Hanoi
Hanoi is among the cheapest capitals anywhere, and it organises its days around eating. Breakfast pho to pavement beer for under fifty cents, with a thousand years of history inside a walkable centre.
Hanoi in a nutshell
Hanoi: what to expect
This is what 150,000+ planned stops in Hanoi on Stippl say about the city.
Hanoi has been the capital for most of a thousand years, and the Old Quarter is still laid out like it. Founded as Thang Long in 1010, its thirty-six guild streets each took a single trade and still carry the names: Hang Bac for the silversmiths, Hang Gai for silk, Hang Ma for ceremonial paper. Hoan Kiem lake sits at the centre with Ngoc Son temple on its island and the red Huc bridge across to it, Ba Dinh holds the mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda and the Imperial Citadel, and the Long Bien bridge crosses the river in the patched asymmetry the bombing left behind.
It is loud, and nobody who writes about Hanoi softens that. The traffic does not stop, the pavements belong to parked motorbikes and pavement kitchens rather than to walking, and crossing a road is a matter of stepping out at a steady pace and letting it flow around you. That is the city working rather than failing, and it takes about a day to stop fighting it.
Come for the eating, and plan around a real winter. Bun cha, banh mi and the egg coffee that was invented here are the reason to stay in the Old Quarter rather than somewhere calmer, and dinner logged on Stippl runs about ₫180,000. Hanoi is grey and cool from December, which is exactly when the planning peaks: January to March is when most travellers put themselves here.
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Food travellers, above all
Hanoi organises itself around eating, and whole days here are planned from breakfast pho to late-night bia hoi.
Budget travellers
Dorm beds from around €4.50 and beer under 50 cents put it among the cheapest capitals anywhere.
Anyone doing northern Vietnam
The whole north is organised around leaving from here, which is why Hanoi is on 86.0% of Vietnam trips on Stippl.
History travellers
The Citadel, the Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo and the war museums cover a thousand years inside a walkable centre.
Maybe not for you: anyone who wants calm. The noise and the traffic are the first thing everybody notices, and that is a real filter rather than a stylistic flourish; the Old Quarter does not quieten down after dark.
The best time to visit Hanoi
The two clear windows
October to November and March to April
Mild, dry and clear: the guidebook months, with April and October the best of them.
Cool and dry
December to February
Cool, among the driest months, and grey; genuinely cold for a few weeks in January, and Tet closes much of the city for several days in late January or February.
Hot and wet
May to September
Heat and humidity building from May into thirty-three-degree June, heavy downpours through the summer, and August the wettest month of the year.
- Tet falls in late January or February on the lunar calendar and shuts much of the city for several days. Restaurants close, buses stop and the trains out of the capital book solid; the dates move every year.
- January is the month most travellers plan Hanoi for on Stippl, about 80 days ahead, and it is not the month the guides recommend. The first quarter takes more Hanoi plans than the whole summer; only 12.2% are made inside a fortnight.
- The whole north is planned from here, so Hanoi's month decides Sapa's and Ha Long's. September and October give the terraces and the bay their best weeks at once; a January trip gets a cold, misty version of both.
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Things to do in Hanoi
Photo by Chinh Le Duc via Unsplash
Photo by Adam Young via UnsplashThe Old Quarter before eight
Walk the thirty-six streets while the stalls are setting up and the pavements still belong to the pho pots. Free, and the one hour the traffic lets you look up.
Bia hoi at the Ta Hien junction
Sit on a plastic stool on the pavement for the freshest beer in the city at about €0.20 a glass, from five in the afternoon until the police clear the corner around midnight. Order the grilled snacks from the stall beside you.
Hoan Kiem Lake at dawn
Walk the lake and cross the red Huc Bridge to Ngoc Son Temple, about €1, while the shore fills with tai chi and badminton before seven. The turtle in the temple is the one the legend is about.
The Temple of Literature
Walk the five walled courtyards of Vietnam's first university, founded in 1070, with the eighty-two stone steles naming the doctoral graduates. About €1.20, open from eight, and quietest in the first hour.
A water puppet show
Take the hour-long show at the Thang Long theatre by the lake, performed in Vietnamese and easy to follow, a Red River Delta tradition rather than a tourist invention. About €4; book the front rows a day ahead.
