Truc Bach Lake - An Island Escape in Hanoi
Truc Bach Island is a tiny little island on a small offshoot of Hanoi’s giant West Lake. Relatively unknown to Western travellers, Truc Bach makes a perfect base to explore the temples, streets, restaurants and bars of the Vietnamese capital. Check out our guide to staying, eating, drinking and exploring Truc Bach Lake and Island.
Truc Bach Island and Lake sit just north of the bustling streets of Hanoi’s famous Old Quarter. Despite being so close, Truc Bach couldn’t be more different. The little Island, on its own corner of the enormous West Lake, is an undiscovered treat in Hanoi.
We spent two weeks staying on Truc Bach Island and this is our guide to the history, food, coffee and adventures to be had there!
In this article:
What to do in Truc Bach
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The History of Truc Bach Lake
Truc Bach Lake was once a part of Tay Ho - Hanoi’s largest lake. In the 17th century Truc Bach lake was separated from the main lake by a narrow spit of land. The new lake was made to allow locals to raise and farm fish.
Later on but still during the 17th century, the lord of Northern Vietnam Trịnh Giang, had a pleasure palace built on the lake's edge. History doesn’t seem to look too kindly on Trinh Giang, Wikipedia describes him “wasteful, inept and callous”! Over the years the pleasure palace morphed into an unlikely prison. Royal concubines who were convicted of a crime (or just displeased / rebelled against the lord) were sentenced to the prison. We do wonder just how many royal concubines there were, and how badly behaved they were to merit an entire prison! The silk-craft of these incarcerated ladies became famous throughout Hanoi. The silk euphemistically called “bamboo village” silk in references to the communities of bamboo craftsmen who bordered the prison. Not much remains of the old palace/prison on the lake side but the dividing channel of land is home to two beautiful temples, more on them later.
In more recent history, Truc Bach lake became famous, or infamous depending on which side of the Vietnam / American war you were on. Truc Bach lake is the site where former senator John McCain was shot down during a bombing raid. McCain was captured in Truc Bach Lake before being imprisoned in the “Hanoi Hilton”. You can find a small memorial to his capture here on the lakes edge.
Nowadays Truc Bach Island is a popular district for hip coffee shops, new restaurants and cool, small scale bars. Truc Bach Island has a completely different feel to the rest of Hanoi, its streets are quiet, with hardly any motorised traffic and a very laid back feel. The lake around the island is ringed on the shore side with bars, cafes and restaurants with seats spilling out onto the lakes edge.
Truc Bach's mobile bakery!
The lake has a bad reputation for pollution, and we have to say it is not entirely unfounded. On some days you could see dead fish washing up near the shoreline, however, it was nowhere near as bad as we had been led to believe (the internet does love to exaggerate). We drank, ate, sat and watched many sunsets from the lakes edge and it was never smelly or off-putting, Maybe just don’t go for a swim! Seriously don’t let tales of pollution put you off, it was amazing to stay lakeside in Hanoi and enjoy the cooler air and sunset views.
Where is Truc Bach Lake and the Truc Bach Island?
Truc Bach Lake is a small offshoot of Hanoi’s largest lake - Ho Tay, also known as Tay ho or West Lake. Cordoned off from the main lake by a temple studded spit of land, Truc Bach Lake lies in the south-eastern corner of West Lake.
You can find Truc Bach Lake on a map here, The Truc Bach Island is a tiny island joined to the mainland by two bridges. The island is on the eastern edge of Truc Bach Lake - here.
Truc Bach Island is within easy walking distance of Hanoi’s Old Quarter as well as most of the city’s main tourist attractions, museums and famous temples. This makes Truc Bach the ideal place to stay for those wanting something a little more quiet and luxurious than the busy streets of the Old Quarter. This brings us on to:
Staying in Truc Bach - Accommodation on the Island
There are loads of apartments, guesthouses and hotels on the small island. We got very lucky and bagged opening stay discounts on the new Hanoi Shouten Lakeside - Apartment & Homestay. This was one of our favourite stays in the whole of Vietnam. After months of backpacking we had a large apartment with a balcony, living room, kitchen and excellent bathroom. You can have a look at the rooms on offer here. The apartments are a little more expensive now than when we ,but they are well worth the price. The Hanoi Shouten Lakeside was in a great location on the island, a tiny stroll away from some of the best bars, restaurants and cafes. If you are looking for some reasonably priced luxury we cannot recommend Shouten Lakeside enough.
