Hanoi travel guide — what to see, how to get around

Destinations › Asia › Hanoi

Hanoi is the older, denser, cooler one — a thousand-year capital whose Old Quarter is still laid out as a grid of trade streets, and the only major Vietnamese city where you will genuinely want a jacket in January. Two metro lines are open and neither goes anywhere near the Old Quarter, so the tourist core is walking plus Grab or Xanh SM, and the good days are the ones you spend on foot around Hoan Kiem.

Getting there

How to reach Hanoi

No nonstop exists between Toronto and Hanoi, and Vietnam Airlines has no Canadian service at all — its only North American route is San Francisco. Every realistic itinerary connects through one of Pearson's existing Asian nonstops and then takes a short onward leg: Taipei Taoyuan on EVA Air, Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, Seoul Incheon on Korean Air or Air Canada, Tokyo Narita or Haneda on Air Canada, or Manila on Philippine Airlines. You arrive at Noi Bai International Airport (HAN), Terminal 2, which handles international flights; T1 is domestic, and free VinBus electric shuttles connect the two. Noi Bai sits about 35 km northeast of the centre, reached via the Nhat Tan Bridge, and there is no rail link of any kind — the metro extensions planned to reach the airport do not exist yet, so ignore any suggestion of an airport train. The named public option is the orange airport bus, route 86, which runs from Noi Bai to the Old Quarter and on to Hanoi Railway Station. For a car, Mai Linh and Taxi Group are the reputable metered fleets at the official rank, and Grab and Xanh SM pick up from the marked ride-hail bay.

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Getting around

Once you're there

Two Hanoi Metro lines run, and the honest headline is that neither one serves the Old Quarter. Line 2A (Cat Linh – Yen Nghia) opened in 2021 and runs southwest through Dong Da and Thanh Xuan out toward Ha Dong; the elevated section of Line 3 opened in 2024 and runs west between Nhon and Cau Giay. Line 3's underground extension in toward Hanoi Railway Station is still under construction. Both are clean, cheap and useful for getting out to the suburbs, and largely irrelevant to a first visit. Ticketing has gone digital: physical single-journey ticket cards and tokens have been withdrawn, so it is now a QR single-journey ticket bought at the station counter or through the app, a VietQR scan from a digital wallet, or a contactless Visa tapped at the gate. Fares are distance-based on both lines. Above ground, the city bus network is extensive but hard to use without Vietnamese. In practice you will walk the Old Quarter and the lake, and use Grab, Xanh SM (electric) or Be for anything further — Grab and Be run motorbike taxis as well as cars, with the fare fixed in the app before you get on. Street-hailing a taxi is where people get burned; stick to Mai Linh and Taxi Group if you must.

Don't miss

The best of Hanoi

Hoan Kiem Lake and the Old Quarter

The lake is the city's living room — walked at dawn by people doing tai chi, circled all evening by everyone else. Ngoc Son Temple, raised in the 18th century and honouring the 13th-century commander Tran Hung Dao, sits on its islet, reached by the vermillion Huc Bridge. North of it the Old Quarter's thirty-six streets are still nominally organised by trade, which is why one lane sells nothing but tin goods and the next only votive paper. Go on foot, get lost deliberately, and accept that the pavements belong to parked motorbikes and you belong in the road.

Imperial Citadel of Thang Long

UNESCO-listed since 2010, and the seat of Vietnamese power from 1010 until the capital moved to Hue in 1789, with excavated foundations layered from successive dynasties. The part most people miss is D67 — built in 1967, disguised as an ordinary house, with metre-thick soundproofed walls and a connecting tunnel down to the bunker. It now displays the equipment the Politburo, the Central Military Commission and the General Staff used to run the war.

