Top Oz Tours offers a great range of Hanoi tours and experiences. You can browse the options here.
Having celebrated its 1,000th birthday earlier this century, Hanoi is without doubt one of Asia’s most historic cities — and one of the most charming!
The capital of a unified, rapidly modernising Vietnam, Hanoi still offers the chance to connect with a more traditional past — and as the former capital of French Indochina, the fusion of European and traditional architectural styles is something really special. The French ruled Indochina from the late 1880s through to their ousting by Ho Chi Minh in 1954.
Hanoi is also the gateway to wondrous Halong Bay, and a cruise on this ethereal waterway is not to be missed.
Here’s a checklist of our top ten things to do in Hanoi on a first visit.
Browse Hanoi tours and experiences
Watch our video of ten top things to do in Vietnam:
10 Top Things to Do in Vietnam on a First Visit | Explore Ho Chi Minh City, Hoi An, Hue, and Hanoi
★ Did you enjoy this video? Help us make more by hitting the subscribe button! It will help us get more destinations on board. Thank you! ★Welcome to Top Oz …
1. Visit Ho Chi Minh’s house and mausoleum
Hanoi is a history buff’s delight and is packed with heritage highlights. One of the must-sees is the imposing Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. You pretty much can’t escape the venerable Ho Chi Minh during your visit to Vietnam. The kindly bearded face of Uncle Ho, as he is affectionately known locally, is everywhere. Ho Chi Minh lived from 1890 to 1969 and was the founder of the ruling communist party. Having given the French the heave-ho, he served as president of North Vietnam for more than twenty years (including during the early years of the Vietnam War).
Along with the Mausoleum, you can visit Ho’s simple stilt house (which he preferred to the palatial presidential palace constructed by the French in the early 1900s) and the excellent Ho Chi Minh Museum. You’ll need a full day to do it all justice.
2. Learn about the past at the Museum of Ethnology
There are another ten-or-so museums dotted across the city, and we recommend seeing the Museum of Ethnology. It’s located west of the Mausoleum precinct, and provides a great all-round introduction to the history of Vietnam and its multiple ethnic groups.
3. Explore the Old Quarter
Hanoi’s sprawling Old Quarter is a one-stop-shop for, well, pretty much everything. Visit the network of ‘specialist’ streets that have traditionally only sold one type of product — Wedding Cake Street, Silk Street etc. It’s a colourful, crazy cacophony of sights, sounds and smells, and it will soon become clear that this is not just another Asian market centre flogging souvenirs and sarongs to the tourists. These are locals living their lives in an extraordinary maelstrom of activity, and tolerating the travellers that flock here as part of the deal.
Hanoians in the Old Quarter can appear standoffish and aloof at first, but it’s often a language issue more than anything else. If you directly engage them with a genuine smile, it works wonders and usually opens doors. It’s always a good idea to ask permission before you poke a camera in someone’s face. It can and does cause offence. At times you may be asked for a donation in exchange for the photo opportunity. Just go with the flow.
4. See the water puppets show
The famous Hanoi water puppets show is one of the city’s most popular and affordable cultural experiences. This form of puppetry is said to have originated about a thousand years go in the rice fields of what is now northern Vietnam. Set to a live musical score, the puppets act out mythical tales and appear to literally dance on water. You’ll spend quite a bit of the time trying to work out how it’s done (the puppeteers train for a couple of years to master their art).
5. Go to the opera
For a more upscale cultural experience, attend a performance at the characterful Hanoi Opera House. It was built in 1911 as a replica of the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, and hosts a varied annual programme of opera, ballet, and concerts. Booking tickets can be a little tricky; ask your hotel concierge to check availability and facilitate the purchase for you.
6. Try some great restaurants
The dining scene in Hanoi offers endless choice, but here are a few tried-and-tested places to eat. Firstly, make Wild Lotus your go-to for classic Vietnamese cuisine. The setting is beautiful and the food is out of this world. Madame Hien (formerly the Green Tangerine) in the Old Quarter is also superb. It offers French-style cuisine with a Vietnamese twist and is housed in a magnificent villa from the 1920s.
For those wanting to get a good feed and give something back at the same time, head to Van Mieu restaurant. It’s operated by Vietnamese/Australian social enterprise Koto, and provides underprivileged and at-risk youths with training in hospitality.
