US-based travel magazine Condé Nast Traveler has described as an urban gem of northern Vietnam, highlighting its French facades, scooter-filled lanes, and sizzling street food that make the capital city well worth a stop.
The Temple of Literature is one of the top tourist destinations in Hanoi
According to reporter Scott Campbell, for many, the city of Hanoi is a gateway to northern Vietnam’s great adventures - the emerald islets of Ha Long Bay, the terraced hills of Sapa, the karst valleys of Ninh Binh, but it's well worth pausing here before venturing on.
The city's Train Street is top suggestion for travelers during their trip to Hanoi. It’s a place to sip condensed-milk coffee with locals and watch daily life unfold just inches from the tracks.
Others places consist of Hoan Kiem Lake which is called the calm heart of the city, the scarlet-hued Huc Bridge to Ngoc Son Temple, dedicated to a 13th-century general who once defended the capital, and the Old Quarter, a tangle of 36 medieval guild streets still named for their original trades-silversmiths on Hang Bac, paper sellers on Hang Ma, silk merchants on Hang Gai.
Visitors are also suggested top places to eat and drink in Hanoi. The best stalls cluster where the old guilds once worked: Hang Buom for sweet snacks and grilled skewers, Tong Duy Tan for late-night noodles, and Cho Dong Xuan market for breakfast pho, fried dough sticks, and iced coffee among the morning crowds.
In the French Quarter, tourists will find another pocket around Nguyen Du and Ly Quoc Su, where vendors balance baskets of herbs and broth on bicycles and serve meals that cost less than a cup of coffee.
Besides Condé Nast Traveler listed best hotels to stay in Hanoi including Capella Hanoi, designed by the legendary Bill Bensley, the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi which remains the city’s grand dame, and the Lotte Hotel, which crowns a 65-story skyscraper above one of the capital’s top luxury malls in Ba Dinh district.