Located a mere 3.5 hours away from Singapore, Hanoi marks one of the must-go in the list of travel destinations. As the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi is a beautiful, culture-filled part of SE Asia. From its centuries-old architecture to the French-influenced cuisines, the bustling streets of Hanoi are one picturesque scene even in chaos.

It was my first visit and I’d like to share my 8D7N guide in Hanoi with some recommendations on food and activities that I’ve tried. I tried to cut short into one post, I hope you guys will like it!

Accommodations

Regular 3/4-star hotels are pretty affordable in Hanoi. Old Quarter is a popular area for a regular tourist to stay at because it is close to 80% of the popular touristic spots. Choose wisely based on reviews, it is important to be careful in this rural part of SEA.

Hanoi City Palace

I’ve chosen a 3-star hotel Hanoi City Palace located ~10 minutes walking distance away from the Old Quarter. The reviews I’ve seen were generally good, with a few complaints on being an outdated architecture. Knowing what I’ve signed up for, I went with minimum expectations for the price I paid (~USD 20 per night with breakfast). Turns out, the hotel was a decent (enough) place to store luggages and valuables in the safe provided, plus an ok bed to rest at night. Like the reviews, the cleanliness was nothing fantastic and the rooms were rather aged. The staff could barely speak English. But hey, no complaints for $20/night!

*You can arrange for airport transfers with Hanoi City Palace. 

Free Tour Guides

Free tour guides organised by students are very popular in Hanoi. They are usually organised by volunteer students who wants to practice their English skills. Hanoi Kids and Hanoi Free Tour Guides are two that I had experienced with, and they are very useful for clueless tourists. Plus, I’ve heard that they go through extensive interviews to be certified a student tour guide. If you’re in Hanoi and wants a free tour guide to help you throughout your visit, please book the dates with them in advance. The only requirement is to pay for their meals/transport/entry tickets when they’re with you.

Day One

On the first day, we arrived at Hanoi in the evening so we arranged a student tour guide at 7pm to show us around the old quarter and the night market.

We started out by eating some fried pork and fries at… well, in the middle of nowhere. There were no shopfront, just a narrow street with some stools as your table and to sit on. It was a true street food experience. No tourists guaranteed, this is truly a only-locals-know kind of place.

They don’t look good, but they had quite a unique savoury taste.

Dinner – Bun Cha

She then brought us to a famous Bun Cha Dac Kim restaurant, oh boy was the Bun Cha delicious. Bun Cha is a soup with barbecued pork, and rice vermicelli to dip in it. The noodles literally melted in my mouth and exploded with amazing flavours. One way or another, you have to try Bun Cha! The restaurant was extremely crowded with many locals and tourists. Who knows a simple-looking dish can be this good?

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Night Market

We then went to walk around the Night Market, and it was even more crowded with so many locals and tourists. I was not impressed with the goods, they are basically the same touristy stuff stretched into multiple streets. You are good to just walk along one street to experience the market, and continue on to the next.

Giang Café

We ended the night by walking around Lake Hoan Kiem, and finally chilling at Giang Café, sipping the famous Hanoi Egg Coffee before returning back to our hotel.

Giang Café is well hidden on a small lane within the old quarter. It may be difficult to find, but we had no issues as our guide seemed to be a regular (even so, she was searching for it with Google map). It prides itself with its special egg coffee, thus attracting swarms of locals, especially the youngsters, to patronise. Here we have the authentic hot & cold Hanoi egg coffee.

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Day Two

On the second day, we were picked up by Flamingo Cruise at 8:00am and began our journey to Ha Long Bay. Designated as a World Heritage, Ha Long Bay is one not to be missed if you’re in Hanoi. With thousands of towering limestone islands topped by rainforests surrounding the bay, Ha Long Bay is a synonym of ‘descending dragon’ to describe such a magnificent view. We’ve opted for a 2D1N cruise (USD $300 for 2 pax) on the emerald waters, there were other options for 1D & 3D2N.

Ha Long Bay port where we waited to board Flamingo cruise.

The breathtaking view of Ha Long Bay.

Flamingo Cruise

From our superb tour guide (who speaks perfect English) to the well-planned activities like swimming and kayaking, the cruise was decent to experience what Ha Long Bay has to offer. Though, I would not recommend a longer trip, mainly because the waters were in fact extremely filthy to swim in even though the views from the cruise were amazing at night. A one-day trip is not recommended too as you barely have time to do anything – the queue and waiting time for the transportations between Hanoi and Halong Bay were horribly long.

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The double room which we have booked. Do take extra caution when you book with them, as we found out that we were the only one given two single mattresses on a double bedframe. It wasn’t nice, they slipped to the sides with the slightest movement.