Temple of Literature

Van Mieu, founded in 1070 and home from 1076 to Vietnam's first national university, the Quoc Tu Giam. Five walled courtyards, and the doctors' stelae — stone tablets mounted on carved turtles listing the men who passed the imperial examinations, and themselves on UNESCO's Memory of the World register. It is the calmest place in central Hanoi and the one thing here that is close to a thousand years old.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the Ba Dinh complex

Free to enter, but the constraints matter more than the price: mornings only, closed Mondays and Fridays, and shut entirely for an annual maintenance period. Cameras and camera phones have to be left at the cloakroom, shoulders and knees covered, no food or drink, absolute silence inside, and you keep moving. The One Pillar Pagoda, the Presidential Palace grounds, Ho Chi Minh's stilt house and the Ho Chi Minh Museum are all in the same complex, so treat it as one morning rather than one stop.

Hanoi in pictures

Hanoi

Where to base yourself

Neighbourhoods of Hanoi

The Old Quarter, around Hoan Kiem

The thirty-six trade streets, still nominally organised by what they sell — silk on Hang Gai, silver on Hang Bac, votive paper on Hang Ma. Base here if you want to walk out of the door into the thing you came for. Understand what you're buying: buildings are tube houses, five or six storeys on a footprint the size of a garage, with either a lift the size of a phone box or no lift at all, and the lanes are too tight to wheel a suitcase comfortably. Ask for a room at the back and above the second floor, and stay several streets away from Ta Hien if you intend to sleep.

The French Quarter, south and east of Hoan Kiem

Wide boulevards, tamarind trees, the Opera House, the old villas and the embassy blocks. This is the part of Hanoi with pavements you can actually use, and it is still a ten-minute walk to the lake. Costs more and has less atmosphere at street level, but if you are travelling with parents or anyone who needs quiet and even ground, this is the answer to the Old Quarter problem.

Tay Ho, around West Lake

The expat district: lake breeze, low-rise, gardens, bakeries and international groceries, with Tran Quoc Pagoda and Quan Thanh Temple on the causeway at the southern end. Much better air and much more space, and genuinely good with small children. The cost is a twenty- to thirty-minute Grab into the Old Quarter and back every single day.

Ba Dinh

The government quarter — the Mausoleum, the Presidential Palace grounds, the Imperial Citadel, with the Temple of Literature just south. Wide streets, mature trees, real pavements, and almost nothing happening after dark. Good for a calm base with taxis; wrong if you want to wander out for a beer late.

What to eat

Eating in Hanoi

Bun cha

Charcoal-grilled pork patties and slices of belly floating in a bowl of warm, sweet-sour fish sauce with pickled kohlrabi, alongside a plate of cold rice vermicelli and a mound of herbs that you dunk, bowl by bowl. It is a Hanoi dish and a lunchtime-only one — the smoke from the grills on the pavement is how you find it, and if a place is still serving in the late afternoon it is not the place. The lanes of the Old Quarter and the stretch around Hai Ba Trung and Le Van Huu are thick with them at midday.

Pho, northern style

Cleaner and plainer than the version that came to Toronto with the southern diaspora: a clear beef or chicken broth, flat rice noodles, spring onion, and no plate of bean sprouts, basil and hoisin on the side. Adding sriracha to it in Hanoi will get you a look. It is breakfast — the serious shops open early, cook one pot, and shut when it's gone, often by mid-morning. Bat Dan and Ly Quoc Su in the Old Quarter are the streets people name.

Cha ca

Chunks of freshwater fish marinated in turmeric and galangal, brought to your table in a sizzling pan and finished in front of you with an absurd volume of dill and spring onion, then eaten over rice vermicelli with roasted peanuts, and shrimp paste if you're brave. There is a street in the Old Quarter named after the dish — Pho Cha Ca — which tells you how long this has been going on.

Ca phe trung and bia hoi

Egg coffee is a Hanoi invention from the years when milk was scarce: egg yolk whipped with condensed milk into a hot meringue, poured over strong coffee, served in a glass sitting in a bowl of hot water. Drink it in winter. Bia hoi is the opposite — unpasteurised draught beer brewed and drunk the same day, poured from a keg into a glass on a plastic stool on the kerb, at its most concentrated around the Ta Hien and Luong Ngoc Quyen junction that everyone calls Bia Hoi Corner. Also worth an hour: the food alley behind Dong Xuan Market, which is where the market's own traders eat.

