From egg coffee to train tracks, here are 35 reasons Hanoi deserves your next long weekend
Vietnam’s capital is chaotic, charming, and completely unbothered by your itinerary. Motorbikes pour around you like water. Coffee arrives with an egg yolk whipped into it, thick and sweet as melted tiramisu. And down a lane named after silk, someone has been ladling the same clear beef broth since the sixties.
Hanoi is a city best taken slowly, which is exactly what makes it such a good long weekend. It’s a 3h 35min flight from Changi, visa-free for Singaporeans, and so cheap that a bowl of noodles, an ice-cold beer and a museum ticket together won’t clear S$10.
Read on for the 35 best things to do in Hanoi, from lantern-lit guild streets to the six-storey cafés your feed keeps serving you 👇
💜 Stay Up To Date:
– Short Trips From Singapore: 18 Weekend Getaways
– Phu Quoc Travel Guide: Things To Do + Tips
TL;DR: Hanoi at a glance
| Highlights | Details |
|---|---|
| Why go | Street food, egg coffee and French-colonial streets, at a third of the price of anywhere else you’d fly to |
| How long | 3 days for the city, 4 to 5 with a day trip to Halong Bay or Ninh Binh |
| Best time | October and November for cool, dry days. Winter gets properly chilly, so pack a jacket |
| Getting there | About 3h 35min direct from Changi. 30 days visa-free for Singapore passports |
| Don’t miss | Hoan Kiem Lake at 6 AM, egg coffee at Café Giảng, bún chả for lunch, bia hơi on Ta Hien |
| Rough cost | Around S$60 to S$100 a day per person, all in |
| Paying | Tap your YouTrip card at hotels and restaurants, keep dong for street stalls |
📚 Table of Contents
- What Is Hanoi Known For?
- What You Can’t Miss in Hanoi
- Old Quarter & Hoan Kiem Lake
- History & Landmarks
- Hanoi’s Coffee Culture
- What to Eat in Hanoi
- Things to Do in Hanoi at Night
- Unique & Underrated Things to Do
- Shopping in Hanoi
- Things to Do in Hanoi With Kids
- Day Trips From Hanoi
- How Many Days Do You Need in Hanoi?
- Best Time to Visit Hanoi
- Where to Stay in Hanoi
- What a Hanoi Trip Costs & How to Pay
- Travel Tips for Exploring Hanoi
- FAQs
What Is Hanoi Known For?
Vietnam’s capital and second-biggest city, home to around 8.5 million people spread across the Red River Delta up in the north. It’s about 1,600km from Ho Chi Minh City, and honestly the two feel every bit that far apart.
Hanoi has been a capital since 1010, when King Lý Thái Tổ moved his court here and named it Thăng Long, the ascending dragon. That name is still stamped on the Imperial Citadel at number 7 on this list, a thousand years later.
So what’s Hanoi actually famous for?
- The Old Quarter: 36 tangled streets, each one still carrying the name of the trade that was sold along it
- Street food: the northern versions, which means clear-broth phở, smoky bún chả and crackling bánh mì
- Coffee: treated as a proper cultural pursuit, not a caffeine delivery system. Egg coffee was invented right here in 1946
- French colonial architecture: the Opera House, the cathedral, and street after street of shuttered mustard-yellow villas
- Water puppetry: a thousand-year-old northern art form performed waist-deep in water
Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City?
Image Credits: Lonely Planet
The eternal Vietnam question. The quick answer: Hanoi is older, slower and far more traditional. Ho Chi Minh City is bigger, hotter and much more modern.
Hanoi also has real seasons, including a properly cold winter that catches every Singaporean off guard. Saigon has the better nightlife, IMO, but Hanoi wins on coffee, and it isn’t close.
Neither is a wrong answer. Come north for history, street food and a centre you can actually walk. Go south if you want a big, fast, sweaty city that never sits down.
For a first trip with only three or four days in it, Hanoi plus one day trip beats splitting the week between two cities.
📖 Related Guide: 25 Best Things to Do in Ho Chi Minh City
What You Can’t Miss in Hanoi
Short on time, or just want someone to tell you what actually matters? This is the shortlist. We go into detail about each highlight further down.
| Do this | What it’s for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Hoan Kiem Lake & Ngoc Son Temple | The city’s centre of gravity, best at 6 AM or on a weekend evening | 30,000 to 50,000 VND (~S$1.50 to S$2.50) |
| Walk the Old Quarter | The 36 guild streets, still trading by trade in places | Free |
| Egg coffee at Café Giảng | Where the drink was invented in 1946 | 30,000 to 35,000 VND (~S$1.50 to S$1.70) |
| Bún chả for lunch | Hanoi’s dish, more than phở is | 60,000 to 90,000 VND (~S$3 to S$4.40) |
| Imperial Citadel of Thang Long | A thousand years of capital, layered on one site | 100,000 VND (~S$4.90) |
| Temple of Literature | Vietnam’s first university, founded 1070 | 70,000 VND (~S$3.40) |
| Water puppet show | A northern art form you won’t see at home | From 100,000 VND (~S$4.90) |
| Bia hơi on Ta Hien | Fresh beer, plastic stool, strangers for company | 10,000 to 15,000 VND (~S$0.50 to S$0.75) a glass |
Tick off these eight, and you’ve seen the Hanoi people come home raving about.
Old Quarter & Hoan Kiem Lake
This is Hanoi at its best. Shophouses barely two metres wide, pavements surrendered to parked motorbikes and plastic stools, and a low permanent hum of horns you stop hearing by day two.
You can walk the whole quarter in an afternoon, but do yourself a favour and come back three or four times at different hours. It’s a completely different place at 6 AM than it is at 9 PM.
