Hanoi rewards students who want genuine immersion and adventure. Vietnam's capital is atmospheric and historic, from the tangled Old Quarter to tree-lined French-era boulevards, lakes and pagodas, with a street-food culture among the world's best and a cost of living that makes your grant stretch remarkably far. Home to the country's top universities and a growing international-student community, it is your gateway to the whole of Southeast Asia.

Student life mixes local campus energy with a lively expat and exchange scene. The cheap, potent bia hoi fresh-draught-beer corners of the Old Quarter, especially around Ta Hien beer street, are the classic hangout, while the lakeside cafes of Tay Ho draw the international crowd. Weekends are for exploring, and coffee culture, with egg coffee a Hanoi invention, is a social ritual in its own right.

• Pull up a plastic stool for bia hoi on Ta Hien in the Old Quarter, where a glass costs next to nothing.
• Ask the Hanoi group on Studcasa for the current best language exchanges and expat-student meet-ups around West Lake.
• Try egg coffee, ca phe trung, at Cafe Giang, the cafe that invented it, tucked down an alley near Hoan Kiem.

Hanoi is wonderfully cheap: budget 450 to 750 euros a month and you will live comfortably, with even modest students eating out for most meals. Street food costs a euro or two a bowl, local beer is among the cheapest on earth, and rent is a fraction of European levels. Imported goods and Western bars are where costs climb.

• A bowl of pho or bun cha costs 30,000 to 50,000 dong, around 1 to 2 euros, from a street stall.
• A room in a shared flat or serviced apartment runs roughly 3 to 6 million dong a month, around 120 to 230 euros.
• Use Grab for cheap motorbike-taxi rides, and save Western restaurants and bars for treats, as they cost many times more.

Most exchange students in Hanoi rent a room in a shared flat or a serviced apartment, often arranged after arriving. Facebook groups such as Hanoi Massive Housing are the main marketplace, alongside local agents. Popular bases are the leafy, expat-friendly Tay Ho around West Lake and the studenty Cau Giay district near several universities. View in person and check the air-con and hot water before committing.

• Search the 'Hanoi Massive Housing' Facebook group and use a local agent for serviced apartments.
• Choose Tay Ho around West Lake for the expat and cafe scene, or Cau Giay to be near the universities.
• Always view in person, and test the air conditioning and hot water; both matter through the humid summer and chilly winter.

Hanoi moves on two wheels: motorbikes dominate, and the easiest way around is a Grab, Gojek or Be bike-taxi hailed on your phone. Two new metro lines now cover useful routes, and cheap public buses fill in, but the traffic is famously chaotic. Crossing the road is a skill, so walk slowly and steadily and let the scooters flow around you.

• Use the Grab, Gojek or Be apps for cheap motorbike-taxi rides; a short hop costs a euro or two.
• Try the new metro, Line 2A and Line 3, for a fast, air-conditioned run along their routes.
• To cross busy streets, walk at a slow, steady pace without stopping, and the motorbikes will steer around you.

Hanoi hosts Vietnam's most prestigious institutions: Vietnam National University Hanoi, with its social sciences and science universities, Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), Foreign Trade University and the National Economics University, plus a Hanoi campus of RMIT Vietnam. Most local teaching is in Vietnamese, though exchange and international programmes and RMIT run in English. Term dates avoid the Tet new-year shutdown, so plan around it.

• Confirm the language of instruction; international and RMIT programmes are in English, but most local courses are in Vietnamese.
• Build your calendar around Tet, the lunar new year, usually late January or February, when universities and much of the country close.

This depends entirely on your passport, so check your embassy's page, but here is the shape of it. Most exchange students enter on a student visa (the DH category) sponsored by the host university, then convert it to a temporary residence card for stays over three months. Your uni's international office does most of the heavy lifting - start early, because the sponsorship letter can be slow.

Many nationalities can also enter visa-free or on a 90-day e-visa for short stays, which some students use to arrive before switching to the proper student visa in-country. Keep your passport valid for at least six months and hold onto every stamp and document.

• Student visa: DH category, sponsored by your university
• Stays over 3 months: apply for a temporary residence card
• E-visa (90 days) available to many nationalities online
• Passport valid 6+ months beyond your entry date

Hanoi is one of the world's great street-food cities and the birthplace of pho. Northern cooking is subtler and less sweet than the south: bun cha, grilled pork with noodles and herbs, cha ca, turmeric-and-dill fish, and banh mi are staples, best eaten perched on a plastic stool at a specialist stall. Coffee is an institution, from egg coffee to strong ca phe sua da over ice.

• Eat bun cha for lunch at a busy local stall; the grill smoke out front tells you it is the real thing.
• Order pho where northern-style broth is at its best, and try the turmeric fish at Cha Ca La Vong.
• Slow down over a Vietnamese coffee: egg coffee at Cafe Giang, or iced ca phe sua da at any street cafe.

Hoan Kiem district holds the frenetic Old Quarter of 36 trade streets and the lake at the city's heart, atmospheric but noisy. Tay Ho, around the large West Lake, is the leafy, lakeside expat quarter full of cafes and international restaurants. Ba Dinh is the grand political district of embassies and monuments, while Cau Giay to the west is modern, affordable and full of students.

• Tay Ho around West Lake for lakeside cafes, expat life and calmer streets.
• Cau Giay for affordable, modern living near several universities.
• The Old Quarter or French Quarter in Hoan Kiem to be in the historic, atmospheric centre, if you can handle the noise.

Hanoi is the springboard for northern Vietnam's greatest hits. The karst seascape of Ha Long Bay is a three-to-four-hour trip for an overnight cruise, the Ha Long on land of Ninh Binh a two-hour day-trip, and the mountain rice terraces of Sapa an overnight train or bus away. Budget flights from Noi Bai airport also open up the rest of Southeast Asia cheaply.

• Take an overnight cruise on Ha Long Bay or the nearby Lan Ha Bay, 3 to 4 hours from the city.
• Day-trip to Ninh Binh, with Trang An and Tam Coc, for karst scenery by boat, about two hours away.
• Ride the night train or a sleeper bus to Sapa for rice terraces and hill-tribe villages, and use Noi Bai for cheap regional flights.

Hanoi asks you to adapt, and it pays off. The northern climate genuinely has a cold, damp winter, so bring warmer clothes than people expect of Vietnam. Learn a few words of Vietnamese and always agree or app-set prices in advance to avoid the tourist markup. And ease into the street food while staying tap-water cautious: stick to bottled or filtered water and busy stalls with high turnover.

• Pack a warm layer or two; Hanoi winters from December to February can be a chilly, damp 10 to 15 degrees.
• Learn basic Vietnamese greetings and numbers, and fix prices via Grab or by asking first to avoid overpaying.
• Drink only bottled or filtered water, and choose busy street stalls with quick turnover for the freshest food.