Travel Destination Hanoi Vietnam

Photo Credit: www.offexploring.com

The Vietnamese War ended more than 30 years ago, and Vietnam has become a unified and growing country. Sure, there are still shades of the jungles of Vietnam, which has helped Vietnam become a tourist attraction on its own. But there is also some of the best cuisine in the world, much of it with a French flavor that many might not expect, forgetting that Vietnam used to be a French colony.

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Something else people don’t think about Vietnam is that it has a huge population. There’s more than 85 million people in Vietnam. Hanoi, with a population of around 6.5 million people, is the second largest city in the country, with Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, being the top city by population. Hanoi is also the capital of the country. Hanoi is located right on the Red River, which helps to make one of the favorite things to do for its visitors possible, that being junk rides up and down the river, seeing much of the countryside.

Hanoi is also an old city, as it will celebrate 1,000 years of existence in October 2010. The region, however, has had settlements going back as far as 3,000 B.C. Many exhibits are shown in Hanoi’s many museums, such as the National Museum of Vietnamese History and the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. There are also tributes to artists from Vietnam with the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts and the Contemporary Arts Museum, as well as tributes for the many wars and city history of Hanoi, like the Vietnam Museum of Revolution, Vietnam Military History Museum and Ho Chi Minh Museum.

There are also plenty of excursions into the jungles around the area, where visitors can get a sense of what it might have been like during the many years of the Vietnam War. For people who want a more contemporary experience, the city has more than 600 pagodas and temples, many area lakes, a puppet theater, and many therapeutic spas. Restaurants can not only serve up local Vietnamese and Chinese favorites, but some of the best French cuisine in the world, at prices that are less than what one would spend in either France or the United States.

There are also luxury hotels in Hanoi, which would figure for a city of its size. One of the oldest and best luxury hotels is the Sofitel Metropole Hotel, which opened in 1901 and has a French colonial style. Its antithesis would be the InterContinental Hanoi Westlake Village, one of its newest luxury hotels that only opened in 2007.

You’ll find a wealth of experiences in Hanoi; think about it for your next Asian vacation.

See more:
Vietnamese Traditional Foods
Vietnam Travel Destinations and Sights
Vietnam Dangers and Annoyances