1. Hoan Kiem Lake & Ngoc Son Temple
If Hanoi has a living room, this is it. The lake sits smack in the middle of the Old Quarter, ringed by flame trees and a footpath that never really empties.
Turn up at 6 AM, and you’ll walk straight into badminton games, rows of tai chi and joggers getting their laps in before the heat lands. Come back at 9 PM on a weekend, and the roads shut to traffic entirely, filling with buskers, roller skates and families eating ice cream.
The scarlet Huc Bridge arcs across to Ngoc Son Temple on its little island, all incense smoke and dark red timber. Inside, a giant softshell turtle sits preserved in a glass case: a nod to the legend that gives the lake its name. Hoan Kiem means “returned sword”.
- 📍 Address: Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Temple open daily from 7 AM, closing at 7 PM on weekdays and 10 PM at weekends
- 💰 Price: Around 30,000 to 50,000 VND (~S$1.50 to S$2.50) for the temple; the lake itself is free
💡 Pro tip: the temple ticket counter takes cash only, so bring dong. Sources disagree on the exact fee, so budget the higher figure.
This is the landmark you’ll navigate the whole trip around, and the weekend street closure is well worth planning an evening for.
2. Walk the 36 Guild Streets
Image Credits: VinWonders
The Old Quarter is one giant address book. Its streets were carved up by trade centuries ago and most still wear the name: Hàng Bạc for silver, Hàng Gai for silk, Hàng Thiếc for tin. Better still, plenty of them never gave the job up. Turn one corner, and you’ll find a whole lane of tinsmiths hammering in unison; turn another, and it’s nothing but red paper lanterns and altar offerings.
There’s no ticket and no queue, just an hour of wandering with nowhere to be. Do it on day one, before you book anything else: it’s the fastest way to learn the shape of the city, and the only real antidote to its traffic.
3. Heritage House
Image credits: Tripadvisor
Ever wondered what’s behind those skinny shopfronts you’ve been squeezing past all day? This is your answer. It’s a restored 19th-century merchant’s house, two minutes from the lake, built in the classic Hanoi “tube house” shape. A narrow frontage opens back into a run of cool, shaded courtyards, full of dark lacquered furniture and carved timber screens.
You’ll be through it in half an hour, which is exactly the point. It’s the perfect breather between two bigger sights.
- 📍 Address: 87 P. Mã Mây, Hà Nội
Skip it if you’re tight on time and heading to the citadel. Otherwise, it’s the cheapest bit of context you’ll buy all trip.
4. St Joseph’s Cathedral
Image credits: VinWonders
Someone dropped a slice of Paris into the Old Quarter and left it out in the weather for 140 years. Consecrated in 1886 and the oldest church in Hanoi, its twin Gothic towers are streaked black and grey with damp, which honestly looks better than the original ever did.
The little square out front is the real draw: a permanent scrum of plastic stools, iced tea and teenagers on scooters, with the cathedral looming over all of it.
- 📍 Address: 40 P. Nhà Chung, Hà Nội
Come late afternoon, grab a stool and order a trà chanh. The facade catches gorgeous warm light in the hour before sunset.
5. Phung Hung Mural Street
Image Credits: Tripadvisor
A row of old railway arches turned into an open-air gallery. Each one is painted with a scene from mid-century Hanoi: rattling tram cars, ration-era shopfronts, women in áo dài carrying flower baskets. It’s free, it’s outdoors, and there’s no queue.
Worth a 20-minute detour if you’re already walking towards Train Street, which runs along the very same line.
6. See the Old Quarter by Cyclo
Image Credits: Tripadvisor
Yes, the cyclo is a tourist thing now. Get in anyway. Reclining at knee height while your driver threads a three-wheeled bicycle through a river of scooters is a completely different way to read the Old Quarter. It’s weirdly calming, too, once you accept you have no control over any of it.
One rule: agree the price and the route before you sit down. Drivers quote by the hour and the first number is never the last.
Brilliant if you’ve walked your legs off or you’d rather not tackle the pavements. Less brilliant if haggling makes you want to lie down.
History & Landmarks
Hanoi has been somebody’s capital, on and off, for more than a thousand years, and it wears all of it at once. The good news for your itinerary: the big historical hitters cluster close enough together that one well-planned day covers them.
7. Imperial Citadel of Thang Long
Image credits: Vinpearl
Eight centuries of Vietnamese power stacked on one plot of land, and you can see the layers with your own eyes. Eleventh-century stone foundations sit under elegant mustard-yellow French buildings. Beneath all of it is House D67, the concrete war bunker where generals planned the final push of the Vietnam War. The map room is still laid out as they left it, rotary phones and all.
Most visitors miss the archaeological zone across the road at 18 Hoang Dieu, which is a shame, because that’s where the excavated palace foundations are actually on show.
- 📍 Address: 19C Hoàng Diệu, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 8 AM to 5 PM. Closed Mondays
- 💰 Price: 100,000 VND (~S$4.90) for adults
💡 Pro tip: allow 2 to 3 hours for the main complex, plus another hour for the archaeological zone.
If you want the thousand-year story rather than just the war years, this is the stop. Pair it with the Mausoleum complex, a 10-minute walk away.
8. Temple of Literature
Image Credits: Vietnam Discovery Tours
The calmest place in Hanoi, and the loveliest. Founded in 1070 as Vietnam’s first national university, it unfolds as five walled courtyards of red-and-gold pavilions, lotus ponds and frangipani trees, each one quieter than the last.
The showstoppers are the 82 stone stelae propped on the backs of carved stone tortoises, engraved with the names of doctoral graduates going back to the 15th century. Come around exam season, and you’ll share the courtyards with graduating students in full academic dress, posing for photos and shrieking with their mates. It’s a lovely thing to walk into.
