Hanoi was teeming with bicycles on my first visit 20 years ago. Now they have been replaced with millions of motorbikes and there are neon signs and fancy shops. But I found that Vietnam’s capital city was still crazy after all these years with plenty of the old Hanoi I remembered and some cool new places to explore. Here are eight ways to enjoy a fun couple of days in Hanoi.
1. Have breakfast at Hanoi’s quirky cafes
Why head for a Starbucks when you can have breakfast or a coffee at one of Hanoi’s excellent quirky cafes? Often hidden away down alleyways they serve local drinks like egg coffee as well as lots of other coffees, teas and pastries. We went to Cafe Pho Co which you find by walking through a souvenir shop at 11 Hang Gai and along a passageway into a courtyard where you order. Then you head upstairs to a temple-like mezzanine or further on up to a roof terrace. The next morning we headed for Loading T Cafe which is in a foliage-covered old mansion house. Both are great places to start the day.
2. Start exploring with a stroll around Hoan Kiem Lake
One thing I remembered very well about Hanoi was Hoan Kiem Lake. Right in the city centre, it’s a place that’s full of life. Stallholders are selling food snacks and pop-up cards with flowers and butterflies; people are jogging; and guys are offering a shoe shine to people who look like they need one. After two days in a dusty Laos homestay village, my trainers were very much the worse for wear. So I said yes and 10 minutes later they were like new! In the meantime, my friend was accosted by the mother of Linda, a 7-year-old who wanted to practice her English. Evidently, this is common at the lake as locals know they’ll find tourists there.
Sights you’ll see around the lake include the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre (which I discovered was not my cup of tea on my first visit to Hanoi!); Turtle Tower, a three-tiered pavilion in the middle of the water; and the Ngoc Son Temple. The latter is reached via a bridge with red lacquered railings as it’s on a small island planted with ancient trees. It’s a pretty place that’s worth a visit and one of the temple buildings is home to some stuffed and varnished giant turtles that once lived in the lake.
Further around you can’t miss the old General Post Office and the high-end Trang Tien Plaza shopping centre with store brands including Chanel and Cartier. This is where I realised Hanoi had become much more fancy since my last visit!
3. Have a drink on Train Street
One experience that wasn’t available in Hanoi back in 2005 is the craziness that is Train Street. It’s not uncommon to cross train tracks as you walk around Hanoi. But Train Street has made it into a tourist attraction. Cafes and bars line the narrow street making it possible to have a drink while the train passes by inches away.
They don’t go through frequently so we checked the latest schedule with our hotel; found a table in a bar; ordered a glass of wine; and watched the spectacle. Initially, there were lots of people walking on the tracks and a lady was selling fruit. But it was entertaining to see how the street started to get much emptier as the train time got closer. And although there were a few stragglers there were people whose job was to ensure everyone was safely off the tracks and not leaning forward too much in their seats. Yes, it really does go that close!
4. Take a street food tour
A great way to get an introduction to a country’s food and flavours is to do a food tour. We booked the Hanoi Street Food Tour and it was brilliant. We were the only two people on it that evening so we had our guide Apple to ourselves. We loved trying the different dishes and chatting to Apple to learn about life and culture in Vietnam. And of course, we sat on the child-size tables and chairs that were one of my lasting memories of Hanoi. Apple explained it’s because the multitude of outdoor tables and chairs aren’t legal and small ones are easier to move!
I’ll include a couple more photos from the tour below, but I’ve also published a separate post about all the different food and drinks we tried. It might help you navigate what’s on offer in Hanoi, though I would highly recommend booking the tour for the full experience.
5. Escape the streets at the Temple of Literature
As I mentioned earlier, the streets of Hanoi are filled with motorcycles. Apple told us there are 6 million motorcycles for an 8.5 million population! Walking around the streets can be a challenge as so many of the bikes are parked on pavements. Crossing streets is pretty hazardous too as they don’t stop. Apple told us the trick is to put your hand out and meet the rider’s eyes and they’ll go around you. They did and we survived!
So the Temple of Literature is a real oasis. It’s amazing really that there are busy streets all around but within the grounds, you can soon forget about them. The temple complex is important as Vietnam’s main Confucian sanctuary and as a centre of learning. The layout is based on Confucious’s birthplace in China and consists of a series of walled courtyards. The first two have lawns and trees while the next has a pond. Then you get to the main temple buildings including The House of Ceremonies with its tiled roof and dragons on top. This is where the king would make sacrifices before the altar of Confucious and inside you can see a large statue of the famous philosopher. The final courtyard was once home to the National Academy, Vietnam’s first university and its buildings were reconstructed after bombs destroyed it in the 1940s.
6. Check out some more key sights
As we’d been to Hanoi before we didn’t visit a lot of the sights but there are plenty including Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, temples, pagodas and museums. We did go to St Joseph’s Cathedral though as it’s one of Hanoi’s most iconic buildings. Its dark sombre facade is unusual and a real contrast to the shops and cafes around it. We also took a walk through the French Quarter to see Hanoi’s stunning Opera House. It was modelled on the Paris Opera House with columns and slate tiles imported from France.
7. Learn about the lives of Vietnamese women
Vietnam is a patriarchy for sure. Men are top of the tree and when a woman marries she moves in with her husband’s parents and becomes part of his family. We heard about this from Apple during our food tour. She’s 28 and got married and had a baby after returning to her home town during the Covid pandemic. Her daughter is now three years old and lives with her husband’s mother while Apple and her husband work all the hours they can to earn enough money for them all to live together in Hanoi. We were quite saddened by this, but Apple was such a joyful person to spend time with and she accepted that this was the way of things in her culture.
Inspired by our conversations we decided to find out more about the role of women at the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. It’s a fascinating place with videos and an audio tour. Each floor covers a different aspect of the lives of Vietnamese women including family life, women in history and women’s fashion, the latter highlighting how they have expressed themselves through clothes throughout the ages. The museum also covers the role of women as street vendors. Seeing women pushing their laden bicycles or with baskets suspended from bamboo poles across their shoulders is an enduring sight in Hanoi and across the country.
8. Enjoy a cocktail at one of Hanoi’s great rooftop bars
You can get a drink in many places in Hanoi, not least on lively Beer Street. However, there are also some very nice rooftop bars where you can find classic cocktails along with great views of the city. On our first night we went to Terraco Sky Bar to enjoy a drink with the city lights below us. The cocktails were great and the staff were really friendly. The following day we popped into Skyline Hanoi for a late afternoon cocktail and a daytime view. It’s a chilled space and the perfect way to relax and reflect on a fun couple of days in crazy Hanoi.
For more posts about my trip to Vietnam and Laos, visit the Asia section of my blog. And don’t forget to visit again as there are more posts to come!