Sightseeing

Dong Xuan Market

Hanoi · Vietnam

Dong Xuan Market is Hanoi's oldest and largest indoor market, a four-story building in the Old Quarter that has served as the commercial nerve center of the city since it was rebuilt after fire in 1994. It sells wholesale quantities of clothing, fabrics, toys, electronics, food staples, and everyday goods at fixed Vietnamese prices in a utilitarian environment that's a world away from tourist-oriented shopping. The surrounding streets form Hanoi's most authentic bustling commercial district.

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Hanoi · Vietnam

Places to stop

Nearby places

Lodging

Lotte Hotel Hanoi

Lotte Hotel Hanoi is one of the city's most prominent contemporary hotels, occupying 13 floors at the top of the Lotte Center Hanoi skyscraper — the landmark L-shaped glass tower that has become part of the Ba Dinh district's skyline since its 2014 opening. The 318 rooms and suites feature some of the most sweeping panoramic views of Hanoi available from any hotel, encompassing the West Lake, the Ba Dinh Square, and Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex, and the city's expanding southern districts. The hotel's restaurants include a Korean barbecue concept alongside Vietnamese and international dining options, reflecting Lotte's Korean ownership and the strong connections between the two food cultures. The Sky Walk observation deck at the top of the tower is a popular attraction for non-guests.

Hanoi · Vietnam

Food

Cha Ca La Vong Hanoi

Chả Cá Lã Vọng is one of Hanoi's most famous and beloved restaurants, serving a single dish — chả cá — for over 120 years from an ancient shophouse on the street that now bears the dish's name. The restaurant's specialty is turmeric and dill-marinated catfish, fried tableside in sizzling oil and served with rice vermicelli, fresh dill, spring onions, roasted peanuts, and mắm tôm shrimp paste. The cooking process is theatrical and communal, and the resulting dish is one of the most distinctive in Vietnamese cuisine. Despite numerous imitators on the same street, the original Lã Vọng remains an essential Hanoi culinary pilgrimage.

Hanoi · Vietnam

Sightseeing

Hanoi Old Quarter

Hanoi's Old Quarter is a living historic district of 36 streets, each traditionally specializing in a particular trade, from silk to tin to traditional medicine. The maze of narrow streets dating from the 15th century is packed with shop-houses, street food vendors, local cafés, and small guesthouses, creating one of Southeast Asia's most atmospheric urban environments. The evening street food scene around Hàng Bè Market and Bùi Viện Street reflects Hanoi's vibrant culture.

Hanoi · Vietnam

Food

Pho Thin Hanoi

Phở Thìn is a legendary Hanoi phở institution, founded in 1979 on Đinh Tiên Hoàng Street near Hoan Kiem Lake and now synonymous with a distinctive style of northern Vietnamese beef noodle soup that has become one of the city's most discussed and debated culinary topics. The restaurant's signature approach — stir-frying the beef briefly before adding it to the broth, producing a slightly different texture and fat distribution than more common preparations — has earned it devoted followers and critical attention across Vietnamese food culture. The queue at the tiny shopfront begins before opening, and the combination of clear, deeply flavored bone broth and the slightly charred beef has set a benchmark that generations of phở cooks aspire to match.

Hanoi · Vietnam

Food

Chie Restaurant Hanoi

Chie is a contemporary Vietnamese fine dining restaurant in Hanoi's Old Quarter area that has built a strong reputation for its modern interpretations of northern Vietnamese cuisine, with a particular focus on seasonal tasting menus that reflect the rhythms of Hanoi's traditional food calendar. The kitchen works with local farmers and foragers to source ingredients rarely seen in restaurant contexts, including wild northern mountain herbs, freshwater fish from the Red River Delta, and heirloom rice varieties from Vietnam's highland regions. The restaurant's wine list focuses on small producers whose natural and minimal-intervention wines complement the delicate, herb-forward flavors of Vietnamese cooking.

Hanoi · Vietnam

Food

Maison Van Restaurant Hanoi

Maison Van is one of Hanoi's most sophisticated and highly regarded contemporary Vietnamese restaurants, located in a restored colonial-era villa in the Hoan Kiem district near Hoan Kiem Lake. Chef Van Cong Tu's menus celebrate the ingredients and flavors of northern Vietnam through a modern lens, featuring preparations of phở consommé as a sauce base, bánh cuốn reimagined as a fine-dining dish, and traditional fermented pastes used with the precision of high-end French condiments. The restaurant's thoughtful wine list includes French and natural wines selected for their affinity with Vietnamese flavors, and the villa setting — with its courtyard, period furniture, and carefully considered lighting — makes Maison Van the most elegant expression of contemporary Hanoi cuisine.

Hanoi · Vietnam

Discover places worth the detour

Destination

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Travel guides

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Events

Hoi An Lantern Festival

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Date pending official confirmation

Inspiration trips

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Events

Lunar New Year

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