- 📍 Address: 58 P. Quốc Tử Giám, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, roughly 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM in summer and 8 AM to 5 PM in winter
- 💰 Price: 70,000 VND (~S$3.40) for adults, 35,000 VND (~S$1.70) for students. Free for children under 15
Go mid-morning, before the heat peaks. It works with kids too, being flat, shaded and roomy enough to let them move.
9. Hoa Lo Prison
Image Credits: VinWonders
The heaviest hour you’ll spend in Hanoi, and worth every minute. Built by the French in the 1890s and later used to hold American pilots, who nicknamed it the “Hanoi Hilton” with the blackest humour available to them.
Most of the museum deals with the French colonial years, and it’s those rooms that follow you home. The low shackle halls where prisoners were chained in rows. The sewer they escaped through. The guillotine, still standing in its own chamber. Go in knowing the section on the American years is told firmly from one side.
- 📍 Address: 1 P. Hoả Lò, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, 8 AM to 5 PM
- 💰 Price: Around 30,000 to 50,000 VND (~S$1.50 to S$2.50). Night tour: 100,000 VND (~S$4.90)
💡 Pro tip: the 45-minute night tour runs Friday to Sunday at 7 PM and is capped by capacity, so book ahead.
Go if the colonial years interest you at all. Not one for young children.
10. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex
Image Credits: Vinpearl
There is nothing else quite like it. Ho Chi Minh lies embalmed under glass in a vast grey granite mausoleum on Ba Dinh Square, the same square where he read out Vietnam’s declaration of independence in 1945. The queue is long, absolutely silent and marshalled by white-uniformed guards: no photos, no bags, no shorts, hands out of your pockets. You file past in under a minute.
Honestly, the grounds are the better half. His modest stilt house on its carp pond, the buttercup-yellow Presidential Palace he refused to live in, and the One Pillar Pagoda are all in the same walk.
- ⚠️ Closed 5 September to 3 November 2026 for annual maintenance. The grounds, stilt house, and One Pillar Pagoda stay open
- 🕘 Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday mornings only. Roughly 7:30 AM to 10:30 AM from April to October, and 8 AM to 11 AM from November to March, with an extra 30 minutes at weekends and on public holidays. Closed Mondays and Fridays
- 💰 Price: Free
Worth doing on a first trip if your dates line up. Travelling in September or October 2026? Plan for the grounds only and don’t build your morning around the mausoleum itself.
11. One Pillar Pagoda & West Lake
Image credits: VinWonders
A tiny wooden temple balanced on one stone column in the middle of a pond, built to look like a lotus opening on its stem. It’s small, it’s lovely, and it sits inside the mausoleum grounds, so treat it as part of that walk rather than its own trip.
West Lake is the exact opposite in every way: huge, breezy and unhurried, with a road looping right around it that’s made for a slow cycle. This is where Hanoians escape to when the Old Quarter gets too loud. The lakeside cafés on the western shore are some of the best sunset seats in the city.
Give West Lake a whole slow afternoon. It’s the pressure valve for when the Old Quarter starts to wear you down.
12. Tran Quoc Pagoda
Nearly 1,500 years old and still going, which makes it the oldest Buddhist temple in the city by a mile. It sits on its own little islet off Thanh Niên Road, reached by a short causeway with water on both sides.
The centrepiece is the rose-red stupa, eleven tiers tall, with a white marble Buddha seated in an arched window on every level. Bodhi leaves, incense smoke, old men playing chess by the gate. It’s a working temple rather than a museum, so you’ll be stepping around people who came to pray, not photograph.
- 📍 Address: 46 Thanh Niên, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, 8 AM to 4 PM. Extended to 6 AM to 6 PM on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month
- 💰 Price: Free, though donations go towards upkeep
💡 Pro tip: shoulders and knees covered, same as Ngoc Son. It’s enforced here.
Time it with your West Lake afternoon and get there near sunset, when the red stupa lights up against the water.
13. Hanoi Opera House
Image credits: La Siesta Hotels
Paris, but make it tropical. Built in 1911 and modelled on the Palais Garnier, right down to the buttery ochre facade, the pillared portico and a chandelier-lit auditorium in red velvet and gold leaf. You can tour it, but the far better move is booking whatever’s on so you actually see the room working.
- 📍 Address: 1 Tràng Tiền, Hà Nội
💡 Pro tip: book in advance. Performance schedules are irregular, and the building isn’t always open for casual visits.
This is your evening that isn’t another bar. Check the programme before you lock in a date.
Hanoi’s Coffee Culture
Coffee here isn’t a pit stop; it’s the entire afternoon. Vietnam is one of the biggest coffee producers on earth, and Hanoi has built a whole culture on top of it. Think 1940s institutions up rickety staircases, six-floor design-project cafés, and plastic stools on the pavement outside both.
Our advice? Budget way more café time than you think you need. You’ll use it.
14. Café Giảng
Image Credits: 948234640 on rednote
This is where egg coffee was born, and it’s still in the family. Back in 1946, bartender Nguyễn Văn Giang was working at what’s now the Sofitel Legend Metropole when wartime shortages made fresh milk impossible to get. His workaround: whip an egg yolk instead. It was such a hit he opened his own place on the back of it.
Call it coffee if you like, but it drinks like warm tiramisu. A thick golden custard cap, sweet and faintly eggy, sits on a shot of fierce Vietnamese robusta. It comes in a little glass parked in a bowl of hot water, so it never goes cold. Spoon through the top and stir, or leave the layers and let them meet on the way down.
