Day Trips from Hanoi, With the Transport Honestly Stated

The 10 best day trips, ranked

Ordered by how well they repay a full day - factoring travel time, what you can actually see, and how easy they are without a car.

1. 
   1

   Ninh Binh

   Karst, caves and a rowed boat

   95 km south · ~2h10 each way by train

   Limestone karst rising out of rice paddies, threaded by rivers you travel in a sampan rowed, often with the oarswoman's feet, through caves and between the towers. Trang An is the UNESCO-listed complex, 250,000 VND for a 2.5 to 3 hour circuit running 07:00 to 17:00; Tam Coc is shorter and more famous at 150,000 VND for about two hours. Climb the 500 steps at Hang Mua afterwards for the view over the whole scene. This is the best single day out of Hanoi and it is not close.

   Getting there: Nine daily trains run from Hanoi station to Ninh Binh, scheduled at 2 hours 08 to 2 hours 16 depending on the service, with soft seats from about 103,000 VND and sleeper berths to about 350,000 VND if you fancy lying down for two hours. From Ninh Binh station it is a short taxi or Grab to the boat wharves at Tam Coc or Trang An. Buses and limousine vans also run constantly and take about the same time door to door.

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2. 
   2

   Ha Long Bay

   The famous bay, at day-trip speed

   160 km east · ~2.5-3 h each way by road

   Nearly two thousand limestone islands rising out of the Gulf of Tonkin, and one of the sights of Asia. The honest advice is that a day trip buys you roughly five hours on the water for five to six hours on a bus, which is a fair trade if a day is all you have, and a poor imitation of the overnight cruise, which is what the bay is actually for. If you can spare the night, spare it; if not, the day version is still worth having.

   Getting there: The expressway has cut the drive to about 2.5 to 3 hours each way, which is what makes a day trip possible at all; there is no practical train. Day tours from the Old Quarter bundle the transfer with a four-to-six-hour cruise, lunch, a cave visit and kayaking. Going independently means a bus to Ha Long city and joining a boat there, which saves little and organises less.

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3. 
   3

   The Perfume Pagoda

   A river, a mountain and a sacred cave

   60 km southwest · ~2 h each way by road

   A complex of pagodas and shrines built into a limestone mountain, reached by one of the loveliest short boat journeys in the north. The cave itself, a cathedral-sized grotto with its shrine in the mouth, is the point. Go on a weekday outside the spring festival months, when the site swallows pilgrims by the tens of thousands and the queue for the cable car becomes the day.

   Getting there: About two hours' drive to the My Duc wharves, then a metal rowing boat up the Yen stream for an hour between the karst, then a steep climb or a cable car up to the Huong Tich cave sanctuary. There is no rail option, so it is a tour or a hired car with driver, and tours handle the boat and cable-car tickets, which removes the negotiation.

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4. 
   4

   Duong Lam

   The old delta, still inhabited

   50 km west · ~1.5 h each way by road

   One of the oldest villages in the Red River delta, with laterite-brick houses up to four hundred years old, banyan-shaded gates, communal houses and two ancestral temples of Vietnamese kings. It is what the delta looked like before concrete, kept alive by the families still living in it. An easy, gentle half day, best on a bicycle between the hamlets.

   Getting there: About ninety minutes by car or tour bus, or a public bus to Son Tay and a short taxi. It pairs naturally with Ba Vi or the Thay and Tay Phuong pagodas on the same side of the city, and a hired car with driver for the day covers two of them comfortably.

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5. 
   5

   Bat Trang

   Ceramics, kilns and a short hop

   13 km southeast · ~30-40 min each way

   The ceramics village that has supplied Hanoi for seven centuries, now a maze of kilns, workshops and showrooms where you can watch throwing and glazing and then lose an hour in the market. The pottery museum's swirling architecture is the modern landmark. It is unashamedly commercial and better for it: this is a working craft village, not a preserved one.

