Hanoi 1 Day City Tours – 4 Options

In the Morning:

8.00: Our driver and tour guide will pick up at your hotel and start a full day city tour.

Our tour will start by taking a short 1-hour cyclo (xích lô) tour around Hoan Kiem Lake and Hanoi Old Quarter. You can enjoy some of the 36 tree-shaded streets of this historic district named after the commodity produced and sold at each street, such as sugar, bamboo, leather or silver, etc. Even though some of the streets had their name changed, many of them still keep that characteristic nowadays.

9.15: Proceed to Hoa Lo Prison. The Hoa Lo Prison, later known to American prisoners of war as the “Hanoi Hilton”, was a prison used by the French colonists in Vietnam for political prisoners and later by North Vietnam for prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.

Then we will continue to visit the Literature Temple and Quoc Tu Giam – Vietnam’s first University, constructed in 1070. Its gardens and well-preserved architecture offer a relaxing glimpse into Vietnam’s past.

We will stop at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and admire the beauty of this building from the outside. You can understand the architectural and historical aspects of Uncle Ho’s final resting place.

12.30: Lunch at a local restaurant

In the Afternoon:

We have 4 options for you:

Option 1: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology + Water Puppet Show

After lunch, we will proceed to Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. The museum consists of documents, antiques, and photos of culture and rite of several ethnic communities from the North to the South of Vietnam. It is also well-known for its outdoor exhibition area, at which you could see real houses or tombs of some minority groups in Vietnam.

At around 4.00 pm, we will proceed to Thang Long Water Puppet Theater for a water puppet show. Water puppetry is one of the typical stage art of Vietnam culture, showing the intelligence, creativeness of people and representing Vietnam’s wet-rice civilization. The show will end at around 5.30 pm.

Option 2: Van Phuc Silk Village

We will drive about 15 kilometers North-West of Hanoi to the Van Phuc silk village. Upon arrival, you have a great chance to visit many silk shops and shopping for silk products at reasonable prices. See most working stages to produce handmade silks: from spinning, and gluing, through to weaving and finishing of the silk wares. Further inside the village, we can enjoy an ancient view of a Northern Vietnamese village, with communal houses, wells, lotus ponds, ancient banyan trees, and a local market all alongside with modern houses. We spend time shopping around the shops before return to your hotel in Hanoi.

Get back to Hanoi at around 6.00 pm. End of trip.

Option 3: Bat Trang Ceramic Village

We will visit Bat Trang ceramic village. It takes you about 45 minutes going along the Red River to reach Bat Trang ceramic village. You will walk around the village, visit families that have the workshop of making the pottery. See how the villagers find the mud, how to make the potteries and draw on them…Besides many ceramic stores along the road in the village, tourists can visit Bat Trang Pottery Market and they can directly make pottery products by themselves.

Get back to Hanoi at around 6.00 pm. End of trip.

Option 4: Duong Lam Ancient Village

Drive about 50km from Hanoi to visit Duong Lam ancient village in Son Tay province. Duong Lam, a purely agricultural village of the Northern Red River Delta. On arrival, we take a walk on the village path to visit Mong Phu temple where is dedicated to national heroes, King Ngo Quyen, and King Phung Hung temples.

On the return to Hanoi stop at Tay Phuong Pagoda, one of Vietnam’s first pagodas. Admire Tay Phuong’s beautiful architecture and unique sculptures such as the dragons and demons carved into the wooden roof.

Get back to Hanoi at around 6.00 pm. End of trip.