Red River Delta Travel Guide
A night market street in Hanoi's Old Quarter. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
The Red River Delta is Vietnam's historic heart: a thousand years of capital cities, wet-rice villages and craft traditions packed into the country's most densely populated plain. Hanoi, the capital, sits at its centre.
Hanoi's Old Quarter keeps the 36 guild streets and the Temple of Literature, Vietnam's first university (1070). South of the city, Ninh Binh is 'Ha Long Bay on land': the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where rivers wind between limestone towers. The Perfume Pagoda, reached by boat through flooded rice fields, is the country's great Buddhist pilgrimage.
Destinations in Red River Delta
Hanoi Old QuarterThe 36 guild streets: street food, coffee, and a thousand years of commerce.
Trang An Scenic Landscape ComplexUNESCO-listed karst valleys near Ninh Binh: boat rows through caves and temples.
Temple of LiteratureVan Mieu, Vietnam's first university, founded 1070: courtyards, stelae and scholars.
Tam Coc'Three caves' by sampan through the rice fields of Ninh Binh.
Cuc Phuong National ParkVietnam's first national park (1962): primate rescue centre and ancient forest.
Perfume PagodaThe great Buddhist pilgrimage: boat and cable car to the Huong Tich cave shrine.
Bat Trang pottery villageSeven centuries of ceramics on the Red River, an easy half-day from Hanoi.
Hover a region to explore it. Click a city pin to open its guide.
Top Cities & towns in Red River Delta
Regional food
- Pho (born in the delta, perfected in Hanoi)
- Bun cha (Hanoi's grilled-pork lunch, eaten with vermicelli and herbs)
- Ca phe trung (egg coffee, invented in Hanoi in the 1940s)
- Cha ca La Vong (turmeric fish with dill, the Hanoi classic)
Getting there
Noi Bai International Airport (HAN) serves Hanoi, 45 minutes from the Old Quarter. Ninh Binh is 90 km south on the north-south railway and expressway, an easy day trip or overnight. The delta is flat and well connected by bus and train.