For my Spring Korea trip, I flew with Vietnam Airlines and spend more than 17 hours in Noi Bai Airport. For my first layover of 6 hours 40 minutes, I choose to stay within the Departure/transit zone because it was a little too late to venture out. Coupled with the fact that I had to rush back to the airport to check in for my connecting flight meant I only had less than 4 hours to do any sort of touring. Check out my review of Vietnam Airlines here!
Noi Bair AIrport has 2 Terminals. Terminal 1 is older and as of current, only serves domestic flights. Terminal 2 has just been opened in January 2015, is spanking new and serves international flights. If you are coming into or flying out of Hanoi, it’s likely you will be going to the newly opened Terminal 2. Which is good, because Terminal 2 is so much better!
I wanted to write this entry to share my experience at the Noi Bai Airport Terminal 2 Departure/Transit zone because when I did my own travel research, the lack of information online was so frustrating. So here’s the low down!
Noi Bai Airport Website: http://noibaiairport.vn/HOME/Default.aspx
For my first layover, I spent 6hrs and 40minutes in the departure zone. Terminal 2’s departure zone is surprisingly nice! I had known it was new but the peacefulness of the place, the brightly lit space and the abundance of lounging chairs was still a welcomed surprise!
The abundance of lounging chairs and LCD TVs.
There is even a small playground for the young children!
There is also no lack of shopping chances as everywhere you turn, it’s a souvenir shop.
Of course, there are also a lot of restaurants and our familiar fast food chains such as Popeyes and Illy Coffee. I refused to settle for the comfortable choice of Fastfood and got myself a bowl of Vietnamese Pho. After all, I _AM_ in Vietnam right?
Was it yummy? You bet! A can of coke and a bowl of Beef Pho cost me USD$6.50. A bottle of mineral water cost me USD$1.50. I paid with my Mastercard because I wasn’t interested in dealing with the hassle of changing currency. There is no Money Changer inside the transit zone either.
My connecting flight was at 12:50am and until then, all the shops seemed to still be opened. But I’m not sure if they are opened 24 hours or not. To see other restaurants or shops available, check out the video on top.
Massaging services are also available. Both in the form of automate and traditional masseur. These massage chair are on the 3rd Floor and cost 30,000 Dong for a 12 minute rumble. However it seems to only accept Vietnamese Currency.
I paid USD30 for a 1 hours neck,shoulder, feet and arms massage at the Massage parlour on 4th Floor. The parlour environment was peaceful, clean and professional looking. However the fact that I had a male masseur made me a little uncomfortable. But don’t worry, he was very professional.
There is a Smoking room available.
There are also 9 Charging dock available in the departure lounge. They support 4 USB charging and 4 power socket charging each. Wifi is also available throughout this area. However there seems to be a 30 minute time limitation and you would have to re-login every time you timeout.
I settled myself down in the Pho restaurant and starting watching Youtube and dramas after I finished my Pho.
There are also the Business Lounge available at the 4th Floor. I didn’t try going in but other travellers have reviewed that entrance is possible with a very reasonable fee of just USD$20.
Here is a Map of the Noi Bai AIrport Terminal 2. Click on the thumbnails to download the high resolution pictures.
I hope you guys liked this entry. Remember to leave me a comment and let me know what you think. You can check out my travel vlogs on Youtube and see what I’m up to at Facebook and instagram!
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