You have just landed in Hanoi — a thousand-year-old capital of lake temples, guild streets and phở steam. Start with a slow lap of Hoan Kiem Lake and a hot bowl. It covers Noi Bai arrivals, temples and museums, street-food corners, Ninh Binh’s karsts, Ha Long Bay in a day, and Sapa when you have the nights.
You just landed in Hanoi. Noi Bai sits about 27 km north of the Old Quarter: the orange Bus 86 runs in for 45,000₫ in about an hour, and a Grab car fixes its fare in the app before you move. Sort your Airalo eSIM before you land, and start with a dawn lap of Hoan Kiem Lake — tai chi at the water's edge, then the Old Quarter's phở stalls for breakfast.
Find your arrival stop, hotel, and first meal. Stays, sights, and landmarks in Hanoi — live hotel prices plus the key places from this guide.
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T2 ATMs work for a first withdrawal; Ha Trung Street’s gold shops change dollars near interbank rate.
After about 22:00 the choice narrows: Grab, a metered Mai Linh or G7 taxi, or a pre-booked transfer. Never accept a ride offered inside the terminal.
Walk slowly, steadily, predictably, in a straight line; let the bikes stream around you.
Old Quarter for the doorstep version; French Quarter for boulevards and grand hotels.
Register on your home number, add a card: GrabBike for one, GrabCar for a door. Xanh SM’s green electric fleet is the alternative.
Hanoi eats phở for breakfast, bún chả for lunch; the kitchens below keep local hours.
Hoan Kiem Lake is the compass: the Old Quarter’s 36 guild streets north and west, the French Quarter’s boulevards and grand hotels south and east. Base in the Old Quarter and almost everything is a walk.
Journey times are approximate and refer to the listed stop — not necessarily your hotel. Allow extra time for waiting, walking, and connections.
The travellers' bus: stops at both terminals, air-conditioned with a luggage rack, then runs via Long Bien and the lake's east side to Hanoi Station; every 20-30 minutes, but finished by about 22:00 — pay the conductor in cash
Vietnam Airlines and VietJet run shuttle buses from outside the terminals to their city offices near the lake and the French Quarter — cheap and simple if your hotel is near the drop point, daytime hours only
The fare is quoted in the app before you ride and cannot grow at the kerb; follow the app to the marked pick-up point outside T2
Use the official rank outside arrivals and the liveries you can trust — Mai Linh green or G7 — and insist the meter runs
The tourist core is compact — lake to Temple of Literature, about two kilometres — but pavements double as motorbike parking. The airport rides:
GrabBike hops the Old Quarter for 15,000₫ to 40,000₫, GrabCar roughly double; fares quoted before you confirm. Helmet provided on every bike ride — wearing it is the law.
City buses: 7,000₫ to 9,000₫ a ride, cash to the conductor. Metro: Line 2A elevated, Cat Linh to Ha Dong; Line 3’s elevated section Nhon to Cau Giay, tunnel to Hanoi Station still being built. Fares 9,000₫ to 19,000₫.
Cyclos, the slow option for a lake circuit: agree the total price — the trip, not per person — before sitting down. Day-trip cars come with drivers; almost nobody self-drives. Welcome Pickups puts a driver in arrivals, price fixed at booking.
Pagodas and the lake are free.
Hanoi’s signature splurge: four hours by bike with a driver-guide, food stops built in. BikesBooking lists tours and rentals.
Compare bundles on Klook against gate prices — a pass earns its keep on puppet seats, the ethnology day, day trips.
The grand dame of 1901 at 15 Ngo Quyen Street, by the Opera House and the lake: white façade, green shutters, a wartime bunker under the garden shown on house tours, and a courtyard pool in the calmest acre in the city.
Bill Bensley’s opera-house reverie at 11 Le Phung Hieu Street: 47 suites dressed as 1920s backstage life and a speakeasy in the basement, at rates a step below the grandest landmarks.
The traveller favourite at 94 Ma May Street, deep in the Old Quarter: a boutique hotel on a backpacker street, with a spa and a rooftop bar, at budget prices by this list’s standards.
Three bases. Old Quarter, the first-timer’s answer: lake, food streets, night market at your feet. French Quarter: grand hotels, Opera House, calmer nights, ten minutes from the lake. Ba Dinh and West Lake suit return visitors — a Grab ride to dinner.
In the Old Quarter, ask for a room away from the street side — lanes start early. Rates peak October to April; summer softens them.
Hanoi’s signature meals run on a timetable: phở breakfast, bún chả late morning and lunch, chả cá evening. All three kitchens below are one-dish specialists, cash only.
