Hoa Lo Prison, Hanoi (the Hanoi Hilton)

Hoa Lo Prison is open 08:00 to 17:00 every day of the week, including public holidays and Tet, and the ticket is $1.94 (VND 50,000) per person. The price took effect on 1 January 2024 under a notice that applies to organisations and individuals, domestic and foreign. Children under 16 enter free, and the relic accepts any proof of age or a height under 1.3 m if a child has no papers. People with especially severe disabilities are free too.

The half-price tickets are for people with severe disabilities, Vietnamese citizens aged 60 and over with a card, students aged 16 and over with a Vietnamese school card, and some social-policy groups. A foreign student or senior should not expect them. The relic's rules are short: bags go to the deposit, no smoking, do not move objects, and incense and flowers only at the memorial area. The official site lists an audioguide and guide services but no night programme, so do not book a night visit from a third-party offer.

Hoa Lo was built by the French in 1896 to hold Vietnamese political prisoners, and it later held American pilots shot down over North Vietnam. The French called it the Maison Centrale, and its inmates included Phan Boi Chau and five later General Secretaries of the Communist Party. The relic's own account treats the prison as a school of revolution, and the museum is organised around that story.

The French prison, 1896 to 1954

The French built Hoa Lo on the land of Phu Khanh village, a pottery village that made kettles, pots and clay stoves, and the governor-general approved the design on 27 April 1896. The site covered 12,908 square metres, with a wall 5 m high and 0.5 m thick and four watchtowers at the corners. The regime was harsh: forced labour, food that was cut back and spoiled, shackles of iron and wood, and the cachot, the dark punishment cells the relic calls the hell of hell.

Many prisoners died before their sentences ended.

After 1954 and the American pilots, 1964 to 1973

After October 1954 the government took over the prison and used it for people who broke the law. From 5 August 1964 to 31 March 1973 it also held American pilots shot down during the bombing of North Vietnam, and they nicknamed it the Hanoi Hilton. The relic's account says the pilots were given the best conditions the wartime economy allowed, and that all captured pilots were handed back in March 1973 after the Paris agreement.

Accounts by the released pilots describe it very differently, and the section on whether it is worth visiting returns to that.

The end of the prison, 1993

In 1993 the government changed the site's use for the capital's development. Most of the prison was cleared, and the south-east part was kept, restored and listed as a historic relic with a memorial to the patriots who died there. That is the ground you walk through today, and it explains why the museum feels compact next to what the French built.

Of the 12,908 square metres of the original site, over 2,000 are kept, and two towers and a commercial complex now stand where much of the prison once did.

Hoa Lo means stove, and Hanoi Hilton is the joke American pilots made about it. The village that stood here made clay stoves, kettles and pots, and the folk name of Phu Khanh village was Hoa Lo, so the prison took its name from the street. The Vietnamese relic describes the American nickname as a humorous name. Accounts credit the Navy pilot Bob Shumaker with first writing it, carving Welcome to the Hanoi Hilton on a pail handle for an arriving airman, although the first group of prisoners disagree about who coined it.

The name stuck because of its sarcasm. The Hilton the pilots meant was a hotel chain, and the building was a prison, so the museum shows both the name and the cells it mocked.

John McCain was held in North Vietnam for about five and a half years, from October 1967 to March 1973, and he spent only part of that time at Hoa Lo. The museum's captions record that he was captured at Truc Bach lake in Hanoi on 26 October 1967 and treated by army doctors, and that all captured American pilots were handed back in March 1973. Other prisoners were held far longer. Everett Alvarez, the first American pilot sent to Hoa Lo, was shot down on 5 August 1964 and spent more than eight years in captivity.

The relic names McCain among the pilots held there and lists Douglas Peterson, who later became the first American ambassador to Vietnam, as another. The pilots' rooms in the museum show photographs of their life, including a Christmas tree, a basketball game and the medical treatment of McCain.

Most of Hoa Lo was demolished from 1993, and only the south-east corner, over 2,000 square metres of the original 12,908, survives as the museum. Two towers now stand where much of the prison was, a serviced apartment block and an office tower, and some of the French colonial walls were kept in a commercial complex around them. The Vietnam War period in the museum fills two display rooms, which is why visitors expecting a large wartime camp can be surprised.

