Day 1 — Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem Lake
Start where the city started. 7am pho at Pho Gia Truyen, 49 Bat Dan, $2.50, cash only. 8am walk north up Hang Dao to Dong Xuan Market (built 1889) and do one loop. 9:30am the 1890s Heritage House at 87 Ma May, $1, is the best-preserved pre-1900 home in the city and a quiet 30 minutes. 11am egg coffee at Cafe Giang, 39 Nguyen Huu Huan, where it was invented in 1946, $1.20.
Afternoon: noon bun cha at Dac Kim, 1 Hang Manh, $3.50. 2pm browse Hang Gai for silk and Hang Bac for silver — working streets, not showrooms. 3:30pm cross the red Huc Bridge to Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake, $1.30. 6:15pm the water puppet show at Thang Long Theatre, 57B Dinh Tien Hoang, $4-10 for 50 minutes — an 11th-century Red River delta art form. End with a $0.40 glass of bia hoi on the Ta Hien corner.
Day 2 — Ba Dinh, the French Quarter and West Lake
Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum on Ba Dinh Square is free but closes by 11am and shuts entirely on Mondays and Fridays — go first, from 8am, dress modestly, leave bags at the counter. Next door, the One Pillar Pagoda (1049) and the Ho Chi Minh Museum ($1) take an hour. Walk 10 minutes to the Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university (1070), $1.50 — allow 45 minutes.
Lunch bun bo nam bo at 67 Hang Dieu, $3. Afternoon in the French Quarter: the 1911 Opera House exterior, coffee at the colonnaded Metropole if you want the photo, then the Vietnamese Women's Museum on Ly Thuong Kiet, $1.50, which is small and sharp on wartime oral history. Late afternoon, taxi to West Lake (Tay Ho) for Tran Quoc Pagoda, the oldest in Hanoi (6th century) on its own islet, free, and sunset over the water. Dinner: bun oc or a Tay Ho rooftop.
Day 3 — pick one day trip
Ninh Binh is the strongest choice: 2 hours south by the 9am train or a $15 limousine van, then a rowboat through the Trang An cave system (UNESCO, $10) and the 500-step climb at Hang Mua for the karst-and-river view. Back in Hanoi by 8pm. It is the day people remember most.
If you would rather stay close, Bat Trang pottery village is 40 minutes east by bus 47A ($0.30) — throw a pot for $2 and eat at the ceramic market. For something in between, Duong Lam ancient village (1.5 hours west) is a flat walk through 400-year-old laterite houses. Skip Ha Long Bay on a 3-day trip: the round drive eats the day and you only get 3 hours on the water — save it for a proper overnight cruise.
Costs and logistics
Budget roughly $50-70 a day per person all-in on this plan: $10-15 food, $10-15 sights and shows, $10-20 transport (Grab bikes at $1-2 a hop), and the Ninh Binh day trip at $35-45. Base yourself in the Old Quarter or around Hoan Kiem so Days 1 and 2 are walkable and the day-trip pickups are central.
Two rules that save the trip. Book the mausoleum morning around the Monday/Friday closures, and reserve nothing else too tightly — Hanoi rewards drifting between the fixed points. Wear shoes you can walk 8 km in; the Old Quarter has no flat pavement to speak of.
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