NOVEL ROMANCE

Sofitel Metropole Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi's Metropole Hotel feels like it could have materialized out of the romanticized pages of a Graham Greene novel. For good reason, too, as Greene was one of the hotel's most storied guests. This colonial property was built in 1901, and rooms are fitted with the kind of details you read about Greene's The Quiet American: shutters with wide wooden slats; plants with lush, heavy palm fronds; and beds with crisp, white linens. It's a place Blanche DuBois might have stayed had she visited Vietnam, a place marked by the sounds of clinking ice and whirring ceiling fans. In summertime, Hanoi is not as oppressively hot as the rest of the country, but tourists tend to stay away, so take a stroll past the city's lakes at sunset and enjoy the calm. This is the indelible romance of a foreign land—steamy, sultry, and utterly anonymous. It's a good bet that there will be no End of the Affair.

Sofitel Metropole Hanoi
Tel: 84 4 826 6919
Doubles from $330