If you only have 48 hours

Two days in Hanoi

1

Day 1, early morning

Hoan Kiem Lake at first light, when it belongs to people doing tai chi, badminton and aerobics to a portable speaker rather than to tourists. Cross the vermillion Huc Bridge to Ngoc Son Temple on its islet. Then pho at an Old Quarter shop within a few minutes' walk north — this is all on foot and the whole loop is under a kilometre.

2

Day 1, late morning

Walk north into the Old Quarter with no route: Hang Gai for silk, Hang Bac for silver, Hang Ma for paper and lanterns, ending at Dong Xuan Market, the big covered market at the top of the grid, and the food alley behind it. Fifteen minutes of walking, an hour and a half of getting lost, which is the correct ratio.

3

Day 1, afternoon

Grab or a twenty-five-minute walk west to the Temple of Literature — Van Mieu, founded in 1070, five walled courtyards and the stone doctors' stelae on their carved turtles. From there it's about fifteen minutes on foot north to the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long; inside the citadel grounds, find D67, the innocuous-looking 1967 building with metre-thick soundproofed walls and the bunker underneath, which is the part most visitors walk straight past.

4

Day 1, evening

Back to the Old Quarter on foot or by Grab. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings the streets around Hoan Kiem close to traffic and become a pedestrian zone, with a night market running north from Hang Dao up to Dong Xuan — this is the one time you can walk Hanoi without negotiating with motorbikes and it is worth planning your weekend around. Finish at Bia Hoi Corner.

5

Day 2, morning

The Ba Dinh complex, and it has to be a morning because that's the only time it opens. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is free but closed Mondays and Fridays and shut entirely for an annual maintenance period; cameras and phones go to the cloakroom, shoulders and knees are covered, and once inside you keep moving in silence. The One Pillar Pagoda, the Presidential Palace grounds, the stilt house and the Ho Chi Minh Museum are all in the same complex, so treat it as one continuous walk rather than four stops. Check the current closure dates before you build a day around it.

6

Day 2, afternoon

Grab twenty minutes north to Thanh Nien road, the causeway between West Lake and Truc Bach. Quan Thanh Temple sits at its southern end and Tran Quoc Pagoda — the oldest pagoda in Hanoi, founded in the sixth century and moved to its islet in West Lake in 1615 — a few minutes' walk up the causeway from it. Then walk or cycle the lake shore into Tay Ho for the afternoon and eat there rather than fighting your way back into the Old Quarter.

Worth a day

Day trips from Hanoi

Ninh Binh — Trang An, Hoa Lu and Tam Coc

The best single day out of Hanoi, and better than Ha Long if you only have one. Limestone karst towers rising straight out of flooded rice paddy, with UNESCO World Heritage status, and small flat-bottomed boats rowed through low water caves — often by women rowing with their feet, which you will not forget. Hoa Lu was Vietnam's tenth-century capital and sits in the same valley; Mua Cave is the staircase up a karst peak for the view everyone photographs. Getting there: about a hundred kilometres south, reachable in roughly two to two and a half hours on the North–South railway from Hanoi Railway Station to Ninh Binh, or by the door-to-door 'limousine' minibuses that collect from Old Quarter hotels.

Ha Long Bay

The famous one. Two and a half hours each way on the Hanoi–Hai Phong and Ha Long expressways, with day boats going out from the Tuan Chau and Ha Long cruise terminals. Here is the honest version: a day trip is about five hours in a van for about four hours on the water, mostly in the busiest part of the bay. Worse, this is the trip that gets cancelled — typhoons make landfall on the northern coast mostly between June and September, and the port authority suspends departures at short notice, sometimes on the morning itself. If Ha Long is the reason you came, sleep on the boat, or go to Lan Ha Bay from Cat Ba instead, which is quieter and no less beautiful.

