Hanoi
Hanoi's Old Quarter has thirty-six streets, each still named for the trade that worked it: silver, silk, ceremonial paper. Egg coffee was invented here, during a milk shortage.
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.
Who Hanoi is for
Food travellers, above all
Our own data gives Hanoi a single vibe, culinary, and our sources organise whole days around eating
Budget travellers.
Dorm beds from around €4.50 and beer under 50 cents put it among the cheapest capitals anywhere
Anyone doing northern Vietnam
because the whole north is organised around leaving from here
History travellers
for the Citadel, the Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo and the war museums
When to go to Hanoi
Add your Hanoi dates and we'll flag the weather
Stippl shows the season, crowds and prices for every stop on your route.
Describe your trip, get a Hanoi itinerary in seconds
Everything in this guide is already in Stippl. Tell the planner how long you have and what you like: it builds the route, the days and the travel times, and you edit whatever you want.
What not to miss in Hanoi
Walk the thirty-six streets of the Old Quarter early
before eight, while the stalls are setting up
Bia hoi at the Ta Hien junction
plastic stools on the pavement, 5,000 VND beer, from about 5pm to midnight
Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple
reached over the red Huc Bridge; the lakeshore fills with tai chi at dawn
The Temple of Literature
founded 1070, Vietnam's first university, five walled courtyards and 82 stone steles for doctoral graduates
Thang Long water puppet show.
Performed in Vietnamese and easy to follow; a Red River Delta tradition rather than a tourist invention
Hoa Lo Prison
the "Hanoi Hilton", which held Vietnamese revolutionaries under the French and American prisoners of war later
The neighbourhoods of Hanoi
Old Quarter (Hoan Kiem)
first stay
Thirty-six guild streets in a dense grid of two-to-four-storey shophouses, each once given to a single trade. The densest street-food concentration in Southeast Asia: bun cha, banh mi, egg coffee, alongside craft beer bars and French-era frontages.
Thirty-six guild streets and the densest street food in Southeast Asia.
Hoan Kiem Lake
first-timers
The scenic and symbolic centre, with Ngoc Son temple on Jade Island reached by the red Huc Bridge. Tai chi at dawn, the weekend night market when the surrounding streets close to traffic, and the French Quarter, Opera House and St Joseph's a short walk south.
Ngoc Son temple on Jade Island, over the red Huc Bridge, and tai chi at dawn.
Ba Dinh
history
The political and ceremonial quarter: wide colonial avenues, Ba Dinh Square where independence was declared in 1945, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda and the UNESCO-listed Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.
Ba Dinh Square, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.
Tay Ho (West Lake)
quiet
The fashionable lakeside district and the expat centre: boutique hotels, international restaurants, wine bars, weekend farmers' markets. Tran Quoc Pagoda, one of Vietnam's oldest, sits on an island off the west bank; the Quang Ba flower market runs nightly from 11pm to dawn.
Tran Quoc Pagoda on the lake and a flower market that runs from 11pm to dawn.
Dong Da
one sight
Largely residential, but it holds the Temple of Literature: Vietnam's first university, founded 1070, with its five courtyards and 82 doctoral steles, plus student cafes and gallery clusters on Giam Street.
The Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university, founded in 1070.
Long Bien
early risers
Across the Red River, reached by the 1902 Eiffel-designed Long Bien bridge, rebuilt visibly asymmetric after wartime bombing. The wholesale produce market beneath it trades from around 2am to 4am and is the city's best pre-dawn spectacle.
The 1902 Eiffel-designed bridge and a wholesale market that trades before dawn.
See every Hanoi neighbourhood on one map
Save the areas you like and Stippl plots your days so you're not crossing the city twice.
Where to stay in Hanoi
Stay in the Old Quarter. Every source, without qualification, for a first visit
Old Quarter (Hoan Kiem)
Thirty-six guild streets in a dense grid of two-to-four-storey shophouses, each once given to a single trade. The densest street-food concentration in Southeast Asia: bun cha, banh mi, egg coffee, alongside craft beer bars and French-era frontages.
Hoan Kiem Lake
The scenic and symbolic centre, with Ngoc Son temple on Jade Island reached by the red Huc Bridge. Tai chi at dawn, the weekend night market when the surrounding streets close to traffic, and the French Quarter, Opera House and St Joseph's a short walk south.
Ba Dinh
The political and ceremonial quarter: wide colonial avenues, Ba Dinh Square where independence was declared in 1945, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda and the UNESCO-listed Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.
Tay Ho (West Lake)
The fashionable lakeside district and the expat centre: boutique hotels, international restaurants, wine bars, weekend farmers' markets. Tran Quoc Pagoda, one of Vietnam's oldest, sits on an island off the west bank; the Quang Ba flower market runs nightly from 11pm to dawn.
Dong Da
Largely residential, but it holds the Temple of Literature: Vietnam's first university, founded 1070, with its five courtyards and 82 doctoral steles, plus student cafes and gallery clusters on Giam Street.
Long Bien
Across the Red River, reached by the 1902 Eiffel-designed Long Bien bridge, rebuilt visibly asymmetric after wartime bombing. The wholesale produce market beneath it trades from around 2am to 4am and is the city's best pre-dawn spectacle.
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
Discover food spots in Stippl
Find restaurants and markets on the map, save them to your itinerary, works offline too.
Cultural highlights & etiquette
Do
- Cross the road by walking slowly and steadily without stopping. Motorbikes flow around you; hesitating is what causes accidents
- Cover shoulders and knees at temples
- Haggle at Dong Xuan and the markets, where it is expected
Don't
- Don't stop for strangers who start a conversation on the street. our sources are emphatic; see Safety
- Don't use your phone at the roadside
- Don't drink the tap water
Daily budget in Hanoi
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
Track what you actually spend
Set a daily budget per country and log expenses in any currency while you travel.
Fun facts about Hanoi
The Old Quarter's thirty-six 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
Hoan Kiem means "Lake of the Restored Sword", from the legend of Emperor Le Loi returning a magical blade to a golden turtle god living in it
The Long Bien bridge was designed by the Gustave Eiffel company and completed in 1902. Repeatedly bombed during the war, it was rebuilt in a visibly asymmetric patchwork that is still there
Bach Ma is thought to be the oldest temple in the city, built in the ninth century and moved into the Old Quarter in the eighteenth to guard Thang Long's eastern approach
Egg coffee was invented here, reportedly during a milk shortage
Local tips for Hanoi
Hanoi is the northern hub
and its value in an itinerary is partly that everything else leaves from it
Use Grab rather than hailing.
Our sources are consistent that metered street taxis are a common scam vector
Never book from a shopfront
go online or through your accommodation. Operators are impersonated, logo and all
Scams, not serious crime
Our sources devote more space to Hanoi scams than to any other Vietnamese city and carries a dedicated article on them
Phone snatching is the risk
from motorbikes, specifically. Do not use a phone at the kerb; turn to face a building if you must
Three scams, one mechanism
shoe-cleaning, fruit-photo and donut all work the same way: a stranger initiates contact, provides an unrequested service, then demands payment
Frequently asked questions about Hanoi
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.
Download the app