Hanoi doesn’t really feel like a city but more a busy, extended village filled with French colonial architecture and laid out like a child might throw about building blocks.

The day starts early, with Hoan Kiem (“returned sword”) lake – which is more or less in the centre of the city – as the focal point.

Fringed by stately banyan trees and venerable low-rise, apricot-hued buildings that do duty as shops, cafes or government offices, the lake at dawn draws hundreds of Hanoians, jogging, stretching, doing push-ups on crush barriers or gliding through tai chi routines.

Others assemble into jiggling dance groups or simply stroll by the water’s edge, at a safe distance from the motor scooters that infest the capital’s roads, alleys and pavements, oblivious to traffic lights and one-way signs.

Aside from these two-wheeled irritations, Hanoi is a gentle urban agglomeration featuring a vast array of accommodation, from luxury hotels to cheap and cheerful guest houses of a dozen storeys that stand on the city’s traditionally skinny plots, some of which are wide enough to allow only a couple of rooms on each floor.

Heritage hotels such as the Sofitel Legend Metropole charge nightly rates of only about 10 million dong (US$400). The Old Quarter – around and about Hoan Kiem – is sprinkled with family hotels with almost all mod cons, few fripperies (although most have a spa in-house or near to hand) and rates that hover around US$60.

Buffet breakfasts are included and run the gamut from spring rolls and Wiener schnitzel to bacon and eggs and croissants, accompanied by Vietnamese java coffee.

Take half a dozen paces anywhere in the more popular parts of the city and a gently clanging bell will announce the presence of a cyclo, a traditional Vietnamese rickshaw, its rider touting for business.

It’s touristy, for sure, and the negotiations over the fare (US$8 per hour max) can be tedious, but the opportunities for filming and photo taking as Hanoi spools out on all sides are unrivalled. Fortunately for the person pedalling, the city is as flat as one of its banh xeo rice pancakes.

Speaking of which, food is one of the delights of any trip to Vietnam.

A generation or so ago, restaurants were few and far between in Hanoi, while menus and bills tended to be handwritten and didn’t always strictly adhere to the truth. So the posse of Michelin inspectors that descended on the city this year represented something of a quantum leap.

Forty-eight establishments ended up with a thumbs-up of one sort or another, including the opera-themed Backstage, which serves contemporary Vietnamese; El Gaucho – a steakhouse that’s a huge hit with the Hanoi-polloi; and Hibana by Koki, which dishes up teppanyaki.

“Street food” got a look-in too, with the chicken noodles at Pho Ga Nguyet snagging a Bib Gourmand from Michelin that signifies a place that serves good food at moderate prices. The restaurant is little more than a hole in the wall with minimal, basic seating in a brightly lit interior and outside on the street, although most customers take away.

While Michelin’s arrival may shake things up, long-established restaurants such as Madame Hien remain popular.

Housed in a century-old, high-ceilinged mansion with a secluded courtyard, where Vietnamese classics such as duck cooked with green tea, daikon and mango cost US$12, Madame Hien’s delicate palette of scarlet and lemon yellow, and sturdy wooden tables set well apart, combine to instil an ambience that is gentle and unhurried.

Similarly unadorned by Michelin stars, Cha Ca La Vong does what it says on the sign outside. The name refers to a boneless river catfish, which is fried at the table with fresh dill and spring onion, and eaten with rice noodles, cilantro and roasted peanuts.

There’s nothing else on the menu – indeed there is no menu – but the first-floor restaurant, reached by a steep wooden stairway, is always packed with uproarious Vietnamese trenchermen and women for whom this is obviously an outing to be relished as much for its setting and traditional associations as for its fish.

The portions are not large, but a meal here is solid entertainment.

Prospective shoppers in Hanoi need to be prepared to bargain and realise that paying in US dollars entails a lousy exchange rate.

That said, in addition to souvenirs, there’s plenty of well-made lacquerware, silk and hand embroidery to be snapped up in the mainstream shops in the Old Quarter and adjacent districts.

Two steps removed from the tourist beat but only a few hundred metres north of the Old Quarter, Dong Xuan Market is a many-winged, three-storied hub of organised chaos, and worth visiting simply for the spectacle, although prices are also more realistic.

In parts, the aisles are so narrow two people can barely fit past each other, and traders sit enthroned atop their wares: clothing, fabrics, shoes, household goods, dried food, and myriad other odds and ends.

The sides of the building are open to the elements and there’s no lift, so hardbitten porters hump bolts of cloth and crates of goods up and down stairs swearing and sweating profusely.

The ground floor hosts a fountain and seats, and the street outside is at weekends transformed into a night market, where, as at Dong Xuan itself, the enjoyment of shopping is rivalled by that of just soaking up the vibe.

Which, when all is said and done, is the best reason for a break in Hanoi.