Hanoi — Sights
Lakeside tai chi at dawn, beer on tiny stools at night.
- Imperial Citadel of Thang Long — A sprawling royal citadel layered with Vietnamese history
- Quan Thanh Temple — Taoist temple near West Lake
- Hoan Kiem Lake & Ngoc Son Temple — A red bridge to an island temple: Hanoi's ground zero
- Old Quarter & Weekend Night Market — Guild streets by day, a kilometre of night market at weekends
- Hanoi Train Street — A lane where trains pass a hand's width from café chairs
- Temple of Literature (Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam) — A Confucian temple from 1070 and Vietnam's first university
- Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum & Ba Dinh Square — The square where independence was declared, and Uncle Ho's tomb
- One Pillar Pagoda — A tiny shrine perched on one stone column in a lotus pond
- St Joseph's Cathedral — Twin neo-Gothic towers from 1886, lemon-tea stools out front
- Hanoi Opera House & Trang Tien Street — A butter-yellow copy of the Paris Garnier: Hanoi's slice of Europe
- Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre — Fifty minutes of wooden puppets dancing on water to a live band
- West Lake & Tran Quoc Pagoda — An 11-tier red tower on the water: Hanoi's oldest pagoda
- Hoa Lo Prison Relic — French colonial jail turned 'Hanoi Hilton': the city's history at its heaviest
- Vietnam Museum of Ethnology — The life, homes and rituals of 54 ethnic groups, full size
- Long Bien Bridge — A 120-year-old iron bridge framing Red River sunsets
- Ha Long Bay (day cruise) — Cruising between some two thousand limestone islets
- Trang An, Ninh Binh (day trip) — 'Ha Long Bay on land': rowing boats through limestone peaks and caves
- Vietnam Women's Museum — Propaganda posters, ethnic dress, vendor stories
- Vietnam Military History Museum & Flag Tower — A courtyard of downed aircraft and an 1812 tower
- Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum — Lacquer, silk and woodblock in a French-era hall
- National Museum of Vietnamese History — Dong Son bronze drums beside the Opera House
- Bach Ma Temple — The white-horse shrine, Hanoi's oldest temple
- Phu Tay Ho (Tay Ho Temple) — Incense and a goddess shrine at the lake edge
- Ma May Ancient House (87 Ma May) — A narrow merchant house kept as it once lived
- Binh Minh Jazz Club — Hanoi live jazz room run by a saxophonist
- Hanoi Museum — An inverted pyramid holding Hanoi's thousand years
- Bat Trang Ceramic Village (day trip) — A 600-year kiln village where you try the wheel