A set of original cells was saved, stored for years and rebuilt from the original bricks, ceilings, concrete beds with ankle shackles and a cell door. They opened in 2023 as a permanent exhibit at the American Heritage Museum in Stow, Massachusetts.

Allow 45 to 60 minutes inside, our estimate, and add the walk or ride to and from it. The preserved ground is small, so most of the time goes on reading the displays and standing in the cell blocks. A guided tour is longer because the route is longer, not because the prison is bigger.

Hoa Lo is worth an hour if you want to see how the French held Vietnamese revolutionaries and how Vietnam presents its own history. The ticket is $1.94 (VND 50,000), the site is central and the cell blocks and the cachot make the French colonial regime concrete in a way a book does not.

Go with a clear idea of what the Hanoi Hilton part is. The two rooms about the American pilots present the museum's view that the pilots were treated well. Many of the pilots who were held here describe torture and abuse in their accounts, and US veterans have criticised the museum for downplaying it. The two accounts disagree, and the museum shows only one. If the pilots' story is why you came, read their accounts as well, such as the exhibit built from the original cells at the American Heritage Museum in Massachusetts.

The Maison Centrale Gate

The arched gate on Hoa Lo Street still carries the French name Maison Centrale, the term for a prison holding dangerous or long-sentence prisoners in France. Beside the door a notice board lists the visitor rules and the 08:00 to 17:00 opening hours. The French built the wall 5 m high and 0.5 m thick with watchtowers at each corner, and the compact ground beyond the gate is what remains of a site that once held far more.

The Cachot and the Death-Row Cells

The French-era cell blocks are the reason to come. The cachot were the dark punishment cells where a prisoner was locked alone, shackled at night and made to eat, sleep and relieve himself in the same room. The relic describes them as the hell of hell.

The death-row cells and the leg irons made of iron and wood belong to the same display, and one of the cell blocks has a lit tableau behind glass. Give this section the time. It is dark, narrow and quiet, and it is where a guide's explanation changes what you see.

The Women's Quarters and the Cells

The museum also keeps cells that held Vietnamese women political prisoners under the French, and the bare cell you pass has a heavy door, a small high window and little else. These rooms belong to the French-era story, not the American one. If you came expecting only the Hanoi Hilton, take a moment here: it is the part of the museum that explains why the prison mattered to Vietnamese visitors.

The American Pilots' Rooms

Two display rooms show the life of the American pilots held here from 1964 to 1973. Photographs and objects include a Christmas tree decorated by the pilots, a basketball game and army doctors treating John McCain after his capture at Truc Bach lake in October 1967, and an image of the release of the pilots at Gia Lam airport. The rooms present the museum's own account, so read them as a Vietnamese view of the war, and look for the pilots' own accounts elsewhere.

The Memorial Area

The relic keeps a memorial to the Vietnamese patriots who died in the prison for the country's independence. The rules say incense and flowers may be placed only here, so do not leave them elsewhere in the cell blocks. Keep your voice low in this area, since Vietnamese visitors come to pay their respects, and follow the guidance of the staff.

Groups can contact the management directly or by phone on 024 3934 2253 or 024 3934 2317, and the rules ask anyone with a problem to tell the staff.

The relic's rules list no dress code, but it is a memorial, so cover your shoulders and knees as a courtesy. The rules ask visitors to deposit bags in the designated place, not to smoke, not to move objects and to follow the staff. Incense and flowers are for the memorial area only. If a rule is unclear or something goes wrong, the relic asks you to tell the staff and follow their guidance.

Go to 1 Hoa Lo Street in Cua Nam ward. The relic's own page lists the distance and buses from four nearby sights, and the French Quarter walk and the war museums tour have their own meeting points: the first at the Ly Thai To statue and the second at the gate of the Vietnam National Museum of History at 216 Tran Quang Khai.

If you are also visiting the lake or the Old Quarter, see the lake and its walking street and the Old Quarter guide. For a base nearby, hotels by area compares the areas, and Hanoi tours lists the guided days.