Discovering The Top Travel Experiences In Hanoi

Hanoi is a big tourism center of Vietnam, but it is different from modern cities where people favor shopping and big-scale supermarkets. In contrast, Hanoi people favor vendors on streets.

There are a variety of vendors with goods neatly arranged in bamboo baskets. Such vendors are like mobile stalls that can move anywhere to find customers. Here are the top travel experiences you should try for the first time visit Hanoi.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Ba Dinh Square is one of the most visited attractions in Hanoi. It is the final resting place of President Ho Chi Minh, the most iconic and popular leader of Vietnam. His body is preserved here in a glass case at the mausoleum.

For visitors, a trip to President Ho Chi Minh’s final resting place can be an extraordinary experience as it is not just an average attraction; it’s part of history.

Cool beer

Many sidewalks in the Old Quarter have cool beer shops that attract a lot of foreign customers.

The most familiar place for cool beer is the intersection between Ta Hien street and Luong Ngoc Quyen street.

Ta Hien street in Hanoi’s centre is famous among tourists and expats. This small street in the heart of Phố Cổ - ‘the Old Quarter’ - hosts dozens of sidewalk ‘bia hoi’ (draught beer) sites that draw a diverse crowd of customers.

Besides that, tiny curbside restaurants offer cheap, cool, freshly-brewed beer, priced at only VND5,000 dong per big glass. They are ideal places for travelers to gather from afternoon until midnight.

At the intersection of Ta Hien and Luong Ngoc Quyen streets, four bia hoi stands are always crowded with a widely diverse group of low budget tourists and other young foreigners who have settled down in Hanoi for a while. When sunset falls, these “international bia hoi corner” establishments come alive. The Hai Loan bia hoi restaurant is only a little over ten square meters, just enough space for a glass cupboard and several beer buckets. The owners are a middle-aged couple who stay busy from late afternoon until midnight serving bia hoi customers sitting in plastic chairs on the sidewalk.

Vendors walk along the street offering grilled squid at between 30,000 and 50,000 per squid to beer drinkers.

The Ta Hien bia hoi sites become more and more crowded as the night grows late. They can sell over 100 liters of beer per evening. Many customers cannot find a free seat, so they have to stand and wait for others to leave. Though all the bia hoi venues are small and cramped, the young Westerners like them very much and pass along their favorite addresses.

Impressive transportation

Crossing streets in Hanoi is a strange experience for foreigners. Once you start, it will be dangerous to turn back. The only choice is to step forward and then carefully watch to avoid vehicles.

Hanoi Old Quarter

Inside a modern and dynamic city, there appears an antique quarter, the Hanoi’s Old Quarter – the represented eternal soul of the city.