Things to do
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Hanoi Old Quarter
Thirty-six streets north of Hoan Kiem still carry the names of the guilds that worked them: Hang Bac for silver, Hang Ma for paper goods. Tube houses stand narrow and deep, a tax on street frontage made visible. Pavements belong to parked motorbikes and low plastic stools, so walking here means walking in the road.
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Hanoi Train Street
Trains still run through a residential lane barely wider than the carriages, between Le Duan and Phung Hung, with doorsteps and cafe stools a pace from the rails. Authorities have closed and reopened the stretch repeatedly on safety grounds, and barriers with guards now control the Old Quarter end; entry usually means being let in by a cafe, and the timetable shifts without notice.
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Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
Ba Dinh Square holds the granite mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh lies embalmed, against the wishes he left for cremation. Entry is free, silent and strictly marshalled: no bags, no cameras, covered shoulders and knees, and a single moving queue past the sarcophagus. It opens mornings only and closes on Mondays and Fridays, plus roughly two months each autumn for preservation work.
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Hoa Lo Prison
Built by the French colonial administration in the 1890s as Maison Centrale, this prison held Vietnamese political prisoners in conditions the surviving cell blocks still display, shackles and all. Later it housed captured American pilots, who gave it the ironic nickname it is known by abroad. Most of the complex was demolished in the 1990s; the gatehouse wing remains as a museum.
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Hoan Kiem Lake
A small lake at the seam between the Old Quarter and the French-built streets, Hoan Kiem carries Ngoc Son Temple on a northern islet, reached by the red lacquered The Huc bridge. The squat Turtle Tower sits offshore. From Friday evening until late Sunday the surrounding roads close to traffic and the whole circuit fills with walkers.
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Imperial Citadel of Thang Long
Power in the Red River delta sat on this ground for some thirteen centuries, from the Ly dynasty capital through the Nguyen and on to the command bunker the Vietnamese army used during the American war. Above ground there is the Doan Mon gate and the flag tower; across the road, an open archaeological dig has exposed foundations and drains of successive palaces. UNESCO listed it in 2010.
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One Pillar Pagoda
Ly Thai Tong raised this tiny timber shrine in 1049, setting it on a single stone pillar so that it stands in its pond like a lotus opening. French troops mined the original in 1954 and the present structure is a rebuild of the following year. A visit takes minutes, and it sits inside the mausoleum grounds.
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Tam Coc
South of Hanoi in Ninh Binh, a sampan is rowed up the Ngo Dong river and back through three limestone caves, the longest of them running well over a hundred metres in near darkness. Rowers commonly work the oars leg-first, lying back against the seat. The round trip takes about two hours; late May and early June turn the paddy either side gold.
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Temple of Literature
Founded in 1070 as a temple to Confucius, the site took on Vietnam's first university six years later and trained mandarins for centuries. Five walled courtyards run back from the entrance, the third holding stone stelae on carved tortoises that record the names of doctoral graduates. Morning light and a weekday visit keep the front courtyards quiet.
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Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre
Water puppetry grew out of the flooded rice fields of the Red River delta, and this theatre by Hoan Kiem stages it several times a day in a waist-deep pool. Puppeteers work behind a bamboo screen on poles under the water while a small orchestra sings and plays the one-string dan bau. Shows run under an hour and sell out; booking ahead is sensible.
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Tran Quoc Pagoda
An islet on West Lake, joined to Thanh Nien road by a short causeway, carries a Buddhist foundation traced to the sixth century and moved here when the Red River ate its old bank. A red stupa of eleven tiers rises over the courtyard, each tier with its own seated Buddha. Late afternoon puts the sun behind the water and the stupa in silhouette.
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Trang An
Also in Ninh Binh, this karst landscape of towers, flooded valleys and temple sites was inscribed by UNESCO as a mixed cultural and natural property. Rowing boats follow set loops that thread a string of water caves, some low enough that heads go down for a minute at a time. The shortest of the routes still takes a couple of hours on the water.
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Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
Out in Cau Giay, a taxi ride west of the Old Quarter, this national museum covers all fifty-four officially recognised ethnic groups in Vietnam, with textiles, tools and ritual objects indoors. The grounds behind hold full-scale traditional houses moved or rebuilt from around the country, including a Bahnar communal hall with a soaring thatched roof. Half a day covers both, and the open-air section wants dry weather.