The National Museum of Vietnamese History sits a short walk east of Hoan Kiem Lake. Its main building opened in 1910 as the Musée Louis-Finot of the French School of the Far East. Architects Ernest Hébrard and Charles Batteur redesigned it between 1925 and 1932, and the result is usually described as "style Indochinois", a blend of French colonial and Vietnamese architecture. North Vietnam took it over in 1958 and opened it to the public on 3 September that year.
Wikipedia counts more than 200,000 items in the collection. One ticket covers two buildings. The one at 1 Trang Tien Street runs from prehistory to the end of the Nguyen dynasty in 1945, and the one at 216 Tran Quang Khai Street covers the mid-19th century to the present.
Getting there
Measured in a straight line on map coordinates, the museum is about 0.9 km from Hoan Kiem Lake and about 2 km from Hanoi railway station. Noi Bai International Airport is about 23 km away in a straight line; the road is longer.
Hours and fees
| When | Hours |
|---|---|
| Tuesday to Sunday | 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, then 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM |
| Monday | Closed, except when a public holiday falls on a Monday |
For Lunar New Year (Tet) the museum publishes separate opening times.
| Ticket | Price |
|---|---|
| Adults | VND 40,000 |
| College and university students | VND 20,000 |
| School pupils | VND 10,000 |
| Children under 6, people with disabilities (as the regulations define) | Free |
| Camera (photos) | VND 15,000 |
| Video camera | VND 30,000 |
A 50% reduction applies to the elderly, people with disabilities and others covered by preferential policies "according to the current regulation". The museum does not say whether foreign visitors qualify, so do not count on it.
Our take
Save this one for a Friday. It's the one big Hanoi museum open that day, when the mausoleum, the Ho Chi Minh Museum and the Military History Museum are all shut. Keep the noon to 1:30 PM break in mind, and ask at the desk whether your phone counts as a camera before you start taking pictures.
Nearby
- Vietnamese Women's Museum: about 0.9 km in a straight line.
- Hoa Lo Prison: about 1.4 km in a straight line.
Questions travelers ask
Which Hanoi museums are worth the time? In an r/VietNam thread asking for good museums in Hanoi, one reply listed:
"Hoa Lo Prison (‘Hanoi Hilton’), Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Military History Museum, National Museum of History, Temple of Literature, Botanical Gardens"
u/Necessary_Sea_2109 on r/VietNam
