Plan Your Trip
Safety & Common Scams in Hanoi
Hanoi is, overall, a safe city for visitors — violent crime targeting tourists is rare. The more realistic risks are petty theft, traffic, and a handful of well-known overcharging scams.
The general picture
Most visits to Hanoi are entirely trouble-free. The city is heavily populated, well-lit in tourist areas, and busy late into the evening, which in itself deters a lot of opportunistic crime. The precautions worth taking are mostly the same as in any major city, plus a few Hanoi-specific ones below.
Common scams to know about
- Taxi meter tampering or unofficial "taxis" — stick to recognised companies and insist on the meter, especially from the airport (see our airport transport guide).
- Inflated prices with no menu shown — at some tourist-facing food stalls and cyclo rides, confirm a price before you order or ride, not after.
- "Free" gifts or bracelets — occasionally offered by street vendors before a payment is demanded; a polite but firm decline works fine.
- Currency confusion — Vietnamese dong amounts have a lot of zeros; double-check change, especially at night or when paying with a large note.
Everyday precautions
- Keep bags zipped and worn across the body, particularly in crowded markets and near roadside traffic (bag-snatching from passing motorbikes, while uncommon, does happen).
- Cross streets at a slow, steady, predictable pace (see our Getting Around guide) — traffic, not crime, is the more realistic everyday risk.
- Use hotel safes for passports and valuables when you're not carrying them.
- Keep a digital and physical copy of your passport and visa separate from the originals.
Good to know: If a price feels wrong, it's completely normal — and expected — to ask again or simply walk away. Vendors used to tourists are generally unbothered by this.