What are the best day trips from Hanoi?

The quick ranking

• Ninh Binh (Trang An, Tam Coc, Hoa Lu): about 2 hours. The best payoff. Full day, or stay over.

• Ha Long Bay or Lan Ha Bay: 2 to 2.5 hours each way. Better as a 1- or 2-night cruise.

• Perfume Pagoda: roughly 2 hours each way. Boat ride and cave temple. Full day.

• Bat Trang: under an hour. Ceramics village. Half a day.

• Duong Lam: about 1.5 hours. Laterite-brick ancient village. Half to a full day.

• Mai Chau: 3 to 4 hours. Stilt-house valley. Only as an overnight.

Hanoi needs 2 to 3 full days of its own before you add any of these; see how many days in Hanoi.

1. Ninh Binh: karsts, caves and the old capital

Ninh Binh is the landscape most people picture when they think of northern Vietnam: limestone towers rising out of rice fields and rivers. Trang An is the UNESCO-listed boat route through flooded valleys and low caves, rowed by local boatmen; Tam Coc is the older river route through the rice fields; Hoa Lu has the temples of Vietnam's 10th-century capital; and the stair climb at Hang Mua gives the classic view over the river.

Getting there: about 2 hours 15 minutes by train from Hanoi Station, or roughly 2 hours by limousine van with hotel pickup. Our Hanoi to Ninh Binh guide has the train times, van and bus options.

How long: a full day at minimum. Suits: everyone. Tip: day tours arrive at the boat wharves at the same hour. If you day-trip, take the earliest train and be on the water before them.

We stayed 4 nights in Ninh Binh after Hanoi (23 to 27 April 2023), and that is what we recommend: an early boat at Trang An, Bich Dong pagoda and the rural lanes by bicycle are what a day trip misses. Our 2 days in Ninh Binh itinerary covers the core in two nights.

2. Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay: go overnight

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO-listed bay of nearly two thousand limestone islands. Cruises visit caves such as Sung Sot, kayak among the islets and stop at viewpoints. Lan Ha Bay, reached from Cat Ba, has the same scenery with fewer boats.

Getting there: about 2 to 2.5 hours each way on the expressway, so a day trip means roughly 5 hours on the road for 3 or 4 hours on the water. A 1-night cruise spends the evening and early morning in the bay, when the day boats have gone.

Suits: anyone with a spare night. Tip: if you only have time for one, Ninh Binh is the shorter journey and is on the way south; Ha Long is a detour east. Our Vietnam tipping guide covers what to leave cruise crews.

3. The Perfume Pagoda

The Perfume Pagoda (Chua Huong) is a complex of Buddhist temples in limestone hills south-west of Hanoi. The visit starts with a rowing boat ride up the Yen stream from Yen wharf, then a climb, or a cable car, to Huong Tich Cave, whose entrance is said to look like a dragon's open mouth and whose inscription dates to 1770.

Getting there: roughly 2 hours each way by road from central Hanoi to the wharf, then the boat ride. Most people go with a tour or a hired car.

How long: a full day. Suits: anyone interested in Vietnamese Buddhism. Tip: avoid the pilgrimage season, which peaks from the Lunar New Year to around March, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims come and the boat queues are long. The rest of the year it is quiet.

4. Bat Trang: the pottery village

Bat Trang, just across the Red River south-east of the center, has made ceramics for centuries, with its golden age from the 15th to the 18th century. Today the village is lined with workshops and shops selling everything from rice bowls to enormous vases, and many offer the chance to throw a pot on a wheel.

Getting there: under an hour by taxi or Grab, depending on traffic; local buses also run from the Old Quarter side.

How long: half a day. Suits: families, and anyone shopping for ceramics. Tip: go on a weekday morning, and ask the workshop to wrap anything fragile for travel. Our Hanoi train street guide covers another short outing if you only have an afternoon.

5. Duong Lam: the laterite village

Duong Lam, west of Hanoi near Son Tay, is an ancient village of houses, gates and walls built from reddish laterite blocks, with communal houses and the Mia Pagoda. Families still live in the old houses, and some open their courtyards to visitors.

Getting there: roughly 1.5 hours by road. A hired car or Grab is easiest.

How long: half a day, or a full day combined with the Son Tay citadel. Suits: repeat visitors to Vietnam and photographers. Tip: go early or late in the day; the lanes are short and the light on the laterite walls is best when the sun is low.

6. Mai Chau: only as an overnight

Mai Chau is a valley of rice fields and Thai ethnic minority stilt houses in the hills west of Hanoi, good for cycling between villages and homestays. At 3 to 4 hours each way by road, a day trip leaves almost no time there. Give it at least one night if you go.

How Hanoi fits into the route south

On our trip the order was Hanoi (2.5 days), Ninh Binh (4), Hue (2), Hoi An (6) and on south to Saigon. Ninh Binh is on the main railway south, so staying there rather than day-tripping also saves going back to Hanoi: the overnight train continues to Hue. Our 2-week Vietnam itinerary and northern Vietnam guide show how this fits.

If you base yourself in Hanoi for all of these, stay in or near the Old Quarter, where most tours and limousine vans pick up; see where to stay in Hanoi. Before or after a day out, our 3 days in Hanoi itinerary and what to eat in Hanoi cover the city itself, and the temple dress code guide covers what to wear at the pagodas.

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