fish at prices much lower than in European countries.
Sanitary conditions
If we talk about compliance with hygiene and sanitary standards in Aurora Hotel 2 *, reviews of former guests contain mention of several unpleasant facts:
- In the rooms you can see small ants. Vacationers tell about these uninvited guests, who ventured to bring groceries to their room and leave them on the table for a short while. To the honor of the staff of Aurora Hotel 2 *, it can be noted that they fight insects by treating the room with a special spray on demand. Nevertheless, tourists who find ants in their room advise not to forget the remnants of food where insects can reach them.
- Another problem of the hotel is the quality of tap water. Tourists note the unpleasant smell of tap water, and in the rainy season - also a yellowish color.
- The complete lack of soundproofing in the rooms. Because of this, all guests have to wake up quite early, along with city dwellers. The only thing that compensates for the early rise is that after 23:00 the city is very quiet.
- Slight smoke in the rooms due to the grill bar on the ground floor of the hotel.
Leisure
The lack of an all-inclusive system at the Aurora Hotel suggests that guests will have to provide all recreational activities on their own. In addition to beach vacations and sunbathing on the hotel terrace, in the hotel territory and in the tourist area, travel agents work, offering organized excursions and boat trips. In addition, entertainment venues, sports clubs, inexpensive beauty salons can be easily found in the hotel area.
Having fun in Nha Trang and its environs after eleven o'clock in the evening is not easy - there is practically no nightlife in the city. The great honor of local nightclubs is located in the hotel area, near the beaches. A few more are concentrated in the center of Nha Trang. You can entertain yourself with exciting shopping at the large night market in the southern part of the hotel zone. But simple evening walks around the city are quite interesting and, what is important, a safe occupation.
Active leisure, sport
Sports facilities have been created in the hotel park, equipped with morning jogging paths and exercise machines. On the beach of the hotel there is an opportunity for water sports. One of the main attractions on the beach is diving and scuba diving. There are diving clubs in the beach area at almost every step - some of them have instructors who are fluent in Russian. The “dry” season is considered to be the most successful rest time for diving fans, from March to September, when the sea is the most transparent.
No less interesting sea vacation in the "storm season". At this time, the coast of Vietnamese Nha Trang is a real paradise for surfers from around the world.
Vacation with children
I have to admit that the Aurora Hotel 2 * is not the most convenient place to relax with children. Entertainment for children at the hotel is not provided. In addition, tourists in their reviews note quite intense traffic on the road near the hotel. The only plus is the ability to get a cot in the room.
You can come to rest with children only for the sake of entertainment in Nha Trang itself and its surrounding territories. In addition to the vibrant tropical nature and fascinating sea voyages, which will be described below, a trip to the famous “Winperl”, an entertainment complex on a small island in the coastal zone of Nha Trang, can give a lot of impressions to children and their parents. The colossal amusement park includes a water park, attractions, an aquarium with entertaining shows, restaurants, shops, a large game complex and much more. Winperl is no less popular with tourists than Hong Kong's Disneyland. There are several ways to get to the island: by boat, by canoe-taxi, or by the longest cable car in the world, the length of which is more than 3000 m.
Paid services
Paid services that a guest can receive in a hotel in addition to the standard list are usually designed to create additional comfort or security for the client. In a two-star hotel, the range of such services is rather modest:
- Breakfast in the hotel.
- Transfer (meeting at the airport and delivery to and from the hotel to the airport).
- Ticket sales, organization of excursions.
The purchase of the first two services is agreed upon when booking a room at Aurora Hotel 2 *.
Excursions, historical places, sights
It is immediately worth noting that there are reviews in which tourists are not recommended to buy excursions from representatives of travel agencies on site. There are two reasons for this at once: it is much more expensive than self-guided tours, and quite often guides arrange a shopping tour with a trip to specific local shops instead of exploring the “interesting things”.
Many tourists recommend using a local taxi for travel, having previously agreed on payment in a certain fixed amount, or choosing one of the small private companies with good reviews and Russian-speaking employees in the tourist area. So the excursions will cost several times cheaper.
What can you see during your day trip from Aurora Hotel 2 *? Nha Trang and the nearby sea islands are worth visiting not only for the sake of ancient architectural monuments, but also for exploring the wonders of the tropical natural zone.
Many ancient architectural monuments can be seen by ordering a standard sightseeing tour of Nha Trang. The most popular object is the cultural and religious pearl of Nha Trang - Long Sean Pagoda. This is a whole complex at the foot of the mountain, which includes a 19th-century Buddhist temple with gigantic carved gates, a high observation platform overlooking the city and many stone sculptures, including the White Buddha and the Reclining Buddha statues. Entrance to the pagoda is free for everyone, but it is worth observing the rules of conduct adopted in this sacred place for the Vietnamese. For example, take off shoes at the entrance to the temple building and choose clothes covering the knees for the tour.
On the sea coast you can visit the most romantic place in Nha Trang - Cape of Love (Hong Chong). This is a natural rock garden with which a touching ancient legend is connected, and a picturesque park path leading to the cape. The facility is located near the central part of the city.
These are not the only interesting places in the city. Each tourist will certainly remember visiting the Silk Factory, the Catholic Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, the stone towers of Ponagar and more.
Outside of Nha Trang, there are also many interesting things. Many guides recommend that city guests take a short trip through the jungle to Boho Falls or visit a crocodile farm and a large tropical Yangbei tropical park. Especially popular are day trips to the southern or northern islands of Nha Trang. Such mini-cruises will certainly be of interest to travelers of any age. The program of a trip to the South Islands necessarily includes a visit to the floating village of fishermen, a unique "ship-aquarium" and beautiful diving sites. The northern islands are famous for the amazing island of Orchids and the natural "zoo" - Monkey Island.