For a look at all of the accommodation Truc Bach Island has to offer, check out our map below:
What is there to do on Truc Bach Island and around Truc Bach Lake?
Truc Bach Island - Things to do and see
On Truc Bach Island itself you have quite a few things to check out:
The Hanoi Studio Gallery
For art lovers there is the Hanoi Studio Gallery. A gallery full of modern Vietnamese artists exploring many different mediums, this space showcases some of the best upcoming talent in Vietnam. The gallery is open from 9:30 to 22:00 on weekdays and between 10:00 and 22:00 on weekends. Entrance to the Hanoi Studio Gallery is free.
Explore the streets of Truc Bach Island
The historic streets of Truc Bach island are great just to wander around and explore. They are full of old houses rubbing shoulders with new apartments, ancient shrines, cobbled alleyways and loads of street art.
You can walk all around the island’s perimeter and take in the lakeside views, parks, cafes and shops. The lakeside promenade is particularly great at sunset as you get fantastic views of the sun blazing down as it sets across the water.
Lake-side Hanoian sunsets are a great way to end a day!
The main street of Truc Bach island is closed to traffic every evening and all of the local restaurants spill chairs and tables across its tarmac. Come sundown, this is the hub of the island and a great place to grab dinner. Read on to the end of this guide for our top restaurant recommendations on Truc Bach Island.
The Chùa Ngũ Xã Temple
In the middle of the island is the gorgeous yellow Chùa Ngũ Xã Temple. This Buddhist temple houses a large (either the largest or one of the largest in the country) bronze statue and is simply beautiful. The temple was burned down and then renovated in the 1950’s but is a fantastic example of temple architecture, it was recognised as a relic of national and cultural importance by the Vietnamese government in 1995. The temple sits on the street, open to the public, in the centre of Truc Bach Island. You can find the temple on a map here.
Outside of the island - things to do on Truc Bach Lake
Around the edge of Truc Bach lake are dozens of cafe’s, craft beer shops, restaurants and Bia Hoi Halls. We would often just take a wander around the lake and stop at whichever coffee shop took our fancy that day. There are loads to choose from, mainly small independent shops offering all the normal Vietnamese coffees (for our guide to coffee in Vietnam read this). There is also a unique outlet of Vietnam's biggest coffee chain, Highlands Coffee. This particular branch is on a large boat floating out in the lake!
Opposite Truc Bach Island, on the strip of land dividing Truc Bach Lake from the West Lake, are two of Hanoi’s most beautiful temples. The Tran Quoc Pagoda and the Đền Thủy Trung Tiên. Both temples sit secluded on tiny offshoot islands in the lake. For more information on these and all the other Hanoi temples make sure to read our guide here.
The West Lake itself is a great place to explore. A massive 15-17 km walk will take you all around the lake (the largest in Hanoi)This walk brings you through interesting neighbourhoods past ancient temples and even some waterparks and flower gardens. We did the whole loop in one day, make sure you have a look at our experience here.
Truc Bach Island is in a great location within Hanoi. You have the streets of the Old Quarter, with all of their markets, food and craziness, within a 15 minute walk from the island. The Ho Chi Minh Museum and Mausoleum are only 20 minutes walk away as well.
All of the city’s main museums, temples and sights are only short walks away. You have the whole city within an hour or two of your front door on Truc Bach Lake. If you do not feel like stretching your legs, you can easily summon a Grab taxi to take you wherever you want to go.
For a guide to the best museums in Hanoi, check out our article:
The best cafes and coffee shops on Truc Bach Island
Cafe hopping on Truc Bach Island was one of our favourite things to do when we wanted a lazy day. Just wander off down the lanes and paths of the island and settle into one of the unique coffee shops that dot the island. There are dozens to choose from each with their own unique vibe and speciality. We will give a special shout out to three of them, but you really cannot go wrong with any of them!
If you're after a cappuccino head to the Mo Cafe!
Này Cafe and Gạt Tàn Coffee
Ok, we are cheating by combining two coffee shops into one, but they are next door neighbours! Gạt Tàn Coffee was, come the evening, the busiest coffee shop on the whole island. Set next to one of the bridges to the mainland, chairs would fill its floors and spill onto the road and across the bridge. Wildly popular with Vietnamese teens, their coffee was fantastic. If you are looking for a little more seclusion then just behind Gạt Tàn Coffee, down the channel separating the island from the mainland, is Này Cafe. Decorated with a kind of ruined modern chic, this cool little spot served great coffee, bottled beers and laid back tunes well into the night.
