Absolutely!
Visiting Vietnam and not going to Hanoi, for the in-depth history and the life in the Old Quarter, would be a shame.
The three days in Hanoi educated and prepared us for the rest of Vietnam in the Vietnamese way of life. This helped us to make the most of the rest of our holiday around Vietnam. This capital city is now my favourite in Asia, by quite a margin.
I loved the city and the exciting, vibrant, and oh-so-friendly street culture. The millions of scooters do take a bit of getting used to. We found that if we walked confidently, the scooters all went around us like water going around a rock in a mountain stream.
The Old Quarter is really where you want to stay, because it’s so unique, whereas other areas of Hanoi are more modern. The colourful and vibrant life in the Old Quarter, the individual shops and restaurants competing noisily with each other, is fantastic.
Despite the apparent chaotic nature of life here, it is actually quite organised, and everything is very clean. The Vietnamese take so much care of their surroundings.
The little walkways, the narrow busy streets, the open-air pubs and restaurants, the ad-hoc live bands all add to the vibrant mix. Life feels amazing sitting on the street, listening and watching all go by (with a drink or two, of course!)
Hanoi: Hotel
We stayed in the May De Ville Lakeside Hotel in the heart of the Old Quarter close to the Hoan Kiem Lake. This hotel is fantastic, comfortable and friendly. Best of all, you can walk everywhere in the Old Quarter from this hotel.
The rooms are spacious and luxurious despite the hotel itself being squeezed into a busy, narrow Old Quarter street. It has a great view of the city and the Old Quarter from the rooftop pool, bar and restaurant.
This is a modern and comfortable hotel, easily our ‘home’ while we were in Hanoi. The hotel is embedded in the Old Quarter life in a way that the more formal, business-like hotels are not.
Hanoi: Airport
This was our initial entry into Vietnam, the Nội Bài International Airport <HAN>, and we returned to this airport for one of our domestic flights down south to Hue in central Vietnam. This airport is the primary gateway for most of the north of Vietnam. It’s the second busiest airport in Vietnam, and we were thankful that we had organised transport from the airport to our hotel, because it was hectic outside the airport.
What we did in Hanoi
We only had three nights in Hanoi. Four or five nights would be better if you also want to plan any excursions further north into the mountains from Hanoi.
We landed in Hanoi around midday, checking into our hotel mid-afternoon. After exploring all the hotel had to offer, especially the views from the pool and bar deck, we ventured out into the Old Quarter.
We looked for the Hoan Kiem Lake and the Ngoc Son Temple on the lake that we had seen from the hotel. We came back to the lake a couple of times. Once in the evening when the lake is all lit up. Then again, once we found the famous egg coffee at Cafe Giang or Café Dinh next to the lake.
We grabbed some street side Pho, and found an awesome pub on a street corner with an open deck looking over a four-way junction to relax in. We came back later to this pub/restaurant and found that some street musicians had set up in the centre of the junction, playing live music into the evening. I tried to imagine that happening in Brisbane or London, and failed!
We also walked over to the Hanoi Train Street, so named because it is just that: a single train track with hundreds of pubs and restaurants seemingly just inches from each side of the rails. Hanoi Train Street did not disappoint. The wind pressure and noise of the train hurtling its way through this food and drink paradise is impressive!
Hanoi Culture and History tours
The next day we dived into the culture and history of Hanoi with a tour to the Temple of Literature and the Hoa Lo Museum, the old ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison, followed by a food tour in the Old Quarter in the afternoon. Both tours were worth doing, as the history of Vietnam is so interesting; even the kids explored.
The food tour was great, as it forced us to try some food we might usually never try. It also helped us discover that so many of the seemingly dark alleyways led to great little courtyards with restaurants. We would never have found those without the tour’s help.
In the evening, back to Hoan Kiem Lake to see it at night and some more egg coffee at Café Dinh, followed by more street food and drink in the colourful, vibrant Old Quarter.
