Hanoi
Currency
VND
Language
Vietnamese
Timezone
Ho Chi_Minh
Continent
Asia
Discover Hanoi
Hanoi organises itself around Hoan Kiem lake, whose central islet holds the Turtle Tower and which The Huc Bridge, a red wooden walkway, joins to Ngoc Son Temple. The old quarter spreads its thirty-six guild streets around it, each historically given to one trade. The Temple of Literature, the country's first university founded in 1070, keeps its doctors' stelae carried on stone tortoises. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the One Pillar Pagoda occupy the political quarter to the west, and the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, a World Heritage site, sits between them.
When to go
October and November, then March and April: the dry, mild windows. Summer, May to September, is hot, very humid and wet. Winter surprises visitors — it is genuinely cold, around fifteen degrees, with persistent drizzle and little heating in older buildings. Tết, the lunar new year, closes much of the city for a week and its date moves.
Getting around
The old quarter is walked and only walked, and crossing the road is a skill: move slowly and steadily, and the scooters flow around you. Ride-hailing, including motorbike taxis, is cheap and covers everything. The metro has two lines, useful but limited. Renting a scooter without experience of Vietnamese traffic is unwise.
Where to eat
Phở was born in the north and is eaten at breakfast, never in the evening. Bún chả — grilled pork, rice noodles, herbs — is Hanoi's dish above all. Bánh mì comes from the French colonial inheritance, and cà phê trứng, egg coffee, is a local invention born of a milk shortage. You eat sitting on very low stools, on the pavement. No halal address is listed in our data.
Good to know
The dong is the currency and the notes carry many zeros: a street meal costs a few tens of thousands. Cash dominates outside tourist establishments. Air quality degrades noticeably in winter. Haggling is expected in markets, not in shops with marked prices. And shoes come off to enter temples and homes.
Where to Stay in Hanoi
Top Activities in Hanoi
landmarkImperial Citadel of Thang Long
landmarkHo Chi Minh Mausoleum
landmarkTemple of Literature
museumHoa Lo Prison
landmarkOpera House
landmarkOne Pillar Pagoda
landmarkPresidential Palace
museumVietnam Fine Arts Museum
from €1
landmarkBa Dinh Square
museumHo Chi Minh Museum
from €1
museumVietnamese Women's Museum
landmarkCua Bac Church
landmarkNational Library of Vietnam
landmarkTonkin Palace
activityThu Le Park
from €2
landmarkSaint Joseph Cathedral
museumNational Museum of Vietnamese History
landmarkHanoi–Dong Dang Railway
landmarkTurtle Tower
landmarkQuan Thanh Temple
landmarkTran Quoc Pagoda
Free
landmarkChu Van An High School for the Gifted
landmark