You can find Này Cafe here on a map and Gạt Tàn Coffee here.
Fu Hoo Cafe
Straddling the island and the canal that breaks the island off from the mainland, the tiny Fu Hoo cafe serves excellent coffee. Their Bac Xiu (Vietnamese Latte) was one of the best in the country. We loved chilling in here or out on the stools in the narrow canal-side alleyway. You can find Fu Hoo Cafe here.
M(8)TE Cafe
Just the other side of a bridge, M(8)TE Cafe is not technically on Truc Bach Island but the coffee is just so good we had to include it. M(8)TE serves a menu of specialty coffee “cocktails” (non alcoholic) along with specialist tea concoctions and a small food menu. You can find M(8)TE here
Coffee with a Truc Bach lakeside view!
Vietnamese coffee is delicious! There are endless different coffees to choose, from the bac xiu to the iconic egg coffee. For a full guide on which coffees to order in Vietnam, check out our guide here.
Nightlife on Truc Bach Island - Where to have a drink after dark
Bia Hoi - Evening beers and plastic chairs
An evening activity that we have a lot of experience with is Bia Hoi. For those new to Northern Vietnam or those unfamiliar with, what we think is its greatest invention, check out our article on Bia Hoi here . The short explanation is that Bia Hoi is fresh beer. Brewed usually the same day and to be sold very quickly before it goes off, bia hoi is a very light and very very cheap beer - We have paid everything between £0.12p to £0.50 for a glass of beer hoi. We love the stuff, it is light enough that you do not get wasted or have a horrible hangover but refreshing and tasty.
Truc Bach island has a great Bia Hoi place right on the lakes edge here . This was our favourite place to spend our sunsets. We would sit down on tiny stools at plastic tables and enjoy some glasses (or jugs!) of fresh beer.
The best way to start an evening - beer and a sunset!
Bia Hoi joints nearly always serve food and we can highly recommend the deep fried tofu at the lakeside place. You can have the tofu with either; a delicious and fragrant spring onion oil or, for the hardcore eaters out there, a fermented shrimp paste sauce. No part of “fermented shrimp paste” sounds appetising The smell isalso well and truly “out there” but, once you get past the funky aroma, the taste is amazing!
Trust us the mam tom is delicious, smelly but delicious!
There are loads of other Bia Hoi places both on the island and around Truc Bach Lake. We had a great evening in the cavernous beer hall overlooking the lake here - make sure to order the fried pork belly!
The Standing Bar - Small plates and craft beers
The Standing Bar opens out onto the lake, near Truc Bach’s little exercise park. This small bar serves up a curated selection of craft beers and some absolutely delicious small plates of food. When we visited they had over 15 beers on tap!
If you're after craft beer in Hanoi, The Standing Bar will have you covered!
The decor inside the bar is effortlessly cool, with brushed concrete walls and a red tiled floor. True to its word most of the bar is standing only, with tall bar tables to lounge at and rest your glasses. There are some tables with chairs but they are usually stowed away on busier nights.
The Standing Bar is definitely more “upmarket” than the Bia Hoi joints nearby and its prices reflect this, you could have a dozen Bia Hoi’s for the price of a pint at the Standing Bar!
That being said, sometimes you should treat yourself - the salt and pepper chicken skin is one of the best bar snacks ever devised! If you want to treat yourself check out the Standing Bar here.
Truc Bach is well known throughout Vietnam, not just as a place but as a beer! First brewed in 1958 Truc Bach lager was the country’s first domestically mass produced beer. Sadly these days it is owned by Heineken (who isn't) but it is still cool to see Truc Bach beer everywhere you go in Vietnam
DOT - Cocktails on a backpackers budget
We stumbled (literally) on DOT after a long day’s exploration of Hanoi. We decided that it had been far, far too long since we had enjoyed a Gin and Tonic.
We had been travelling for a little over two years and the Bombay Sapphires and Plymouth Gins of home were sorely missed. We were, therefore, surprised and delighted to find a cheap and lovely cocktail bar in a small lane behind our apartment. Their cocktails were super cheap, expertly made and completely delicious. You can find DOT here.
What to eat and drink on Truc Bach Island - The best restaurants and street food
Truc Bach Island is overflowing with amazing food. Many people, locals and tourists alike, flock to Truc Bach just for its food scene.
