Two Hours with a Free Hanoi Guide: Bun Cha to Egg Coffee

The guide is free. That is the model: a private guide, only your own group, no tip expected and nothing added at the end.

Two hours, and the route is yours to shape. Tell them what you can and cannot eat and what you are curious about, and the tour bends around it.

It opens at Hoan Kiem Lake, which is where Hanoi does its living: badminton at dawn, exercise classes, people simply sitting. Then into the Old Quarter, through the streets that make it a maze, for the dishes the city is known for. Bun cha. Banh cuon. Noodles in several forms.

The last stops are outdoor stalls, for fresh fruit served in a cup and for egg coffee.

If it runs in the evening there is the night version of the same city: the lake lit, St Joseph's Cathedral, and the streets at their busiest.

Along the way the guide covers where each dish came from, how to order it and how to eat it, and you get to talk to the vendors themselves.

Up to fifteen people, in English, with free hotel pickup inside the Old Quarter. Transport is not included.