Cover Hanoi is a city pulsing with energy and exciting flavours
Hanoi is a city pulsing with energy and exciting flavours
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Hanoi's best restaurants, bars and sights to see if you've only got a weekend to spend in Vietnam's capital city
Hanoi has an energy all its own. Vietnam’s capital is a city of contrasts: tree-lined boulevards from the French colonial era, Buddhist temples that are centuries older than the nation itself, and streets where scooters weave past aesthetic lakeside cafés.
Food is its pulse — think steaming bowls of phở at dawn and elegant dinners in colonial villas by night.
Hong Kong-based airline HK Express flies direct between Hong Kong and Hanoi — a breezy commute that's less than two hours — meaning a weekend in this charming destination is as effortless as it is unforgettable.
Day One: Lakeside calm + fiery street food
Take the 7:40am HK Express flight from Hong Kong, arriving in Hanoi at 8:50am, and you’ll be in the city centre before mid-morning. Check into the Capella Hanoi, a Bill Bensley-designed boutique hotel evoking 1920s opera glamour, or the Sofitel Legend Metropole, a colonial landmark whose guestbook reads like a century of world history.
Start at Hoan Kiem Lake, the city’s spiritual heart. Locals practise tai chi beneath banyan trees while the scarlet Huc Bridge leads you to Ngoc Son Temple, a shrine on a jade-green islet. From here, plunge into the Old Quarter: a warren of 36 guild streets where silversmiths, herbalists and silk traders still ply their trades. Pause for a Vietnamese egg coffee at Café Giảng, credited with inventing the frothy, sweet concoction in the 1940s.
Above Capella Hanoi
Capella Hanoi
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Lunch should be street-level: pull up a low plastic stool at Pho Gia Truyen (49 Bat Dan), one of Hanoi’s most celebrated phở shops. The broth simmers for hours, fragrant with star anise and cinnamon, the beef sliced to order.
In the afternoon, visit the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university, with its courtyards, pavilions and centuries-old stone steles. For something more contemporary, step into Manzi Art Space, where local artists show photography and modern installations.
As evening falls, make your way to Train Street, where cafés perch inches from the railway track. Trains thunder through at scheduled times, a uniquely Hanoian thrill best enjoyed with a cold, fresh beer, referred to locally as bia hoi. Yes, it is a little bit of a tourist trap but it is iconic for a reason, and the spectacle is worth witnessing for oneself.
Make dinner an immersion in northern Vietnamese flavours. Book at Home Hanoi Restaurant, housed in a French villa, where dishes like crab spring rolls, grilled pork with noodles and banana-flower salad are served with refinement. Afterwards, return to the hotel bar for a nightcap, or seek out a hidden speakeasy like The Alchemist for craft cocktails.
Above Hanoi has plenty of charming places to dine, like Home Hanoi Restaurant
Above Home Hanoi Restaurant serves northern Vietnamese flavours
Hanoi has plenty of charming places to dine, like Home Hanoi Restaurant
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Day Two: Pagodas, markets + French grandeur
Rise early for a dawn visit to Long Bien Market, one of Hanoi’s oldest and most atmospheric wholesale markets. Beneath the rust-red span of the Long Bien Bridge, traders in conical hats fan out among crates of herbs, sacks of rice, and baskets of tropical fruit that glow like jewels under the bare bulbs. It is frenetic, colourful and raw — best experienced before breakfast, when the city is only just stirring and commerce is already in full swing.
After a refreshing iced Vietnamese coffee at the market, head out to Tran Quoc Pagoda, a 1,500-year-old Buddhist shrine set on a tiny island in West Lake. Its scarlet stupa, framed by frangipani trees and rows of bonsai, reflects serenely in the water. Monks in saffron robes tend to incense and offerings, while the sound of temple bells carries across the lake — a reminder that Hanoi’s spiritual traditions run as deep as its history.
For lunch, take a contemporary turn at Ngon Villa, where a leafy courtyard provides the backdrop to a small-plates menu that lets you sample dozens of Vietnamese classics in one sitting. Dishes arrive like a procession: grilled pork with vermicelli, lotus root salad with prawns, banana blossom tossed with herbs, and delicate spring rolls that crackle as you bite in.
Above Hanoi's tranquil Tran Quoc Pagoda
Hanoi's tranquil Tran Quoc Pagoda
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The afternoon is for wandering the French Quarter, where wide boulevards, stately villas and sycamore-lined avenues recall Hanoi’s colonial past. Pause at the Opera House, a Beaux-Arts jewel modelled on Paris’ Palais Garnier, whose golden balconies and chandeliers still host world-class performances. Nearby boutiques sell lacquerware polished to a mirror sheen, hand-embroidered textiles and artisanal teas harvested in misty mountain estates — refined souvenirs that carry Hanoi’s spirit home.
For your final dinner, make a reservation at Tam Vi, one of Hanoi’s three Michelin-starred restaurants, noted by inspectors as among the most affordable in the world. Set in a discreet villa, it specialises in Northern Vietnamese cuisine, with recipes drawn from family traditions and executed with elegance. Expect dishes like bamboo shoot soup with crab, stir-fried beef with lá lốt leaves, or delicate rice cakes served with fresh herbs and dipping sauces that balance sweet, sour and spice in perfect proportion.
Above One of Hanoi’s three Michelin-starred restaurants, Tam Vi
Above Hanoi cuisine shines at Tam Vi
One of Hanoi’s three Michelin-starred restaurants, Tam Vi
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Day Three: Dawn departure
Catch the 9:35am HK Express flight from Hanoi, landing back in Hong Kong at 12:35pm. With its mix of ancient pagodas, colonial elegance and the world’s best street food, Hanoi proves that even in 48 hours you can experience a city’s soul, and still be back at your desk by Monday.
