I have a rule for Hanoi that I break every single trip: one bag in, one bag out. It has never once worked. The last time I flew home to Singapore I had a kilo of Son La coffee wedged under the seat, a Bat Trang teapot wrapped in two hotel towels, and a lacquer tray I had sworn I would not buy, bought anyway, and then spent ten awkward minutes at Noi Bai explaining to a check-in agent was not a weapon.
Hanoi does this to people. Almost everything here is still made by somebody, sold by somebody who knows the maker, and priced for the neighbours first and the visitors second. That is exactly why shopping in this city is so good, and also why it can feel like a maze if you arrive without a plan. This guide is the one I wish I had read before my first visit. It covers where to actually go, what is worth the luggage space, what honest prices look like, how to bargain without becoming the person everybody remembers for the wrong reasons, and how to fold all of it into a normal three or four day trip so the shopping does not eat the sightseeing.
One note before we start: prices in this article are what I paid or saw on recent trips, rounded, and they move. Treat them as a sense of scale, not a promise. Tour and ticket prices shown with an S$ sign are the current "from" prices on our site.
How Hanoi shopping actually works
Hanoi has three shopping worlds and they barely overlap. The first is the Old Quarter, the knot of streets north of Hoan Kiem Lake where, centuries ago, each lane belonged to one guild. Hang Gai sold silk, Hang Bac silver, Hang Ma paper offerings, Hang Thiec tin, Hang Dong brass. Some streets still do what their names say. Others have quietly become phone-case alleys and backpacker bars, and you learn to tell the difference from fifty metres away by what is hanging outside.
The second world is the markets. Dong Xuan is the big covered wholesale hall, the weekend night market is a long ribbon of cheap fun and snacks, and Quang Ba is where half the city's flowers arrive before dawn. The third world is the malls: newer, cooler, and genuinely useful when you need a pharmacy, a supermarket, a children's play area or somewhere to wait out a thunderstorm.
The trick is to match the errand to the world. Silk, tailoring, lacquer and ceramics belong to the first. Bulk buying, fabric by the metre, noodles in vacuum packs and household oddities belong to the second. Sunscreen, shoes in a European size and a decent iced latte belong to the third. Mix them up and you will overpay or walk twice as far as you should.
Money, notes and cards
Prices are in dong and the zeros take a day to stop bothering you. At the time of writing one Singapore dollar bought somewhere in the high teens of thousands of dong, so a 100,000 dong note is a little over five dollars and the largest note, 500,000, is roughly twenty-five. Check the rate on the day you fly. The notes are polymer and the 20,000 and 500,000 look surprisingly alike in dim shop light, so count twice and hand over slowly.
Cards work in the malls, the chain cafes and the better Hang Gai shops. In Dong Xuan and at every stall, cash is the only thing that works. Local QR apps are everywhere but mostly tied to Vietnamese bank accounts, so as a visitor you will be handing over notes. I withdraw once or twice a trip from a bank ATM inside a branch or mall and keep a thin wad of small notes separate from the big ones, because nothing weakens your bargaining like pulling a 500,000 note out for a 40,000 purchase.
| Shopping world | Best for | Payment | Bargaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Quarter guild streets | Silk, tailoring, silver, lacquer, paper lanterns | Cash; cards in better shops | Expected at stalls, fixed in design shops |
| Markets (Dong Xuan, night market) | Bulk, fabric, snacks, cheap gifts | Cash only | Always |
| Malls | Pharmacy, supermarket, rainy-day outings | Cards and cash | Never, except at sale counters |
One more thing before we walk anywhere. The Old Quarter is small. You can cross it on foot in fifteen minutes. The reason a visit takes all afternoon is that every ten metres there is a motorbike to dodge, a shopfront to stare at, or a plastic stool with a bowl of something steaming on it. Wear shoes you can walk in, keep your phone in a front pocket, and plan to move slower than you think.
The Old Quarter, street by street
If you only get one shopping session in Hanoi, spend it here, and start on Hang Gai. The street runs west from the top of the lake and has been the silk street for as long as anyone remembers. The shops range from a handful of old houses with proper tailoring rooms upstairs to small fronts selling scarves by the armful. The good ones tell you, without being asked, which silks are pure and which are blends. The price gap is large and so is the feel in your hand.
A plain pure-silk scarf in a decent Hang Gai shop cost me roughly 300,000 to 600,000 dong. The 50,000 dong scarves on the stalls two streets over are polyester. That is perfectly fine as a cheap souvenir, as long as you both know what it is. A burn test is the old trick, but nobody will let you light their stock, so go by the hand: real silk is slightly cool, slides rather than clings, and does not have that squeaky shine.