The island is the spiritual home for Phở Cuốn and amazing dish of Phở Chiên Phồng. Pho Cuon is a simplified, deconstructed pho; rolled noodles stuffed with beef and herbs and served with a sharp,sweet yet somehow savoury, dipping sauce. Phở Chiên Phồng is deep fried squares of pho noodles, puffed up into crunchy pillows that are then covered in beef and a light sauce. Both dishes are unique and ubiquitous to the Truc Bach Neighbourhood. They are also both delicious!
Pho Cuon
Pho Chien Phong
There is much more than just some unique phos to the food scene in Truc Bach, here are some of our top recommendations:
Bánh đa cua Hải Phòng
(location) - There is no google listing for this restaurant
This is one of those unexpected treats we just stumbled across. We were hungry, it was there - no higher decision making process was involved. Food was present and, in Vietnam, you are hard pressed to get a bad meal, so we walked in.
We ate delicious steaming bowls of crab noodle soup (cua means crab in Vietnamese and bánh is cake or noodle). The bowls were packed with toppings with crab cakes, roasted pork, fried tofu skin and herbs all vying for a place on our spoons.
The food is cheap and extremely good. We always like when we find somewhere not on google and this place is the perfect example of the internet not always knowing everything. No reviews, no listing, no Tripadvisor, just a proper noodle shop full of school kids and great food.
Each bowl cost 45,000 VND (£1.39 or $1.82), find us a cheaper bowl of crab and we will be very surprised!
Phở Thế Béo
(location)
This streetside pho joint is legendary. The owner is famous for monowheel based antics; pho is served balanced on trays on top of his head as he zooms along on a two wheeled balance board - lunch and a show! Ok so, the balance board is a bit shonky these days and looks in serious need of repair, the serving style is a bit of a gimmick and it is not always used but the pho served here is no joke.
The bowls are generously packed with meat and herbs and the broth is divine; clean, fragrant and complex in the way that only really good pho can be. You can (and should) get a portion of Chinese fried dough sticks to add to your pho, these really complete the meal adding a crunchy yet spongy texture to the bowl.
We were wary of this place as it is very popular and a lot of the emphasis seemed to be on the scooter/balance board gimmick, but we were very pleasantly surprised. The food on offer was fantastic.
A bowl of pho from here can cost anything from 30,000 to 60,000 VND (£0.93 - £1.86 or $1.22 - $2.44) depending on what meat and cut you want.
Ngũ Xã street, Truc Bach - Pho cuon and pho chien phong
The main road through Truc Bach island closes to motor traffic every evening and the restaurants lining the street spill out and take over the tarmac. Most of these restaurants specialise in the local delicacies of pho cuon and pho chien phong. You cannot really go wrong ordering from any of the restaurants and, from our comprehensive experiments, there is not much to pick between them.
We enjoyed the pho chien phong from Phở cuốn 40 on more than one occasion. There are other restaurants offering larger menus on the street. Phở Cuốn 31 offered a much larger selection of dishes and seemed popular with food tours and other tour groups.
Ma Xó Cafe - Western Brunch and great coffee
(location)
The Ma Xo Cafe cafe was, by far, the most popular spot for western style brunch. The cute yet stylish cafe/bistro is set over two narrow floors and has tables set up on the lakes edge. Ma Xó Cafe definitely costs a bit more than the local food offerings but, if you want to treat yourself to a homestyle western brunch it is a great choice. If you are looking for an avocado on toast on Truc Bach Island, this may be your only option!
Ma Xó Cafe also serves excellent coffee and great cocktails. They also have a very tasty looking (we didn’t try it so let us know in the comments if you do), dinner menu.
Pizza Bella - Possibly the best pizza in Hanoi
(location)
It happens to us all. Sooner or later the cheese cravings set in and every backpacker needs to be able to find a good pizza. Even in a city as saturated with great local food as Hanoi, sometimes we just need a slice of cheesy goodness. Luckily for us Truc Bach Island has one of Hanoi’s best pizza joints, Pizza Bella.
Pizza Bella serves amazing pizzas cooked in the Neapolitan style - simple toppings with quality ingredients. The bases are thin and crusts crisp, they are loaded with gorgeous imported cheese and other premium ingredients and are simply delicious. If you have to give in to a cheesy craving you can at least do it right - Pizza Bella is definitely doing it right!
The restaurant is on one of the small central streets on the island and its tables come out and crowd the pavements each evening. It is expensive by Vietnam standards and the small kitchen can only serve so many at a time so there may be a wait. It is worth both the wait and the cost!
Two pizza’s (they are small) cost us 360,000VND ( £11.16 or $14.59). You can also get pizza’s to take away if you have a nice apartment like we did!