   Getting there: The closest trip on this page: a taxi or Grab across the Red River takes half an hour, and a city bus does it for pennies. It is a half day rather than a full one, and it combines with an afternoon back in the Old Quarter rather than displacing one.

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6. 
   6

   Mai Chau

   Stilt houses and valley rice fields

   140 km southwest · ~3.5 h each way by road

   A green valley floor of rice fields walled by mountains, dotted with the stilt-house villages of the White Thai. The scene from the pass is the north's rice-terrace postcard without the Sapa journey, and the valley is flat, quiet and made for cycling between hamlets. If the choice is a brutal Sapa day trip or a civilised Mai Chau one, this is the answer.

   Getting there: About three and a half hours by road into the hills of Hoa Binh, over the Thung Khe pass with its white limestone cuttings. Buses and limousine vans run from Hanoi, and tours bundle lunch in a stilt house with a cycle around the valley. It is the longest sensible day on this list, and it is better as an overnight in a village homestay.

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7. 
   7

   Co Loa Citadel

   The oldest story in Vietnam, without the crowds

   20 km northeast · ~45 min each way

   The oldest citadel in Vietnam, the spiral earthworks of King An Duong Vuong's capital from the third century BC, with his temple, the well of the Trong Thuy legend, and stretches of the old ramparts still readable in the fields. Almost no foreign visitors come, which is half the reason to. Bring the legend with you, because the site rewards knowing the story of the magic crossbow and the betrayal that ended the kingdom.

   Getting there: A forty-five-minute taxi or Grab, or a city bus from Long Bien. It is a half-day trip at most, and the site is spread out enough that keeping the car for the loop between the temple, the ramparts and the well is worth the little it costs.

8. 
   8

   Cat Ba and Lan Ha Bay

   Ha Long's scenery, minus the flotilla

   150 km east · ~4 h each way, bus and ferry

   Lan Ha Bay is Ha Long's southern neighbour: the same drowned karst with a fraction of the boats, plus beaches, a floating village and kayak lagoons. Cat Ba island behind it has a national park and a real town. If Ha Long's traffic worries you, this is the quieter answer, and if you have two days, an overnight here beats a Ha Long day trip comprehensively.

   Getting there: Bus-and-ferry combinations from Hanoi take about four hours each way to Cat Ba town, which is why this is the trip on this page we would move to an overnight rather than force into a day. Day cruises into Lan Ha Bay leave from the island; some Ha Long day tours now route into Lan Ha instead, which is the day-trip version worth having.

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9. 
   9

   Ba Vi National Park

   A sacred mountain in the mist

   60 km west · ~1.5-2 h each way by road

   The three-peaked mountain west of Hanoi, sacred to the mountain god Tan Vien, with a cloud forest, the shell of a French hill station lost in the trees, and temple steps to the summit shrines of Uncle Ho and the god. In the right mist it is one of the most atmospheric places within reach of the city; in the wrong cloud you will see fifty metres. Check the weather and go for the forest as much as the view.

   Getting there: Ninety minutes to two hours by car or motorbike; there is no rail and buses only reach the town below, so this is a drive. The park road winds up the mountain to trailheads for the summit temples, and it combines with Duong Lam on the way out or back.

10. 
    10

    Sapa

    Two nights in the terraces, not one long day

    320 km northwest. Not a day trip. · 5.5-6.5 h by bus, 8-9 h by train, each way

    The rice terraces of the Muong Hoa valley and the markets of the northern hills are genuinely worth the journey. They are worth it over two or three days, with at least one night in the mountains. What they are not is a day trip, however many tour listings imply otherwise.

    Getting there: By bus or limousine van, 5.5 to 6.5 hours each way on the expressway. By rail, the night trains SP1 and SP3 leave Hanoi at 21:35 and 22:00 and reach Lao Cai around 05:30 and 06:10, and Lao Cai is not Sapa: the town is 35 km further up the mountain, a 45-to-60-minute shuttle. Read the spotlight below before booking anything, because the arithmetic decides this one.

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Day trips from other cities