Sightseeing in Hanoi

Sightseeing in Hanoi comes in two kinds of day: the city, and the places a long drive away. The city list is short. The Ho Chi Minh complex holds the mausoleum, the stilt house and the One Pillar Pagoda. The Temple of Literature keeps 82 stone stelae set on stone turtles. Tran Quoc Pagoda sits on a spit of West Lake, and the Ethnology Museum covers the country's 54 ethnic groups. Outside town the pilgrim and royal stops are Bai Dinh, a hillside pagoda with 500 stone arhat statues and a bronze Buddha of about 100 tons, and the tenth-century temples of Hoa Lu.

City days run as a half day of about four hours, morning or afternoon, or a full day of seven and a half to nine hours with lunch. Group departures leave daily by minibus; private days use a car and guide and can drop a stop you do not want. Hotels in the Old Quarter are collected, and guests staying farther out usually meet at the Opera House. Ninh Binh is the standard day trip, about 100 km each way, with Bai Dinh, a boat through the Trang An caves and the 500 steps up Mua Cave. The Perfume Pagoda takes about eight hours: a boat up the Yen stream, then a climb or a cable car.

Practical. The mausoleum usually shuts on Mondays and Fridays, and tours then swap in Hoa Lo prison or the Temple of Literature; the Ethnology Museum is closed on Mondays. Cover shoulders and knees in every pagoda. Hanoi is 10 to 20C and drizzly from December to February, 18 to 28C in October and November, and 33 to 35C from May to September, so start city days by 8:00. Most day tours can be cancelled up to 24 hours ahead. Ninh Binh returns you to the hotel between 18:30 and 19:30. February and March bring festival crowds to the Perfume Pagoda.