- 📍 Address: 39 P. Nguyễn Hữu Huân, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, roughly 7 AM to 10 PM
- 💰 Price: About 30,000 to 35,000 VND (~S$1.50 to S$1.70) for an egg coffee
If you only drink one egg coffee in Hanoi, drink it here. It’s narrow and constantly busy with seating up several floors, so don’t count on lingering at peak times.
15. Café Dinh
Image credits: Yael Ben Itzhak on Google Reviews
Hanoi’s worst-kept secret, and you’ll still walk past it twice. Café Dinh hides at the top of a dim staircase behind a shopfront on the lake’s western edge. It was opened in the 1990s by the daughter of Café Giảng’s founder. Same egg coffee bloodline, slightly different ratio, a fraction of the queue.
The room is scuffed plastic stools and peeling paint, and that’s the charm. The window seats look straight out over Hoan Kiem Lake.
- 📍 Address: 13 P. Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Hà Nội (second floor)
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, 7 AM to 10 PM
- 💰 Price: Around 30,000 VND (~S$1.50) for an egg coffee
Grab a window seat if one’s free. The people-watching over the lake is the whole point of coming.
16. giao mùa
Image credits: @vuongiaomua on Instagram
Six floors of gloriously odd. Curved cream walls, hobbit-hole nooks, staircases that fold back on themselves, and a door handle made from a real espresso portafilter. Everybody reaches for the Studio Ghibli comparison and honestly, they’re not wrong.
The coffee is seriously good, which justifies prices a notch above the Old Quarter average. They pour both egg coffee and salt coffee, so this is your chance to try the two back to back and pick a side.
- 📍 Address: 77 P. Lò Sũ, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Vary. Recent listings range from an early-morning open to a 10 PM close, so check their Instagram (@vuongiaomua) before making the trip
Perfect for a long afternoon with a book, or for anyone who cares about a well-designed room. Go early, because it fills up fast.
17. The Note Coffee
Image Credits: Tripadvisor
Four floors wallpapered in tens of thousands of coloured sticky notes, left by visitors since 2012. Walls, ceiling, stair risers, the backs of the chairs, the inside of the toilet door. You get handed a pad and a pen the moment you sit down, and you will absolutely lose 20 minutes reading other people’s.
The coffee is perfectly fine rather than a revelation. Nobody comes for the coffee.
- 📍 Address: 64 P. Lương Văn Can, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Monday to Thursday, 8 AM to 10:30 PM. Friday to Sunday, 7 AM to 11 PM
Bring kids or teenagers, who will spend far longer reading the walls than you expect.
18. Bancông
Image Credits: Tripadvisor
Bancông means balcony, and that tells you exactly why everyone’s here. It’s a restored 1930s French colonial townhouse over three floors, with wraparound terraces looking straight down into the Old Quarter.
Order a matcha, lean on the railing and watch the whole street theatre unfold below you: scooters, fruit sellers, a man carrying an impossible number of boxes. Better than anything on the menu, and the menu is good.
Fair warning: there are barely any balcony seats, and they turn over slowly. Book ahead, or make peace with sitting inside.
- 📍 Address: 2 P. Đinh Liệt, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, roughly 7:30 AM to 11 PM
Come late afternoon, when the Old Quarter fills up and you’d rather watch it from above than stand in it.
19. Try Salt Coffee
Image credits: @hungboo on Lemon8
Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Salt coffee travelled north from Hue and took over Hanoi in about five minutes flat. A pinch of salt whisked into the cream cap knocks the hard edge off the robusta and pushes all the sweetness forward, so it lands smooth, rounded and weirdly moreish.
It’s on menus right across the Old Quarter now, so there’s no need to make a pilgrimage. giao mùa (above) pours a very good one.
If you find Vietnamese coffee too bitter, this is the fix. Order it iced.
What to Eat in Hanoi
Northern Vietnamese food is the restrained cousin of what you get down south: less sugar, less chilli, far more herbs and broth. Subtle doesn’t mean boring. It means there’s nowhere to hide.
Three dishes are non-negotiable, and all three cost less than a kopi and kaya toast set back home.
20. Phở
Image credits: Phở Sướng Phố Cổ HN on Facebook
Forget everything you know from the southern version. No mountain of bean sprouts, no squeeze bottles of hoisin and sriracha, no basil. Hanoi phở is stripped right back. A crystal-clear beef broth simmered for hours with charred ginger and star anise, silky flat rice noodles, a scatter of spring onion, and that’s your lot.
There’s nothing to hide behind, which is exactly the point. The broth is the whole argument, and the good ones are unbelievably fragrant.
It’s breakfast food, eaten at 7 AM on a stool ten centimetres off the ground with the steam still fogging up your sunglasses. Shops sell out and shut by mid-morning, so this is not a lie-in kind of meal.
| Where | Address | Hours | Why go |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phở Sướng | 24B Ng. Trung Yên, Hà Nội | From 5:30 AM (5 AM at weekends) to 12 PM, then 5 PM to 9:30 PM | Family-run, down an alley, rich broth and a queue that moves fast |
Make it your first morning, before the heat arrives. Get there before 8 AM if you’d rather not queue.
21. Bún chả
You’ll smell it a full street before you find it. Thin slices of pork shoulder and fat little patties of minced belly go straight over charcoal in the doorway, and the smoke rolls down the whole lane at lunchtime.
What lands in front of you is a warm bowl of sweetened, diluted fish sauce, slivers of pickled green papaya floating in it. The charred pork sits in the middle. Alongside: a plate of cold rice vermicelli and a mountain of herbs. You build every mouthful yourself, dunking noodles and mint into the bowl.
Say what you like about phở. This is the dish Hanoi actually runs on.
