The back story
Wild Hanoi: Lakes, Karst and the Bays of the North
Lakes of legend in the city, karst towers and caves along the rivers of Tràng An and the limestone islands of Hạ Long Bay and Cát Bà: the wild side of Hanoi.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsThe natural side of Hanoi, from Hoàn Kiếm Lake and its turtle legend and the shores of West Lake to the UNESCO-listed karst of Tràng An and the islands and forests of Hạ Long Bay – Cát Bà Archipelago, with a directory of the parks and day trips in our guide.
Hanoi is a city of lakes, and the great natural landscapes of northern Vietnam are within a day's reach. In the centre, Hoàn Kiếm Lake holds the city's best-loved legend; to the south, the karst towers of Tràng An rise from rivers and rice fields; to the east, the limestone islands of Hạ Long Bay and the Cát Bà archipelago stand in the Gulf of Tonkin.
This is a short, honest guide to Hanoi's natural side: the lakes of the city and the two UNESCO landscapes of the north. Go early, take water and sun protection, and leave a full day for each.
Two hours from Hanoi, rowing boats slip between karst towers into flooded caves.
The lakes
Hoàn Kiếm Lake is ringed by a promenade under old trees; at dawn it fills with people doing tai chi, dancing and jogging. West Lake, the largest lake in Hanoi, has a path around its shore for walking and cycling, with Trấn Quốc Pagoda on its eastern side, and beyond the causeway lies the quieter Trúc Bạch Lake.
Tràng An and Hạ Long Bay
South of the city in Ninh Bình, UNESCO inscribed the Tràng An Landscape Complex in 2014: limestone karst peaks with valleys, many partly submerged and ringed by almost vertical cliffs, with traces of human activity over more than 30,000 years. Small boats row from the Tràng An wharf along the rivers and through caves; at Tam Cốc, they follow the river between rice fields and cliffs.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © Christophe95 · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsEast of Hanoi, Hạ Long Bay – Cát Bà Archipelago, first inscribed by UNESCO in 1994, covers 65,650 hectares and 1,133 islands and islets, a seascape of limestone rising from the sea; Cát Bà, the largest island, is covered in forest.
Feature: the turtle of the lake
Hoàn Kiếm means the Lake of the Returned Sword: in the legend, a golden turtle rose from the water to take back the magic sword with which the Emperor Lê Lợi had driven out invaders. The little Turtle Tower on its island recalls the story, and for generations real giant soft-shelled turtles lived in the lake, revered by the city as the legend's descendants.
Did you know? UNESCO's Tràng An Landscape Complex keeps traces of human activity going back more than 30,000 years.
Our advice
Our advice: walk round Hoàn Kiếm at dawn, cycle West Lake in the late afternoon, and give Tràng An and Hạ Long a full day each, leaving early; choose boat trips with licensed operators, wear sun protection, and take your rubbish home.
Why it's on our list
- The lakes
- Tràng An and Hạ Long Bay
- Feature: the turtle of the lake
- Our advice
Location
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