GoodTime Vietnam - Unique burgers
(location)
Again, not a local Vietnamese delicacy, but sometimes you just need a burger! GoodTime Vietnam is a stylish, modern burger bar selling very unique burgers. The interior of the restaurant is half american diner, half cyberpunk cocktail bar! Each order will get you a go on their arcade style claw game and, when we visited, they gave everyone free shots in celebration of their one year anniversary. This definitely didn’t skew our opinion in their favour, definitely not!
The burgers served at GoodTime are coarse ground beef patties that feel unlike any other burgers we have eaten. When we took a bite they felt like juicy beef mince that was barely holding itself together. Now this sounds like we are being negative but we really are not! It was unique and, in a way that we are completely failing to describe, properly yummy! The burgers were seriously moreish and were served with some of the best chips (fries to our American cousins) we had in Vietnam.
Sometimes you just need a good burger!
The burgers were more expensive than eating local food on the street but well worth the cost. Two cheese burgers and two sets of fries cost 310,000 VND (£9.61 or $12.56).
Quán Ốc Dì Tú - Michelin seafood on the street
(location)
This one is not strictly on Truc Bach Island, but it is only a five minute walk away! This street-side restaurant had been on our to-do list since we had arrived in Hanoi and stumbled across it heading home one night. The smell from the street of barbecuing and grilling seafood was completely intoxicating. We also noticed Quan Oc Di Tu has a Bib gourmand from the Michelin guide. A bib does not automatically mean it is the best place ever but it is a very good indicator that the food is going to be delicious!
We treated ourselves to a seafood feast at Quan Oc Di Tu twice on our Hanoi stay and both times it was fantastic. The seafood is so fresh and cooked expertly. We can particularly recommend the ginger clams, garlic grilled prawns and the honey and garlic tiger snails, all were absolutely fantastic.
There are several seafood places along the same street and the specialty of the area seems to be the bright yellow butter clams. These were super sweet, they tasted like there was a lot of condensed milk involved in their sauce as well as the butter. We found them too sweet for our pallet but noticed that everyone else was ordering them with a side of barbecued garlic filled bread, this was obviously the way to temper the sweetness … next time.
The seafood feasts were very reasonably priced for what you got. Seafood is always more expensive but the portions were big and the meal delicious so it was worth it! A meal of three seafood dishes, fried rice and two soft drinks was around 460,000 VND (£14.25 or $18.64)
In your time in Vietnam you really have to treat yourself to at least one seafood feast. Hanoi is, despite not being on the coast, a great place to do this!
Lẩu Nướng Auth - Hot pot!
(location)
You cannot visit Asia without having a hot pot, seriously we think there is some kind of law against it! We love hot pots, there is something fun and relaxed about having a big pile of ingredients, a pot of soup and no rules! We found Lẩu Nướng Auth late one evening whilst wandering back from the Old Quarter. We just couldn't resist the aromas steaming out from the place!
Lẩu Nướng Auth is a very short walk from Truc Bach Island and not too far from the Old Quarter, if you are staying there. Lẩu Nướng Auth serves no nonsense hot pots: you pick a style, grill barbeque or soup based, and a set menu of delicious things to cook.
We, being just the two of us, went for a soup hot pot with a thai, tom yam soup base and a two person selection of meats, seafood, vegetables and noodles. We were swiftly presented with a bubbling cauldron of soup and a massive basket of things to dip and cook in it. It was such a fun meal, chilling on little plastic tables, John’s knees practically in his ears from the tiny stools, dipping, stirring and slurping up our hot pot. You really do have to try hot pot at least once on your travels!
Our ingredients for our hot pot feast!
Our hot pot for two cost 350,000 VND (£10.85 or $14.18) and that got us more food than we could eat; pork, scallops, beef, squid, vegetables, mushrooms and prawns, it was a bubbling feast!
Fungha Dimsum
(location)
Fungha Dim Sum is not on the island, it may even be a chain restaurant, but we don’t care, the dim sum was just too delicious! It is only a short walk from Truc Bach Island and serves Chinese plates and dim sum. The restaurant is always busy and changes what it is serving between morning and afternoon.
We treated ourselves twice to dim sum and noodles from Fungha. Both times the food was absolutely exceptional. The ha gow (crystal prawn dumplings) and sui mai are some of the best we have ever eaten.
Two plates of dim sum, two drinks and a large plate of noodles to share cost 295,000 VND (£9.14 or $11.96), so not cheap but not too extravagant.
