Morning in Ba Dinh
Start 7:30am at Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum on Ba Dinh Square — where Ho declared independence on 2 September 1945. Free, closes 10:30am, closed Mondays and Fridays. Long trousers only, no phones inside. Immediately behind: the Presidential Palace grounds ($1.30), the yellow 1906 French Governor-General's residence Ho refused to live in, choosing the stilt house on the pond instead. Ho Chi Minh Museum ($1) next door is architecturally strange but historically dense. One Pillar Pagoda (1049, rebuilt 1955) is a 5-minute stop.
Midday transition
Walk 15 minutes south to Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Hoang Dieu — the seat of Vietnamese emperors from 1010 to 1810, UNESCO listed since 2010, still being excavated. Entry $1.30. Allow 90 minutes; the D67 command bunker where the North Vietnamese planned the 1975 offensive is the highlight. Lunch nearby at Bun Bo Nam Bo Bach Phuong (49 Hang Dieu, $3.50) or if you want colonial atmosphere, La Badiane, a 1930s villa restaurant on Nam Ngu, $18-25.
Afternoon French Quarter
The French Quarter's grid runs south from the Opera House (1911, modelled on Paris's Palais Garnier) down through Ly Thuong Kiet and Tran Hung Dao. Walk past the Metropole Hotel (1901), where Charlie Chaplin honeymooned in 1936 and Graham Greene wrote parts of The Quiet American. Vietnam National Museum of History ($1.50) is in a 1932 Hébrard building. End at Hoa Lo Prison ($1.50, until 5pm) — the "Hanoi Hilton" — a gut punch of a stop that closes the day's arc from French rule to independence.
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