Hanoi, Vietnam

Evergreen city guide with quick facts, travel, business, and culture.

VietnamHà Nội

Overview

Hanoi is Vietnam's thousand-year capital — founded as Thang Long in 1010 by Lý Thái Tổ, renamed Hà Nội in 1831, and the political and cultural centre of unified Vietnam since 1976. Its three urban layers are still legible: the medieval Old Quarter of 36 craft streets around Hoan Kiem Lake, the wide-boulevard French Quarter from the Indochinese Union years (1888–1954), and the modern administrative core around Ba Đình Square. Vietnam's e-Visa is open to most travellers and Noi Bai International Airport (HAN) connects directly to Europe, North America, the Middle East and most of Asia.

The 36 streets and Old Quarter

Phố Cổ — the medieval merchant grid where each street still carries the name of its historical guild, with Đồng Xuân market, Tạ Hiện street food and the bia hơi corners.

Imperial heritage and dynastic Hanoi

The UNESCO Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long, the Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu, 1070), the Khuê Văn Pavilion and a thousand years of capital history.

French Quarter and Indochinese architecture

Saint Joseph's Cathedral, the Hanoi Opera House, the Sofitel Metropole, colonial villas, and the Hỏa Lò Prison Memorial.

Lakes, pagodas and morning city

Hoan Kiem and Ngọc Sơn Temple, West Lake (Hồ Tây), Trấn Quốc Pagoda, the Đường Thanh Niên causeway and the lakeside cafés.

Hanoi food and coffee

Phở, bún chả, bánh cuốn, chả cá Lã Vọng, cà phê trứng (egg coffee, invented at Café Giảng in 1946), and the bia hơi street-corner culture.

Water puppetry and traditional arts

Múa rối nước at the Thăng Long Water Puppet Theatre, ca trù sung poetry, the Vietnamese Women's Museum and the Museum of Ethnology.

History

Hanoi's site has been continuously inhabited since at least the 3rd century BCE — the Cổ Loa citadel 17 km north was the capital of the Âu Lạc kingdom. The city itself was founded in 1010 when Lý Thái Tổ, founder of the Lý dynasty, moved the capital of Đại Việt from Hoa Lư and renamed the new seat Thăng Long ('ascending dragon'); the Imperial Citadel that he built and that was rebuilt by the Trần, Lê and Nguyễn dynasties is the buried foundation of the UNESCO World Heritage site. The capital was at Thăng Long, with brief interruptions, for most of the next 800 years. Emperor Minh Mạng renamed the city Hà Nội ('between rivers') in 1831. France took the city in 1882–1883 during the Tonkin Campaign and from 1888 made Hanoi the capital of Tonkin and then of the Indochinese Union — the city's wide-boulevard French Quarter, the Opera House, Saint Joseph's Cathedral, the Long Biên Bridge and the Sofitel Metropole all date from this period. Hồ Chí Minh declared the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam on Ba Đình Square on 2 September 1945, and Hanoi served as the capital of North Vietnam through the Vietnam War years; reunification in 1976 made it the capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Đổi Mới economic reforms of 1986 reshaped the city's commerce, and the millennium of Thăng Long–Hà Nội in 2010 — coinciding with the UNESCO inscription of the Imperial Citadel — marked the modern Hanoi as a thousand-year capital that still wears its layers in plain sight.

