Hanoi itineraries

A Hanoi and north Vietnam itinerary is best built around how many days are available and how much time those days allow for travel outside the city. A single day realistically covers the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem Lake, the Temple of Literature and one of the major museums, with an evening water puppet show if energy allows. Two to three days let a trip settle into the city properly, adding the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex, West Lake and a street food tour, plus a half-day out to Bat Trang or Duong Lam.

Four to five days is where a full day trip to Ninh Binh becomes realistic, and this length also allows a single overnight excursion, either to Ha Long Bay or Cat Ba by cruise, or a first taste of the northwest with a short Sapa visit reached by night train. A full week opens up combining several regions: city days interspersed with Ninh Binh, an overnight Ha Long Bay cruise, and enough time in Sapa for a trek through the terraced rice fields, with Fansipan's cable car added if the schedule allows.

Ten days to two weeks is where the Ha Giang loop becomes realistic alongside everything else, since the loop itself typically takes several days on the road through the karst plateau and over Ma Pi Leng Pass, and it's usually treated as its own dedicated block within a longer trip rather than squeezed alongside the other regions. Whatever the length, it makes sense to lock in the longer excursions first, since Ha Long Bay, Sapa and Ha Giang depend on travel time and, in the case of the bay, on weather, and build the flexible city days around them.