It was a shame that we didn’t get to chill at the balcony, it simply was too hot to stay under the sun. Remember to bring along your sunblock (and a fan if possible) for the hot days! Also remember to take medicine/supplements for car sickness as the road towards Ha Long Bay and back can be really bumpy and uncomfortable.

Day Three
Hanoi Old Quarter

It was already late afternoon when the cruise’ transportation dropped us off at the hotel.

After freshening up in the hotel, we went strolling down the 36 streets in Hanoi Old Quarter. We relied heavily on our google map, so I can’t really explain how to go about this area (it’s really messy!). I’d suggest you to do the same, but do hold onto your phone tightly and away from the roads as someone can just snatch it away on a motorbike.

Dong Xuan Market

If you like to DIY jewelries and handcraft-related stuff, be sure to check out the Dong Xuan Market. It is an indoor day market filled with wholesalers selling mostly handcraft materials in bulk at cheap rates. However, price haggling is a must here (~50-70% lower than quoted prices). Again, be careful of your belongings (best to hold onto them in front of you) as this place is extremely crowded with people (including pickpockets).

Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre

If you pass by the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre in the day, stop by to purchase tickets for the night if you can. Previously, we tried to purchase them on the spot but the seats were all sold out.

The showtimes are: 3:00pm, 4:10pm, 5:20pm, 6:30pm, 8:00pm. Ticket costs VND 100,000 per person.
The water puppet show is in Vietnamese, though I think the ideas behind the show are quite apparent. The show was lovely with a very talented bunch behind the scenes.

We watched the show at 8:00pm and walked back to our hotel afterwards. For dinner, you can drop by a small Pho shop near the theatre called 40 Cầu Gỗ for some Pho! If you’re up for some chilling, a famous cafe nearby called Cafe Pho Co offers you some really amazing view of Hanoi’s old quarter.

It is very hard to find Cafe Pho Co as it is hidden between two shops, and looks nothing like a cafe. The inside, however, is an open space with staircases leading you up to the seating area with a night view.
Overlooking the Hoan Kiem lake from Cafe Pho Co.

Day Four

Our day four was pretty straightforward – we signed up for one of the recommended tour package from HanoiKids and had a lovely local girl guide us around for the day.

Ho Chi Minh Complex

After breakfast, we started off with Ho Chi Minh Complex, which consists of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, the Ho Chi Minh Museum, and One Pillar Pagoda. The Mausoleum is opened from 7:30am to 11:00am (except for Monday and Friday) and entrance costs VND 25,000. The living space opens from 7:30am to 4:30pm and is free for entry. 

Note that visitors must wear shirts with sleeves and pants under knees to enter the Mausoleum.

Next we walked ~15 mins to the Temple of Literature which opens from 8:00am to 5:30pm. Entrance fee is VND 30,000. It is the first university of Vietnam to hold the royal exams in the past.

Dinner – Bun Cha Ta

Near to dinnertime, we parted with our guide and headed towards the famous Bun Cha Ta for dinner. It was simply amazing – the server spoke perfect English, had excellent customer service, served the food very promptly, and the Bun Cha were DELICIOUS!

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Day Five
Ho Chi Minh Complex

On our day five, we’ve managed to have another local girl to guide us for half a day around Bat Trang Ceramic Village. This village is 15km away from the centre of Hanoi, the taxi ride took us ~30 mins to reach our destination. It is the most famous handicraft village of Vietnam, be sure not to miss it if you’re a ceramic fanatic.

What to expect: Ceramics, ceramics, and more ceramics. It was a mistake by letting the girl guide us to a suspicious shop to hands-on some ceramic-making. We thought that the girl had already bargained a good price before proceeding, little did we know that she was too young to know such things and we ended up paying a fortune for the ceramics we made. We did not want to make things difficult for the girl so we agreed to just pay for 2 ceramics – one for ours and one for the girl. The mistake was on us as we should’ve been more cautious before doing anything – as we’ve already read that the villagers often ‘con’ visitors into paying skyrocketed prices for some ‘hands-on’ ceramics. We’ve decided to not let this incident ruin our holidays and continued to explore the village.

Exploring a nearby market selling all sorts of ceramic products.

Upon return, we took a taxi back to Hanoi and stopped at Cong Caphe for some coffee before heading back to the hotel.

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Evening Time

Cong Caphe is a hipster cafe chain serving traditional coffee frequented by youngsters and tourists. The waiters are dressed in olive green military-style shirts and army caps, quite a unique experience.

We walked around the French quarter and eventually reached the Old Quarter for some Bahn Mi. Bahn Mi is essentially a sandwich made with baguette, with fillings that look and taste a lot like pete. You are free to add on more meat or vegetables of your choice.

