The capital, and a much older city than Saigon. Narrow streets in the Old Quarter, lakes you walk around in the evening, and a food culture that treats a plastic stool on a pavement as a perfectly legitimate restaurant.
Allow three or four days.
Our suggestion, not a rule.
Suits you if
You want the history and the architecture, not only the energy.
You like a city that has seasons, the north actually has a winter, which the south does not.
You want northern food: pho the way Hanoi argues it should be made, bun cha, egg coffee.
Less so if
You are judging it against Saigon on nightlife. Hanoi closes earlier and is more reserved about the whole business.
You packed only for the tropics. The northern winter catches people out badly.
What visitors misjudge
Hanoi and Saigon are not two versions of the same city. Different weather, different accent, different food, different pace. Visiting one and assuming you have understood Vietnam is the most common mistake on this whole list.
Pairs well with Ha Giang and Sapa.
These are orientation notes, not the finished guides. They carry our read on who each place suits and what people most often get wrong about it, no prices, no opening hours and no entry rules, because those are the things that go stale and we have not verified them for these places yet. Useful for deciding where to go. Not enough to book on.
Our full Hanoi guide is still being written.
We publish a guide only once it is researched
properly. When it is ready it will cover what Ho Chi Minh City does:
costs, districts, food, transport and the entry rules, every figure
sourced and dated.
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