Hanoi
You can be here in December for about €1,143, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Prime time in December: 23°C days.
Autumn brings dry, cool air and is the pleasant season; winter is grey and colder than expected, and summer is humid with heavy rain that can cancel Ha Long cruises. Tet empties the city for a week and closes most restaurants; the weekend night market fills the Old Quarter every Friday to Sunday.
Best months here: January, November, December. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Hanoi is the older, more introverted of Vietnam's cities: French villas going soft under tamarind trees, a lake in the middle of everything, and an Old Quarter where each street still bears the name of the trade it once sold. Ha Long Bay's limestone islands are three hours east. It suits people who like their cities on foot and their food on plastic stools.
What you can do
- 01Eat pho at breakfast, bun cha at lunch and egg coffee in the afternoon, all in the Old Quarter.
- 02Walk around Hoan Kiem Lake at 6am when the city exercises, then the Temple of Literature.
- 03See the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum complex early, then the Museum of Ethnology across town.
- 04Take an overnight cruise on Ha Long or the quieter Lan Ha Bay from Cat Ba.
- 05Watch the train pass on Train Street, then drink bia hoi at the Ta Hien corner.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
The Old Quarter or the streets just south towards the Opera House for a first visit; Tay Ho if quiet and cafés matter more than walking to the sights.
Unusual things
- ◦The Vietnamese Women's Museum on Ly Thuong Kiet Street, three floors on family, history and street vendors.
- ◦Long Bien bridge, the 1902 Eiffel-company span, walked at dusk with the banana-plantation island below.
- ◦Bat Trang ceramics village on the Red River, 30 minutes by bus, with kilns you can visit.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Vietnam: 45 days visa-free for several European passports; e-visa 90 days otherwise.
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Bus 86, 50 min, ~€1.50; taxi ~€12
- Car needed?
- No — walkable or good public transport
- Getting around
- Walking and Grab motorbikes cover the centre; crossing the road is a skill. Noi Bai airport is 45 minutes by taxi or bus 86 to the Old Quarter, and Ha Long cruise companies run their own shuttles.
- Clock
- 6 hours ahead of Milan (Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh) derived
- Daylight
- 10.9 hours of daylight in December · sunrise 06:26, sunset 17:18 derived
- Currency
- VND
Good to know
Motorbike traffic is relentless and pavement walking is often impossible; taxi meter scams are less common than they were but still worth a look at the plate and app price.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Milan in December, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Abu Dhabi
Dubai
Muscat
Addis Ababa
Hong Kong
Oaxaca