Planning your first trip to Hanoi can be overwhelming. If you’ve never been to Vietnam’s capital, zooming in on a map of Hanoi can lead you down rabbit holes of different areas and hotels. And it doesn’t help that many guides on Hanoi’s best areas to stay cover multiple neighborhoods and hotels.
I’ve laser-focused my advice for this article on one specific area: Hoan Kiem Lake. From all sides of the lake, you can access Hanoi’s best attractions and find tons of local conveniences near your hotel. On my most recent trip to Hanoi, I stayed on the lake’s west side, and I walked between five and eight miles per day while exploring Hoan Kiem Lake and beyond.
🏨 The Oriental Jade (see on Agoda / Booking): very nice 5-star hotel, great location, across from Hoan Kiem Lake and near St. Joseph’s Cathedral
🏨 Serene Central (see on Agoda / Booking): boutique hotel, great location, very friendly staff (I stayed recently)
🎟️ Activities & Tours: see a Hanoi water puppet show and Hanoi Train Street/food tour
In this guide, I’ll use my experience living and traveling in Vietnam to help you choose where to stay in Hanoi for your first visit. You already know we’ll be looking at the Hoan Kiem area, and I’ll go over the smaller areas within it, like the Old Quarter and French Quarter, and give some specific hotel recommendations. I visited all of these personally and filmed videos from outside some of the hotels to give you an idea of the area.
If you have questions about visiting Hanoi, ask them in my free Hanoi travel planning group. If Hanoi is part of a larger Vietnam trip, I’ve also written guides on where to stay in Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City.
Where to Stay in Hanoi Map: My Hotel Picks & Attractions
Here’s a map I put together that highlights the Hoan Kiem Lake area. The hotels I’ve included are all in great areas to stay in Hanoi. I’ve also added some of the city’s best attractions to help you figure out a convenient place to stay for exploring Hanoi on foot. You can view the full map here.
How to use this map: Ahoy! Click the arrow in the top left-hand corner to view the layers. You can click the individual icons. I’ve also included Hanoi’s airport (HAN) and main train station.
Choosing a Hotel in Hanoi
If you’re planning your first trip to Hanoi, choosing a hotel can be overwhelming. Hanoi has over 10,000 hotels, and you can easily go down a rabbit hole looking at different areas and options. I’ll stop you right there and give some advice: focus on the Hoan Kiem Lake area.
The lake itself is one of Hanoi’s attractions, but it’s also a very central hub of activity: restaurants, bars, coffee shops, street food, and shopping. This is a solid, central area to base your first trip to Hanoi. Here’s a video I filmed while walking around Hoan Kiem Lake.
The four areas around the lake — north, west, south, and east — are slightly different, and I’ll go over them briefly below, and include some of my recommended places to stay. But the fact remains: anywhere around Hoan Kiem Lake is a great place to stay for a first-time trip to Hanoi.
North of Hoan Kiem Lake is the main Old Quarter area. This is a very popular place to stay, but it’s not for everyone. It is crowded, touristy, and has smaller streets. There’s a lot of local scooter traffic to be mindful of. Having said that, people love this area for being right in the action. There are numerous bars (it’s where the popular beer streets are), and tons of places to eat.
If you’ve seen pictures of Hanoi’s famous Shark Jaw building, this is where it was before it was demolished in early 2025. One of Hanoi’s two water puppet theatres is right here, too — the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. I recently saw a water puppet show at the nearby Lotus theatre. If you want to see a Hanoi water puppet show, you can get tickets here on GetYourGuide or Klook.
The La Siesta Premium Hang Be (Agoda / Booking) is pricey but a great choice in the middle of the Old Quarter. I’m a big fan of the La Siesta hotel chain in Vietnam.
If you want a nice 5-star hotel in the Old Quarter, the May De Ville Lakeside (Agoda / Booking) is one of the best options. Here’s a video I filmed outside the May De Ville Lakeside, directly inside Hanoi’s Old Quarter.
For something boutique, the Lavender Central (Agoda / Booking) is very highly rated and in a great location in the Old Quarter.
If you’ve read my other where to stay guides — and hopefully found them helpful — you’ll have an idea of what kind of traveler I am. Personally, I like having easy access to these kinds of touristy/party areas, not staying directly in them. But they’re a popular place to stay for a reason!
West of Hoan Kiem Lake (where I stayed on my recent trip to Hanoi) has what I consider a better blend of activity, places to eat, more manageable streets to walk, and less of an in-your-face party scene. If you’re planning to walk to attractions, this is a great place to stay, as many of them are west of here.