Bat Trang ceramic village

About thirteen kilometres southeast across the Red River, the pottery village that has supplied Hanoi's kilns for roughly six centuries. Wander the narrow lanes of workshops and kilns, browse the pottery market, and let the kids throw a pot at one of the studios that set up wheels for visitors. This is the easy half-day: a city bus runs out to Bat Trang from Long Bien bus station, which makes it the cheapest thing you'll do all week, and the trip out over Chuong Duong Bridge is a nice ride in itself.

Travelling with family

Bringing parents, or kids

Hanoi is more beautiful than Ho Chi Minh City and considerably harder work, and the difficulty is concentrated exactly where you want to stay. The Old Quarter is not stroller or wheelchair terrain. The pavements are occupied by parked motorbikes, plastic stools, charcoal grills and stacked merchandise, so pedestrians walk in the road; kerbs are high, uneven, and drop away without warning. Lanes are too narrow for two people abreast when a delivery bike comes through. If someone in your group uses a walker or a chair, base yourselves in the French Quarter south of the lake or in Tay Ho instead, where the pavements are wide and continuous, and go into the Old Quarter by taxi for a couple of hours at a time rather than living in it. Old Quarter hotels compound this. The buildings are tube houses — six storeys on a tiny footprint — and 'lift' can mean a cabin that fits one person and a small bag, reached by several steps up from the street. Ask two specific questions before booking: is there a lift, and how many steps are there between the pavement and it. The metro won't rescue you. Both open lines — 2A from Cat Linh out to Ha Dong, running since 2021, and the elevated section of Line 3 between Nhon and Cau Giay, open since August 2024 — are clean, air-conditioned and new enough to have lifts and escalators, though check on the day rather than assuming. Neither goes anywhere near the Old Quarter or Hoan Kiem. Line 3's underground extension in toward Hanoi Railway Station is still under construction and is expected to open in 2027. Ticketing has gone digital: physical single-journey cards were withdrawn on Line 2A in late 2025 and Line 3's tokens were replaced by QR tickets in early 2026, so it's a QR ticket from the counter, a wallet scan, or a contactless card tapped at the gate. Realistically you will walk, and use Grab, Be or Xanh SM for everything else. Weather is the thing GTA travellers get wrong. Hanoi has four real seasons, unlike the south. December to February brings the northeast monsoon: mid-teens Celsius, grey, and a penetrating damp that feels colder than it reads. Old Quarter hotels are built to shed heat, not hold it, and often 'heat' a room with a single reverse-cycle air conditioner mounted near the ceiling. Bring a proper jacket and layers for a parent who feels the cold. May through September is hot, very humid and wet. And Hanoi's air quality is frequently poor through the cool dry months from roughly November to March — the UK FCDO lists air pollution among Vietnam's health risks, and Hanoi in winter is where you will actually notice it. If anyone in your group has asthma or COPD, take it seriously and pack the inhaler in the day bag, not the suitcase. On the sights: the Temple of Literature and the Imperial Citadel are the two easy ones — flat courtyards, gravel and paving, benches, shade. The Ba Dinh complex means a long outdoor queue in the open sun, no phones, and no stopping once you're moving inside the Mausoleum; wheelchairs are generally accommodated but ask the guards at the entrance rather than joining the main line. The distances between the Palace grounds, the stilt house and the museum are longer than they look on a map. Ngoc Son Temple involves a step up onto the bridge and a few more inside. Day trips: getting into a boat is the pinch point. Ha Long jetties involve a step down onto a moving deck, often without a handrail and often with a crew member simply grabbing your arm. Ninh Binh's rowing boats sit low and flat, which makes them easier to board but means a couple of hours sitting on a hard bench close to the water with no shade and no way to get out early — take a hat and think about whether your parent will be comfortable for that long. And the journey: no nonstop from Pearson, so twenty to twenty-four hours with one Asian connection. Noi Bai is about thirty-five kilometres northeast of the centre with no rail link of any kind — ignore anything you read about an airport metro, it does not exist. Pre-arrange a hotel car, or use the orange airport bus, route 86, which runs from both terminals into the Old Quarter and on to Hanoi Railway Station.

