Five Days in Hanoi - Access Hanoi

The riveted steel trusses of the Long Bien Bridge receding into the distance — Photograph by calflier001, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

Five days is Hanoi properly, plus one night out of it. That night is the whole point: the two places worth leaving for are both wrong as day trips and both right as overnights.

The plan

Days 1–3 — As above.
Day 4 — Ninh Bình — ⭐ The easiest real trip out of Hanoi. Trains run from Ga Hà Nội on Lê Duẩn in roughly two and a quarter hours; by road it is a little over two. Tràng An or Tam Cốc by rowed boat, and Hang Múa’s steps for the view over the whole valley. Doable in a day; much better with a night in it.
Day 4, the alternative — Ha Long Bay — ⚠️ Three to four hours each way by road since the expressway, which makes a day trip nine hours of travelling for four hours of boat — and the bay is at its best early and late, which is exactly what a day trip misses. ⭐ One night on board is the version people come back happy from.
Day 5, morning — Back in Hanoi for what you skipped: the Long Bien Bridge on foot, Dong Xuan Market while the wholesale trade is still on, or chả cá — turmeric fish with dill, finished in a pan at your table.
Day 5, afternoon — Go back to whichever day you cut short. It is almost always the Old Quarter.

The Thê Húc bridge with Vietnamese flags along its rail — Photograph by josh jackson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

⚠️ Check which station your ticket says. Hanoi has more than one, and the trains east and north do not all leave from the main one — the crossing to Gia Lâm takes longer than people allow.

The upper galleries inside Dong Xuan Market, stalls on every level — Photograph by Christophe95, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

What this plan is built around

Not a list of sights, but the constraints. ⛔ The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is mornings only, is traditionally closed on Mondays and Fridays, and shuts altogether for several weeks most years — so it goes first in any day it appears in, or it does not appear at all. ⚠️ The food stalls sell out: breakfast before eight, lunch before one, and a famous bún chả at three in the afternoon is a shutter. ⭐ The Old Quarter core closes to traffic from Friday evening to Sunday night, which is the best evening of the week and the one to keep free. And everything else is walking — twenty-five minutes between clusters at eleven in the morning, an hour at half past five.

The prison's outer wall and gatehouse from the street — Photograph by Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Other lengths

3 daysThree Days in Hanoi A weekA Week in Hanoi 2 daysTwo Days in Hanoi

Checked on 7 September 2026. Closing days, dress rules and journey times change — confirm before you travel. All sixteen sights, one page each, in Landmarks & Sights.