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Bahn Mi 25

There were many raved reviews about Bahn Mi 25 before we came, yet we were not entirely impressed with it. They were good like a sandwich, but nothing fantastic that we think it is ok to give it a miss. Bahn Mi 25 seems to be popular among many tourists and locals. The customers sit alongside the streets, on a tiny stool, eating like a local. The good thing is that these Bahn Mi are served hot and freshly-made.

We walked back to our hotel, freshen up and prepare our bags for the overnight train for our next destination – Sapa Hiking Tour. Our tour group picked us up directly from our hotel towards the train station which is located ~10 minutes drive from the Old Quarter. We’ve booked a tour with Vegatravel and I will explain more details about this trip below.

Day Six to Eight – Sapa

We have decided to take the Sapa Trekking 2D3N Tour with Vegatravel, where two nights will be spent in the train and one night with a Sapa homestay. It was promised by the agency upon booking that the trekking will be on flat lands and extremely easy, even a kid can do it, and that an experience tour guide will be with us along the way.

We took the sleeper train from Hanoi to reach Lao Cai station, and then the tour guide picked us up at Lao Cai to a hotel for freshening up. The sleeper train was nothing fancy with four thin soft berths in a cabin. The journey of 8-9 hours was extremely shaky, so be warned if you are a light sleeper or has motion sickness.

And then the nightmare begins at Lao Cai. 

We followed instructions to look for someone with a sign of ‘Vegatravel’, so that he could drive us to the hotel. And so we did, except that the person brought us (few groups of people) to another driver instead. He then went back to pick up the next batch of people as apparently there was a train delay.

The driver, who couldn’t speak a word of English, had a few pieces of paper with different names & hotels on them, and he dropped off the people respectively at the hotel. In the end he had no more paper left, and there were still 5 people in the van including two of us, a Spanish couple, and a solo female traveller. He stopped at a random hotel and told us all to alight, which we refused to without knowing if it is the correct hotel.

Feeling frustrated, he drove off to another hotel, and signal all of us to alight. We refused again, but this time he opened the door and simply waited for us to alight. We stood by the decision of not leaving and demanded that he calls Vegatravel to clarify. He refused – even when we gave him the number to call. He angrily drove the van to a third location, somewhere in an open-space plaza and refused to drive on. The solo traveller was so angry that she left with some local H’mong ladies to search for alternatives.

Finally, help came

The four of us refused to leave until another van with ‘Vegatravel’ sign arrived. A man who could speak some limited English told us to enter his van instead as he is from Vegatravel. We figured it was better than stopping in the middle of nowhere, so we followed the new van. Thankfully, he took us to the correct hotel (which was different from the previous hotels the guy tried to alight us at).
Our tour guide named Tu, who could speak perfect English, apologised to us at the hotel. Turns out, the first driver was an ad-hoc hire due to the original driver needed to wait for the delayed train.

And then the second nightmare began at Sapa. 

After breakfast and freshening up at the hotel’s public bathroom, a group of us started the trekking. At this point Tu had requested us to be nice to the local H’mong ladies who will be following us (at their own will). We were shocked to realise that the trekking route was extremely dangerous. It was very steep, narrow, and slippery. Everyone in our group, including some men who were very fit and sporty, needed help. We all held tight onto the H’mong ladies and fell at least once. It was crazy dangerous, one guy even fell and injured his back.

They’re right – the trekking must be easy for these adorable girls.

Along the way we did find time (barely) to stop and admire the beautiful landscape Sapa has to offer. It was indeed breathtaking to immerse oneself within the landscape. As the night falls, we reached a local homestay and rested there for the night.

And then the second nightmare begins at the homestay. 

Few members of the group experienced some terrible stomachache throughout the next day, including both of us. They declined the second day trekking and rested at the homestay. This was ok as apparently, it was a similar route as yesterday.

At the same night, we finally boarded our sleeper train back to Hanoi. It was such a nightmare as we could not stop vomiting and diarrhoea. It was the worst nightmare throughout the 8-hour train ride. I basically slept in the toilet.

When we reached Hanoi, we met three other people from our group who had the same issue.
We all had food poison from the homestay.

From the station, we took a taxi back to our hotel. As you can imagine, our last day spent in the room was an ugly scene.
We didn’t want to risk purchasing counterfeit medicines in Hanoi. Hence, we packed our bags and returned home for medical attention.

Thank god we have recovered.

So there we go, our Hanoi trip with a beautiful beginning but a terrible ending. Indeed Hanoi has its own beauty. From the bustling city streets full of vehicles to the beautiful natural landscapes in Sapa, all were truly mesmerising. Hanoi is definitely worthwhile to visit. Even though I would strongly advise preparing yourself well before visiting. Vietnam is not the place for you if you absolutely cannot tolerate the simple, rural lifestyle.

I will probably need to consider revisiting after all that happened.