On the third day, we did an all-day tour booked with the hotel, which took us about two hours south of Hanoi to Ninh Binh. This tour included a luxury minivan with Wi-Fi (my kids were impressed), lunch, and tours of the Hoa Lu Temples of the Dinh & Le Dynasties, sampan trips in Tam Coc and the Hang Ca caves, the Mua caves, cycle rides through paddy fields, and a long climb to the top of Lying Dragon Hill. This tour was worth the entire day, with simply spectacular panoramic views of the rivers, mountain valleys and caves.
The next day we checked out rather sadly from our hotel, having really enjoyed our stay at the hotel and took a taxi to Ha Long Bay, about a 4-hour drive.
Best time to visit Hanoi
Best time to travel to Hanoi is:
April to June, September to November
Warm, clear skies, sunny.
June to August.
Hot and rainy.
December to March
Cool to cold, misty.
We did stay here in December, because of school holidays, as for so many, and looking at all our pictures, we were pretty much always in longs and t-shirts with light splash jackets or similar which you could take off indoors.
Practical Tips before booking Hanoi
Where to stay in Hanoi?
Staying in the Old Quarter, I think it’s a massive advantage compared to staying in the larger business-type hotels in the newer parts of Hanoi. Some of the best times we had were relaxing in the street restaurants in the Old Quarter later in the evenings, without the worry of how to get back to our hotel.
How long should you stay in Hanoi?
We stayed in Hanoi for 3 nights, and I think that probably about right unless you want to take extra day tour outside the city.
Should you take the local tours?
We took two local tours in Hanoi, plus one full-day tour outside Hanoi, more than we usually do, and highly recommend it in this town. It’s such a difference to our usual way of life; the tours speed up the transition and teach you so much. It was this, that allowed us to relax so quickly and embed ourselves in the city life, in a way we probably would not do in 2 or 3 days usually.
The two local tours, a Hanoi Historic Tour and a Hanoi Street Food Tour, were both worth it. Quick overview: the Hanoi Street Food guide led us around streets in the Old Quarter, showing us places and food that we probably would not have tried by ourselves, but did so often afterwards. The historic tour took us to the beautiful ancient university, temples and gardens. The Temple of Literature is only about 800 years old – so impressive.
The third tour we did was to Ninh Binh, south of Hanoi; this was a fantastic tour, most definitely not to be missed. Please jump to our detailed blog on Ninh Binh.
Do you need a Hanoi street map?
Make sure you have access to either online maps or offline GPS maps, as you will not always find, or at least recognise the signs amongst everything else, so GPS is a great help wandering up and down windy streets.
Is Hanoi Train Street worth the visit?
Yes, it is very popular with tourists, so it is busy. But the restaurants and pubs are great, and sitting there while a train roars past is impressive.
Final Review of Hanoi
Hanoi, at least the Old Quarter, feels like one of the most pedestrian-focused cities around. Life as a pedestrian is great: the ease of exploration, little hidden walkways everywhere, the street food everywhere, the little markets everywhere.
Now, to the first-arrived, watching the thousands of scooters on the streets, might say they are not putting a foot out on those streets! I don’t blame them; we felt the same way the first day, but it is amazing how quickly you get used to it and essentially ignore the scooters, well, sort of, mostly.
Hanoi is a city I want to visit again, and I do not say that too often about any city!
Is it safe in Hanoi?
The traffic in this city is hectic, with tens or even hundreds of thousands of scooters swarming up and down every street. I have no idea if there is a high accident rate; one assumes there must be, given the sheer volume of traffic.
Once you are used to the scooters and their fish school-like behaviour, walking across the street is a matter of consistency. They all avoid you as long as you walk straight and don’t stop or change direction suddenly.
We tried this carefully, after some guidance from one of our fantastic tour guides. We more or less got the hang of it, never quite as nonchalantly as the locals, I will admit. And to be fair, we did pick our times to cross a little more carefully than any of the locals.
We walked everywhere, often late into the nights and never felt nervous or threatened, and never saw any, what one might call, antisocial behaviour at any time.