💡 Pro tip: Hương Liên sells the meal as a set (“combo Obama”) with a beer. It’s a fair price and saves a language negotiation.
Both places fill from noon, and Đắc Kim in particular runs a proper queue.
22. Bánh mì
Image credits: Bánh mì Long Hội
The best thing the French left behind, improved beyond recognition. The Vietnamese baguette is lighter and thinner-crusted than the Paris original, so it shatters into flakes when you bite it instead of squashing.
Inside: a smear of rich pâté, cold cuts, crunchy pickled carrot and daikon, a fistful of coriander and enough chilli to make you sit up. Two dollars, eaten standing on a street corner, and better than most sandwiches you’ll pay twenty for.
| Where | Address | Hours | Why go |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bánh Mì Long Hội | 7 P. Hàng Quạt, Hà Nội | 6:30 AM to 10:30 PM daily | Long menu; the loaded “Successful” bread packs pâté, char siu, meatballs and grilled meat into one roll |
💡 Pro tip: take it to Long Bien Bridge, a 15-minute walk north, and eat it looking out over the Red River.
It’s a cheap breakfast, and one of the few places still going at 10 PM for the walk home.
23. Pizza 4P’s
We know, pizza in Hanoi sounds like a waste of a meal. Hear us out. Pizza 4P’s is a Japanese-founded cult favourite that makes its own burrata and mozzarella in-house daily. That goes onto a menu where Italian technique collides with Vietnamese and Japanese ingredients.
Order the seafood okonomiyaki pizza and you’ll get it instantly: a molten raft of cheese, prawns and squid under bonito flakes that curl in the heat. They brew their own beer too, and the burrata arrives so fresh it collapses the second you cut it.
- 📍 Address: 11B P. Báo Khánh, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, 11 AM to 11 PM
Take it as the night off from Vietnamese food, or the answer to a fussy eater. Book ahead at weekends.
24. The Hanoi Social Club
Image credits: 180829532 on rednote
A rambling 1920s French villa over three floors, with mismatched armchairs, ceiling fans and a courtyard out the back. The kitchen does proper Melbourne-style brunch: avocado toast, big cooked breakfasts, and a vegetarian and vegan menu that isn’t an afterthought.
There’s a small live music programme too, usually acoustic and usually excellent.
- 📍 Address: 6 Ng. Hội Vũ, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, 8 AM to 11 PM
Save it for a slow brunch on day two or three, when you want a break from plastic stools. Check their social channels for what’s on musically.
Things to Do in Hanoi at Night
Hanoi after dark is a different city, and almost all of it happens inside the Old Quarter. It also starts and finishes earlier than you’d think: the street drinking is in full swing by 8 PM and largely wrapped by midnight. Plan accordingly.
25. Bia Hơi at Ta Hien Street
Image credits: Vietnam Discovery Tours
Bia hơi is fresh, unpasteurised draught beer, brewed that morning and drunk that night. That’s why it’s almost free, and why you’ll never find it outside Vietnam. The junction of Tạ Hiện and Lương Ngọc Quyến is the place to drink it.
By 8 PM the junction is barely a road. Red plastic stools spill off both pavements, skewers go over charcoal at the kerb, and the noise comes off four bars at once. You sit knee to knee with strangers and shout a bit.
It’s touristy. It’s also genuinely fun, and the beer costs less than a bottle of water back home.
- 📍 Address: Tạ Hiện, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: A public street rather than a venue. Stalls open from around 5 PM, peak between 7 PM and midnight, and some bars run past 1 AM. Busiest Friday to Sunday
- 💰 Price: About 10,000 to 15,000 VND (~S$0.50 to S$0.75) a glass at the Ta Hien corner. Cheaper on the back streets
It’s the right first night out, and it suits solo travellers, because the seating makes conversation unavoidable. Order skewers from the surrounding stalls.
26. Bee’znees Speakeasy
Image credits: Lê Thị Thu Hà on Google Reviews
Push through the door, and Hanoi disappears. Bee’znees is art deco done properly: low amber light, velvet booths, brass fittings and a warren of intimate little levels stacked on top of each other. The list runs from dead-straight classics to inventive things built on seasonal Vietnamese herbs and fruit, and the bartenders actually know what they’re doing.
Live music some nights, usually midweek.
- 📍 Address: 163 P. Phùng Hưng, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: From 7 PM. Later close on Fridays and Saturdays
This is the night you want a proper drink instead of a plastic stool. Book if you’re more than four.
27. Water Puppet Show at Thang Long Theatre
Image Credits: Klook
A thousand-year-old art form invented by rice farmers who staged shows in flooded paddy fields, and it’s still performed exactly that way. The puppeteers stand waist-deep in water behind a bamboo screen, working glossy lacquered figures across the surface on hidden poles: dragons that spit water, fishermen, buffalo, a fire-breathing turtle.
Fifty minutes, 18 short scenes of village life and mythology, and nine musicians playing đàn bầu and bamboo flute live at the side. There’s no dialogue to follow, so it works for absolutely everyone.
- 📍 Address: 57B P. Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Seven shows daily, eight on Sundays
- 💰 Price: 100,000 VND (~S$4.90) standard, 150,000 VND (~S$7.30) deluxe, up to 200,000 VND (~S$9.80) for VIP. Camera fee 20,000 VND (~S$1)
💡 Pro tip: Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon shows sell out two to three days ahead. Weekday afternoon shows usually take walk-ins.
Brilliant with kids, and the one cultural fixture worth locking into any itinerary. Book online, which usually comes in cheaper than the box office.
