2 Days in Hanoi

Welcome to Travel Tuesday! If you’ve only got 2 days in Hanoi and want some ideas on things to do and foods to eat, keep on reading! :] (I’ve included some info on transportation, currency, and a super convenient  lodging recomendation too!)

2 Days in Hanoi, Vietnam

This post isn’t going to be a point-by-point itinerary, but I’ll be including things for you to check out! Since I often plan my travels around either hiking or food, there will be a very robust section for food.

General Info

• Electrical outlets = 110/220V – bring a universal adapter!
• Tipping usually isn’t expected but at restaurants, you can round up the bill/leave some loose change.
• Beware of pickpockets/bag-snatching.
• Avoid tap water.

Transportation

• We took the orange express bus #86 outside the Hanoi Airport, which leaves every 25 min from 6:25am-11:05pm. It takes ~45 min to get to Old Quarter and only costs 45,000 VND (<$2 USD). Don’t get swayed by other peeps trying to lead you elsewhere if you want to save money/not get scammed!
• Traffic is a little terrifying and mopeds are everywhere. If you need to cross the street, make sure you look both ways and then walk with purpose/conviction. Do not randomly stop. (The drivers typically account for your speed and adjust theirs accordingly.)
• Grab is the Uber of SE Asia – they’re usually reliable and no haggling is needed. We walked everywhere so we didn’t use them. Avoid taxis (often a scam).

Lodging

We stayed at Golden Sun Hotel Trendy (39B Hang Hanh St, Hoan Kiem, Old Quarter) – 2 nights for $71 total (deluxe family suite with 2 king beds). It was in an amazingly convenient location and the staff was super helpful. They even let us store our luggage there for the day even after we’d already checked out. (Do be aware that they do travel planning/trips on their first floor so look up for the sign to make sure you don’t miss it! We walked right past it when we were looking for it the first time.)

It’s only a 5 minute walk from Hoan Kiem Lake and has a 24-hour front desk. (My brother can attest to this since he went out and came back quite late.)

We were super close to lots of tasty street food!

Currency

When we went in May of 2023, $1 USD equated to about 23,468 VND. Vietnam is mainly cash-based + paying in VND is much cheaper than in USD. Shops rarely accept USD. You can get the best rates at the gold + jewelry shops, which are reliable, family-run, use global spot rates, and often don’t charge commission. We went to Quoc Trinh Gold Shop (27 Ha Trung, Hoan Kiem District) for all our currency exchange needs. Airports are ~1% higher.

Attractions

Since we were staying in Old Quarter, we did the bulk of our explorations there! If you’ve been meaning to get your hair/nails done and/or a massage, there’s a plethora of places to go. Prices are suuuper affordable prices, so go for it! (We opted for just the massages since we came here prior to all our caving adventures.)

Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Restored Sword) is a quiet oasis between Old Quarter + French Quarter and the Huc Bridge (Rising Sun Bridge) is especially gorgeous at night.

There’s a weekend night market that opens after 7pm from Friday to Sunday from Hang Dao Street to Dong Xuan Market. Fun place for food, souvenir shopping, and just taking in the sights.

We also stopped by the Hanoi Opera House and the Hoa Lo Prison, a French colonial jail for Vietnamese political prisoners that later also housed American POWs. Entry fee is 30,000 VND (~$1.25 USD) entry fee – an audio-guided tour is available for an additional fee.

Train Street is a residential area with a super narrow alley with an active train track. It’s closed to tourists and pretty crowded but if you get a drink in one of the converted cafes, you might be able to snap a photo of the train going by. (I snapped a photo from behind the railing before peacing out.)

Other places you can visit that we didn’t get to (not open by the time we got there) are the National Museum of Vietnamese History, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Lake Tay Ho (West Lake – the largest lake in Hanoi), and the Vietnamese Women’s Museum.

Food

Traditional pho is probably the most popularly known traditional Vietnamese dish – it consists of rice noodles, herbs, meat, and broth!

Bún chả is Vietnamese dish thought to have originated from Hanoi. It consists of a grilled fatty pork + noodle dish served with rice noodles, fresh herbs, + a dipping sauce.

Chả Cá Thang Long serves only one thing and one thing alone — chả cá. For 176,000 VND (~$7.50 USD), you get a serving of Cha Ca, 2 pieces of fish spring roll, and a drink of your choice (e.g. beer, soft drink, mineral water, passionfruit juice, lemon juice, or Vietnamese tea).

Chả cá is a Hanoi specialty, typically made from mudfish or catfish, seasoned with turmeric, covered by banana leaves, and grilled by coal heat.

Xôi Yến (35B Nguyen Huu Huan, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi) has a variety of sticky rice dishes. You choose the type of sticky rice you want (turmeric, traditional, or corn) at 20,000 VND (~85 cents USD)/bowl, and your choice of topping.

Toppings range from chicken to barbecue pork, Chinese sausage, omelette egg, Vietnamese pork or beef sausage, pork belly sausage, roasted cinammon pork sausage, and prices are anywhere from 10-45k VND (~43 cents to $2 USD).

Corn milk, (sữa bắp) : sweet creamy drink served warm or cold

We also got almost-daily fresh coconuts for their coconut juice (~20-30k VND, or 85 cents-$1.30 USD)!

There are also lots of bakeries/dessert shops! These “potted plants” were super cute!

Our time here was somewhat limited because we needed to catch the Techbus (8 P. Bat Su, Hang Bo, Hoan Kiem) to get to Phong Nha.

If you’re planning on doing any caving adventures and don’t mind spending 10 hours on a bus, this would be the most economical way to get there (<$20 USD). It departs only once a day at around 6p.m. though, so do notttttttt miss it. They provide blankets and semi-reclined seats and stop a couple times for bathroom breaks.

• Do you usually try to eat the local food when you visit a new country?
• What would you want to try + where would you want to go?

Planning a trip to Hanoi? Book your hotel at Golden Sun Hotel Trendy!