Công Viên Bách Thảo

The experience

Hanoi's botanical garden, laid out by the French in 1890 on the slope above Hoàng Hoa Thám and still the oldest planted green space in the city. Old specimen trees shade a network of paths, a small round lake sits at the back, and statues appear at intervals along the way. From half past five in the morning the surrounding wards take it over for badminton, jogging and group dancing. It is one of the very few Hanoi parks that still charges an entrance fee, and one of the very few that is worth being inside at dawn.

A 130-year-old French garden that the neighbourhood, not the tour buses, wakes up in.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.