Overview

For over 1000 years as the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi has been the country’s most fascinating, engaging, and beautifully bewildering city. Hanoi has been built on centuries of different influences, from Chinese to Japanese to French, and is one of the few world capitals to retain a strong connection with its ancestry. Hanoi is far from the idea of the modern metropolis, something that Incredible Asia Journeys will show to guests on this full-day Hanoi city tour.

Alongside a company with over 2,000 5-star Tripadvisor reviews, our professional and welcoming guide will show you Hanoi from start to finish. Our comprehensive tour takes you from Hanoi’s ancient temples and pagodas, through the architectural enlightenment of the French colonial period and ending with Hanoi’s modern wartime history.

Unravel the roots of a city with tradition at its heart on the full-day Hanoi city tour.

Want to read it later?

Download this tour’s PDF brochure and start tour planning offline

Places you’ll see

Hanoi

Highlights

Seeing the best of Hanoi through an 8-hour tour with a friendly, personable and knowledgeable guide
Listening to the modern history of wartime Vietnam at the revered Ho Chi Minh Complex
Strolling around the green grounds of the Temple of Literature, with its ancient Confucian architecture
Staring out across the magnificent West Lake while discovering the antique charm of Tran Quoc Pagoda
Tasting the essence of northern Vietnam in a bowl during our delicious lunch
Learning about the different ethnicities of Vietnam at the highly engaging Museum of Ethnology
Discovering the beauty and the history of Hanoi’s Old Quarter via a cyclo tour
Crossing the evocative red bridge over Hoan Kiem Lake to look around the stunning Ngoc Son Temple
Enjoying a beautiful water puppet show, one of Vietnam’s proudest and culturally steeped traditions

Itinerary

Activities: Start at the Ho Chi Minh Complex before moving onto the Temple of Literature and Tran Quoc Pagoda. After lunch, head to the Museum of Ethnology and take a cyclo ride through the Old Quarter, before visiting Ngoc Son Temple and ending with a water puppet show.

We will start the full day Hanoi city tour from your hotel, where our tour guide will pick you up and take the drive with you to our first stop, the historic Ho Chi Minh Complex. This is a revered spot in Hanoi due to the homage it pays to Ho Chi Minh, the country’s beloved leader, who provided the first speech after declaring independence from France at the end of Vietnam’s colonial period. Along with this, we visit the former stilt house of Ho Chi Minh, the colonial Presidential Palace and the iconic One Pillar Pagoda, constructed in 1049.

After this, we head to the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university. The ancient school started in 1070, training the best minds in the country under the teachings of Confucius, now only covering a small but beautifully verdant rectangular area in Hanoi.

After soaking up the ancient architecture and culture of the temple, we head northwards to the Tran Quoc Pagoda on West Lake. Here we can take in the majesty of this 5th century Buddhist building, Vietnam’s oldest, and the stunning background of the city skyline across the enormous lake.

We take a break for lunch after this, giving you a great insight into north Vietnamese food in a fabulous restaurant.

The afternoon of the full day Hanoi city tour starts with a visit to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. This will be a fascinating and eye-opening experience learning of the various cultures and ways of life of the 53 ethnic minorities around the country, through excellent exhibits, videos and full-scale replicas of different ethnicities’ stilt houses.

We head back into the centre of the city after this and take a 1-hour cyclo (bicycle rickshaw) tour around the Old Quarter. The various layers of Hanoi’s history peel back on a ride through the Old Quarter, past ancient Chinese temples and fading French colonial buildings amongst traditional Vietnamese architecture.

Our last stops are the beautiful Ngoc Son Temple on the city’s central Hoan Kiem Lake, and the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre across the road. Water puppetry is one of Vietnam’s most ancient and beloved traditions, stemming from cultural plays performed with wooden puppets in the water left behind in rice paddies following a harvest

We will drop you off at your hotel in the late afternoon/early evening, where the full day Hanoi city tour will end. Thank you so much for joining Incredible Asia Journeys on this in-depth look at our wonderful capital. We hope to see you again!

Meals: Lunch