Hanoi shopping guide — markets, silk and craft villages

Hanoi still sews, throws, cuts and dyes much as it did a thousand years ago, except it now processes a VAT refund at Noi Bai airport. This guide is not about wandering a market and soaking up atmosphere. It is about specific addresses, dollar prices, a thirty-cent bus to the pottery village, and the burn test people started running after the 2017 silk scandal.

The map below has 15 pinned locations. Carry cash: outside malls, almost nothing takes a card. For the wider city, start with the Hanoi guide; for what everything costs, the Hanoi price guide.

Prices current as of June 2026. Reference rate: 1 USD ≈ 26,000 VND, dollar figures rounded.

What to buy in Hanoi and where

Hanoi shopping splits into five formats, each solving a different problem. Đồng Xuân market is for people who haggle and buy in bulk. The Old Quarter's "Hang" streets are for single items: one scarf, one ring, one painted fan. Craft villages are for authentic silk and ceramics. Malls are for brands and air conditioning. The weekend night market is the compromise between atmosphere and convenience.

• Dong Xuan Market (Chợ Đồng Xuân): 4 floors, 2,000+ stalls — 06:00–18:00, haggling expected
• Hom Market (Chợ Hôm — Đức Viên): Best fabric by the metre — 06:00–18:00
• Hang Be Market (Chợ Hàng Bè): Food market — Best window 7:00–10:00
• Weekend Night Market (Chợ Đêm Phố Cổ): Fri–Sun 18:00–23:00 — Souvenirs 20–30% cheaper
• Long Bien Market (Chợ Long Biên): Wholesale fruit and vegetables — 22:00–06:00
• Quang Ba Flower Market (Chợ Hoa Quảng Bá): Cut flowers — 23:00–06:00
• Hang Gai — silk street (Phố Hàng Gai): Silk and áo dài tailoring in 48 h — ~50 shops and workshops
• Hang Bac — silversmiths (Phố Hàng Bạc): Sterling silver since the 1700s — Ring from 500,000 VND (~$20)
• Hang Ma — paper street (Phố Hàng Mã): Lanterns and festival decor — Peaks before Tet and Mid-Autumn
• Hang Quat — fans and altars (Phố Hàng Quạt): Hand-painted fans, calligraphy brushes — Fan from 50,000 VND (~$2)
• Bat Trang village (Làng Bát Tràng): Ceramics, 14 km south-east — Bus 47A — 7,000 VND (~$0.30)
• Van Phuc village (Làng Lụa Vạn Phúc): Silk, 15 km west — Metro + Grab
• Dong Ho village (Làng Đông Hồ): Folk woodblock prints, 35 km east — UNESCO urgent-safeguarding craft
• Trang Tien Plaza (TTTM Tràng Tiền): Luxury in a colonial-era building — LV, Dior, Rolex
• Lotte Center Hanoi (Lotte Center Hà Nội): 65 floors, Lotte Mart on B1 — Observation deck ~$9
• Vincom Center Ba Trieu (Vincom Center Bà Triệu): Zara, H&M, Uniqlo — 10 minutes from Hoan Kiem
• AEON Mall Long Bien (AEON Long Biên): Japanese mall — MUJI, Daiso, ramen court

With half a day, do Hàng Gai and Hàng Mã — both in the Old Quarter, five minutes apart. With a full day, add Bat Trang. If you brought an empty suitcase for presents, Đồng Xuân plus Lotte Mart in the Lotte Center basement covers everything.

Hanoi markets

There are six main markets and each has a distinct character. Đồng Xuân is a multi-storey warehouse selling everything from buttons to leather jackets. Hôm supplies the city's tailors and is known for fabric by the metre. Hàng Bè is a single food block where locals assemble a week of groceries in an hour.

Đồng Xuân — the main covered market

It has stood in the north of the Old Quarter since 1889, was rebuilt after the 1994 fire, occupies four levels and holds over 2,000 stalls. It is fundamentally a wholesale operation: clothes, silk and shoes move by the bundle, and plenty of traders visibly lose interest when a tourist asks for one scarf. They will sell it — without enthusiasm.

