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This year I returned to Hanoi for the first time in 20 years. I took my son, it was his first time visiting Hanoi in the north of Vietnam after living in Hoi An and exploring Central Vietnam pretty thoroughly over the years. We LOVED Hanoi, here’s why, in words and pictures.
At the end of the post, we give you a few things we didn’t love, so you can weigh up the pros and cons of visiting Hanoi yourself.
We flew in and out of Hanoi and also took buses and trains to Hoi An and Ninh Bin on this trip. The post about the sleeper bus to Hoi An from Hanoi is here.
Visiting Hanoi Vietnam
Hanoi is now, possibly, my favourite place to visit in Vietnam. Vietnam is my husband’s favourite country, and it’s certainly in my top 4. My kids’ favourite food is Vietnamese, it’s in my top 3 world cuisines. Vietnam is cheap, we love the Vietnamese people, and it’s just so fascinating.
For worldschooling kids you have a big solid topic to cover – The Vietnam / American war. It’s on the school curriculum and was on my son’s History exam paper. He got an A. Your family needs to visit Vietnam. We have a separate post on Vietnam with kids, plus a whole bunch about Hoi An, because we rented a house and lived there for 6 months. But this post is just about Hanoi.
Reasons To Love Hanoi
Real Vietnamese Food & International Cuisines
The food scene in Vietnam has really changed over the years, the street food is still there, but it’s sometimes modern, more cakes and non-Vietnamese treats are available.
The restaurants are different and we found it quite hard to find a good, cheap, real Vietnamese restaurant, but when we did, the food was great.
We also ate some very good pizza in Hanoi, and that just wasn’t there 20+ years ago. There are a lot of Indian restaurants too, run by Indians, again, that’s new.
Lake View Side Restaurant Hanoi, is a small Vietnamese restaurant that we can really recommend. It’s on the side of the lake near the red bridge to the island. If you can get a seat on the pavement, this is a great spot and we really liked the dishes we tried here.
Met Vietnamese Restaurant is a solid choice for Westerners just finding their feet with Vietnamese food. It’s not as flavour-filled as the real thing, but it’s a decent quality intro for first-time visitors not quite ready for the local pho joint.
We were glad we took that Michelin Guide Food tour. It took us out of our comfort zone a little and we tried restaurants we wouldn’t normally try. That said, deep-fried eel soup isn’t something I’d ever order again! Take a look at that post to see what else we tried.
My friend, Anna Barnes, suggested we visit Cafe Nola. We didn’t eat here but I can vouch for the drinks and the interesting old building. Anna runs tours in Vietnam and now Laos, check out her tours here.
Coffee & Bakeries
There are a lot of coffee shops in Hanoi, some are very modern and trendy, some are older. The pastries are obviously a hangover from the French and most that we tried were excellent.
Café Phố Cổ was the coffee shop we visited on our Hanoi food tour for egg coffee. Our local guide said it was one of the best in Hanoi. The rooftop overlooks the northern end of the lake and you have to climb a lot of steps.
You get to this coffee shop through the back of a dress shop, via a beautiful old courtyard home, it’s worth a look!
Trieu Patisserie was my favourite stop in Hanoi for coffee and almond chocolate croissant.
We also tried “Note Coffee” cafe, on the lake. It’s an influencer hangout and we didn’t like their egg coffee at all.
Hanoi’s Architecture
As you wander around the old parts of Hanoi, look up! There are so many balconies and interesting architectural features going on above street level in a city dominated by narrow, tall buidings.
Then you’ll come across an old temple, wedged in between shops or houses. The architecture of Hanoi is magical and unique.
The Shopping Districts / Markets
Years ago, these districts were much more defined and donimated by craftsmen. I remember walking down a street where every shop was selling wooden carvings, another was dominated by golden Buddhas. This does still exist in Hanoi today, but it’s not as noticeable.
We came accross the fish market street, flowers, pottery and religious artifacts.
