All things considered and comparing with our itineraries to other places, e.g. Japan and Taiwan, we kept our itinerary for our 10D9N in Hanoi comparatively light. This was largely because we were uncertain of our ability to safely navigate Hanoi city as first time visitors to the country, and also of the heat and humidity we were expecting. The weather in Hanoi for most of the ten days were warmer than even in Singapore, and coupled with air pollution, traffic – more on that in my Final notes post later – Hanoi didn’t make for the most pleasant touring conditions! We perspired buckets throughout the 10 days.
The best months to visit Hanoi seem to be around August to September, which is the peak season for travelers to the city. The weather is cooler, but there is also – possibly – a chance of extreme monsoon weather like typhoons. December as we hear it is bad for Halong Bay as there is frequent rain and the weather gets real cloudy. All things considered though, we had good weather for touring this June trip, the sheer humidity aside.
Here’s our finalized and actual itinerary as we went along each day:
Of the five key activities we did, four are what I’d call the essentials for any first time visitor to Hanoi: a walking tour of Hanoi’s Old Quarter, a street food tour, Halong Bay Cruise, and trip to Ninh Binh (or Sapa). The fifth activity: the motorbike tour on Day 09 was only because we had quite a bit of free time left in Hanoi to plan activities for. We kept our day trips within Hanoi to the mornings as much as possible in view of the afternoon humidity. I advise you consider the same if you’re traveling in June, but your mileage will vary. Just keep in mind that I’m saying this as a a Singaporean living in the tropics!
I’d be hard-pressed to rank the five activities if I was asked to: they were each very enjoyable in their own way. The guided street food and also walking tours are fairly low cost and affordable, and are must do’s. I guess you could skip the guided street food tour if you’re up to exploring eating places on your own, and likewise the walking tour too. But it was just nice to have local guides inform about the various places and food items, and – importantly – help you navigate crossing the busy streets of Hanoi without getting run over! Our post of the guided street food tour is here, and the walking tour posts start here.
The Halong Bay Cruise was by far the most expensive activity in the itinerary – no contest. If you’re short of time and just want to see the stunning landscapes of the bay area, then do a 2D1N rather than a 3D2N. You really won’t miss Cat Ba island much. Our post about our Halong Bay cruise is here, and the cruise operator we went with, is here.
The Ninh Binh excursion was well worth the 2D1N we spent in terms of time. You could however go with a group rather than a private tour, since it’s not as though the places in the itinerary are out of the standard visitation places in the area. Our posts of this excursion are here, and here.
The Hanoi motorbike excursion was the most memorable for both our kids, due I suspect in great part to the sheer exhilaration they got from riding on a motorbike! The cost of the five hour excursion was about SGD60 for each person, with morning beverages and also lunch included in the package. We really recommend this excursion especially if you’d like to see parts of Hanoi that aren’t too tourist-y. Our blog post of this excursion is here.
Aside from Hoan Kiem Lake and the immediate streets around our hotel, we didn’t explore much of Hanoi on our own. Again, it was the heat thing! Hoan Kiem lake is fun place to spend a few hours in: if nothing else, it offered us a compact sample of what the locals in Hanoi do in their free time: chilling, dancing, exercising, jogging, and just being with friends and loved ones. Our post about Hoan Kiem Lake is here.
Next post: drone videos taken during our visit!