• Basement — spices, dried fruit, coffee beans, tea, nuts. The best cashews from Bình Phước and weasel coffee
• Ground floor — clothes, shoes, accessories, wallets, bags
• First floor — fabric, raw silk, bedding, haberdashery
• Second floor — children's goods and toys

Open 06:00–18:00 daily. Sunday is the busiest day and the aisles barely function. The opening price is the tourist price; the real one is 30–40% of it.

Hôm — fabric by the metre

On the corner of Phố Huế and Trần Xuân Soạn, south of Hoan Kiem. Few tourists, but the city's tailors and dressmakers shop here. Cotton, linen, silk, viscose — cut to length. Raw silk from 250,000 VND (~$10) a metre, good cotton from 80,000 VND (~$3.20).

Hàng Bè and the night markets

Hàng Bè is one block of the Old Quarter given over to food: morning-catch seafood, cooked dishes, fruit, spices. Best between 7:00 and 10:00; by midday it is picked over. It is not a souvenir stop — go to understand how the Hanoi kitchen actually works.

• Long Biên (22:00–06:00) — the wholesale night fruit and vegetable market. Restaurants buy here; tourists come for photographs
• Quảng Bá (23:00–06:00) — the flower market on the West Lake shore
• Weekend Night Market (Fri–Sun, 18:00–23:00) — a pedestrian stretch from Hàng Đào to Hàng Giấy with around 4,000 stalls. Souvenirs run 20–30% below daytime prices

The 36 guild streets of the Old Quarter

Under the Ly dynasty in the 11th century, craftspeople from guild villages settled in the capital by trade: silversmiths on one street, silk weavers on another, paper makers on a third. That produced the Phố Hàng system — hàng means "goods", and what follows names them: Hàng Bạc is silver, Hàng Gai was hemp and is now silk.

Several streets have lost their specialism — there are no dyers left on Hàng Đào and nobody sells sails on Hàng Buồm. But on seven streets the trade survives, and those are the ones worth walking. What else to see in the quarter is in the Hanoi attractions guide.

Hàng Gai — the silk street

Two hundred and fifty metres of tightly packed silk shops — around 50 stores and tailoring workshops, many family-run since the 1960s. They make an áo dài in 48 hours and a scarf in the time it takes you to drink a coffee.

• Tan My Design (61 Hàng Gai) — premium souvenirs, genuine silk, designer clothing
• Hadong Silk (102 Hàng Gai) — silk and áo dài tailoring; confirm the turnaround when you order
• Indigo Store (33 Văn Miếu, ten minutes on foot) — H'mông village textiles, indigo, hand embroidery

Hàng Bạc, Hàng Mã and Hàng Quạt

Hàng Bạc has worked silver since the 1700s, and jewellers still cut and set by hand rather than soldering pre-made blanks. A sterling ring runs from 500,000 VND (~$20), earrings from 350,000 VND (~$14), a heavy bracelet from 1,200,000 VND (~$48). Ask for the hallmark: genuine pieces carry "925" or "S925". Without it you are buying silver-plated brass that will turn green in a week.

Hàng Mã sells paper: lanterns in every shape from spheres to dragons, votive paper goods (model houses, motorbikes and iPhones for burning to ancestors), festival decorations. Before Mid-Autumn in September and before Tet in January the street turns into a fair and becomes the most photographed lane in Hanoi.

Hàng Quạt historically made ceremonial fans and banners for Confucian temples. Today: painted fans, calligraphy brushes, scroll cases, household altar goods. A hand-painted fan is 100,000–400,000 VND ($4–16), a small bamboo one from 50,000 VND (~$2). It is less touristed than Hàng Gai, and prices are marked up less aggressively.

Four more worth walking: Hàng Đào (clothes and silk, becomes the night market at weekends), Hàng Bồ (beads, buttons, ribbons — designers shop here), Lò Rèn (the last working blacksmiths, forging on the pavement) and Thuốc Bắc (Chinese medicinal herbs and spices — the smell hits you at the corner).

Craft villages around Hanoi

Hanoi's best silk and best ceramics are not made in Hanoi. They come from villages in the surrounding delta that have been working for centuries. Bát Tràng has thrown pots for 700 years, Vạn Phúc has woven silk for a thousand, and Đông Hồ has cut woodblocks for four hundred. Prices run 30–50% below the Old Quarter, and you get to watch the thing being made.