Map → 49 Bat Dan Street, on the Old Quarter’s western edge. The city’s most famous beef phở, a Michelin Bib Gourmand: queue, order — tái rare beef, chín well-done — pay, carry your bowl to a shared table. Services roughly 06:00–10:00 and 18:00–20:30; when the pot is empty, the shutters come down.
Map → 24 Le Van Huu Street, south of the lake. A bún chả house until May 2016, when Obama ate here with Anthony Bourdain — their set survives as the Obama combo: bún chả, seafood spring rolls, a cold Hanoi beer. Open roughly 08:00–20:30; lunch is the main event.
Map → 6B Duong Thanh Street, Cua Dong. Chả cá is Hanoi’s own invention — fish in turmeric and galangal, grilled, then sizzling at your table under dill and spring onions, over vermicelli with peanuts. A Michelin Bib Gourmand house: order the classic, ask for mắm tôm shrimp paste for full strength; let staff run the pan first time.
Ha Long Bay: a long day or gentle overnight. Ninh Binh: the easy rural escape. Sapa: an overnight journey each way. All organised tours from Old Quarter pick-ups; compare options on Tiqets before you book.
1,600 limestone islands in emerald water, ~2.5 hours by expressway to the Tuan Chau and Ha Long City ports. Day cruises: five or six hours on the water — Surprise Cave, kayak or bamboo boat through Luon Cave, Titop Island climb; overnight boats sleep among the karsts. Bay ticket and port fee normally bundled. June–September, typhoons can suspend departures at a day’s notice; refunds per operator’s terms.
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Ha Long’s scenery inland: limestone towers, rivers, rice fields, ~2 hours south. Centrepiece Trang An: a three-hour rowed-boat circuit through nine caves — 300,000₫, boats of four or five; smaller Tam Coc the classic alternative. Mua Cave: roughly 500 steps, 100,000₫, for the river view. Bai Dinh, Vietnam’s largest pagoda complex, is free — electric car ~100,000₫ return. Hoa Lu is the tenth-century capital.
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Mountain town at 1,600 metres near the Chinese border, ringed by Muong Hoa valley terraces and Hmong, Dao and Giay villages. Overnight train to Lao Cai plus an hour’s mountain road, or a limousine bus of 5.5–6 hours. Fansipan (3,143 m) tops it: cable car up in ~15 minutes, 850,000₫ return, then funicular or ~600 steps. Terraces: flooded mirrors in April and May, gold at the late September harvest, bare and frosty from December to February.
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Hanoi is barely priced for tourists: a plastic-stool bowl 40,000₫ to 70,000₫, egg coffee 35,000₫ to 60,000₫, bia hơi 10,000₫ to 20,000₫ a glass, the great sights 40,000₫ to 100,000₫ each. Mid-range doubles run 800,000₫ to 2,000,000₫ a night in season; dorm beds 150,000₫ to 300,000₫.
Delayed or cancelled flight? AirHelp and Compensair work compensation claims for a cut of winnings — check before writing the fare off.
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Pack for broken pavements and four seasons: winter needs a real jacket, summer clothing that survives a sauna.
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! Check visa requirements before you fly
Vietnamese is tonal — six tones — but written in a Latin-based alphabet with tone marks, so signs and menus are letter-legible from day one; a translation app camera does the rest. Download the Vietnamese pack offline.
Four phrases cover most of a first trip — greeting, thanks, price question, and the compliment that makes a cook’s day. Bargaining is expected at market stalls — never at street-food stands.
The e-visa is the default for non-exempt travellers; get it only at the official portal, evisa.gov.vn — lookalikes charge triple. Open to every nationality: up to 90 days, US$25 single-entry, US$50 multiple-entry. Allow about three working days; check every character of your name and passport number before submitting. Print the issued visa — airlines check it before boarding — and enter and exit through the borders it names.
The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Japan and South Korea get 45 days on arrival, until March 2028. A second list — Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland — gets 45 days until August 2028. South-East Asian neighbours: 14 to 30 days. Everyone else, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, needs the e-visa. Confirm your status on the official portal before booking.
Passport: six months’ validity beyond arrival, blank pages for stamps. Overstay fines grow with the overstay, settled before you can leave.
The risks are kinetic and commercial — traffic, winter air, well-rehearsed scams; violent crime is low. Arrive briefed.
Cross the local way — slowly, predictably, straight line; let the bikes flow around you. Stopping dead, running or stepping back is what is dangerous. On a GrabBike, wear the helmet provided, every time.
