Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, has a great deal of charm. It has centuries-old architecture and an amazing but chaotic old quarter. The city is surprisingly green too; when we were there for our second visit in 2012 we were astonished at the number of fallen trees caused by the typhoon winds.
Hanoi is also home to a lot of Vietnam (American) war relics. There is a whole museum of them.
The old prison, informally known as the Hanoi Hilton, and the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum are also worth a look.
The Hanoi Metropole hotel is one of our favourite hotels anywhere in the world. It is one of the old “grand dame” hotels of Asia; a counterpart of Raffles in Singapore and the Penninsula in Hong Kong. It is dripping in old world charm but has been extensively modernised by the French Sofitel chain. The service was excellent and for its standard it was still quite reasonably priced back in 2012.
Trains To Beyond 