Since I stayed here recently, I can recommend a number of nice hotels in this area. Plus a couple of restaurants. I stayed at the Serene Central (Agoda / Booking), which was in a great area for exploring Hanoi on foot. The Meritel Hanoi (Agoda / Booking) above is in this area.
There are convenience stores nearby, coffee shops, and an Indian restaurant (Tadka 2, here) across the street that I ate at twice — I love Indian food.
The Hanoi Calista (Agoda / Booking) is near the Serene Central, but it’s on a quieter side street. This is a great choice if you want to be central but slightly tucked away.
I was craving some good sushi, and up around the corner, I found SushiLAB, which hit the spot perfectly. It’s right across from Hanoi Train Street (northern location), so you can visit both in succession.
A solid 5-star hotel is The Oriental Jade (Agoda / Booking). It’s across from Hoan Kiem Lake and the Lotus Water Puppet Theatre, and around the corner from St. Joseph’s Cathedral. When I walked through here a few times at night, it was noticeably more peaceful than nighttime in the Old Quarter area north. The Oriental Jade and the surrounding area are a great choice.
From this area on Hoan Kiem Lake’s west side, you’re near the northern Hanoi Train Street, and the closest walking distance to the Temple of Literature and the Museum of Fine Arts. It’s also the closest location to Ba Dinh Square, where Ho Chi Minh read Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence in 1945.
The square is a must-visit if you’re in Hanoi, as it contains Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, museum, and the actual Stilt House where he lived. Ba Dinh Square is about a 20-minute walk from these hotels on the lake’s west side.
South of Hoan Kiem Lake almost feels like a different city. Keep in mind, you can walk from the Old Quarter (north), down to the southern side of Hoan Kiem Lake pretty easily. Here, it opens up into a far less congested area: wider streets, less hectic traffic — much easier, and actually pleasant, to walk around down here.
As I said above and elsewhere on this site, I’m a huge fan of La Siesta hotels in Vietnam. Their brand new hotel, the La Siesta Premium Lakeside (Agoda / Booking), is in a great location. Hoan Kiem Lake is right across the street. There are convenience stores nearby, and a nice UNIQLO mall across the street. For attractions (as you can see on my map above), the hotel’s very close to Hoa Lo Prison and the Vietnamese Women’s Museum.
Here’s a video I filmed outside the La Siesta Premium Lakeside on a Sunday. Keep in mind that they close the streets around Hoan Kiem Lake on the weekends, so it looks busier/different than normal.
If the La Siesta Premium is outside your budget, choosing something else nearby would be a great idea. The Silk Path Boutique (Agoda / Booking) is nearby and across the street from Hoan Kiem Lake. I had some good bun cha Hanoi at a Vietnamese restaurant right next door to this hotel — Lake View 1983 here. Prices in this area are a bit pricier than normal.
Further south from here, the Signature by M Village (Agoda / Booking) is a great choice. You’re further away from the lake, but you’ll have a quieter experience down here. You’re also right near the Hoa Lo Prison and the Women’s Museum. Also, you’re less than a 20-minute walk to the southern location of Hanoi’s Train Street.
Another solid choice in this vicinity is The Legend Hanoi (Agoda / Booking). This is the other hotel that I was considering on my recent trip to Hanoi, and I nearly booked it. But I decided to stay on the lake’s west side because it was closer on foot to the attractions I was planning to visit.
East of Hoan Kiem Lake is the French Quarter. This is a noticeably quieter and more upscale area to stay. There are a couple of very nice 5-star hotels over here. Since most of the city’s attractions are westward, if you do stay here, you’ll likely be relying more on Grab taxis to get around Hanoi. But you can walk to the nearby Hanoi Opera House, and the Women’s Museum and Hoa Lo Prison are accessible on foot as well.
If you’re looking for nice 5-star hotels in Hanoi, add the Sofitel Legend Metropole (Agoda / Booking) and the Capella Hanoi (Agoda / Booking) to your list to check out. These are very nice hotels in a quieter area of Hanoi.
This area of the French Quarter also has the 3-star Conifer Boutique Hotel (Agoda / Booking). This is on a quieter street, right near the Metropole and Capella hotels. This is also a great and quieter location in the French Quarter.
I mentioned several attractions throughout the article, which are mostly accessible from around Hoan Kiem Lake. But there’s also the Vietnam Military History Museum and the Museum of Ethnology, which are not within walking distance of Hoan Kiem Lake. They’re outside the main area, about 20 to 30 minutes by taxi, so you’ll want to use the Grab app (download here) to get to these.