Bát Tràng — ceramics

In Gia Lâm on the left bank of the Red River, 14 km south-east of Hoan Kiem, known since the 14th century. It now holds around 1,000 workshops and shops, a museum and a hands-on centre where you can throw your own cup.

Bus 47A from Long Biên station costs 7,000 VND (~$0.30), takes about 40 minutes and terminates at the village gate. A Grab car is 150,000–300,000 VND ($6–12) one way; a motorbike over the Vĩnh Tuy bridge takes 30 minutes. Entry is free; the ceramics museum is 30,000 VND (~$1.20) and a pottery class 40,000–60,000 VND ($1.60–2.40) — your cup is fired and ready two days later.

Vạn Phúc — silk

In Hà Đông, 15 km west of the centre, with silk records going back to 11th-century chronicles. It is smaller than Bat Trang: essentially one main street, Lụa Vạn Phúc, plus the old communal house square. Take the Cát Linh — Hà Đông metro line into Hà Đông and a Grab from there; check the nearest station and the fare on the Hanoi Metro map. See the Hanoi transport guide for how the metro works.

Entry is free, and you can walk into the house-museum with a traditional loom and watch weavers work. Go on a weekday between 9:00 and 11:00: the workshops are running and the tour groups have not arrived. Raw silk is 350,000–600,000 VND ($14–24) a metre, a scarf 150,000–400,000 VND ($6–16), a made-to-measure áo dài from 1,500,000 VND (~$60).

Đông Hồ and three smaller villages

Đông Hồ sits in Bắc Ninh province, 35 km east of Hanoi, and has printed folk woodblock pictures on mulberry-bark dó paper for four centuries. The subjects are traditional: cats and mice, a sow with piglets, prosperity entering the house.

Getting there needs private transport — a Grab car is 400,000–600,000 VND ($16–24) one way — and pairs naturally with Bắc Ninh, home of the quan họ folk songs, also UNESCO-listed. An A4 print is 50,000–150,000 VND ($2–6), A3 200,000–400,000 VND ($8–16).

If you have a third day: Chuông (30 km south) makes fans and nón lá conical hats; Quất Động (20 km south) does silk and cotton embroidery up to a metre and a half across; Hà Thái (17 km south) makes the lacquerware that later sells on Hàng Gai at double the price.

Malls — from luxury to Japanese

When you want brands rather than local craft — and air conditioning — you go to a mall. Hanoi has eight significant ones, spanning every budget from Tràng Tiền for Rolex buyers to AEON for a Japanese food court and MUJI.

Tràng Tiền Plaza stands on Hoan Kiem in a colonial-era building: floors of Louis Vuitton, Dior, Rolex, Chanel and Hermès plus a duty-free. On a normal budget there is little point beyond admiring the colonial architecture and the top-floor café view over the lake.

Lotte Center Hanoi is a 65-storey tower in Ba Đình, 5 km from Hoan Kiem, holding a hotel, offices, some 200 shops and Lotte Mart in basement B1. Lotte Mart is the single best place in the city for Korean cosmetics (Innisfree, The Face Shop, Mediheal), instant noodles and snacks — 20–40% below airport duty-free. The observation deck on floor 65 charges admission (check the price at the desk); the rooftop bar on 67 charges from 250,000 VND (~$10) for a cocktail.

Vincom is the Vietnamese chain: Bà Triệu is the central branch (Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, Mango, cinema) ten minutes from Hoan Kiem; Royal City is an underground complex with a water park and ice rink; Times City has a Vinpearl aquarium and 700 shops. AEON runs two Japanese malls — Long Biên and Hà Đông — with MUJI, Uniqlo, Daiso and a genuine ramen court. Everything in Daiso costs 40,000 VND (~$1.60), which makes it an efficient present run. Lotte Mall West Lake is the premium flagship on the shore of West Lake.

Mall prices are fixed — there is no tourist markup and no haggling. On the other hand, the VAT refund only works here.

Top 15 things to take home

Silk from Vạn Phúc or a vetted Hàng Gai shop, burn test included. Ceramics from the village itself, not the Old Quarter — and think about luggage weight before you fall for a five-kilo vase. Lacquerware (sơn mài) is a 15th-century craft; a mid-size box runs about 800,000 VND (~$32), and the finest work comes from Hà Thái.

