Quite a lot of things to do in Hanoi, enough for at least a 3 day holiday there.  Not a great number of what you’d call must-see things to do in Hanoi but a lot of places to visit and just check out walking around the city.

First up on our list of things to do in Hanoi was the photo tour/walk around the city with a couple of local students, this was a good relaxing way to catch a bit of the city and get some tips for the next few days.  You can read more about that in the Hanoi for Photographers page here.  Basically a nice way to spend an afternoon walking around the city and getting some inside info from some locals

The second day we went on a cycling tour to Co Loa Ancient Citadel.  I’m not really into cycling and can’t stand cyclists in general, all they do is stuff up the traffic and offend people with their poxy cycling shorts and outfits. Hey cyclists, unless you are doing the Tour de France or in the Olympics, there’s absolutely no need to dress up like you do. It’s like amateur golfers insisting on using a tour size golf bag, with their name on it, just absolutely no need!  I’ve gone a bit of track here!  Anyway, so it’s basically a bike ride out of the city to Co Loa Ancient Citadel, a pretty unspectacular citadel.  You can see a few things along the way, it’s not the most tranquil or picturesque bike ride I’ve done, not that I’ve done many, but it’s not bad and a pretty good way to get out of the city and see a bit of the country side.

There’s a local market you can stop by on the way, not much different than any local market you can see at any SE Asian country, but ok.  Riding over the Long Bien bridge on your way out of town and back into town is pretty good, all in all I think it was probably around 40km, not that far on a bike, and pretty much all flat so a nice way to get some exercise without absolutely knackering yourself for the next day.  The tour we did is here but we were back at the Sheraton Hanoi about 1-2p.m so depends on how fast you ride and how long you stop at places. Overall a good bike ride, not bloody brilliant, but as mentioned a good way to spend a morning and half of the afternoon. If you’re looking for things to do in Hanoi, it’s worth a go.

Cycling Tour Hanoi

The last night my mate drank about 5 bottles of wine, gave some shit to some fellow kiwis we met at the Sheraton Hanoi happy hour before stumbling back to his room at 8:30p.m.  On the last day we took off about 8a.m for golf at BRG Legend Hill Golf Resort, a Nicklaus design with wide fairways and ideal for holiday golf.  It’s about half an hour from central Hanoi and 20 minutes to the airport, which we went to directly after golf.  Good service, great caddies and an excellent days golf. We had planned for 36 holes but my golfing partner got too pissed and was basically walking in his golf stance after about the 2nd hole and thought we were in Thailand by the 18th hole.  Great course though, not many people there, at least in the morning, and definitely worth playing if you’re going to Hanoi for golf.  Golfing is probably one of the better things to do in Hanoi as there’s a lot of quite cheap and good golf courses in the area.

BRG Legends Golf Resort

Go back to the Hanoi Destination Guide main page here or see some more things to do in Hanoi on Toucan’s Hanoi Map.