The Lake & The Turtle Story
For Hanoi, be within walking distance of Hoàn Kiếm Lake the Lake of the Returned Sword. It’s the best area to stay, we think, and you can walk to just about every place tourists go from here. On Booking dot com the district is Hoan Kiem, the Old Quarter.
The lake is glorious, and the streets around it are amazing to explore. The little island on the lake has that beautiful red bridge. You do have to pay to enter, and it’s worth it. You’ll learn a lot.
Read up on the golden turtle and the returned sword. If you go to a water puppet show you’ll probably see the same story depicted.
Train Street
Train Street Hanoi is the best! It’s easy to walk to from the lake. Check the train times online, turn up early and take a seat. You will be required to buy a drink, each, they wouldn’t let us share a bottle of water, and the coffee wasn’t great.
Then you wait and watch the influencers posing for a while, before the rail tracks are cleared of bodies and chairs by the locals.
The trains are HUGE and you have to press back into the coffee shops to let it pass.
We loved Train St, we went twice. We’ve also been to Maeklong Railway Market in Thailand. It’s same same but different. You need to do both!
Water Puppets
We saw two water puppet theatres near the lake in Hanoi. We chose the one near the French cathedral on this trip, I think, but I’m not certain, we went to the other one 20 years ago.
The show was great! It’s a traditional art form, it’s spectacular and fun. It’s also not expensive ($7 ish) and even small kids should love it. Just pop along and buy a ticket for a performance to reserve a seat. The show we went to was sold out, we booked 2 days in advance. You can also book tickets online here, which will be easier for you if you only have 1 or 2 days in Hanoi.
We’ve also been to the water puppet show in Hoi An. This theater was much nicer. I don’t think it matters which theatre you choose.
The Weekend Walking Streets
I didn’t know before I arrived, but on weekends they close the roads around the lake to traffic. It was really lovely, everyone was dressed up, there were food stalls and kids’ rides. So try to be in Hanoi on a weekend. We were there on 2 weekends on this trip, arrival and departure.
The Beautiful French Quarter and Cathedral
This street in Hoi An runs along the side of the old French cathedral in Hanoi, St Joseph’s, and is a short walk from the lake.
I’m not a huge fan of cathedrals, but the atmosphere here on Sunday evening was magical. We could hear the singing and the church is lit up by night. We sat at a restaurant with a 1 st floor balcony. The food was terrible! Anna told me to sit on the street and drink lemon tea with the locals. I should have listened to her!
Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum
This was my absolute highlight. I’ve wanted to go to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and experience the total respect given to this leader for as long as I can remember. On our first visit to Hanoi, in 2001, it was closed. He’d been sent to Russia for re-embalming.
The building is imposing, security is intense and efficient, but the miles-long queue moved fast.
We were a snake of people ushered along to spend moments in the presence of “Uncle Ho”.
The atmosphere was incredible, I can’t describe it, you have to go yourself!
I’ve now visited with Lenin, Mao, and Minh. The three most famous embalmed communist leaders. Can any of you say the same?
More Museums – The Hanoi Hilton
The Maison Central in Hanoi is the old French prison from colonial days. It later became “The Hanoi Hilton” during the war. It’s a really interesting museum and again, you can walk there from the lake area. This was the only museum we visited in Hanoi, and it was a good one, very interesting, but a bit grim for small children. There are photos of decapitated heads etc.
Easy Onward Transport, Lots of Options
Vietnam is one of THE easiest countries to get around. There are minibuses, trains, regular buses, and Grab cars. Once you’re out of the traffic of the Old Quarter, we didn’t see much traffic congestion again.
We were able to walk to the bus pick-up area from the lake and there were dozens of departures daily. We booked all of our transport in Vietnam using 12Go Asia, and had no problems at all.
Think again about using the sleeper buses if you’re over 5 foot 7 inches or thereabouts. The train berths are also fairly short, but better.
