9 of the best things to do in Hanoi

Spread around a series of lovely pagoda-dotted lakes where the meandering Red River meets the South China Sea, Vietnam’s capital Hanoi is a beauty with a history stretching back millennia. Alongside ancient Confucian temples and medieval streets of shop houses are modern skyscrapers, the wrecks of B-52s left to rot in city suburbs and a massive Soviet-style mausoleum to contemporary Vietnam’s founding father.

Chinese, French, tribal peoples and Western digital nomads all come together in Hanoi. Yet the city remains resolutely Vietnamese. The nation was born here; literally and metaphorically.

A few days exploration of the city is an essential on any Southeast Asia itinerary – and if you’re wondering how to spend your time while in town, here are nine of the best things to do in Hanoi.

1. Wander the Old Quarter

Hanoi Vietnam – Jan 17 2023: An elderly Vietnamese man rides his bicycle in Hang Bac, in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam

Chinese shop houses, a clutter of streetside markets hawking everything from handicrafts and wriggling snakehead fish to radishes and paper lanterns, roadside cafés serving treacle-black Vietnamese coffee, backpacker bars, massage spas… Hanoi’s Old Quarter is a mesmerising maze.

It’s been the centre of city commerce for centuries, and streets are still named after the goods that were once sold there. Hang Bac for instance means Silver Street and Hang Gai, Silk Street. The best way to see the area is to get lost in the Brownian motion, stopping for coffee or cooling beer along the way or lunching streetside on Pho or Bun Cha.

2. Visit the French Quarter

St. Joseph’s Cathedral,is a church on Nha Tho (Church) Street in the District of Hanoi, Vietnam

With its broad, tree-lined boulevards, Belle Epoque mansions and grand Opera House, the French Quarter stands in opulent, colonial contrast to the old part of town. This is where the city’s Grand Dame hotel, the Sofitel sits in anachronistic Indochine splendour, ceiling fans wafting, Vietnamese staff mouthing French and the bar looking like a period film set.

Close by is St. Joseph’s Cathedral – a gaudy, mini Notre Dame built on the site of the ruined Báo Thiên Pagoda, once home to the huge Chuong Giác Thế bell ‘that awakens all the people of the world’ that reputedly weighed some 12,000 kg. Sacked by the Chinese army in the 15th century, nothing remains of the what was once part of the Four Great Treasures of Annam.

Vietnam’s colonial history can be explored here, too. Hundreds of Viet Minh fighters were tortured and guillotined in French Quarter’s Hoa Lo Prison Museum. In 1945, Do Muoi (later Secretary General of the Communist Party) escaped through the sewer system, together with 100 fellow prisoners. In the Vietnam War, American prisoners, including senator John McCain, were kept here, with Hoa Lo earning the nickname ‘The Hanoi Hilton’.

3. Admire Hoan Kiem Lake

Sunset view of the Turtle Tower in middle of the Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Returned Sword) at historic centre of Hanoi in Vietnam. The Turtle Tower is a popular tourist attraction of Asia.

Hanoi is a city of lakes and rivers, and the prettiest of them all might just be Hoan Kiem, which lies south of the Old Quarter and immediately East of the French Quarter. It’s a lovely place for a wander, and like so much in Vietnam it’s steeped in myth.

Hoan Kim means ‘Lake of the Returned Sword’, and Vietnam’s very own version of Excalibur came from here. As legend goes, Emperor Lê Lợi, who finally fought off Ming China in the 15th Century to become the first King of post-China Vietnam, was boating on the lake when a Golden Turtle appeared to him. The turtle asked him for the Emperor’s magic sword, Heaven’s Will, which had been given to him by the Dragon King himself. The Emperor dutifully returned it, and it lies with the turtles (who are still abundant in Hoan Kiem) until it is need to defend Vietnam once more.

The rather worn Tháp Rùa Pagoda, which is found on an island in the centre of the lake, honours the turtle. It’s beautifully illuminated at night. Another island here is home to the Temple of the Jade Mountain, a homage to military leader Trần Hưng Đạo – who astonishingly fought off the Mongol Hordes in the 13th Century. A lovely red wooden bridge connects the island to the shore.

4. Walk around the Confucian temple and university Văn Miếu

Main gate at Temple of Literature, Hanoi, Vietnam; at a bright summer day.

