Things to Do in Hanoi for Non-Golfers: A Day-by-Day Plan While Your Partner Plays

Last updated: 28 September 2026

Golf days in Hanoi start before sunrise, so the partner who does not play gets the best part of the day to themselves. That is the good news. The catch in 2026 is that the city’s most famous sight, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, is closed for maintenance until 2 November. This guide to things to do in Hanoi for non-golfers is built around both facts.

How much free time does a non-golfer actually get?

Most of the morning and part of the afternoon, depending on the course. Hanoi’s courses sit 20 minutes to an hour from the Old Quarter, so the drive decides when the golfer gets home.

Times are a sample and move with the tee time, the season and the traffic. In December and January, when fog can hold first tee times, golfers leave a little later and get back later too. The drive to every course around the city is set out in our Hanoi golf guide.

What is open and closed in Hanoi right now (2026)?

Almost everything a first-time visitor wants to see is open, with one big exception. The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is closed for routine maintenance from 4 September to 2 November 2026 and reopens on 3 November, according to Tuoi Tre.

All checked in September 2026. Prices and hours are set by each site and can change, so treat them as a guide rather than a promise.

A morning in the Old Quarter and around Hoan Kiem

This is where most non-golfers should spend their first free morning. Everything is walkable, it is at its best early, and it is where most visiting golfers stay anyway.

Start at Hoan Kiem Lake before the city is fully awake, when locals are out exercising along the shore. Cross the red bridge to Ngoc Son Temple on its island, then drift north into the Old Quarter, where streets still carry the names of the trades that once filled them. Stop for coffee whenever the mood takes you; a slow cup on a low plastic stool is part of the point. By late morning the heat and the traffic build, which is a good moment to head back to the hotel and meet the golfer for lunch.

Hoa Lo Prison Relic is a short walk south of the lake and open from 8am every day, including holidays. It is a sobering visit rather than a light one, and it fits neatly into an hour and a half.

Ba Dinh and the Temple of Literature

Ba Dinh is Hanoi’s political heart, and the Temple of Literature is the best single visit in the city while the mausoleum is closed. Allow a morning for the two together.

The Temple of Literature opens at 8am daily and costs 70,000 VND for adults. It is a series of walled courtyards dedicated to Confucius and to the scholars who studied here, with stone steles recording the names of successful candidates in the old royal exams. Early morning is the quietest time.

Ba Dinh Square is a public square and still worth seeing from outside while the mausoleum is closed. The Presidential Palace grounds and the One Pillar Pagoda sit close by, but they run to their own schedules, so we check what is open on the day rather than promise it. After 3 November, the mausoleum reopens in the mornings only, and it is closed every Monday and Friday, so plan it for a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or weekend.

Afternoons: museums, cafés and a slower pace

Keep afternoons light. The heat peaks after lunch for much of the year, and the golfer will be back and ready to join in.

• A museum. The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, west of the centre, is the one most visitors remember, with traditional houses from different ethnic groups built in its garden. Check the day before you go, as museums in Hanoi keep their own closing days.
• A café with a view. Several cafés around Hoan Kiem Lake have upper floors looking over the water, a good place to wait out a shower.
• A massage or spa. Hanoi has plenty, from simple foot massage to hotel spas. Your hotel desk is the easiest place to book one you can trust.

Evenings together: water puppets, the Temple of Literature by night and food

Evenings are shared time, and Hanoi does them well. Three ideas cover most trips.

Water puppets. The Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre on the edge of Hoan Kiem Lake stages five to seven shows a day, every day of the year. Popular evening shows can sell out, so book a day ahead; we can do it when we plan the trip.

The Temple of Literature at night. On Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday evenings the temple reopens from 6:30pm, with a 3D mapping show at 7:45pm and 8:45pm. Tickets are 299,000 VND for adults, according to the official night-tour site.

Street food. The Old Quarter is at its liveliest after dark, when pavements fill with small stools and grills. A food walk on the first evening is the easiest way for the whole group to get its bearings, and it needs no booking.

On your shared rest day: Ninh Binh or Ha Long

Take one day off golf and go somewhere together. Two options stand out, and they suit different trips.

Ninh Binh. About 90 km south of Hanoi, the Trang An landscape complex was inscribed by UNESCO in 2014 as Southeast Asia’s first mixed cultural and natural World Heritage site. Rowing boats take you along rivers and through caves between limestone peaks. It is a full day out and back, and it needs no overnight stay.

Ha Long Bay. The bay is about 2.5 hours east by expressway, which makes it an overnight trip rather than a day out. It works best at the end of the week, after the last round, and our guide to the golf-first, cruise-last way to add Ha Long explains how to fit it in. We usually talk couples out of doing it as a day trip.

Can non-golfers come to the golf course?

Sometimes, but it depends on the club, so ask us before you plan around it. Some clubs allow a companion to ride in the buggy for a fee; others do not allow non-players on the course at all.

Where it is not possible, the clubhouse is still an option. Most have a restaurant, and meeting the golfer for lunch after the round turns the morning apart into a shared afternoon. On a long drive such as Kings Island or Sky Lake, though, most partners enjoy the morning in the city more than a morning waiting at the course. When we build one of our golf weeks planned around a partner who does not play, we check each club’s rule before the trip rather than on the first tee.

A sample 5-day plan for a mixed couple

Here is how a five-day trip can look when one of you plays and one of you does not. It uses three rounds and one shared day off.

We normally recommend putting the shared rest day in the middle of the trip rather than at the end; it gives the golfer’s legs a break before the last round. For how many rounds and rest days suit a trip of your length, see where a rest day fits in a Hanoi golf week.

If you would rather have the culture day guided and priced in, GoGolfVietnam, a local golf tour operator based in Da Nang, already runs a six-day trip with a guided culture day built in: three rounds, with the Temple of Literature, Hoan Kiem Lake and the water puppets on the day between, or Ninh Binh instead if you ask when booking.

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GoGolfVietnam is a Vietnam-based golf tour operator arranging tee times, transfers, hotels and sightseeing around Hanoi and Northern Vietnam, for golfers and the people travelling with them.