Hanoi's History on Foot: Hoa Lo Prison, the Mausoleum, the Temple of Literature, and the French Quarter

Hanoi was founded as Thang Long in 1010, was the French capital of Indochina from 1902, and has been the capital of independent Vietnam since 1945, and its history sits in four walkable clusters: the Ba Dinh square with the mausoleum and the presidential palace grounds, the Temple of Literature ten minutes south, Hoa Lo prison and the French Quarter to the east, and the Old Quarter itself. A guided half-day joins them in that order; the Old Quarter guide covers the last one.

Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body lies in the granite mausoleum on Ba Dinh square, where he read the declaration of independence on 2 September 1945, against his own wish to be cremated. It opens mornings only, about 7:30 to 10:30, closed Mondays and Fridays, and closes entirely for two to three months each autumn (usually September to early November) when the body goes to Russia for maintenance; check before building a day around it. Dress covers shoulders and knees, no photos inside, silence, and bags are checked. Behind it are the stilt house where he actually lived, the presidential palace gardens and the One Pillar Pagoda.

Van Mieu was founded in 1070 as a Confucian temple and became Vietnam's first university in 1076; its five courtyards hold the 82 stone stelae on tortoise backs that record the names of doctoral graduates from 1442 to 1779, listed by UNESCO. It is the image on the 100,000-dong note. Students come before exams to touch the tortoises (now roped off) and graduates come for photographs in ao dai; go at 8:00 to have the courtyards in peace.

Hoa Lo prison was built by the French in 1896 for Vietnamese political prisoners, and most of the museum tells that story: the guillotine, the leg-irons, the escapes through the sewer. The later wing covers its years as the 'Hanoi Hilton' for American pilots, including John McCain, in a version that visitors from the US find selective; both halves are worth the hour. The French Quarter around it, laid out on a grid south of the lake, holds the 1911 Opera House, the Metropole hotel, St Joseph's cathedral and the villas, and is the calm walk of the day.

This is the one Hanoi day where a guide changes everything, because the sites are context rather than spectacle. Half-day history walks run USD 25 to 40 in a small group and USD 60 to 100 private, usually 8:00 to 12:30 to catch the mausoleum. The Vietnam Military History Museum and the Women's Museum are the two to add for a full day. Wear covered shoulders and knees for the mausoleum and the temple, and carry water: the walk between clusters is three to four kilometres in the sun.