Mid-range · 6-hour walk · Hanoi
Ba Đình and the West Lake in six hours
The mausoleum, the one-pillar pagoda, the first university and the oldest pagoda on the lake.
The three-hour route walks the Old Quarter. Ba Đình is the ceremonial quarter the French laid out and the republic took over, and it holds the Temple of Literature — Vietnam's first university, founded in 1070, with the names of its graduates carved on stone tortoises. The route ends on West Lake at a pagoda that has stood there for fifteen hundred years.
The route, stop by stop
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Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
Open mornings only and closed for two months a year for maintenance. Silence, no bags, no photographs, and a queue that moves.
50 min here Walk here → -
One Pillar Pagoda
A tiny wooden temple on a single stone column, built in 1049 to resemble a lotus. Rebuilt in 1955 after the departing French destroyed it.
20 min here Walk here → -
Temple of Literature
Founded 1070 as Vietnam's first university. Eighty-two stone stelae on tortoises record the doctoral graduates from 1442 onward.
70 min here Walk here → -
Imperial Citadel of Thang Long
UNESCO-listed and used as a military command centre until 2004, including bunker D67 where the Politburo ran the war. The bunker is the part to see.
60 min here Walk here → -
Trấn Quốc Pagoda
Arrive by taxi from the previous stop
The oldest pagoda in Hanoi, founded in the 6th century, on an islet in West Lake reached by a causeway. The lake is seventeen kilometres around; the causeway beside the pagoda has the shrimp-cake places and the best sunset in the city.
70 min here Walk here →
More in Hanoi
Every walking route in Hanoi, or the full Hanoi guide for where to stay and what a day costs.