Hanoi

Hanoi has been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years. The Old Quarter's 36 streets, each named for the guild that traded there, still operate on roughly the same street plan they had in the 15th century. The Hang Gai silk street, the Hang Bac silver street, the Hang Ma paper-and-tin street: the trades have evolved but the geography has not.

The city's café culture is among the densest in Southeast Asia. Vietnamese coffee (dark, slow, poured through a small metal filter) is served on pavements barely wide enough for two chairs, in alleys that open into residential courtyards, in buildings that appear to be one window wide and eight storeys tall (the tube house, built narrow because street frontage was scarce and taxed).

The food case for Hanoi is unambiguous: bun cha, pho, banh cuon, and cha ca La Vong, a turmeric-marinated fish dish served at a single restaurant in the Old Quarter since 1871, form one of the most coherent street-food traditions in Asia. Hoan Kiem Lake, the red Huc Bridge, the Temple of Literature (a Confucian university founded in 1070), and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum complex offer a different rhythm to the city entirely.

The Old Quarter is best explored on foot early in the morning, when street vendors set up, residents exercise around Hoan Kiem Lake and the traffic has not yet reached full volume. On weekend evenings, the streets around the lake close to traffic and fill with families, street performers and children playing. The Ngoc Son Temple, on a small island in the lake reached by the red bridge, is dedicated to a national hero, a scholar and a god of literature.

The French left a different layer of the city. The Opera House, the tree-lined boulevards of the French Quarter, and the Metropole hotel, which opened in 1901, recall the colonial era. The Hoa Lo prison, known to American prisoners of war as the Hanoi Hilton, tells the story of Vietnamese revolutionaries imprisoned by the French and of the later war. The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, in the west of the city, is one of the best museums in Southeast Asia, with full-size traditional houses from the country's many ethnic groups set in its gardens.

West Lake, the largest lake in the city, is quieter than the centre, with cafés, temples and the Tran Quoc Pagoda, one of the oldest in Vietnam, on a narrow causeway. Early morning walks around its shore show a gentler side of Hanoi. Train Street, where houses sit a few feet from the railway line, has become a famous photo spot, though access is sometimes restricted for safety.

Hanoi has four distinct seasons, unlike the south of Vietnam. Autumn, from September to November, is the best time to visit, with warm days, low humidity and clear skies. Spring, from March to April, is mild. Summer is hot, humid and wet, and winter, from December to February, can be surprisingly cold and grey.

Noi Bai International Airport is around forty-five minutes from the Old Quarter. Getting around the city is easiest on foot in the centre, and by ride-hailing app for longer journeys. Crossing the road takes practice: walk slowly and steadily, and the motorbikes will flow around you.

Three days is enough for the city itself, and it works well as a base for Ha Long Bay, Ninh Binh and the mountains of the north. Stay in or near the Old Quarter for atmosphere, or around West Lake for a quieter base.