Hoa Lo Prison
Spend an hour in the prison the Americans called the Hanoi Hilton, which held Vietnamese revolutionaries under the French and American pilots later. About €2, and the French-era half is the stronger one.
The neighbourhoods of Hanoi
Old Quarter
Guild streets, street food, noise
Thirty-six guild streets in a grid of shophouses, each once given to a single trade, and the densest street food in Southeast Asia, with hotels on every lane. For first stays and anyone who wants the city at the door.
Everything Hanoi is famous for on foot, and the horns from five in the morning.
Hoan Kiem Lake
The lake, the temple, tai chi
The symbolic centre: Ngoc Son temple over the red Huc bridge, tai chi at dawn and the weekend night market when the streets close, with smarter hotels on the south side. For first visits that want the calm edge.
The lake at dawn and the Old Quarter next door, and the highest prices in the centre.
French Quarter
Boulevards, opera, grand hotels
The colonial grid south of the lake: wide avenues, the Opera House, the grand hotels and the embassies, quieter and greener than the Old Quarter. For couples and anyone who wants space and a pool.
Calm, trees and the best hotels, and a walk or a taxi to the food.
Tay Ho
Lakeside, expat, wine bars
The fashionable lakeside district and the expat centre: boutique hotels, international restaurants, wine bars and weekend farmers' markets, with Tran Quoc pagoda on the water. For long stays and for a break from the Old Quarter.
Quiet and the lake, and twenty minutes by Grab to the centre.
Dong Da
Residential, the Temple of Literature
Largely residential, with the Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university, and the student cafés and galleries around it, and cheaper rooms than the centre. For budget travellers who want a neighbourhood.
Local prices and one great sight, and a taxi to the rest.
Long Bien
Across the river, dawn market
Across the Red River by the 1902 Eiffel-designed bridge, with the wholesale produce market beneath it trading from two in the morning and a few homestays in the villages beyond. For early risers and a second visit.
The bridge and the market at dawn, and the river between you and everything else.
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Where to stay in Hanoi
Stay in the Old Quarter for a first visit: the guild streets, the street food and the lake are outside the door, and the hostels are modern, cheap and good. Most people give Hanoi 2 nights on Stippl, with Tay Ho the answer for a longer stay. Ask for a room at the back; the streets run late and start early.
Old Quarter
Modern hostels with dorms from €4.50 and curtains on every bed, private rooms from €26, good hotels from €43.
Hoan Kiem Lake
Smarter boutique hotels with lake views, €50 to €120, within a walk of everything.
French Quarter
The grand colonial hotels from €150 and quieter mid-range places on the wide avenues, €40 to €90.
Tay Ho
Boutique hotels and serviced apartments by the lake, €35 to €100, for a longer or quieter stay.
Dong Da
Cheaper guesthouses and family hotels near the Temple of Literature, €15 to €40.
Long Bien
A few homestays across the river, €10 to €30, with the wholesale market trading from two in the morning.
What to eat in Hanoi
Grilled pork with cold rice noodles and a dipping broth
Rice-noodle soup, beef or chicken, star anise and cinnamon in the broth
Whipped egg yolk and condensed milk over strong coffee
French-colonial baguette with pâté, pickles and coriander
Preservative-free draft beer, brewed daily
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Hanoi customs and what not to do
The Old Quarter is a workplace
Each street still trades its guild's goods and the pavement is kitchen, workshop and car park at once; walk in the road with the traffic and leave the kerb to the stools.
The mausoleum has rules
Shoulders and knees covered, hats off, no hands in pockets, no talking and no stopping in the line; it closes in the afternoon and for two months in autumn.
The stool is the invitation
A plastic stool on Ta Hien means you are welcome to sit with strangers; the beer is about €0.30 and the toast is một, hai, ba, vô.
The street chat is a set-up
A stranger who opens a chat about your country near Hoan Kiem is working a script that ends at a shop or a bill; a smile and a walk on costs nothing.
Do
- Cross the road by walking slowly and steadily without stopping
- Cover shoulders and knees at temples and at the mausoleum
- Haggle at Dong Xuan and the markets, where it is expected
- Sit on the stool you are offered; it is how the city eats
Don't
- Stop for strangers who start a conversation on the street near the lake
- Use your phone at the roadside; snatching from a passing bike is the risk
- Drink the tap water
- Photograph the guards at the mausoleum or the government quarter
What a Hanoi trip costs
Budget
€11–33
Dorm bed, street food, sleeper buses, free-to-cheap sights.
