08.30 AM: Asia Top Travel's tour guide and driver will welcome you at your hotel lobby departing for an exciting city tour of Hanoi's significant highlights.
Start with a tour of Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum: the final resting place of Vietnamese Revolutionary leader President Ho Chi Minh (It is closed on Mondays, Fridays and every afternoon).
Continue to Ba Dinh Square in front of the mausoleum: the site where President Ho Chi Minh declared the independence of Vietnam on September 2, 1945.
Visit the Presidential Palace, constructed between 1900 - 1906 by the French architect Auguste Henri Vildieu, was intended to be Ho Chi Minh’s official residence but he had opted for a traditional Vietnamese stilt-house instead.
The humble traditional House-on-Stilts where president Ho Chi Minh lived intermittently from 1958 to 1969 is set in a well-tended garden adjacent to a carp-filled pond and has been preserved just as Uncle Ho left it is worth a visit.
Visit the Temple of Literature, originally built as a temple to Confucius. This is the site of Vietnam’s first University dating back to 1070. The temple highlights the importance that Vietnamese society place then and now on education.
Lunch will be served at the local restaurant.
In the afternoon, visit the Museum of Ethnology (closed on Mondays), widely acknowledged as the best in the country. It has an extensive display dedicated to Vietnam’s 54 Ethnic minority peoples. As well as the comprehensive array of exhibits inside, there are also traditional tribal houses reconstructed within the ground.
Discover Ngoc Son Temple, located on a jade island on the Hoan Kiem Lake. Its history dating back to the 13th century. The temple is reached by crossing the The Huc Bridge which literally means the ‘Place Touched by Morning Sunbeams’. The Hoan Kiem Lake is the local point of the city and the source of many legends.
A 45 minute - Cyclo Tour takes you through the Old Quarter that is also known as the 36 streets. This bustling area of narrow streets is home to literally thousands of small businesses and shopkeepers. Originally each of the 36s names’ was related to the products being sold there. It’s a great place to explore on foot with numerous photo opportunities.
Attend to the
Water Puppet Show, before heading back to your hotel, you will enjoy this traditional art performance at Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Transfer back to your hotel around 17.30
(Optional Streetfood Tour)
Later afternoon we will venture out to explore Hanoi and enjoy the local food. Walking down to the Hang Be street for visiting the local market, we are guided all the ingredients as well as inhabit of local people here. After the street market, we continue our trip along different streets, try to taste many kinds of local food such as oil-fried pastry, beef/chicken noodle (Pho), Bun Cha, rice pancake, pillow cake, sweet soup, stuff pancake with pork, draught beer… and one of our best surprised is a stop at Dong Xuan whole sales market where we know many kinds of ingredients being sold. Try a hidden coffee in the Old Quarters enjoy its famous ‘egg coffee’ in a hidden alley in Nguyen Huu Huan Street then walk to train street. Return to the hotel to finish an active full day with a lot of cutural activities.