Things We Didn’t Like About Hanoi
These are only small things that could maybe be an issue for you in Hanoi, but they’re worth mentioning. I want to stress again that we LOVED Hanoi!
Beer Street
We wandered around Beer St and the surrounding streets by day and really liked it. There are some lovely buildings. We stopped and had a very good noodle soup lunch at a hole in the wall “mom and pop” noodle stall, D got a haircut by a very good barber.
When we wandered back into this area just after sunset, it had totally changed. See the photo below.
We didn’t like it one bit and got out of there fast. Everyone wanted us to sit, drink, eat, it was just too much and too cramped for me. I would probably not book a hotel on the streets in this area! Some people may like this, it just made me uncomfortable.
Hotels and Hotel Breakfasts
We booked the first 2 nights in a slightly more expensive hotel with buffet breakfast as a “treat”. The breakfast was processed junk, and the coffee was undrinkable. We didn’t bother going on the second morning, there is much better available on the streets.
It’s worth mentioning that we also booked quite a fancy hotel in Da Nang, with included buffet breakfast, again, it wasn’t the sort of thing either of us would eat, so maybe it’s a trend.
Because most of the buildings are tall and narrow, you’re likely to be on a high floor with a narrow stairway and lift. It doesn’t feel terribly safe, I like to have a fire exit plan. There are also a lot of rooms without windows.
We also found that in Vietnam, hotels weren’t as good as the photos on the booking platform. They’d maybe use photos of their 1 best room or the images would be years old. Be ready for that.
I’m sure there are some great hotels in Hanoi, but we didn’t find them on this trip. That said, I loved the balcony and street view at this hotel, Pilgrim’s Hotel in Hoan Kiem. It was right next to the cathedral on a cute street. I would use this one again for a budget stay, but next time I plan to stay at a heritage 5-star in the French Quarter! Just for the experience. Maybe this one. The best hotels in Hanoi are still a lot more affordable than elsewhere.
Flights, Arrivals, and Visas
If you need to purchase a visa on arrival at Hanoi Airport, you may have a long wait, it looked very busy. As we are UK passport holders, we did not need a visa. The check-in guy at Bali Denpasar Airport (We flew Cairns-Bali-Hanoi) was very happy to tell us this, and I was greatly relieved. We’d booked the flights less than 24 hours before departure and I hadn’t thought of visas!
Having to change in Bali is quite annoying as you have to pay the “Bali tax” on your outward and return journey. These AirAsia flights are all “self-connect” so basically your adding at least $100 per person and customs, passport control etc, isn’t fun. If you need to use these flights with Air Asia Indonesia, I’d suggest you have a few days in Bali to make the tax worth it! We know a great hotel near the airport that we always use for this.
There are no direct flights to Hanoi from Cairns. The only alternative would be to go via Singapore, but that would be a lot more expensive. If you live in a part of the world with great flight connections, I envy you!
Chef and I spent a few days at this hotel when D and I came back from Hanoi, before moving on to Ubud, the only part of Bali we still like today! (Ubud post is here.)
We also didn’t need to wait at the baggage carousel with just carry on, we were out of the airport fast.
The net result of this was that the car the hotel had sent for us wasn’t there, they’d added on an hour for airport delays. We waited a while and then got a Grab.
The Traffic
The traffic is full on around Hanoi Old Quarter! Anywhere around the old town it was pretty much gridlocked. You’re often better off walking.
The journey into Hanoi from the airport is quite long, get a Grab car. Once the car pulls off the main highway, you’re very likely to be stuck in traffic.
That said, you have to love crossing the roads in Vietnam. Just walk, they’ll avoid you.
Air Pollution
The sky was grey and kind of smoggy the whole time we were there. Check the air quality index here. It’s been named one of the most polluted cities in the world, at times. We didn’t have any problems, but it’s something to think about. I’ve seen much worse.
So all up, visiting Hanoi for the second time for me, first time for my older child, was awesome. It’s a great idea and we’ll be back, I can’t wait to go back! Why aren’t you there already?
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