Two quarters, one walk
The Old Quarter is Vietnamese Hanoi: dense, improvised, built around trade. The French Quarter, laid out from the 1880s, is the opposite — wide streets, deliberate sightlines, buildings meant to be looked at from across a boulevard. Walking from one into the other takes about ten minutes and explains more about the city's history than an hour in a museum.
Highlights
- The 36 guild streets and the tube houses that line them
- Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple
- The French Quarter's Art Deco and colonial architecture
- The Opera House, the Metropole and the old State Bank building
- How the two halves of the city meet, street by street
Itinerary
Your student guide collects you from your hotel at 9:00 AM or 2:00 PM and the walk begins in the Old Quarter.
The guild streets first. Most no longer sell what their names say — the villages that once supplied each trade turned into streets and the trades moved on — but the layout survives, and so do the tube houses: narrow, deep, and unlike anything else in Vietnam. Even after the damage of the war years the quarter kept its grain.
From there to Hoan Kiem Lake, with time for Ngoc Son Temple on its island, before crossing into the French Quarter.
The colonial period ended a long time ago, but its architecture did not. Deco facades, ochre villas behind gates, the Opera House, the Metropole, the State Bank on Le Thach — a quarter built to look permanent, and still the most elegant part of the city.
The morning walk ends around 12:30, the afternoon one around 5:30.
What is included, and what is not
| Included | Not included |
|---|---|
| An English-speaking student guide for the whole walk | Entrance tickets to museums and sites |
| Route planning and hotel pick-up | Food, drinks and snacks along the way |
| Confirmation by email before the day | Taxis, ride-hailing or any transport |
| Your personal expenses, and your guide's share of tickets and meals |
Changes, cancellation and weather
If you cannot make the walk, tell us at least three hours before the departure time so we can let your guide know and offer the slot to someone else.
If weather or an unexpected closure affects a route after it has started, we may change the itinerary for everyone's safety. Where there is more than one sensible option, your guide will ask you before deciding.
Before you set off
- Tell us the ages of anyone in your group when you book, so the guide can set the right pace.
- Wear shoes you can walk several kilometres in, and cover shoulders and knees if pagodas or the Mausoleum are on the route.
- Photographs taken on the walk may be used in club promotion. If you would rather they were not, say so in the booking and we will not use them.
Book this walk
- Days
- 1
Sending this does not charge you. We hold the space and confirm within 24 hours.