At a glance · 5 reasons to go
Why Hanoi, Vietnam.
Hanoi’s Old Quarter is a thousand-year-old tangle of 36 trade streets — a sensory overload of scooters, street food, and shophouse life around Hoan Kiem Lake.
The food is the reason to come — pho and bun cha (the dish Obama ate with Anthony Bourdain), and egg coffee invented here at Cafe Giang.
The French Quarter’s tree-lined boulevards, the Opera House, and the Temple of Literature give the city a graceful colonial counterpoint.
A traditional water-puppet show on the lake is a charming, only-in-Vietnam evening; the night market and bia hơi corner are the social heart.
Hanoi is the gateway to the north — Halong Bay, the Sapa rice terraces, and Ninh Binh’s "Halong on land" all radiate from the capital.
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Hanoi, Vietnam
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Reviewed: 2026-05-23
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