Co Loa Citadel — Attraction in Hà Nội

Co Loa is a special heritage site of national significance, which is located in Dong Anh Distris, 17 km North of Hanoi City. It is also a cultural and spiritual tourist site and a must-see destination for domestic and foreign visitors alike. Co Loa was the imperial city of Au Lac Kingdom (3rd century BC), and its largest political, economic, cultural and military center during the period of its founding. Co Loa resumed its role in 938 when Ngô Quyên defeated the Southern Han troops on the Bach Dang River, re-gained independence for the country and set up the capital here. The Co Loa citadel, serving as the capital of the Au Lac Kingdom during An Dong Vuong's reign, as well as the capital under Ngo Quyen's ruler, present evidence and has become a history - cali relic. Archeologists consider Co Loa Citadel the most citadel with the largest size, and largest scale, most unique architectural design of its kind in Vietnam's history of citadel construction" Co Loa Citadel is closely connected with the remarkable legends telling how King An Duong Vuong established his kingdom, constructed the Citadel, and received a magic crossbow from a golden turtle, which was capable of killing hundreds of invaders at a time; and the legend of the sorrowful love story between My Chou (Hung King's daughter) and Trong Thuy, etc. They mark a pathetic page in the ancient history of Viet Nam. Over the centuries, Co Loa has developed into a populous area, abundant in historical, cultural, architectural, artistic, archaeological and historical revolutionary relics. In addition, Co Loa also keeps many customs, traditions, religions, rituals and folk festivals imbued with tangible and intangible cultural values. They have turned the site into a historical and cultural treasure trove. Entrance of price ticket is...

Don't believe the hype; don't waste your time.

I understand the subjective nature of reviews, but sometimes reviews need to put aside what they think people want to hear and tell the truth. The truth is that this 'relic' is near nowhere in the middle of nowhere. It will cost you far in excess of 350000VD to get there and back. There is a bus (12000VD), but it comes into Ha'noi on an odd route and ends at an urban bus depot nowhere useful.

Despite the official website saying it's open from 8:00~5:00, it doesn't. The truth is it closes at 11:30, despite not being a tourist hotspot; apparently the staff need a rest from all that hard toil doing nothing. The entrance fee is a mere 30000VD, but that's fine, because (and here's the big TRUTH), there's nothing to see! The part of the ancient ruined complex you pay to enter is TINY, uninteresting, not well maintained, and apparently run by a man who thinks tourists are akin to mosquitoes. The other parts of the original citadel are of little or no archaeological or cultural interest, and when I visited the whole place around the Citadel was a building site, with lots of litter strewn around.

On a positive note, some of the back streets have interesting examples of North Viet'namese urban architecture, but they aren't outstanding, and although the main drag is almost all shutters or irrelevant establishments, there is one fantastic cafe on the corner which serves the most delicious coconut coffee. If it wasn't for that, my entire trip would have been worthless.

To summate. There is nothing you can see here which you cannot see with a deep dive into (non touristy) Han'noi. There is nothing of special or notable cultural importance here and it's costly and inconvenient to get there,...

Visiting the citadel was so interesting and fun, but it definitely requires some preparation. Some helpful tips: You want to start your journey at the museum! Everything else will make more sense this way! The museum was about one block east of where our gps took us. You'll want to search for "Bảo Tàng Trưng Bày Cổ Vật Thành Cổ Loa" in Google maps. (See photo of map) We bought the guidebook with our tickets and it was informative and worth it, as far as history went, but it didn't have any sort of clear map in it, so you'll need to rely heavily on signage. There are numerous partial maps throughout the premises, the only full map is in front of the museum (and is photographed in this review). I listened to an episode of the podcast The Ancients called "The Origins of Ancient Vietnam" before going and I'm SOOOO glad I did! It helped the story of the place all come together. Since the ancient citadel was so large, you can't actually see it all at this one location. We traveled by Grab so we were only able to see the portions that are within walking distance. It might be worth researching other parts of the citadel wall and making multiple stops. Be prepared to rely heavily on Google translate if you plan to communicate with anyone and you don't speak Vietnamese.

All that being said, we loved coming here! Some highlights for me were: the intricate historical steel drum, all the artifacts in the museum, the lake, and getting to wander and discover all the different parts of this...