City guide
Hanoi — Foreigner Guide
Everything you need — from landing to settling. Arrival intel, scam alerts, neighbourhood breakdowns, and cost of living, all in one place.
Hanoi blends its own rhythms with the energy of Vietnam. Use this hub as your table of contents: skim stats, jump to the guide that answers tonight's question, then let LandedGo keep the reminders on autopilot.
Population
~5M metro
Best time
Oct–Apr
Currency
VND
Language
Vietnamese · English in tourist cores
Jump links
- Arrival guide
- Scam alerts
- Cost of living (budget band)
- Cost of living (mid-range band)
- First 7 days playbook
- All LandedGo guides
- Airport guide (HAN)
- Neighbourhood: Hoàn Kiếm
- Neighbourhood: Tây Hồ (West Lake)
What foreigners need to know about Hanoi
Hanoi sits in Vietnam and draws a mix of tourists, digital nomads, and long-term expats — each with different needs and different risks. The city's foreigner infrastructure ranges from well-developed tourist corridors to areas where English is rarely spoken and local knowledge is essential.
The practical realities of life in Hanoi — visa rules, police registration requirements, reliable ATMs, English-speaking hospitals, and fair transport pricing — are rarely covered accurately in standard travel guides. Most published information is months or years out of date by the time it reaches readers.
LandedGo covers Hanoi with continuously updated intelligence: current scam patterns by neighbourhood, community-verified ATM fee data, hospital locations with English-speaking staff confirmed, and visa rule changes flagged within days of announcement. The AI concierge is tuned specifically to Hanoi — it knows local pricing, local risks, and local bureaucracy.
Key practical facts: the local currency is VND. Vietnam requires passport registration at your accommodation within 24 hours — your hotel or landlord handles this, but it is worth confirming. Mobile data is widely available — a local SIM or eSIM gives you the connectivity you need from the moment you land.
Best for
Culture-focused travellers, history seekers, and long-stayers who prefer walkable old quarters and cooler winters over beach resorts.
Quick verdict
If you only read one thing before booking: match your visa runway to your rent tier, then validate commute pain at rush hour. Hanoi rewards people who treat heat, traffic, and paperwork as systems to engineer — not surprises to endure.
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