Walking street Hanoi bring more activities for tourist coming to Hanoi in weekend. There a 3 walking street routes for tourist in Hanoi now. The first one is the route from Hang Dao street to Dong Xuan market. That route was opened from 2004, such like a night market with many selling stores where you can buy some souvenirs. The second one is Ho Guom (Hoan Kiem) walking street, just opened from late 2016. The Hoan Kiem walking street contains some streets around Hoan Kiem lake, such as Dinh Tien Hoang, Hang Khay, Hang Bai, Trang Tien, … The last one is the routes containing streets: Hang Buom, Hang Giay, Dao Duy Tu, Ma May, Luong Ngoc Quyen and Ta Hien. Each route has different special and opening time.
Map of Hanoi walking streets
26 streets in Hanoi Old Quarter are closed vehicles for walking in weekend
| 1. Hang Ngang | 14. Nguyen Xi |
| 2. Hang Dao | 15. Trang Tien |
| 3. Hang Duong to Dong Xuan market | 16. Hang Khay |
| 4. Hang Buom | 17. Le Thai To (half) |
| 5. Ma May | 18. Lo Su |
| 6. Hang Giay | 19. Hang Dau |
| 7. Luong Ngoc Quyen | 20. Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc square |
| 8. Ta Hien | 21. Tran Nguyen Han |
| 9. Dao Duy Tu | 22. Luong Van Can (from Hang Gai to Ly Thai To) |
| 10. Dinh Tien Hoang | 23. Bao Khanh (half) |
| 11. Le Lai | 24. Trang Thi |
| 12. Le Thach | 25. Hang Trong |
| 13. Dinh Le | 26. Hoan Kiem lake |
Hoan Kiem walking street – A colourful space of arts and culture
Different with the walking route from Hang Dao street to Dong Xuan market where the vendors are located in the middle of the streets, the walking streets around Hoan Kiem lake are space for culture and art with many interesting activities. Hanoi desires to turn its walking area into a special space, introducing visitors to a capital city full of arts and culture, from traditional to contemporary styles, while creating a push for the city’s tourism sector.
“We believe that the unique culture of Thang Long (Hanoi’s former name) along with its diverse culinary and artistic features amidst the current lifestyle will meet the needs of healthy cultural activities and entertainment for Hanoians, as well as domestic and foreign tourists,” Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung said while speaking with locals at the walking space.
Every weekend, coming to the walking space around Ho Guom, visitors will be immersed in a unique cultural space, experience the games with bold traditional, imbued with national identity and the spirit of Vietnamese culture as an umbrella game; Tug; playing volleyball or shuttlecock … and many community activities.
You can easily free watch the talent music shows from Vietnamese and foreigner musicians and dancers. The music can be from Vietnamese traditional fork song like “sẩm”, “ca trù”, “chèo” to Latin or Korean pop music. You can also join in a group of traditional game, such as: “nhảy dây”, ô ăn quan, …
Attractive night-space luring more tourists
As someone who often enjoys walking around Hoan Kiem Lake, Nguyen Anh Quan from Dong Da District said he supported the policy to turn streets around the lake into pedestrian routes each weekend. Quan said that the expansion would help open more spaces for tourists to visit Hanoi and facilitate its tourism development.
As for foreign visitors, having space to walk around Hoan Kiem Lake and especially with the lifting of the ban on entertainment activities and services after midnight is “absolutely awesome”.
Samantha Hart, a US female tourist, who spent two weeks in Hanoi, said: “I’ve never seen such a great night-space like this before. Great food, friendly people and the night-time scenery are great. All these things ensure that I will not be returning to my hotel before midnight, but on the contrary, I will have more time to enjoy the exciting atmosphere of the city.”
Sarah Baldwin from the UK highly praised the idea to open walking streets around Hoan Kiem Lake, as the areas during the weekdays are always crowded and sometimes dangerous. She said that the pedestrian streets would ensure safety for her while walking and sightseeing and help her to avoid the traffic.
According to statistics, during weekends when walking streets are organised, the number of tourists has doubled compared to weekdays. On any given weekday, there are about 3,000 foreign guests in the capital. On weekends, the figure is at about 6,000. The increased number of tourists creates employment opportunities for local people. It is also a chance to promote values of the city’s heritages.
Wi-Fi services available for free in Hanoi walking streets
Hanoi has installed a total of 31 free Wi-Fi transmitters at 21 venues in the walking space around Hoan Kiem Lake and surrounding streets, aiming to meet the demand of being connected online of local citizens and tourists to the capital.
By logging in “Freewifi_UBNDHANOI” through smart phones or portable devices and entering their mobile numbers, locals and visitors will have 30 minutes of free Wi-Fi before the system automatically logs out. If wanting to continue using the public Wi-Fi, they can repeat the same process.
The installation of free Wi-Fi seeks to help domestic and foreign tourists to Hanoi conveniently search for the information they need while coming to the capital city as a whole and its walking streets in particular, thereby contributing to facilitating services and commercial activities across the locality.
Opening time
The walking streets from Hang Dao to Dong Xuan market are opened from 7:00 pm to 24:00 in the summer and from 6:00 pm to 24:00 in the winter every weekend from Friday to Sunday.
The walking streets around Hoan Kiem lake are open 24/24 from Friday to Sunday. The opening time of these streets is not fixed in some period because of special events. We will update frequently.
Parking
Local government has also licensed seventy – eight parking lots for cars, bicycles, and motorcycles. Please see the map above to know which place you can park.