Arrivals touts: two to three times the real fare. The shoe-shine grab starts polishing before you agree. The coconut seller charges for the photo’s props. The cyclo’s agreed price becomes per person at journey’s end. The friendly stranger’s beer ends in a bar bill with extra zeroes. Agree every total first.
December–February: AQI in the unhealthy range — check each morning, mask on bad days, museum days when it spikes. Summer: heat and humidity — water, shade, indoor middays. Dengue rides the rains: repellent; a sudden high fever in the wet season means a doctor.
Snatch theft from passing motorbikes targets visitors at a kerb, phone over the road. Bag across your body, building side; phone off café tables. Passport and spare cards in the hotel safe; photos of every document on your phone.
Big public hospitals: Bach Mai and Viet Duc. English-speaking care at international prices: Family Medical Practice and Vinmec. Pharmacity is the recognisable pharmacy chain. Bring travel insurance — read its motorbike line; some policies exclude pillion riding.
Trust factory tube ice (hole through it); leave hand-cut block ice. Fast-turnover street food troubles fewer stomachs than the hotel buffet.
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Asia & PacificThe facts that matter after you land in Hanoi.
Verified against the Vietnam e-visa portal, Noi Bai and Bus 86 information and the sights' official price lists, October 2026.
There is no airport train. The orange Bus 86 express serves both terminals and runs to the Old Quarter and Hanoi Station for 45,000₫ in about an hour, every 20 to 30 minutes until roughly 22:00.
A Grab car to an Old Quarter door runs about 250,000₫ to 400,000₫ with the fare fixed in the app before you move — the safest answer to the taxi rank, where unmetered quotes are a Hanoi rite of passage.
Most travellers who are not visa-exempt use the e-visa, and the only safe place to get one is the official portal, evisa.gov.vn — lookalike agency sites charge triple for the same stamp.
It is open to every nationality, runs up to 90 days, and costs US$25 for a single entry or US$50 for multiple entries. Apply before you fly and allow about three working days for it to be issued.
Mornings only, Tuesday to Thursday and at weekends; it is closed on Mondays and Fridays, and entry is free. Dress strictly — no shorts or sleeveless tops — and expect no photos, no bags and silence inside.
It closes entirely for annual maintenance from 4 September to 2 November 2026. Outside those dates, arrive early: the queue forms before the doors open and moves fast once it starts.
The Temple of Literature is 70,000₫, the Imperial Citadel 100,000₫, and Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake and the Hoa Lo Prison museum are 50,000₫ each.
Almost everything else in the centre costs the same or less, and the lake, the Old Quarter streets and the cathedral are free. Carry small cash — card machines at ticket windows are the exception, not the rule.
Ninh Binh is the easier day: about two hours each way, and at Trang An the boat and entry together run 300,000₫ from January 2026. Ha Long Bay is a longer day by expressway for the karsts — pick it if the bay itself is the dream.
Sapa is not a day trip: it needs a night, reached by overnight train or sleeper bus, and the Fansipan cable car costs 850,000₫ when the cloud lets you see anything from the top.
Dong, in cash, for street food, markets and small shops — a bowl of phở is still a cash transaction. ATMs are everywhere; choose to be charged in dong, never in your home currency.
Cards work in hotels and bigger restaurants, and the Grab app takes a card for rides, which also solves the change problem. Keep small notes on you: large bills at a dawn food stall help nobody.
No tourist tax in Hanoi; tap water is not drinkable — use bottled or filtered; plugs are Type A, C and F at 220V; police 113, fire 114, ambulance 115.
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Checked against: Noi Bai International Airport’s transport pages and Bus 86 operator information (fares and practical details); the official e-visa portal, evisa.gov.vn, and Resolutions 44/NQ-CP and 229/NQ-CP (visa rules, exemption lists); Hanoi Metro’s tables (metro status and fares); the Mausoleum Management Board’s announcements (mausoleum hours, 2026 maintenance closure); Temple of Literature, Hoa Lo Prison and Museum of Ethnology visitor pages (sight prices); Trang An’s site management (Trang An prices); Sun World Fansipan Legend (Fansipan prices); the day’s mid-market rate (exchange rates); Accor, Capella and La Siesta’s own pages (hotel details); the Michelin Guide’s Hanoi listings (restaurant details). Last verified October 2026.
Affiliate disclosure: hotel names, transfers, experiences, and products linked in this guide may earn After You Land a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices and times were checked in Oct 2026 and change often — confirm before you book.