Coffee: Trung Nguyen is the household name, and cà phê chồn the expensive one at 600,000–800,000 VND ($24–32) per 250 g. Buy it at Lotte Mart or a branded café — market stalls sell a lot of fakes. The variety breakdown is in our Vietnamese coffee guide.

Fish sauce: skip the standard supermarket bottles. You want 35 degrees or higher, in glass, with the Phu Quoc PDO seal — from 80,000 VND (~$3.20) for 500 ml. Wrap it in three bags: it survives the flight, your suitcase lining may not.

Haggling, fakes and the VAT refund

The money you lose in Hanoi is rarely lost to high prices. It goes on not knowing the rules. Haggling saves up to 60%, the burn test saves you from buying Chinese polyester at Vietnamese silk prices, and the VAT refund returns part of the tax on a large mall purchase.

Haggling (mặc cả)

At Hanoi markets the first price is the tourist price, inflated two to three times and occasionally five. This is not deception as such: bargaining is understood as part of buying, and a trader is annoyed if you leave without purchasing, not if you negotiate.

Ask your hostel staff… Before you leave the hostel, ask them to estimate how much what you want to do should cost… How much should souvenirs cost at the market? They can give you bargaining guidelines so you don't get ripped offMatt, Nomadic Matt, 2025

1. Hear the price, divide by three, offer 30–40% of it
2. They object — move up in 5–10% steps
3. Settle around 50–60% of the opening figure
4. No agreement — walk away slowly. Seven times out of ten you get called back with a final price

A calculator works better than conversation: you type a number, they type theirs, and the negotiation runs without language. Smile throughout — visible irritation pushes the price back up.

Silk fakes and the burn test

A refusal to cut a sample is itself the answer. In Vạn Phúc nobody is surprised by the test — the workshops offer it themselves.

VAT refund at the airport

Foreign visitors can reclaim part of the VAT on purchases from shops in the scheme. Ask at the till for the minimum spend and the refund amount, since the rules change.

1. Buy at a shop displaying "Tax Refund for Tourists" — Tràng Tiền, Vincom, Lotte, AEON and larger boutiques qualify
2. Ask the cashier for the VAT invoice and Tax Refund Form; you need your passport
3. Keep the receipt and form until you fly
4. At Nội Bài, before dropping your bags, go to the Tax Refund Office in the international departures terminal — the information desk will point you there
5. Show the goods, receipt and form; get the stamp
6. Collect cash in dong or a card refund at the Tax Refund Counter; staff at the stamp desk will tell you where it is

Paying — cash, cards and QR

• Markets, Old Quarter stalls, small tailors — cash VND only
• Malls, premium boutiques, Lotte Mart — Visa, Mastercard, Amex
• QR codes (VietQR, MoMo, ZaloPay) — increasingly accepted even by tiny stalls, but they only work with a Vietnamese card or wallet
• Dollars and euros — only at Tràng Tiền and the larger boutiques, at a rate that never favours you

Vietcombank, BIDV and Techcombank ATMs dispense cash with a typical 3,000,000 VND (~$118) per-transaction cap and a 22,000–55,000 VND fee, plus whatever your own bank charges. Carry more small notes than feels necessary — the 500,000 note is a problem at a market stall, not an asset.

What you cannot take out

• Antiques over 100 years old without a Ministry of Culture certificate
• Religious objects — old Buddha statues and ritual items can be held at inspection
• CITES-listed skins and coral — crocodile, python, sea turtle
• Cash over $5,000 or equivalent, or over 15 million VND in dong, must be declared

If you buy ceramics or a lacquer panel as art, ask for the receipt to read "handicraft souvenir" rather than "antique" or "old".

When to shop

• 09:00–11:00 — traders are fresh and negotiate willingly; food markets are at their best
• 18:00–20:00 — sellers want to close the day's account (lấy số) and drop prices
• Fri–Sun 18:00–23:00 — the weekend night market, souvenirs 20–30% cheaper
• February, after Tet — mall-wide sales at 30–70% off
• Black Friday — real discounts at international brands, mostly marketing at local malls

In the rainy season (July–September) Old Quarter shopping becomes an obstacle course — the streets flood in fifteen minutes. Plan for the dry season, October to April, or carry an umbrella; the month-by-month picture is in the Hanoi weather guide.

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