How To Reach Hanoi

Noi Bai International Airport of Hanoi is one of the three in Vietnam. There are frequent flights from Indian cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Delhi to Hanoi, operated by a number of Asian airlines. The fastest flight is the 7 hours 45 minutes Delhi to Hanoi flight operated by Thai Airlines. This is the most convenient route, despite the one layover taken at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. In fact, all the India to Hanoi flights come with one or two stops, either at Bangkok or Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. If this one cannot be availed, there are 8 hours 30 minutes flights from Mumbai to Hanoi or Bangalore to Hanoi as well. Other airlines that ferry between the Indian cities and Hanoi are Jet Airways, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and China Southern. The fastest flights are usually booked early on. So it is better to buy the flight tickets early on not only to get availability but discounts as well.

There is no possibility of a railway network connection between India and Hanoi. The two places are set far apart, across multiple international borders and diverse topography. The only place to have trains going to Hanoi is China’s capital Beijing and another town Nanning. From Beijing, the train leaves at 4:10 PM every Thursday and Sunday and takes 2 nights to reach Hanoi’s Gia Lam Railway station. The Nanning train is scheduled every day at 6:05 PM and takes a lesser duration of 11 hours 25 minutes since it is located in the south, nearer to the Vietnam border. The slow pace and thorough security checking of the trains are not suitable for a fast commute. But if one is after the experience of cross-border train travel, they can go for it.

Reaching from any Indian city like Bangalore, Mumbai or Delhi to Vietnam by road is a time-consuming process which takes a lot of effort and arrangements as well. First of all, one needs to have all the visa documents and others papers ready, because there are multiple international borders to cross. However, the roadway exists and can be travelled if one really wants to. The first step is to reach the north-eastern state Manipur, from where the India-Myanmar-Thailand Friendship Road will take you to the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway. This Expressway leads to Hanoi. From Kolkata to Hanoi, this journey takes 86 hours approximately and more than 100 hours from all other metro cities. Though an exciting one, this mode of transport is not the best policy. However, if one is travelling in Laos or Cambodia already, or even in Thailand, from there hired cars or overnight bus trips can be made to Hanoi.