Culture

Hanoi is the spiritual home of northern Vietnamese cuisine — drier, more pungent and herb-forward than southern Vietnamese cooking, with a clear line into the city's mercantile and French-Indochinese past. Phở, the noodle soup that travelled the world, was perfected in Hanoi in the early 20th century; the canonical Hanoi versions are phở bò (beef) at Phở Bát Đàn, Phở Thìn Lò Đúc and Phở Gia Truyền. Bún chả — grilled pork patties with cold rice noodles, herbs and a sweet–sour fish-sauce dip — is a Hanoi specialty; Hương Liên on Lê Văn Hưu became internationally famous after Anthony Bourdain ate there with President Obama in June 2016. Other Hanoi-defining dishes: bánh cuốn (steamed rice rolls with minced pork and wood-ear), chả cá Lã Vọng (turmeric-grilled fish, served at the 130-year-old single-dish restaurant on Chả Cá street), bún ốc (snail noodle soup), and phở cuốn (fresh rice-paper rolls of beef and herbs, a Tây Hồ specialty). Cà phê trứng — egg coffee — was invented in 1946 by Nguyễn Văn Giảng at Café Giảng, when fresh milk was scarce, and is still served at the original venue at 39 Nguyễn Hữu Huân by his family. Bia hơi — fresh draught beer, brewed daily and consumed the same day — is Hanoi's signature evening drink at sidewalk plastic-stool corners (Tạ Hiện is the famous block, but every neighbourhood has a bia hơi). Vegetarian Buddhist cooking (cơm chay) is widely available; Tâm Đạt and Loving Hut are common chains. Festivals: Tết Nguyên Đán — Lunar New Year (late January or February, dates vary): Hanoi's biggest annual closure week, with peach-blossom and kumquat-tree markets in the run-up and family observances rather than public spectacle, Mid-Autumn Festival — Tết Trung Thu (15th day of the 8th lunar month, September–October): lantern processions on Hàng Mã street and mooncakes at every bakery, Hanoi Liberation Day (10 October) — civic parades and free concerts around Hoan Kiem and Ba Đình, Vietnamese National Day (2 September) — military parade on Ba Đình Square and fireworks over the lake, Hoan Kiem Walking Streets (Friday evening to Sunday evening, year round) — Hoan Kiem ring closed to motor traffic, weekend night markets and live music, Thăng Long Water Puppet performances — daily, 5–7 shows, year round at 57B Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street. Museums: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology — the 54 ethnic minorities of Vietnam, scholarly and visually exceptional, in Cầu Giấy district, Vietnamese Women's Museum (36 Lý Thường Kiệt) — three permanent floors on women in family, history and fashion, with bilingual exhibits in EN/FR/ES/JP/KR, National Museum of Vietnamese History — archaeology and dynastic Vietnam, in two former French colonial buildings on Tràng Tiền, Vietnam Military History Museum — recently consolidated in the new building near Mỹ Đình, the most complete national military collection, Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long — UNESCO site, 18 Hoàng Diệu archaeological pit, citadel buildings, Hỏa Lò Prison Memorial — colonial-era prison gatehouse and exhibits on Hỏa Lò Street, Vietnam Fine Arts Museum — Vietnamese painting and sculpture from the dynastic period to contemporary, 66 Nguyễn Thái Học.

Practical Info

Safety: Hanoi is a low-crime city by international standards — violent crime against visitors is rare and the Old Quarter, Hoan Kiem and the French Quarter are safe to walk into the late evening. The principal practical risk is traffic: motorbike density is among the world's highest, riders treat lane discipline and red lights as advisory, and pedestrian crossings are not respected automatically. Cross slowly, steadily and in a straight line — eye contact with riders works, sudden movement does not. Petty pickpocketing happens in the Old Quarter night markets and on packed buses; standard precautions apply. Common scams to avoid: unlicensed taxis at the airport (use Grab or queue at the official taxi rank), inflated fares on cyclo rides agreed afterwards (negotiate the full price in writing first), and shoeshine touts in the French Quarter who pull a sandal off your foot before quoting. Air quality in Hanoi is variable and often poor in winter mornings (December–February); travellers with respiratory conditions may want to check the daily AQI and consider a mask in heavy episodes. Language: Vietnamese is the national language; Northern Vietnamese (Bắc Bộ) is the Hanoi standard. The script is quốc ngữ — the Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet finalised by the Avignon-born Jesuit Alexandre de Rhodes in 1651 and standardised in the late 19th century. English is widely understood in hotels, central restaurants, taxis and most museums; French is occasionally still spoken by older Hanoians, particularly in cultural and academic contexts. Useful: xin chào (hello), cảm ơn (thank you), bao nhiêu? (how much?). Most central street signs and major museum captions are bilingual Vietnamese–English; outside the centre, Google Translate's camera mode is useful. Currency: Vietnamese Đồng (VND). Notes are in 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 and 500,000 denominations; rough conversions: 25,000 VND ≈ €1, 100,000 VND ≈ €4, 500,000 VND ≈ €19. ATMs are dense and most international cards work (Vietcombank, BIDV, ACB and HSBC are reliable; expect a per-withdrawal cap of around 3–5 million VND and a fee of 30,000–50,000 VND). Cards are accepted at hotels, mid-range restaurants and supermarkets, including Visa, Mastercard and contactless. Cash is required for street food, the Old Quarter markets, most cyclo rides and many family restaurants. Tipping is not traditionally expected; rounding up at restaurants and 10% at western-style places is appreciated. Small VND notes and coins handed back as change should be checked — 20,000 and 200,000 notes look similar at a glance.
Travel Overview

