Hanoi is always one of the most chosen destinations of anyone’s tours to Vietnam. And the best way to enjoy the mysterious beauty of Hanoi is having Hanoi tours by local. In this kind of tour, you may have a tour guide that is local residents here, and mostly is students who are studying here. These tour guides know exactly where to go, to eat and to discover in this ancient city. And the most popular kind of Hanoi tours by local are tours around 36 old streets, an adventure finding the hidden beauty of this place.
The quarter consists mainly of 36 Old Streets divided and named according to their craft guides in the past, and remain most of that working system until now. This area is also the eternal soul of Hanoians cultural architecture, historic relics and religious center. This itinerary is written with the purpose to help tourists having a complete walking tour around this indispensable destination.
A corner of Old Quarter in Hanoi
Starting off from the beginning of Cau Go Street, passing the famous Avalon Coffee Lounge, walking about 100m, you’ll see a small lane to the left which leads to Gia Ngu Street, which is major for a variety of scarves, and underwear, in thousand sorts and colors as well as rows of clothes stores for middle-aged people.
Then, you can turn right on Gia Ngu to reach Hang Be market, cross the street to Nguyen Huu Huan for a bowl of Xoi Xeo at Xoi Yen restaurant.
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Xoi Xeo is one of the best dishes here
From the Xoi Xeo crossroads, turn to Hang Bac Street and keep walking. You should stand at the middle of Hang Bac Street where your eyes are dazzled by sparking gold and silver shops. Valuable jewelers here are not a bad idea to be souvenirs for your friends.
At the conjunction, go straight ahead is Luong Ngoc Quyen Street – a venue of snack food-stalls with a variety of traditional cakes like Banh Day, Banh Gio or Banh Chin Tang May. At this criss-cross, there are crowd in summer and winter alike sitting and drinking beer. You may join them later in the afternoon and who know if you will make new friends?
Another indispensable destination is Dong Xuan Market whose main gate is located on Dong Xuan Street. However, tourists can enter this busy market from Cau Dong or Hang Khoai Street with just a few minutes walking from the last stop. The market was established at the beginning of 20th Century and now being the biggest wholesale market in Hanoi. Goods being sold there are very diverse, ranging from electronic household appliances, silk, clothes to fresh food like chicken, meat, vegetable. Specially, the market is a venue of Hanoi’s night gastronomy with numbers of street-food stalls.
Dong Xuan market
Although there are still some old streets we haven’t looked at like Hang Ngang, Hang Dao or Hang Ma Street, passengers are suggested to save them for the Hanoi tours at night because Hanoi’s night is most wonderful on those streets, when the busy trading stores giving their seats to street-food stalls and souvenirs stalls, adorned by twinkling red lanterns on Hang Ma Street.
Sounds very exciting, right! So what are you still waiting for but not booking a tour with this travel agency immediately to enjoy joyful Vietnam tours!