This leafy complex of buildings (which is often mistakenly called the Temple of Literature) was Vietnam’s first university, founded a century before Oxford to educate princes and bureaucrats. Walking around its flower-filled gardens and stately 11th Century pavilions you will notice Chinese characters everywhere; a testament to North Vietnam’s considerable historical and cultural links with the Middle Kingdom.

Learning in medieval Vietnam was resolutely rooted in the traditions of the great 6th Century BC Chinese scholar Kong Qiu, aka Confucius. Statues of Confucius and his four key disciples – Mencius, Yan Hui, Zengzi and Zisi (Tử Tư), and (Mạnh Tử) – adorn the grounds together with the Chinese Zhou Dynasty noble who championed Confucianism, and 72 other Confucian scholars. Stone stelae commemorate the names of successful graduates. The university remained open from 1076 until the founding of the Nguyen Dynasty in the 19th Century, who relocated the royal capital from Hanoi to Hué.

5. Marvel at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum changing of the guards in Hanoi. Hanoi. Vietnam. 07-29-2022

Vietnam has fought off the Chinese, the Mongols, the Americans and, of course, the French. And Ho Chi Minh, the man responsible for defeating them and founding the Vietnamese Republic lies embalmed in a glass coffin in the heart of a huge mausoleum (modelled on that of Vladimir Lenin) in Hanoi’s vast Ba Đình Square Square.

As rebel leader of the Viet Minh, Uncle Ho – as he is known to Hanoi locals – read the Declaration of Vietnam’s Independence near here on 2 September 1945. But the French didn’t surrender until 1954 and under President Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam remained divided despite his best efforts, up until his death exactly 24 years later.

It should be noted that the Mausoleum is closed on Mondays and Fridays, as well as in the afternoons, and the building is closed for two months for maintenance of Ho Chi Minh’s body from September to November.

6. Wake up early to see the Long Biên Bridge

Hanoi, Vietnam – December 30th 2018.

No location in the city mixes myth and modernity like the Long Biên Bridge.

While the bridge itself is French, having been built around the time of the Eiffel Tower, its current moniker comes from the first name for Hanoi, the ‘City of Interweaving Dragons’. Founded in 200 BC along the Red River, Long Biên comes from the myth of the father of the Vietnamese, ostensibly by the Dragon King of Lac.

The son of a water goddess who had a turbulent marriage to the immortal daughter of the Flame Emperor, the Dragon King eventually divorced his wife, telling her ‘fire and water cannot live together in harmony’, and divided their myriad children between them. Fifty sons followed their mother into the mountainous north, fifty followed their father south. They became the Vietnamese and North Vietnam, South Vietnam, and a divided nation was born.

Best visited in the early morning, motor scooters, trains and pedestrians stream across it on their way to work while the ancient Red River gushes beneath.

7. Sample the street and café Food

Hanoi, Vietnam – December 13th 2017. Customers eat at a street food stall in the historic old quarter of Hanoi

There’s great street food everywhere in Vietnam, but it reaches new heights in Hanoi. You will find food vended on every other corner, especially in the Old Quarter.

Stop to sample the familiar, like the country’s famous Pho meat and noodle soup or Bun Cha, a local dish of grilled pork served with rice noodles and herbs, or branch out by cooling down at an air-conditioned café with an Egg Coffee. It’s much nicer than it sounds – think sweet, caffeinated egg nog – made with whipped yolks, sugar, and condensed milk. It’s all easily sampled on a self-guided tour. But if you want some guidance then many of the myriad small agencies in Hanoi’s streets offer street food tours.

8. Take a selfie on Train Street

hanoi, vietnam, 1 Apl 2024 .Hanoi Train Street runs around two kilometers from Le Duan through Tran Phu, Cua Dong and Phung Hung Streets.

This narrow street where trains pass within inches of homes, shops and cafes has been made famous by Instagrammers the world over.

And it is an astonishing sight, with the North-South, or Reunification, Express, trundling at little more than walking pace along the tracks as seemingly oblivious traders hawk their wares, locals sip coffee and play Xiangqi (Vietnamese draughts) until the very last second, when everything is rapidly swept away from the trains passage before resuming again as if nothing had happened. Safety concerns have led the authorities to try and close train street down, so far unsuccessfully. Tourist interest has even led to makeshift restaurants popping-up along the tracks.

9. See the Drowned B-52 Bomber at Huu Tiep Lake

Hanoi, Vietnam – July 28, 2015 : Historical vestige. Closeup photo of a wreckage of an american B-52 bomber, shot during the Vietnam War, crashed in Huu Tiep lake.