Mid-range
€37–70
Private rooms, restaurant meals, a Ha Long cruise, internal flight.
High-end
€85+
Boutique hotels, private transfers, guided caves and cruises.
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Fun facts about Hanoi
The Old Quarter's 36 streets are named for the trades that worked them. Hang Bac for silver, Hang Gai for silk, Hang Ma for ceremonial paper, a guild system set up to supply the citadel and still carrying the names.
Hoan Kiem means Lake of the Restored Sword. The legend has Emperor Le Loi returning a magical blade to a golden turtle god living in the water, and the turtle tower marks the spot.
The Long Bien bridge was designed by Gustave Eiffel's company in 1902. It was bombed repeatedly during the war and rebuilt in a visibly asymmetric patchwork that still carries trains and scooters.
Bach Ma is thought to be the oldest temple in the city. It was built in the ninth century and moved into the Old Quarter in the eighteenth to guard the eastern approach to Thang Long.
Egg coffee was invented in Hanoi during a milk shortage. A barman at the Metropole whisked egg yolk with sugar as a substitute in 1946, and his family's café still serves it.
Hanoi was founded in 1010 as Thang Long, the Rising Dragon. Emperor Ly Thai To moved the court here from Hoa Lu, and the Nguyen renamed it Ha Noi, between two rivers, in 1831.
Local tips for Hanoi
Use Grab, not a hailed taxi
The metered street taxis are the common scam vector; the app shows the price and the plate. A motorbike Grab across the Old Quarter is under €1.
Never book from a shopfront
Tour operators are impersonated here, logo and all, and a company name on a door proves nothing. Book the Ha Long or Sapa trip online or through your accommodation.
Phones go from the kerb
Snatching from a passing motorbike is the crime that actually happens. Do not use the phone at the roadside; turn to face a building if you must.
How long to stay
Most people give Hanoi 2 nights on Stippl, and nearly a third stay one because everything else in the north leaves from here. Two gets the Old Quarter and a day out.
A service you did not ask for
The shoe-cleaning, the fruit-basket photograph and the doughnut all work the same way: a stranger starts it, then demands payment. Say no before the first move.
Bia hoi is the safe cheap night
The pavement beer at Ta Hien is fresh, about €0.20 a glass and the most sociable thing in the city. The tap water is not drinkable; the hostels refill bottles free.
Hanoi questions, answered
At the start, usually. Hanoi opens the trip for 30.6% of the travellers who plan Vietnam on Stippl, because the flights land in the north and Sapa, Ha Giang, Ninh Binh and Ha Long Bay all leave from it. Build the northern loop out of Hanoi in Stippl before you fix any dates, then show the route to people who have ridden it.
Two nights, and the guidebooks' three days is optimistic. 30.9% of the stops planned in Hanoi on Stippl are a single night and the rest split fairly evenly between two, three and longer, so there is no consensus to follow. Two full days covers the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem and Ba Dinh without rushing.
Almost all of them. Hanoi appears in 86.0% of the Vietnam trips built on Stippl, more than anywhere else in the country. If you are cutting a route down, Hanoi is not the stop to cut: it is the one the whole north connects through, and dropping it usually means dropping Sapa and Ha Giang with it.
Restricted rather than closed. Barriers go up without warning, group tours are banned outright, and the cafes along the track arrange access for their own customers when enforcement is quiet. Treat it as something that may not happen on the day rather than a fixed item on your itinerary, and do not book a tour that promises it.
Noi Bai is 35 to 60 minutes out, depending on the traffic. The public bus is the cheap way in and runs to the Old Quarter, a Grab booked in the app is the predictable one, and a metered street taxi is the one to avoid, because the airport run is a common overcharging route. Settle the fare or use the app before you get in.
Hanoi, if the north is what you came for, and for most people it is. Flying into Hanoi and out of Ho Chi Minh City costs little more than a return, puts the mountains and the bay at the front while you still have the energy for them, and leaves the delta and the beaches for the end. The reverse works just as well if the ticket price says so.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Hanoi in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
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