Hanoi travel guides & articles
All 21 in-depth pieces we’ve published on Hanoi — newest first.
Hanoi's Markets and Food Alleys, Hour by Hour
Fourteen markets and eating streets in Hanoi, with the hours they really trade, what to order at each, and which ones work for a group rather than a pair.
Hanoi for Three Generations Without Wearing Anyone Out
How to plan Hanoi for a group that runs from five years old to eighty: culture in short seated bursts, lunch in the air conditioning, and two day trips everyone can manage.
The Craft Villages Around Hanoi That Still Work for a Living
Fourteen working villages within an hour of the Old Quarter, arranged by road rather than by craft, with the door policies, market days and fees that decide whether the trip is worth making.
Walking Hanoi in November When the Heat Finally Lets Go
Mild afternoons, early sunsets and a city that rewards the long way round: how to build a slower Hanoi week around coffee, one-dish lunches, night sessions and a boat.
Hanoi Sunsets From Long Bien Bridge to the West Lake Shore
A route-led evening through Hanoi's western sightlines: the reopened Long Bien walkway, the Thanh Nien causeway, the Tay Ho shore and the rooftops worth the cover price.
Landing in Hanoi With the First Day Still Intact
How to get in from the airport, what to do with the dead hours before check-in, and a first-evening route through the Old Quarter that has you oriented by nine instead of asleep.
Hanoi in September When the Storms Set the Itinerary
September has low rates and cooling air, and it still catches the tail ends of Gulf of Tonkin storms. Here is how to build a Hanoi week that survives a washed-out afternoon.
How Many Days Hanoi Actually Needs
Hanoi runs on fixed windows: dawn phở counters, ticketed night tours, half-day excursions, and here is how four, seven or twelve nights actually shake out.
What Hanoi Costs in 2026, from Pho to a Starred Menu
Hanoi prints its prices on walls and menus instead of leaving them to negotiation. This guide works through what every layer of the city charges in 2026, from a 50,000 VND bowl to a two-and-a-half-million-dong tasting menu.
Day Trips That Justify a Longer Stay in Hanoi
Sixteen trips within three and a half hours of the Old Quarter, with 2026 prices, the weather that cancels them and which ones hold up for a group.
Walking Hanoi in October Once the Heat Lets Go
This is the month the pavement cools, when the lake loop becomes a midday walk again and Hanoi's night tours and day trips are worth booking, with the timings, prices and door realities that decide whether the plan works.
Two BigBang Nights in Hanoi and the Weekend Around Them
BigBang play My Dinh on 24 and 25 October 2026. Here is the route between the two nights, what to book ahead, and when to be where across a Hanoi weekend.
Reading the Unwritten Rules of Hanoi's Motorbike Streets
Hanoi's traffic works by constant negotiation. Here is how to cross it on foot, ride it pillion, learn to steer it yourself, and find the markets and workshops that keep five million bikes moving.
Walking Into Hanoi's Traffic, On Purpose
A route-by-route method for reading Hanoi's scooter-thick streets, from the best rooftop to watch from to the two intersections that actually test your nerve.
Hanoi at 5am: The City That Wakes Up With Tai Chi, Pho, and the First Light on Hoan Kiem
Between five and eight in the morning, Hanoi belongs to tai chi practitioners at Hoan Kiem, porters finishing the night shift at the markets, and three-generation pho stalls already onto their second pot of broth -- here's how to be there for it in 2026.
Bia Hoi — Hanoi's dirt-cheap fresh-beer ritual, poured daily from kegs onto plastic stools at street corners across the Old Quarter. How a Soviet-era brewing tradition became the city's most democratic drinking culture, and where the best corners are now.
From rationed Soviet-era kegs to the plastic stools of Ta Hien, bia hoi is still the fastest way into Hanoi's evening — and in 2026 it sits alongside a craft-beer scene it quietly helped inspire.
Hanoi's Train Street and Beyond: The Narrow Alleys Where Life Runs on Rails
A route through the famous Phung Hung crossing and the quieter residential tracks beyond it, for travellers who want the trains without treating the street as a stage set.
The 36 Streets: Walking Hanoi's Thousand-Year-Old Guild Quarter
A route-led walk through Hanoi's Old Quarter, where each lane once sold one trade — and still tells you where to drink, eat and pause a thousand years on.
A City Built Around Water: Hanoi's Lakes and the Life at Their Edges
A route-led walk through Hanoi's lakes — from the old-town heart to the quiet residential water south and west — with honest notes on which suit couples, families and big groups.
Beyond the Pho Bowl: Hanoi's Real Street Kitchen, One Plastic Stool at a Time
A precise, no-fluff eater's map to Hanoi's street food — what to order, where to sit, and by what hour the good stuff is gone.
Sticky, Sweet and Streetside: Inside Hanoi's Obsessive Coffee Ritual
From the family stall that invented egg coffee to the pour-over purists roasting their own Robusta, here's exactly where to drink Hanoi's coffee — and by what hour to get there.