Things to do in Hanoi

Hanoi and the north support a range of activities well beyond a single list of landmarks. In the city, street food tours through the Old Quarter typically move between bun cha, pho and egg coffee stops, while a water puppet performance at the Thang Long theatre gives a traditional evening alternative to a bia hoi corner. Museums and heritage sites centre on the Temple of Literature's courtyards, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex and the One Pillar Pagoda, the Museum of Ethnology's coverage of Vietnam's ethnic groups, and the Vietnamese Women's Museum, alongside Hoa Lo Prison's history and the Hanoi Opera House's French colonial architecture.

Train Street draws visitors for the narrow view of the tracks running between houses, and West Lake offers a quieter walk around Tran Quoc Pagoda away from the Old Quarter's density. Outside the city, craft village visits to Bat Trang for ceramics and Duong Lam for its ancient houses pair well with a half-day out of Hanoi, and the Perfume Pagoda combines a boat ride with a cable car or hike up to the cave temple. Further afield, Ninh Binh's karst scenery is explored mostly by rowing boat through Trang An or Tam Coc, with Mua Cave's viewpoint climb as a common add-on.

Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba are built around bay cruises, from a single day on the water to an overnight cabin, and Sapa and the northwest add trekking through terraced rice fields and ethnic minority villages, with Fansipan's cable car as an option for reaching the summit without a multi-day hike. The Ha Giang loop is the north's signature motorbike route, done either self-driven or with an easy rider, through the karst plateau around Dong Van and over Ma Pi Leng Pass. Airport transfers and half-day city tours are worth arranging in advance regardless of which other activities make the final list, since they simplify arrival and departure around Noi Bai.