Before you go

Practical basics

Currency and cards

Vietnamese dong. Cards are fine in hotels, chain cafés and mid-range restaurants and up; everything that makes Hanoi worth visiting — the market stalls, the bun cha shops, the bia hoi kegs, the xe om — is cash. Get dong from ATMs attached to bank branches rather than standalone machines, and cover the keypad; Global Affairs Canada says credit, debit and ATM fraud occurs frequently in Vietnam. Break your large notes whenever you get the chance, because a street vendor genuinely may not have change. There is also a customs threshold above which cash must be declared entering and leaving, which is worth checking if you're carrying money to relatives.

Tipping

Even less of a habit in the north than in the south, and nobody will be offended if you don't. Round up on a taxi, leave the coins at a pho shop, and that's it. The exceptions are the ones where someone has given you a whole day: a private driver, a guide, a boat crew. Hotels and smarter restaurants often add a service charge to the bill already, so read it before you add more.

Plugs and power

220 volts, 50 hertz — some references round it to 230, but either way it is roughly double Canada's 120 volts. Sockets take Type A, two flat parallel pins, the same shape as an ungrounded Canadian plug, and Type C, two round pins, and most are hybrid outlets that take either. Your plug fitting is not the same as your device working: only use appliances labelled 100–240V. Chargers, laptops and camera batteries are all fine; a Canadian hair dryer, curling iron or travel kettle is not, and a grounded three-pin Canadian plug may not physically fit. Old Quarter buildings tend to have very few sockets per room and no earth pin, so bring a slim power bar.

Tap water

Not drinkable. Bottled water is universal and every hotel supplies it; use it for brushing if your stomach is at all delicate. Ice in established places in the city is generally factory-made from treated water and is fine, but skip it from kerbside carts if you have young children or elderly parents with you. One Hanoi-specific note: in the cold months everything is served hot as a matter of course, including water, so if you want it cold you have to ask. Traveller's diarrhoea is the most common thing that goes wrong here — hand sanitiser before you eat matters more than avoiding the street food.

Language and English

Vietnamese, and the northern accent is noticeably different from the southern one most Vietnamese-Canadians in the GTA speak — if you learned a few words from family in Mississauga or Scarborough, expect to be asked to repeat yourself. It's tonal, so a small error in pitch changes the word entirely. English is good in the Old Quarter tourist trade and in hotels, patchy in Ba Dinh and Tay Ho outside the expat places, and thin in the markets and with older drivers. Grab handles the hard part because you type the address. Download the offline Vietnamese pack in Google Translate before you fly.

The scam and safety note that matters

Global Affairs Canada names one specifically: criminals posing as taxi drivers have targeted foreign visitors at Noi Bai International Airport and robbed them by forcing them to withdraw money from ATMs. Do not accept a ride from anyone who approaches you in the terminal — go to the marked ride-hail bay or the official rank, or book through an app so the driver and fare are recorded. In town, the hustles around Hoan Kiem are small but persistent: someone hands you their shoulder yoke of fruit for a photo and then demands payment, or a shoe-shine appears at your feet uninvited. Say no clearly and keep walking. Bag snatching from passing motorbikes happens here too — keep your bag on the building side and your phone out of your hand at the kerb. Global Affairs Canada also flags gambling scams in Hanoi, with victims losing thousands of dollars to card games set up by friendly strangers.

When to go

Timing your trip

Unlike the south, Hanoi has four genuinely distinct seasons, and getting this wrong changes the trip. October and November are the best window: dry, mild, clear light, the tail of the rain gone. March and April are the second-best but come with drizzle and low cloud. May through September is the hot, humid, wet stretch — most of the year's rain falls between May and October, and this is also when typhoons make landfall on the northern coast, mostly between June and September, which is the thing that cancels Ha Long Bay boat departures at short notice. December to February is the part visitors are least prepared for: the northeast monsoon brings a real cool season with mean temperatures in the mid-to-high teens Celsius, grey skies, penetrating damp, and cold fronts pushing through several times a month. Old Quarter hotels are built for heat, not cold, and often 'heat' a room with a single reverse-cycle air conditioner. Pack an actual jacket and layers for a January or February trip. Tet, the Lunar New Year, falls in this window and closes a great many family-run restaurants and shops for days.

