City: Hanoi
Top Things to do in Hanoi
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What to do and see in Hanoi, Vietnam: The Best Things to do Good for Couples
The charming Vietnamese capital has aged well, preserving the Old Quarter, monuments and colonial architecture, while making room for modern developments alongside. Hanoi may have shrugged off several former names, including Thang Long, or "ascending dragon," but it hasn't forgotten its past, as sites such as Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and Hoa Lo Prison attest. Lakes, parks, shady boulevards and more than 600 temples and pagodas add to the appeal of this city, which is easily explored by taxi.
Restaurants in Hanoi
1. Fine Arts Museum (Bao Tang My Thuat)
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,093 reviews
This museum was opened in 1966. Though in need of updating, some interesting artifacts are on display in its three floors organized chronologically.
Reviewed By TravelinGypsey
Perfect museum! Especially perfect on a hot day and if you want to do something relaxing, knowledgeable, fun and see some beautiful art. The first building has three floors available to view and the second building has four floors but there isn’t something on each floor. The basement area of the second building has pottery which is beautiful, then the top floor has authentic, tribal clothing and artifacts (it is a bit warmer in this building and on the top level but it’s worth seeing!) The first building is next to the ticket area (there is a gift shop inside) which is past the little coffee stand; this building has beautiful collections of paintings across different eras, oil paintings, statues and just amazing things. Spend time just relaxing and walking through- it’s a perfect activity and museum for anyone; solo, family or friends! Follow @travelingypsey on Instagram & GoogleMaps!
2. Lake of the Restored Sword (Hoan Kiem Lake)
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 13,508 reviews
A rare breed of turtle enjoys this popular lake almost as much as countless locals and tourists. Hoan Kiem Lake is a dynamic daily tableau, from morning walks amid locals doing exercises on the shore, to young couples water-gazing on park benches, to the multiple shopping and sight-seeing opportunities in the vicinity. Centrally located in the city, Hoan Kiem Lake serves as a massive home base, and provides endless people-watching and recreational opportunities on the edge of the Old Quarter.
Reviewed By travelwithanda - Slovenia, null
If you only have a day or two to spend in Hanoi, I recommend you to walk around the Hoan Kiem lake. This way you will be able to see it all: the hustle and bustle of the Old Quarter with milions of crazy motorcycles, beautiful and well maintained parks and gardens, temples and monuments, local people and tourists, old and new buildings... it is really hard to describe it, you need to live it. The walk around the lake takes about 30 minutes, but add at least 30 for photo stops. I can't wait to go back.
3. Temple of Literature & National University
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 10,990 reviews
Reviewed By Eviltreelady
Beautiful historic site, walk through series of courtyards to arrive at temple shrine ,then a centre with plenty of interest and information.Definitely worth a visit. Craftlink near by with beautiful homemade crafts.
4. Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 6,576 reviews
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is a unit under Vietnam Academy of Scocial Sciences. Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is both a research centre and a public museum exhibiting the ethnic groups of Vietnam. The mission of the Museum is scientific research, collection, documentation, conservation, exhibition and preserving the cultural and historic patrimony of the nation's different ethnic groups. The museum also serves to guide research, conservation, and technology that are specific to the work of an ethnographic museum.
Reviewed By srablair - Lytham St Anne's, United Kingdom
We visited here as part of our highlights of Indochina tour. This is a great museum with brilliant outdoor exhibits showing examples of the houses used by each of the ethnic groups that came together to form modern Vietnam. We spent a good few hours here as the indoor exhibits are also excellent with translations in English. There is also a good cafe in the grounds serving hot meals as well as tea coffee cakes etc. This was a good visit and would recomend it to anyone wanting to know more about the people of Vietnam and their origins.
5. Vietnamese Women's Museum
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 5,216 reviews
Focused on the contribution of women to Vietnam's history and culture, this museum highlights their roles in Vietnam's many military conflicts as well as in commerce, including features on female street vendors, women's role in the family, and more recently, single mothers in Vietnam.
Reviewed By Sakuraplatz - Ichihara, Japan
Perfectly located, just two blocks away from Hoan Kiem Lake, this is an excellent museum to learn Vietnamese culture and history from the women's perspective through their daily family life and special occasions such as marriage, pregnancy, birth and wartime. Displays were well-organized including videos. Exhibition about traditional costumes and artifacts showed cultural diversity in Vietnam, which was all the more interesting for me because I was just returned from a trek at Sapa. Their museum shop was also great. The entrance fee was only 30,000 VND and I got a Japanese booklet, which I found very informative, at the same price. Highly recommended.
