Trip Guide: Hanoi, Vietnam
Recommendations for a couple days in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Visiting Hanoi was a part of our crazy adventure on the error fare Cathay Pacific First-Class trip. In order to catch the first part of our ticket (from Hanoi, Vietnam, to Vancouver, BC) we had to make our way to Vietnam beforehand by purchasing other tickets to get from Seattle to Hanoi. We were in the city for 3 nights and 2 full days — I felt like while Hanoi was a really dense city, we got a good feel for it in our short time there! We definitely want to go back and see other parts of Vietnam at some point, especially the coast.
Below I’ll include our favorite things to do and other tips!
Trip Overview
Here is the Google Maps list I made on the things we did in Hanoi.
Getting around
Since we just stayed in the Old Quarter area, it was very walkable and easy to just get around on foot. Hanoi had tons of motorbikes which we would have rented if we were around the area for a longer time or were leaving the main Old Quarter area of the city.
We just used taxis from our hotel for getting to and from the airport.
Stay
We stayed at the JM Marvel Hotel & Spa the entire time we were there and it was amazing. Seriously the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. Even after we checked out and they held our bags all day, they let us come back and take showers before heading to the airport. There is a spa at the bottom of the hotel as well — highly recommend a massage before heading upstairs to head to sleep at night, so relaxing.
Things to do
- We spent a majority of our time walking around all of the roads in Old Quarter! I feel like you could walk around here for days and still not see everything. It has such interesting architecture — you can see the french influence. It’s almost overwhelming bustling with people on the streets, tons of small stores, and things being sold anywhere and everywhere.
- Train Street is the famous photo where the train runs right in between a tight alley full of shops and homes. Everyone is doing their daily activities and even running restaurants almost over the train tracks — then when the train comes everyone packs up and scoots back to let it run through. Be sure to check the train schedule! We hung out at one of the restaurants on the tracks and had a beer while waiting.
- Hoàn Kiếm Lake is right in the Old Quarter area. We loved strolling around here in the evening or morning. It was so peaceful and almost reminded me of a place I love in Seattle as well. People are eating, sitting on benches, running or walking around the lake — it was fun to stroll along and take it all in.
- In the evening we also stopped by the Hanoi Night Market where there were tons of vendors lining the streets. This night market seemed more clothes/goods focused.
- Some people we started talking with at Train Street recommended we visit Hoa Lo Prison Memorial which was incredibly interesting and chilling. You can read more about the background of the prison here. It was initially used by the French for capturing Vietnamese political prisoners, and then it was used by the Vietnamese for US prisoners of war in the Vietnam War. Walking around and reading the displays, there was so much propaganda in how they describe how it was used for US POWs… there are pictures of the POWs (including McCain) playing basketball to make it look like they had a great time here (and weren’t being tortured…), there were weird sounding letters from the US POWs that were on display that sounded incredibly fake/forced about how they were describing their time here, and there were signs (like below) reading “No more flights on B-52s and carpet bombing, only a serene time for these American pilots to think about what happened and feel the beauty of peaceful like and warm humanity in Hao Lo Prison”. It was pretty sickening to see how years of inhuman torture was completely left out of the narrative here and re-written out of history. Overall, an interesting visit to see how history is taught in different ways depending on where you are in the world.
Eat & drink
- Bánh Mì here was sooo good and cheap we had multiple per day. We really liked Bánh Mì 25, but our hotel also recommended Bánh Mỳ P.
- Pho was the first meal we ate in Hanoi and was easily the best Pho I’ve ever had in my life. We went to Pho 10 and it was delicious!
- While walking along the street, I got a sweet treat filled with mango ice cream. Really really good. There is honestly so much great street food.
- We had heard of The Note Coffee and stopped by for a coffee and smoothie. The cafe is covered in thousands and thousands of notes on all levels. It was right off of the lake and had nice views looking out over the street. We even left a note!
- I’d heard of egg coffee and was curious to try it out — so we went to Cafe Giang which I believe is where it all started. It was super hard to find this place because it was the narrowest little alley that led back to the cafe, I think we passed the sign below about 4 times before we asked someone! I’d recommend getting the egg coffee hot — I thought it was good, but Josiah liked it more than I did! I also got a Vietnamese coffee as well.
- We also stopped by the Bamboo Bar inside the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi hotel to get the Charlie Chaplin drink which Josiah’s dad had recommended. This hotel was very very nice (probably the nicest in the city) and clearly has French influence. It was a delicious drink and Josiah even took a dip in the pool. The history of the hotel is really interesting as well, you can read more here.
Overall, Hanoi was a really fun city to explore. I felt like a couple days is a good amount of time to fit in the main highlights of the city. Josiah and I both agreed we would love to go back to Vietnam. The food was so good and we would love to go explore more of the country — mountain, beaches, countryside etc. Look forward to returning!