Hanoi is the kind of capital that wears its thousand years on the surface. The city was founded in 1010 when Lý Thái Tổ moved the seat of Đại Việt to a bend of the Red River and named it Thăng Long — 'ascending dragon'. The dynastic centre that followed (Lý, Trần, Lê) is the buried foundation of the Central Sector of the Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long, inscribed by UNESCO in 2010 and excavated at 18 Hoàng Diệu Street where the layered remains span the 7th to the 19th centuries. Around that imperial core grew the 36-street merchant quarter — Phố Cổ, Hanoi's Old Quarter — where each street historically traded one craft (silk on Hàng Đào, paper on Hàng Mã, fish on Hàng Cá, sugar on Hàng Đường) and the names survive even where the trades have scattered. Hoan Kiem Lake sits at the centre of civic life, ringed by morning runners and tai-chi practitioners and crossed by the red The Húc bridge to the Ngọc Sơn Temple. To the west, the French Quarter from the Indochinese Union period — 1888 to 1954 — is the wide-boulevard counterpart: Saint Joseph's Cathedral (Nhà Thờ Lớn, 1887) on its hilltop, the Hanoi Opera House (1911, modelled on the Palais Garnier), the colonial villas of Phan Đình Phùng and Trần Hưng Đạo, and the Hỏa Lò Prison Memorial that documents the colonial-era prison and the later use of the building during the Vietnam War. Further west again the modern political quarter centres on Ba Đình Square, where Hồ Chí Minh declared independence on 2 September 1945 and where his mausoleum, the One Pillar Pagoda (Chùa Một Cột, founded 1049), and the Presidential Palace cluster on a single axis. North of the Old Quarter, West Lake (Hồ Tây) is the larger and quieter water — Trấn Quốc Pagoda (originally 6th century, relocated to its current peninsula in the 17th) sits on a finger of land at its southern edge, and the surrounding districts of Tây Hồ and Quảng An have become the city's contemporary diplomatic, expat and dining quarter. Hanoi food is the city's other defining identity: phở (the noodle-soup form perfected in Hanoi in the early 20th century), bún chả (grilled pork patties with cold rice noodles, the dish Anthony Bourdain ate with President Obama in June 2016 at Hương Liên), bánh cuốn (steamed rice rolls), chả cá Lã Vọng (turmeric-grilled fish at Hanoi's hundred-and-thirty-year-old single-dish restaurant), and cà phê trứng — egg coffee — invented in 1946 at Café Giảng on Nguyễn Hữu Huân Street and still served at the original venue by the founder's family. Vietnam opened a single-list e-Visa in August 2023 — applicable to citizens of all countries and territories with very few exceptions — and Noi Bai International Airport (HAN), 35 km north of the city, connects directly to dozens of cities across Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia. A practical 3-day pattern: day 1 the Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem on foot, plus a Thăng Long water-puppet evening; day 2 the Imperial Citadel UNESCO site, the Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu, founded 1070) and the Vietnamese Women's Museum, with a French-Quarter walk and an Opera House visit; day 3 West Lake, Trấn Quốc Pagoda, the Tây Hồ café and craft-shopping streets, and an evening of bia hơi (fresh tap beer) and street food on Tạ Hiện. Hanoi has four distinct seasons — unusual for Southeast Asia — and the comfortable windows are autumn (September–November, dry and 20–28 °C) and spring (February–April); summer (May–August) is hot and humid with the rainy season; winter (December–January) is cool, often grey, with morning lows around 12 °C. Tết, the Lunar New Year (late January or February), is the major closure week — many shops, family restaurants and museums close, and intercity transport is at peak; plan around it.

Discover Hanoi

The Old Quarter (Phố Cổ) is Hanoi's medieval and early-modern merchant heart — a dense lattice of narrow streets where each historic guild named its address and the name has stuck. Hàng Đào was the silk street, Hàng Bạc the silversmiths, Hàng Mã the paper-and-votive-offering street (still the place to buy joss papers and Lunar New Year decorations), Hàng Gai today the silk-and-souvenir street for visitors. Street widths are 2 to 4 metres and the building line runs unbroken — the second-storey shopfronts almost touch across the alley and the sidewalk-to-sidewalk hum of motorbikes, vendors and conversation gives the quarter its signature density. The Đồng Xuân Market on the northern edge (the original 1889 building has been rebuilt twice but the function is unchanged) is a working wholesale market — fabrics and hardware on the upper floors, food and household goods at street level. Walking is the only practical mode here; the rhythm is most legible at 06:00–08:00 when the breakfast vendors set up and at 17:00–22:00 when the evening street food and the bia hơi (fresh tap beer) corners take over Tạ Hiện and surroundings. Plan a four-to-six-hour wander rather than ticking off individual landmarks — the architecture, the trade signs and the street life are the sight.

Diplomatic missions in Hanoi

3 embassies based in this city, grouped by region.