In the present-day popular imagination, Hanoi may be perceived as a busy, chaotic town where the best food is found at a roadside vendor, and the best suit is made at a family-run tailor shop in the old town. Or at least, that’s what social media influencers will tell you. As an increasing number of high rises, malls and designer stores crop up in the capital city of Vietnam, what continues to enamour visitors the most is not the pace at which the place is hurtling towards modernity. Instead, what stands out is the meticulous preservation of its centuries-old history which has been triumphant, turbulent and even traumatic at times but has made Hanoi what it is today.
Once conquered by the Chinese and French and impacted by rampant bombing during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, Hanoi has held on to several cultural vestiges from the past. Yet the spirit of the place, is undoubtedly Vietnamese – resilient, friendly, entrepreneurial and extremely hardworking. And during your travels with Discova we want to highlight precisely that, even if you have just 48 hours to spare.
We believe that a place is best explored through the eyes of a local and on foot, so on your first morning in Hanoi, your expert guide will take you to explore the city’s rich and illustrious past. In a span of four hours, you’ll see the sites around Hoan Kiem, Hanoi’s largest freshwater lake and hear how the city has changed over the years.
