Hanoi Jeep Tour: City Sights, Banana Island & Egg Coffee

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(178 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

“Banana Island,” our guide Linh said, pointing past the tangle of scooters as we bounced over Long Bien Bridge. I could smell the river — kind of muddy-sweet — and the breeze was warm on my face. The city looked different from the backseat of that old army-green Jeep, everything closer and somehow softer. We’d barely left the Old Quarter when Linh started telling us about her grandmother’s childhood here during the war. I didn’t expect to feel so much just crossing a bridge, but there you go.

The main keyword for this tour is Hanoi Jeep Tour, but honestly it felt less like a “tour” and more like being shown around by a friend who knew every shortcut and tiny alley. At West Lake we stopped for a minute — just enough time to watch some kids fishing off the edge, their laughter echoing across the water. The air was cooler here, almost floral. Then we ducked back into narrow streets where laundry flapped overhead and someone handed me a slice of pineapple right off their cart (so sweet it made my teeth ache). Linh laughed when I tried to say thank you in Vietnamese — probably butchered it.

Lunch was in this noisy little spot near Reunification Train Street — plastic stools, bowls of something spicy I still can’t pronounce, and egg coffee that tasted like dessert and breakfast at once. There was a moment when an old man (a war veteran, Linh said) pulled up a chair beside us just to chat about his memories of Hanoi before all the traffic. He had this quiet way of talking that made me forget about time for a bit. The whole day felt like that: layered, surprising, sometimes loud and sometimes gentle. I still think about that view from Long Bien Bridge at sunset.