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The Draw
• Once-forbidden city for Americans, marked by beautiful pagodas, colonial-era public buildings and villas as well as lakes
• Active art scene, as well as a source for much-coveted work from the famed Vietnamese impressionist era
• Despite their wars, a gentle and accommodating attitude toward Westerners
The Scene
You can't help but marvel, sitting at one of the cafes beside Hoa Kiem Lake, that you may be gazing at the spot where Senator John McCain and his parachute splashed down before he was captured and became a POW. For most of Hanoi's residents, the war is something that happened before they were born. Hanoi is growing at breakneck speed (and soon, entry into the WTO will doubtless prompt even more growth), but the Old Quarter remains a gentle lakeside city marked by stately colonial buildings and ocher, wood-shuttered villas. Most famous are the 36 narrow, centuries-old commercial lanes named for the crafts plied by the vendors, such as silk, silver or brass. Along the far larger West Lake there's much new construction, including garish mansions built for ex-pats and the newly rich. One thing the Vietnamese kept from the French colonial days: Hanoi is a city of cafes.
To Be Seen
• The Temple of Literature. This was the home of Vietnam's mandarins, where they were educated to assume power.
• Colonial architecture. The Municipal Theatre and the Opera House are two examples of monumental French colonial architecture.
• Ho Chi Minh's tomb. The kind of Soviet-style architecture of the tomb may be off-putting, but there is a lovely small house next door where Ho Chi Minh lived, and where you can get a better notion of who this country's hero was.
For The VIP
• Hire a car and driver to help you negotiate a city where not everyone speaks English.
• Join one of the upscale tour operators for an insider's view. Asia Transpacific's "Art from the Inside Out" offers introductions to Hanoi's leading and up-and-coming artists, gallery owners and critics at a private cocktail party and dinner following a tour through the galleries.
• Visit one of Hanoi's ever-growing list of world-class boutiques, and design your own hand-embroidered linens.
Overrated
A day trip to Ha Long Bay is too much driving, even in a private car, and too short a stay. Instead, book an overnight cruise in one of the nicely appointed 38 cabins on the Emeraude, a replica of a 1910 steamer that plied the same waters when Vietnam was part of French Indochina.
Underrated
The spectacular limestone karsts of Ha Long Bay are well-known, but there's an inland version that's equally enchanting at Tam Coc ("Three Grottos"), about two hours south of Hanoi. Locals ferry tourists on small rowboats through caves in the magnificent limestone towers, along rice paddies and to a temple cut into one of the cliffs. It's the poor man's version of China's Guilin.
Don't Miss
Visit the fairly new Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, with its ever-growing collection of artifacts from the many ethnic groups and hill tribes that make up this varied country. Then take the first-class Victoria train north to Sapa for the Saturday hill-tribe market, staying overnight at the Victoria hotel. It's not the Orient Express, but it's passably upscale.
When To Go
Summer, from May into October, is the rainy season. It's swelteringly hot and humid, although except at the monsoon's peak, the rain is confined to heavy outbursts in the early morning and late afternoon, with clear skies between. The ideal time to visit is November through February, when the weather can be cool enough that you'll need a sweater (with degrees in the 50s); if you venture into the mountains, say, to Sapa, you'll need a jacket.
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