28. Old Quarter Night Markets
Image Credits: Tour in Hanoi Vietnam
Friday to Sunday evenings, the streets from Hàng Đào up towards Đồng Xuân shut to traffic and fill end to end with stalls. Knock-off trainers, embroidered bags, phone cases, and a glorious gauntlet of food carts pumping out grilled corn, quail eggs and sizzling bánh xèo.
Missed the weekend? Nhà Xanh night market in Cầu Giấy runs daily, and because it’s where students shop, it’s cheaper, busier and far less touristy.
Keep it for a Friday or Saturday evening with no fixed plan, and go for the food stalls rather than the souvenirs.
Unique & Underrated Things to Do
The stuff people actually come home talking about, and the stuff most first-time itineraries leave out entirely.
29. Train Street
Hanoi’s most photographed spot, and for once the hype holds up. A working railway line threads straight through a residential lane with barely a metre of clearance either side. Laundry hangs over the rails, and cafés put their stools between the sleepers. When a train is due, everyone hauls their chairs in against the wall and watches it grind past close enough to touch.
What’s changed in 2026: Authorities have restricted access repeatedly. There are now police posts and metal barriers at the Trần Phú crossing and the Phùng Hưng section, and organised group tours were banned in March 2025.
You can still visit. Access runs through the licensed cafés, though, and you’re expected to be sitting inside one before the train arrives rather than standing on the tracks. Guards will move you on otherwise.
The Lê Duẩn stretch near the main railway station is currently the most accessible and the least commercialised of the sections.
💡 Pro tip: ask your café for the day’s train times when you sit down. Schedules shift, and a printed timetable from a blog post is not reliable. There are also fewer trains than there used to be: after structural damage closed Long Biên Bridge to rail traffic in early 2026, the Ministry of Construction and Hanoi agreed in February 2026 to cut passenger frequency and suspend freight on this stretch.
Still worth it for a coffee with a view you won’t get anywhere else. Just go in knowing it’s a supervised experience these days, not the free-for-all in the photos you’ve seen.
30. Hoả Xa Café at Long Biên Station
Image Credits: thanglong.chinhphu.vn – Chính phủ
Train Street’s legal, stress-free twin, and almost nobody knows about it. The city opened Hoả Xa inside Long Biên Station in 2023, the only officially sanctioned railway café in Hanoi. It’s set back a safe distance from the rails, with proper rules, and nobody blowing a whistle at you.
You still get the trains rumbling through. You also get a century-old working station, all peeling green paint and iron beams. And a long view down Long Biên Bridge, the rust-red 1902 lattice that Gustave Eiffel’s firm had a hand in. Most visitors walk straight past it on their way to a bánh mì.
- 📍 Address: Long Biên Station, Trần Nhật Duật, Hà Nội. Main gate on Trần Nhật Duật
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, 7 AM to 10 PM
If you want the Train Street photo without negotiating a police checkpoint for it, come here instead. It’s also the better option with kids.
31. Bat Trang Pottery Village
Image credits: Vietjet Air
Seven hundred years of mud, kilns and craftsmanship on the far bank of the Red River. Bat Trang has been firing ceramics since around the 14th century. The old lanes are still lined with workshops, drying racks and courtyards stacked with celadon bowls and blue-and-white teapots.
Buy direct from the makers at a fraction of Old Quarter prices, or sit down at a wheel and make a wobbly bowl of your own.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognised the village’s craft as national intangible cultural heritage in December 2019. It’s about 30 to 40 minutes from the Old Quarter by Grab.
Give it a half-day. It’s the best souvenir shopping in Hanoi by some distance, and it works with kids, who can make something and have it fired.
32. Book a Vietnamese Head Spa
Ninety minutes of being thoroughly fussed over, and quite possibly the best thing you’ll book all trip. A Vietnamese head spa is a slow, methodical ritual: warm herbal washes, a long scalp and neck massage, a shoulder going-over and, if you’re brave, the ear cleaning.
You come out floppy, glowing and slightly reborn, having paid a fraction of what the same hour costs in Singapore.
Book it for the afternoon after a long flight, or the last day before you fly home. The popular salons fill up.
33. Take a Coffee-Making Workshop
Image Credits: Klook
An hour or two behind the counter of a working café. You learn to pack a phin filter properly, whip an egg yolk to the right ribbon consistency, and pull off a salt coffee cap that doesn’t collapse.
You go home able to actually make the thing you spent all week drinking, which beats a fridge magnet.
Save it for a rainy afternoon, or for the moment you start wondering how the egg coffee actually holds together.
Shopping in Hanoi
Shopping here is cheap and completely chaotic, usually at the same moment. Bring small notes, expect to haggle, and don’t take the first price seriously.
34. Dong Xuan Market
Image credits: Tripadvisor
Three floors of glorious sensory overload. Đồng Xuân is Hanoi’s biggest covered market, stacked from wet-market produce on the ground floor up through bolt after bolt of silk and cotton, then clothing, shoes and household everything. It’s loud, close, and a good few degrees warmer than the street outside.
The saving grace is that it’s organised in sections by category, so it’s easier to navigate than it first looks. Think Tekka Centre, multiplied several times over.
Every price is negotiable, and the opening quote assumes you won’t bother.
Come for fabric, bulk snacks and a proper look at how the city really shops. Give it a miss for souvenirs, which are nicer and cheaper out at Bat Trang.
35. Vintage on Dong Cac Street & Designer Crafts at Líu Lô
Image credits: @nonnahsneiur on Lemon8
Đông Các Street is thrifting heaven: rack after rack of secondhand denim, silk shirts and band tees at prices that make Singapore vintage look like a robbery. Dig properly, and you’ll come away with a haul.
Phố Bà Triệu, a bit further south, is the boutique strip if you’d rather buy new. And for gifts with actual thought behind them, Líu Lô Arts stocks pieces by local designers and runs the occasional craft workshop.
