Hanoi Full-day City Tour (IPD12)

ITINERARY:

Morning:

Option (upon request): Start your day early at dawn and hit the Quang Ba flower market, a truly unforgettable experience for the early riser. Or you can enjoy a stroll around the beautiful Hoan Kiem Lake and see the locals doing their morning tai chi and aerobics in the dawn light.

After breakfast, you will be picked up from your hotel and start the city tour with a visit to the Soviet-style Ba Dinh Square where Ho Chi Minh read out the declaration of the nation’s independence in 1945. We will visit the museum dedicated to Ho Chi Minh before passing through his Mausoleum; escorted by the soldiers in full regalia (you will be asked to remove hats if entering, and no shorts or vests are allowed either). As you leave, you will be able to walk through the gardens of the Presidential Palace before seeing “Uncle Ho’s” house; the humble dwelling he built (based on a traditional Vietnamese stilt house) and where he lived for the last ten years of his life.

We will then continue to the One Pillar Pagoda and the 900-year old Temple of Literature, the principal Vietnamese Confucian sanctuary, and its historical centre of learning. Made up of five courtyards, this is one of the few remnants of the original city. Lunch will be at a local restaurant.

Afternoon:

We visit the Hoa Lo Prison, the highest security prison of Indochina during the French colony. It was where the Vietnamese patriotic soldiers were detained by the colonialists and were later known as the “Hanoi Hilton” for American pilots during the American War. Afterwards, we proceed to one of the museums in Hanoi; the Women’s Museum, Museum of Ethnology or the History Museum.

Visit Ngoc Son Temple before attending a water puppet show, a typical art unique to North Vietnam, with traditions dating back over a thousand years.

We will finish the day with a cyclo (rickshaw) tour of the Old Quarter, where each street is named after the trade (or guild) that has carried on there for centuries such as Hang Bac (Silver Street) and Hang Trong (Drum Skin Street). The trade spills onto the street, mixing with the herbal scents for sale and the atmosphere is lively and sociable.

The service will conclude once you return to your hotel.