Do it on a budget

Smart-money tips

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum charges no admission at all, but it is open mornings only, closed every Monday and Friday, and shut for an annual maintenance period. Cameras and camera phones must be surrendered at the cloakroom and a dress code is enforced at the door — plan it as the first thing you do on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday.
There is no combined Hanoi city pass. The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long and the Temple of Literature each sell their own ticket at their own gate, and the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem Lake and the walk around Ngoc Son's islet cost nothing.
On the metro there is no stored-value card left to buy — physical single-journey ticket cards and tokens have been withdrawn on both lines, so entry is either a QR single-journey ticket from the station counter or app, a VietQR scan from a digital wallet, or a contactless Visa tapped at the gate. Fares are distance-based, not flat, on both open lines.

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FAQ

Hanoi — common questions

How do I get to Hanoi?

No nonstop exists between Toronto and Hanoi, and Vietnam Airlines has no Canadian service at all — its only North American route is San Francisco. Every realistic itinerary connects through one of Pearson's existing Asian nonstops and then takes a short onward leg: Taipei Taoyuan on EVA Air, Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, Seoul Incheon on Korean Air or Air Canada, Tokyo Narita or Haneda on Air Canada, or Manila on Philippine Airlines. You arrive at Noi Bai International Airport (HAN), Terminal 2, which handles international flights; T1 is domestic, and free VinBus electric shuttles connect the two. Noi Bai sits about 35 km northeast of the centre, reached via the Nhat Tan Bridge, and there is no rail link of any kind — the metro extensions planned to reach the airport do not exist yet, so ignore any suggestion of an airport train. The named public option is the orange airport bus, route 86, which runs from Noi Bai to the Old Quarter and on to Hanoi Railway Station. For a car, Mai Linh and Taxi Group are the reputable metered fleets at the official rank, and Grab and Xanh SM pick up from the marked ride-hail bay.

How do I get around Hanoi?

Two Hanoi Metro lines run, and the honest headline is that neither one serves the Old Quarter. Line 2A (Cat Linh – Yen Nghia) opened in 2021 and runs southwest through Dong Da and Thanh Xuan out toward Ha Dong; the elevated section of Line 3 opened in 2024 and runs west between Nhon and Cau Giay. Line 3's underground extension in toward Hanoi Railway Station is still under construction. Both are clean, cheap and useful for getting out to the suburbs, and largely irrelevant to a first visit. Ticketing has gone digital: physical single-journey ticket cards and tokens have been withdrawn, so it is now a QR single-journey ticket bought at the station counter or through the app, a VietQR scan from a digital wallet, or a contactless Visa tapped at the gate. Fares are distance-based on both lines. Above ground, the city bus network is extensive but hard to use without Vietnamese. In practice you will walk the Old Quarter and the lake, and use Grab, Xanh SM (electric) or Be for anything further — Grab and Be run motorbike taxis as well as cars, with the fare fixed in the app before you get on. Street-hailing a taxi is where people get burned; stick to Mai Linh and Taxi Group if you must.

When is the best time to visit Hanoi?

Unlike the south, Hanoi has four genuinely distinct seasons, and getting this wrong changes the trip. October and November are the best window: dry, mild, clear light, the tail of the rain gone. March and April are the second-best but come with drizzle and low cloud. May through September is the hot, humid, wet stretch — most of the year's rain falls between May and October, and this is also when typhoons make landfall on the northern coast, mostly between June and September, which is the thing that cancels Ha Long Bay boat departures at short notice. December to February is the part visitors are least prepared for: the northeast monsoon brings a real cool season with mean temperatures in the mid-to-high teens Celsius, grey skies, penetrating damp, and cold fronts pushing through several times a month. Old Quarter hotels are built for heat, not cold, and often 'heat' a room with a single reverse-cycle air conditioner. Pack an actual jacket and layers for a January or February trip. Tet, the Lunar New Year, falls in this window and closes a great many family-run restaurants and shops for days.