7. Eat on the street
Street food is an integral part of Vietnam’s culinary scene. Street eats are cheap, bountiful, mostly delicious, sometimes a little strange, and occasionally downright confronting! Remember the golden rules of dining al fresco on the street: clean water source present; food freshly cooked; lots of local customers.
If that’s a bridge too far, pull up a pew at any of the hundreds of tiny pho noodle houses that line Hanoi’s main streets. You’ll invariably be seated at one of several rows of functional stainless steel communal tables with any number of other diners. Take up your chop sticks with gusto and dig in!
8. Take a cooking class
Why not take some Vietnamese culinary know-how home with you? Rose Kitchen offers classes that focus on different geographical regions and their signature dishes.
9. Snap a selfie on the Huc Bridge
Snap yourself the quintessential Hanoi selfie on the iconic red Huc Bridge, which links the shoreline of picturesque Hoan Kiem Lake with Jade Island and the Ngoc Son Temple. The bridge was originally constructed in 1865, but has been rebuilt a number of times. The name means ‘to welcome the morning sun’, and the reflection of the bridge on the lake’s surface at sunrise is spellbinding.
10. Cruise Halong Bay
Most visitors to Hanoi combine their stay with a cruise on UNESCO World Heritage-listed Halong Bay — located just under 200 kilometres east of the city. Drifting on the emerald waters between age-old limestone monoliths that rise up from the bay is a wonderfully serene experience.
Halong Bay can be done as a day trip from Hanoi, but be warned: it’s a big day of driving. If you can afford the time, take the option to stay overnight on one of the traditional junk boats that traverse this shimmering body of water.
For more travel inspiration, visit www.vietnam.travel.
Browse our range of Hanoi tours and experiences here.
Do you have any suggestions to add to our list of the top things to do in Hanoi on a first visit? We would love to hear from you. Join the conversation on our Facebook page.
Additional images: Bigstock
About the writer
Adam Ford is editor of Top Oz Tours and Travel Ideas, and a travel TV presenter, writer, blogger, and photographer. He has travelled extensively through Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, and the Middle East. Adam worked as a travel consultant for a number of years with Flight Centre before taking up the opportunity to travel the world himself as host of the TV series Tour the World on Network Ten. He loves to experience everything a new destination has to offer and is equally at home in a five-star Palazzo in Pisa or a home-stay in Hanoi.
Travel essentials
You can book many aspects of your holiday on the Top Oz Tours & Travel Ideas website, including flights, hotels, car hire, travel insurance, and more. When you purchase a product or service using the following links from our partners, we receive a small commission. It does not affect the price you pay, and it enables us to continue to provide readers with amazing travel inspiration.
Flights
Compare airlines, flights, and fares in one place with Booking.com. They don’t charge any credit card fees and you can always see exactly what you’re paying for in the price breakdown. You can book one-way, round-trip, and multi-city flights, and change your travel dates with ease when you opt for a flexible ticket option (an additional cost applies). It all adds up to a great flight! Search for flights with Booking.com
Hotels
If you’re looking for a great deal on your next hotel or homestay, look no further than Booking.com. Their mission is to make travel affordable and accessible to more people, and to deliver seamless accommodation experiences that complement your holiday. Search for hotels and homestays with Booking.com
Car hire
Discover Cars is an award-winning (World Travel Awards) car rental comparison website, which helps customers find, compare, and hire cars at the most competitive prices globally. Search for hire cars with Discover Cars
Day tours & experiences
Search and book day tours, guided experiences, and attraction tickets and passes worldwide with Top Oz Tours and Viator. There are no booking or credit card fees when you book through us, and you’ll have access to the widest choice of activities and most competitive prices. Browse day tours and experiences
Multi-day tours & trips
Top Oz Tours has joined forced with Tour Radar to bring you a fabulous range of multi-day tours and trips from the world’s leading operators. Travel with like minded people and get the best possible price on the holiday of your dreams. Browse multi-day tours and trips
Travel insurance
World Nomads aims to be a part of every traveller’s journey by providing a reassuring range of travel insurance services. Benefits include coverage for emergency medical and evacuation or repatriation, lost baggage, trip cancellation, and more than 150 adventure activities. Get an insurance costing