- 📍 Address: Líu Lô Arts, 19 P. Chân Cầm, Hà Nội
- 🕘 Hours: Daily, 9 AM to 9 PM
This is shopping as sightseeing. Set aside a half-day and wear something easy to change out of.
Things to Do in Hanoi With Kids
Hanoi is very doable with kids, as long as you plan around the traffic. The pavements are usually a wall of parked motorbikes, which makes a pram more trouble than it’s worth. Bring a carrier, and you’ll have a much better week.
The picks that actually hold their attention:
- Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Fifty minutes, no dialogue, live music and visible spectacle. The single most reliable option
- Bat Trang Pottery Village. Making something at the wheel holds attention far longer than a museum
- Hoan Kiem Lake at the weekend, when the surrounding roads close to traffic and fill with street games and performers
- The Note Coffee, where being handed a pen and told to write on the walls needs no further explanation
- Temple of Literature, which is flat, shaded and has space to run
⚠️ Note: give Hoa Lo Prison a miss with younger children, and think twice about Train Street, where the whole point is proximity to a moving train.
It all works nicely if your kids are old enough to walk a few kilometres a day. Under-fives will find the heat and those pavements really hard going.
Day Trips From Hanoi
Hanoi is the gateway to northern Vietnam, and the surrounding region is a big part of why people fly here.
Halong Bay
Around 2.5 hours away on the expressway, and one of the great sights of Southeast Asia: roughly 1,600 limestone karsts rearing straight out of jade-green water. You need to be on the water to get it, so this is a cruise job. Day trips exist, but they’re a rush. An overnight on the bay, waking up in a quiet cove, is a completely different trip.
📖 Related Guide: 25 Best Things to Do in Halong Bay, Vietnam
Sapa
About six hours by road, or an overnight sleeper train up to Lao Cai and a transfer from there. What you get at the end: terraced rice valleys stacked up the mountainsides, mist rolling through hill-tribe villages, and properly cold air. This is not a day trip. Give it two nights minimum or don’t bother.
📖 Related Guide: Sapa, Vietnam Travel Guide
Ninh Binh
About 1.5 to 2 hours south, and the only one of the three that truly works as a day trip. Locals row you through flooded karst valleys at Trang An and Tam Coc, oars worked with their feet, gliding through caves cut under the limestone. Then you climb the 500 steps up Mua Cave and see the entire thing laid out below you. Halong Bay, but with rice paddies instead of sea.
Any of these turns a long weekend into a proper week. If you can only squeeze in one, Ninh Binh works as a day trip, while Halong Bay really deserves the overnight.
How Many Days Do You Need in Hanoi?
Three days is the right answer for the city itself. Four or five lets you add Halong Bay or Ninh Binh without rushing.
Is three days too much? No, provided you’re not trying to see everything. Hanoi rewards repeat visits to the same few streets at different hours far more than it rewards ticking off sights.
| Trip length | What you’ll fit |
|---|---|
| 2 days | The Old Quarter, the lake, one major historical site and the food. Tight but workable |
| 3 days | The above plus the citadel, a museum, a day of shopping and Bat Trang. The sweet spot |
| 4 to 5 days | Add Ninh Binh as a day trip, or Halong Bay as an overnight |
| A week | Hanoi as a base, plus Sapa in the far north |
Two days in Hanoi
If a weekend is all you have, cut the museums and keep the streets.
- Day one: phở, then the Old Quarter and the guild streets. Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple in the afternoon, egg coffee at Café Giảng, bún chả for dinner, then bia hơi on Ta Hien.
- Day two: the Imperial Citadel or the Temple of Literature (pick one), lunch, an afternoon on the balcony at Bancông, and a water puppet show before you fly.
You’ll miss Bat Trang and the day trips. Everything else on the shortlist fits.
So how does a three-day trip actually fit together?
Day 1: Old Quarter & Historic Highlights
- Phở for breakfast, then the Imperial Citadel before the heat.
- Lunch at Bún Chả Đắc Kim, then walk off the afternoon through the guild streets, taking in Heritage House and St Joseph’s Cathedral.
- Egg coffee at Café Giảng. Dinner at Pizza 4P’s, then a nightcap at Bee’znees.
Day 2: Culture, Food & Local Life
- Start early at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex (check it’s open), then the One Pillar Pagoda and on to the Temple of Literature.
- Brunch at The Hanoi Social Club. Afternoon at Hoa Lo Prison, then a water puppet show.
- Finish with bia hơi on Ta Hien.
Day 3: Shopping & Unique Experiences
- Bánh mì on Long Bien Bridge, then out to Bat Trang for pottery and souvenirs.
- Back for coffee at giao mùa, an hour on Đông Các Street for vintage, and dinner at Bún Chả Hương Liên.
- Train Street coffee if you’ve booked it.
That’s the first-timer’s route. If you’ve done Hanoi before, cut day one entirely and head straight out to Ninh Binh or Halong Bay.
Best Time to Visit Hanoi
Hanoi has four real seasons, which is unusual for Southeast Asia and catches Singaporeans out.
| Season | Months | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Autumn | September to November | The best window. Dry and mild, roughly 19°C to 31°C |
| Winter | December to February | Cool, damp and often overcast, roughly 14°C to 20°C. Pack a jacket |
| Spring | March to May | Warming up and humid, roughly 18°C to 31°C, with drizzle |
| Summer | June to August | Hot and wet, roughly 27°C to 33°C and peaking above 35°C, with heavy afternoon rain |
Pick October or November if the choice is yours. And unless you actively want the festival, dodge Tet (Vietnamese New Year, late January or February), when plenty of businesses shut for several days.
