Hanoi is small enough to walk and busy enough to fill every day without trying. There will always be more on your list than fits, and that is exactly how it should be. You do not need to work through this city, because the best things that happen here tend to happen on the way between two plans.
A few things really belong on your trip: the food, an early morning at the lake, and one full day out of the city. Others are on every list and make a good half day if you have one spare, next to simply wandering the alleys. Choosing up front gets you more here than booking an extra night.
So where do your Hanoi days go, and what do you save for next time?
Below are the places themselves. Where to sleep, how to get around and how many days to give it are all on our Hanoi page.
Street food on a plastic stool in the Old Quarter
For most backpackers this is the food highlight of their whole Vietnam trip, and it starts with how simple it all is. A stall cooks one thing: pho, or bun cha, or banh mi. You sit down on a plastic stool thirty centimetres high, half on the pavement, and two minutes later it is in front of you.
A dish costs around €1.50, so three stalls in one evening is easy. If you want the places you would walk straight past on your own, a guided food tour through the Old Quarter is money well spent. Along the way you try pho, bun cha, nem ran and ca phe trung, the coffee with whipped egg on top, and most tours take you past Train Street as well.
Watch the clock with bun cha: it is eaten between twelve and two. Turn up at four and the good places closed hours ago.
Our verdict: at €1.50 a dish, three in one evening is not greed, it is the plan
Ninh Binh: Trang An and Mua Cave
People call Ninh Binh Ha Long Bay on land, and for once that is no exaggeration. You drift between limestone peaks through low caves, past rice fields and old temples, and from the top of Mua Cave you look out over the whole valley. Plenty of backpackers rate it above Ha Long Bay itself.
The day tour combines the boat trip through Trang An with the Mua Cave viewpoint, the old capital at Hoa Lu and the Bai Dinh Pagoda. You get picked up from your hostel around half seven. Want to do it yourself? The train gets you to Ninh Binh in two to two and a half hours.
Wear shoes you can climb in. The stairs up to the Mua Cave viewpoint are the reason most people remember this day, and in flip-flops they are a lot less fun.
Our verdict: if you only do one day trip, make it this one
Hoan Kiem Lake early in the morning
At around seven the lake is the busiest and most beautiful spot in the city. Half of Hanoi is out exercising: tai chi in little groups, badminton without a net, old men walking laps. Two hours later it is an ordinary pond with tourists around it, so this really is about getting up early.
It costs nothing. Only the Ngoc Son temple on its little island charges about €1.20, and the red bridge that leads to it is worth that on its own. The lake sits in the middle of the Old Quarter, so you can walk there from almost any hostel.
Pair it with breakfast. A bowl of pho after a lap of the lake is about the best morning Hanoi has to offer.
Our verdict: free, and with a bowl of pho afterwards the best start to a day in Hanoi
Ha Long Bay in a day
The limestone islands of Ha Long Bay are on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and they are just as impressive in real life. You sail between the rocks, kayak for a stretch, walk into a cave and eat from the lunch buffet on board. It is the classic of northern Vietnam, and the number of boats out there shows it.
Count on a long day: it is 170 kilometres and about four hours each way, so you get picked up early and you are not back until the evening. The day tour with the luxury boat and lunch buffet is the most booked option from Hanoi, and it collects you from your hostel.
Got more time? Think about a night out on the bay instead of the day tour. Then you see the rocks without the fleet of day boats around them.
Our verdict: go for it if you have the day, and give it room next to Ninh Binh
Banana Island over the Long Bien Bridge
This is the place almost no visitor finds, and our own favourite in Hanoi. You cross the old Long Bien Bridge and come out on Bãi Giữa, an island in the middle of the Red River. Sand tracks, banana plantations, small vegetable plots, and the city skyline across the water.
It costs nothing, and you are there in no time from the Old Quarter. Bring water, because there are hardly any stalls. Keep walking until you see the river and find a spot on the bank.
Go at sunset. The light sits low over the water, the city you just left fills the view, and around you it is completely silent.
Our verdict: our favourite last evening in Hanoi
The Temple of Literature
Vietnam’s first university, built around a series of courtyards with ponds, gates and old trees. After two days in the alleys the quiet here feels almost strange. It is the most important historic site in the city and the calmest one too.
Entry is about €1.20 and it is open daily from 8.00 to 17.00. The complex is about two kilometres west of Hoan Kiem Lake, a short Grab ride away.
Go just after opening, before the tour buses. Give it an hour, not half a day, and plan the area around it: Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and the One Pillar Pagoda are in the same corner of the city.
Our verdict: give it an hour, and go just after opening, before the tour buses
Bia hoi on the corner of Ta Hien
In the evening the Old Quarter’s bars spill out onto the pavement, and on Ta Hien you sit on stools by the road with backpackers from all over the world. A glass of bia hoi costs about thirty cents, so the bill is never the problem.
There is nothing to book and nothing to plan: you sit down, someone puts a glass in front of you and the rest takes care of itself. Want to keep going afterwards? The rooftop bars of the French Quarter are a ten-minute walk away.
Keep your bag on your lap when you sit by the road, and agree the price before you order from a stall. What costs backpackers money in Hanoi is almost never theft: it is prices that were never agreed.
Our verdict: one evening is enough, two is fine too
Got time to spare in Hanoi?
Ha Long Bay or Ninh Binh
Both are on your list and both are full days: two early starts before seven and two half days in a minibus. With three days, pick one and use the day you gain to get lost in the Old Quarter. With more, both fit, and in one week you have seen the best of northern Vietnam.
The water puppets
The puppet show on water is an old tradition and the best-known performance in Vietnam. It lasts an hour, and without a bit of background you only half follow the stories, so read up on what you are about to see. Got a third evening in Hanoi? It makes a fun night out that you will not get anywhere else.
The Old Quarter on foot
The Old Quarter works best on foot: that is exactly what you are here for. A cyclo looks charming in photos, but the price is rarely clear up front, so agree an amount before you get in or just take a Grab. Walking is still the best way to see the neighbourhood.
Getting around the city
In the rest of Vietnam a scooter is the best thing you can do. In Hanoi you leave it parked: the traffic here is less predictable than anywhere else in the country. A Grab motorbike usually costs under €1.50, and then someone who knows the city does the riding while you look around.
Our top five in Hanoi
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- Street food on a stool in the Old Quarter, ideally with a food tour on your first evening
- Ninh Binh: the boat through Trang An and the stairs up Mua Cave
- An early morning at Hoan Kiem Lake, around seven
- Ha Long Bay in a day, if you have room for a second day trip
- Banana Island over the Long Bien Bridge at sunset
Still got time after that? A cooking class with a market visit is the most fun way to understand what you have been eating all week. If you are there at the weekend, walk the night market in the Old Quarter from Friday to Sunday after six in the evening, and haggle calmly to about half the asking price.
So what do you really have to do in Hanoi?
Honestly? Nothing on this list is compulsory. Hanoi has no tower or palace you simply must see, and that is exactly its charm: the city lives on the pavements, the stools and the traffic you eventually just walk straight through. So put two things on your day and fill in the rest as you go.
If we had to pick just one thing: eat. Sit down on a stool at a stall where only Vietnamese people are sitting, point at whatever your neighbour is having and order that. €1.50, ten minutes, and it is the bit of Hanoi you will still be telling people about a year from now.
And keep your last morning free. Walk across the Long Bien Bridge, sit down on the island in the river and look back at the city you have just spent three days walking through. That is a better ending than any temple.
