Bảo tàng Dân tộc học Việt Nam

The experience

Vietnam's museum of its 54 recognised ethnic groups, 8km west of the centre on a 43,799 m² site under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. The main exhibition hall was designed by Tày architect Hà Đức Linh in the shape of a Đông Sơn bronze drum, with interiors by the French architect Véronique Dollfus. Behind it lies a 20,000 m² open-air garden of full-size traditional dwellings, and a second building shaped like a kite opened in 2013 for the wider Southeast Asian collection. Over 15,000 artefacts, 42,000 photographs and extensive audiovisual material. Closed Mondays.

The one museum in Hanoi you walk around outdoors, through real houses rather than vitrines.

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.