Where to Stay in Hanoi
Stay in or near the Old Quarter for a first trip. Everything in this guide is either walkable or a short Grab ride from there. The French Quarter, just south, is quieter and slightly more expensive, and West Lake suits longer stays.
| Area | Suits | Indicative nightly rate |
|---|---|---|
| Old Quarter | First-timers, budget travellers, anyone who wants to walk everywhere | Hostel beds from around S$8; mid-range doubles roughly S$35 to S$80 |
| French Quarter | Quieter nights, colonial architecture, better restaurants | Upwards of S$100 for four and five-star hotels |
| West Lake | Longer stays, families, lakeside calm | Upwards of S$100 |
Rates are indicative for 2026 and move sharply with season and demand. Check live prices for your dates.
For a first visit, it’s the Old Quarter, no real debate. Just know the noise is real, so ask for a room off the street.
What a Hanoi Trip Costs & How to Pay
Hanoi is inexpensive by Singapore standards.
- A bowl of phở runs about 40,000 to 70,000 VND (~S$2 to S$3.40), cheaper away from the Old Quarter.
- A coffee is 30,000 to 50,000 VND (~S$1.50 to S$2.50).
- A Grab across the Old Quarter is often under 50,000 VND (~S$2.50).
Budget roughly S$60 to S$100 per person per day including mid-range accommodation, food, entry fees and transport. Two weeks in Vietnam on around S$1,300 (the figure people often ask about) is comfortable outside of flights, and tight only if you’re doing multiple cruises and internal flights.
Cash or card?
Both, and the split matters:
- Card works at hotels, mid-range and upmarket restaurants, museums with a proper ticket office, supermarkets and Grab
- Cash only for street food, markets, plastic-stool bia hơi, cyclos and most temple ticket counters
Carry a small amount of dong for the cash-only half and put everything else on a card.
Paying with YouTrip
Tap your YouTrip card wherever cards are accepted. YouTrip charges 0% FX fees on every VND transaction, billed at the Mastercard wholesale rate, so every tap converts your SGD at wholesale with no foreign transaction fee. That beats a credit card adding 3% to 3.5% on each overseas spend.
For cash, withdraw from a bank ATM once you land rather than changing money before you fly. YouTrip gives you your first S$400 of overseas ATM withdrawals free each month, with a 2% fee after that. Withdraw in one larger amount rather than several small ones, since Vietnamese banks charge their own per-transaction fee.
⚠️ If an ATM or a card machine offers to charge you in Singapore dollars instead of dong, always choose dong. Accepting the SGD option hands the exchange rate to their machine, and it’s never the better rate.
📖 Related Guides: Vietnam ATM Withdrawal Guide: Fees, Locations, Exchange Rates
Travel Tips for Exploring Hanoi
- Getting there. Direct flights from Changi to Noi Bai take about 3h 35min, on Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Vietnam Airlines and VietJet. The airport is about 30km out, so budget 45 minutes to an hour to the Old Quarter
- Visa. Singapore passport holders don’t need a visa for stays up to 30 days. Your passport needs at least 6 months’ validity on arrival
- Getting around. Grab is cheap, metered and removes the haggling. GrabBike is faster in traffic if you’re comfortable on the back of a motorbike
- Crossing the road. Walk at a slow, steady pace and don’t stop or run. Traffic flows around you. Hesitating is what causes problems
- Weather. Check before packing. A December trip needs a jacket, which surprises most Singaporeans
- Power plugs. Vietnam runs on 220V, 50Hz, with type A and C sockets and occasionally type F. Singapore’s type G plug won’t fit, so bring an adapter
📖 Related Guide: Vietnam Power Plug & Socket Guide: Types, Adapters & Travel Tips
FAQs
Yes. Three days covers the Old Quarter, the main historical sites and a proper run at the food and coffee. Add two more days if you want Halong Bay or Sapa.
No. The city rewards slowness, and most visitors find they run out of time rather than things to do. If you’re worried, build in a day trip to Ninh Binh on day three.
Street food (phở, bún chả, egg coffee), the 36-street Old Quarter, French colonial architecture and a coffee culture that goes well beyond a caffeine habit.
Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple, the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, and a water puppet show at Thang Long Theatre. Add egg coffee at Café Giảng and bún chả for lunch.
Yes, by Singapore standards. Meals run S$2.50 to S$5, a glass of bia hơi is around S$0.50, and major museum entry rarely exceeds S$5.
Yes, with restrictions. Access is through the licensed trackside cafés, group tours have been banned since March 2025, and there are police posts at the Trần Phú and Phùng Hưng entrances. The Lê Duẩn section is the most accessible.
Some. Cards are widely accepted at hotels, restaurants and museums, but street food stalls, markets and cyclos are cash only. Withdraw dong from a bank ATM on arrival.
October or November. Dry, mild and around 25°C, which is the most comfortable weather Hanoi gets.
Ready To Take On Hanoi?
Here’s the thing about Hanoi: it isn’t performing for you. It just gets on with its morning noodles and its afternoon coffee and its evening beer, and you’re welcome to pull up a plastic stool and join in.
Give it three days. Spend far more of them sitting down than you planned to. You’ll fly home already working out when you can come back.
Before you fly, pack your YouTrip card. Singapore’s go-to multi-currency wallet lets you spend in over 150 currencies with great rates and zero fees, so every dong you spend converts at the wholesale rate. Get a free YouTrip card plus S$5 in credit with code YTBLOG5.
Then head to our YouTrip Perks page for exclusive offers and promotions. Join our Telegram (@YouTripSG) and Community Group (@YouTripSquad) for travel tips, event invites and more.
Chúc thượng lộ bình an! 🇻🇳
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