6 Ways To Master Hanoi Tourist Without Breaking A Sweat

This may or may not come with a fee (typically ranging from 2,000-5,000 dong). Many shops that have bike attendants will give you a ticket in exchange for parking your bike. Locals will help arrange the bikes near their stores.

Park on the sidewalk with other bikes, and be sure to lock the front wheel. This is good for making lots of trips around the city for individuals or duos, but be careful: Hanoi is a great place to sharpen motorbike skills, provided you emerge alive. Or enjoy the relaxed, arty vibe at Tadioto , which has relocated to 24b Tong Dan Street after the authorities snuffed out its fabulous former spot at Zone 9 in late 2013 (an arts quarter that emerged from an abandoned medicine factory with hip coffee shops, bars and art collectives).

Continue the party at the city's newest bar and grill, Barbetta , an industrial-chic space that has opened in Hanoi's latest art zone - the Ly Quoc Su space - the new home to the avant-garde Nhasan Collective and Art Vietnam gallery outpost. Close by, neatly pressed into a gorgeous French colonial villa is the Hanoi Social Club , which manages to combine offering tasty veggie burgers with bamboo chips (£3.80), fragrant cups of tea, and music nights (and Saturday morning music breakfasts) with comfy seats and relaxing corners that promise an inviting morning-through-to-night vibe. Shuffle south to the corner of Hang Bong and Duong Thanh streets for a barbecue meat feast eaten at pavement-scraping plastic tables (from £3).

For panoramic Hanoi views at dusk, sip the signature rum, martini dry, lime, apple and orange oil cocktail (£7) at the sparkly bar Rooftop before descending to street level Attraction for tourist in Hanoi a glass of classic local - and more reasonably priced - beer, or bia hoi (15p), on pavement stools, at Bia Hoi Corner in the Old Quarter (Ta Hien and Luong Ngoc Quyen Streets). In some of the rooms, you can watch traditional craftspeople in residence work at calligraphy and basketry crafts. The house has plenty of traditional architectural features, set between courtyards to give outdoor space and set out according to the ancient tradition of feng shui, which allows good energy flow into the house.

This finely-restored merchant house sits in the old town quarter and has been furnished to look like a typical merchant's home, brimming with antiques and everyday objects from centuries prior. For anyone interested in what life must have been like for Hanoi's locals during an earlier age, a trip to Memorial House is a must-do while in the city. Two rooms also tell the story of the American POWs held here, with a video documenting their imprisonment and eventual release along with personal mementos of the prisoners.

There is a plethora of information here on Vietnam's long battle against France's colonial rule that details the brutal regime prisoners here were kept under. The prison grounds contain the communal jail cells, solitary cells, and courtyard, and the guillotine used by the French is also on display.