6. Vietnam National Tuong Theatre
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 116 reviews
Vietnam Tuong Theatre was founded in 1959, in which Tuong - a traditional Vietnamese theatre is being preserved and developed. With the mission to spread Vietnamese traditional art, Behind The Mask exhibition is hosted to transfer the view to unfolding the art of Tuong and promoting this long-established but now not very popular art to a wider audience.
Reviewed By 304debip - Halong Bay, Vietnam
You must see this show it is incredible - acrobatics, artistic dance and much much more I was spellbound
7. Ba Vi National Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 78 reviews
Located in Ba Vi Mountain Range, about 60 kilometers to the west of Hanoi, Ba Vi National Park, originally a French hill station, is considered as a fascinating destination for a weekend getaway. With a total area of over 10,000 hectares, Ba Vi National Park has everything to offer, from an amazingly biodiverse area of tourist resorts, a string of mysterious French ruins to a host of intriguing mini-hikes and trekking trails.
Reviewed By toofangyi
We were taking a ride up to Sapa from Hanoi and planned to take two days, with a stop in Yen Bai overnight on the first day. Ba Vi is roughly along the way to Yen Bai and is an easy detour to see some nice mountains and scenic places. Google maps brought us to Ba Vi National Park quite easily, without any problems along the way. The whole trip is at most 2 hours out from Hanoi, going at a reasonable pace on a motorcycle. If you don't have any experience on a motorbike, perhaps you may want to think about going up this place. It has hairpins and some reasonable inclines that might throw a new rider off. That being said, the roads are perfectly paved (as compared to some i have had the misfortune of going on) and the inclines are doable even on a bike with less power (125cc). Entrance Fees were VND65,000 per person, but I can't read or speak a word of vietnamese, so if they charged me extra, i have no idea haha. You pay for the tickets at the foot of the park and then travel uphill from there. We didn't have too much time, so we rode up to the Church and the temple. Interestingly, as it was a weekend, there were many young Vietnamese people at the Church's ruins, all having a wonderful day out and bbqing/picnicking around the area. The path to the Church is steeper than anything else there, so be careful if you're new or are riding a really crappy bike. The temple is right on top of the hill, just keep going upwards and you'll reach it.
8. Lotte Observation Deck
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 298 reviews
The Lotte Observation Deck is on the 65F, 267m high from the ground with large space.We have the Photo Zone in B1F, the Photo Counter and the Photo at Skywalk in the 65F so you can taking and buying photo, including photo frame. The Media Gallery is exciting, including Inner U&I machine to test the romantic degree for couple. We also have the Lotteria and Angel In Us Coffee
Reviewed By Seaside59009163022 - Singapore, Singapore
Admission might be rather pricy, but certainly worth the view. Practically the tallest building around, allowing for far reaching views throughout Hanoi.
9. Hoan Kiem Lake Walking Street
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 57 reviews
Reviewed By Steve_of_N21 - London, United Kingdom
The Hoan Kiem Lake Walking Street is actually a series of streets around and close to Hoan Kiem Lake that officially close to traffic every weekend thus making them walking Streets. They include Dinh Tien Hoang Street, Hang Khay Street, Trang Tien Street, Le Thach Street and Tran Nguyen Han Street amongst others, that provide a traffic free walk way all around the lake and the adjacent Ly Thai To Park as well as some of the popular shopping streets that lead down to the lake. As you can imagine this is a popular walkway with both locals and tourists at the weekend and can get quite busy, especially at the top end of the lake and on the east side close to Ly Thai To Park which attract a lot of street food vendors and hawkers selling all manor of Vietnamese souvenirs. If you are lucky you might also catch some events taking place and the walking street is regularly used as the starting and ending point for any fun runs or professional road running races that take place in Hanoi , as it was for the Sunday we visited when a 10Km fun run was being held. If you want to do a complete circumference of the lake then it will take about 30 minutes walking time. But allow longer for distractions and it took us 2 1/2 hours to get round, but then that did include a beer in one of the roof top bars overlooking the lake at the North end.
10. Hang Gai Street (Street of Hemp)
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 595 reviews
Silks, silver and souvenirs draw tourists to this popular street market.
Reviewed By 2012Suzy
I love the Hien Boutique at 40 Hang Gai Street. Great service and great prices that match quality of fabric and tailoring. I love my linen pants and want to buy another pair!
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