Hanoi grew up in a bend of the Red River, among lakes and dykes, and it keeps a rhythm all its own. At daybreak, the shores of Hoan Kiem Lake fill with walkers and tai chi devotees, while the Old Quarter opens its shopfronts street by street, each one long devoted to a single trade. Around it, the former French Quarter unrolls its tree-lined avenues and shuttered façades. A capital a thousand years old that is best explored on foot, provided you cross the road at the pace of the scooters.
Golf is played outside the city, within an hour's radius. To the north, on the airport road, Van Tri and Legend Hill are the closest: half an hour from the centre. To the west, Kings Island spreads its three courses along the Dong Mo reservoir, where a boat takes you to a clubhouse set on an island. To the south-west, Sky Lake adds two eighteens among lakes and hills. Four quite distinct styles, enough to fill a week without playing the same layout twice.
The trip is therefore built around out-and-back days: an early start, back in town for the afternoon, dinner in the Old Quarter or at the Metropole. Northern cooking, plainer than that of the South, is best discovered in family-run places picked out by the Michelin Guide, from turmeric chả cá to the snails at Tầm Vị. The Temple of Literature, founded in 1070, is a reminder that the city was a capital of learning long before golf arrived.