Sabaidee Lao-Thai Cuisine
(location)
Back on the island we found this romantic little restaurant. Set on a quiet corner of Truc Bach island, Sabaidee Lao-Thai has two levels with a balcony looking out over the lake. After the sun has set the tables are lit by strings of fairy lights. It is a small restaurant with only a few tables so you need to get there early or be ok with a little wait.
The food is, as its name suggests, a mix of Lao and Thai cuisine. The owner has pictures of Luang Prabang all over the walls and the menu features lots of salads and unique dishes from both Thailand and Laos.
We had a great selection, sharing a set of fish sauce chicken wings, a massive tom yum soup with luxurious, huge, fat prawns bobbing under its orange surface all finished off with a sharp fresh and very spicy som tam salad. It was a lovely contrast to the subtle broths and flavours we had been enjoying in Vietnam.
Our feast (with four imported Beer Laos) was 480,000 VND (£14.86 or $19.46), again by far not the cheapest meal you can get in Hanoi but worth it as a treat. Looking back over this article we treated ourselves a lot over our time in Truc Bach, which brings us nicely to..
Cheaper eats on and around Truc Bach Island
There are literally dozens of noodle stands, rice and curry joints, banh mi sellers and other food vendors in and around Truc Bach Island. Like a lot of Hanoi, if you just walk down any side street you will find something cheap and delicious.
There are loads of cheap pho shops on the island and plenty of low priced restaurants in the Truc Bach neighbourhood. The lakefront places tend to (for obvious reasons) be more expensive. Take your custom one or two streets back away from the lake and you will quickly find very inexpensive delicious food. Most of the best places won’t have a google listing and some of them can move around so your best bet is just to get out and explore.
A good starting place is in and around the Châu Long market, near the bridge to Truc Bach island. You can find the market on a map here and it was always buzzing with people, food and produce. There is a great roasted meat stall and a fantastic rice and curry joint open in the mornings.
There's always something interesting to find around Truc Bach Lake!
Tours of Truc Bach Lake and island
If you are short on time or enjoy getting a more in depth view of Truc Bach or hanoi in general, consider joining a tour or hiring a guide. You can combine quite a few of Hanoi’s attractions into a single day if you have a local guide to smooth everything over. Many of the organised tours around Hanoi will take you through or end in Truc Bach Island. The temples on the side of Truc Bach Lake are beautiful and famous and the area is growing in popularity. It is, for the most part, a relatively unknown area of Hanoi to the mass backpacker and traveller scene. Lots of tours come to Truc Bach as part of the whole “discover real Hanoi” spiel. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact it is great to see travellers venturing beyond the very touristy confines of the Old Quarter.
Check out the tours of Hanoi on Get Your Guide below, or for one that definitely includes the Truc Bach district click here.
Truc Bach - is it worth staying there or just visiting?
Hanoi’s Truc Bach Island is a fantastic base for exploring Hanoi, close to all the action without being crowded and suffocated by it. Truc Bach has plenty of bars, restaurants and food on your doorstep whilst only being a 15-20 minute walk away from all that Hanoi’s Old Quarter can offer. There are great accommodation choices on the island and you can get something quite luxurious for a lot less money than in the Old Quarter.
We have stayed in both the Old Quarter and Truc Bach and loved both. If you are a young backpacker, in Hanoi for the first time, you will probably be looking for a social hostel and dorm room. Truc Bach Island probably won’t be your best bet. However, for couples, holiday makers, families or long term backpackers looking for a little luxury, Truc Bach island is ideal.
If you don't stay on Truc Bach it is still definitely worth a visit, it is a unique neighbourhood full of specialist food and great cafes. The lake and temples are a definite “must see” for anyone in Hanoi and the whole area just has a really different feel to the hustle of Old Quarter. Truc Bach has plenty to explore and discover even if you are not staying there.
We loved Hanoi’s Truc Bach Lake (if you couldn't already tell). We had been filled with doomsayers regarding the pollution and were unsure if we had made a mistake staying so far north out of Old Quarter. Both of these fears were completely unfounded. Truc Bach was a fantastic little island in the middle of an amazing area of Hanoi. It was not like anything we expected in the capital of Vietnam and we would definitely stay there again!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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The Vietnamese capital of Hanoi is full of history. To learn more about the cities chaotic and colourful past there's no better way than to explore one of Hanoi's museums. Read our guide for all of the best museums to visit including some you may not have heard of before!