Hanoi
Three days in a city that does not hand itself over.
Category
G
The quarter after dark, which is when it is best.
Hanoi does not hand itself over, and that is exactly why I love it. A thousand years old, still a working city rather than a preserved one, and the very best of it happens on pavements at hours most visitors sleep straight through.
It is also the city where having the right person beside you changes the most. Hanoi rewards being let in – into the houses, the upstairs cafes, the kitchens – and that is not something you can do from a guidebook.
So here is the whole brief: where to stay, when to come, what three days should look like, and the honest answers to what I get asked most.
You’ve reached the quiet door.
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