Tailoring, without the panic
Tailoring is the thing I recommend most to first-timers. A linen shirt, a silk blouse or a simple dress measured on your first morning is usually ready on day three. The clever approach is to bring a garment you already love and ask them to copy it, because a copied fit is far more predictable than one built from a tape measure and a smile. Choose the fabric yourself, ask what the price includes (lining, buttons, one alteration), and agree a pickup time in writing on the receipt. Allow one fitting. Do not leave it for your last morning, because a sleeve that needs an inch taken in becomes a very stressful sleeve at ten o'clock on departure day.
Silver, paper, tin and medicine
Hang Bac, a few blocks north, is silver. Some shops are proper jewellers who will weigh and stamp what they sell; others sell plated pieces at tourist prices. Ask for the weight in grams and the purity, and if the answer is a shrug, keep walking. Hang Ma is the paper street and the most photogenic of all. It sells votive paper goods for ancestor offerings, and in the weeks around Mid-Autumn and Tet it turns into a canyon of lanterns and red tinsel. Mid-Autumn will have passed by the time you read this in October, but the lantern shops never fully pack up, and a paper lantern folds flat.
Hang Thiec is tin and sheet metal, where you can still buy a hand-made steamer tray or a small coffee brewer. Hang Dieu and Hang Da lean towards leather and sandals. Lan Ong, off Hang Duong, is the traditional medicine street and you will smell it from thirty metres: cinnamon bark, dried mushrooms, star anise, goji. It is also the cheapest place I know to stock a Singapore kitchen with whole spices, and the people behind the counters are happy to explain what each thing is for.
The design shops
The newer craft and design shops cluster around Hang Trong and the streets near St Joseph's Cathedral. Prices are fixed and higher than at stalls, but you get consistent quality, embroidered linen, lacquer boxes, ceramics and propaganda-style prints, and the staff can usually tell you which village a piece came from. If you do not enjoy haggling, do most of your gift buying here and save the stalls for the fun stuff.
I like to cover the Old Quarter on foot, but my first time I took a cyclo for forty-five minutes to understand the grid, and I would still suggest it. From the seat you see the shopfronts properly, the driver knows which lane is which, and you can note where to come back to later. The 45-minute Old Quarter cyclo tour starts from S$11.00. If you want the ride plus a pause at Ngoc Son Temple and an egg coffee at the end, the cyclo and egg coffee tour starts from S$23.46. Both are booked for a time slot, and e-tickets are emailed after our team confirms your booking, so book a day ahead rather than from the pavement.
Dong Xuan Market, and when to skip it
Dong Xuan is the big covered hall at the north end of the Old Quarter, and it is wholesale first and retail second. The ground floor is cheap clothes, bags and household goods; upstairs is fabric, haberdashery and sewing notions; the back and the surrounding lanes are dried food, noodles and sweets. It is loud, warm and not remotely curated, and I love it for exactly that. If you sew, make costumes, run a small shop or just enjoy watching commerce at full volume, go.
Who should skip it? Anyone short on time who wants souvenirs. The goods are mostly for Vietnamese buyers, minimum quantities can apply, and a tourist asking for one of something gets a tourist price. The best time to visit is on a weekday morning, before about eleven, when the stalls are stocked, the aisles are passable and the heat has not settled in under the roof. Keep bags zipped and in front of you, and carry small notes.
What I actually buy there: dried mango and lotus seeds for gifts, a few metres of cotton or linen from the upstairs fabric stalls, packets of dried noodles that cost a quarter of what they do at home, and sometimes a woven basket if I have room. The goods that tempt everyone, phone cases and fake-brand bags, are fine if you accept what they are, but they will not survive your next holiday.
The honest price table
| Item | Where | Typical range (dong) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure silk scarf | Hang Gai shops | 300,000 to 600,000 | Ask for pure versus blend |
| Polyester scarf | Stalls | 40,000 to 80,000 | Fine, if you know |
| Hand-made lacquer tray | Design shops | 250,000 to 900,000 | Fixed price |
| Bat Trang teapot | Bat Trang workshops | 120,000 to 450,000 | Pack with towels |
| Vietnamese coffee, 500 g | Shops and supermarkets | 120,000 to 250,000 | Check roast date |
| Tailored linen shirt | Hang Gai tailors | 600,000 to 1,500,000 | Fitting on day two |
These are ranges I have seen, not quotes anyone owes you. The point of the table is to give you a floor and a ceiling so that a number which sounds absurd, in either direction, stops you in your tracks.
The weekend night market and the walking streets
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings the streets around Hang Dao and Dong Xuan close to traffic and a long market takes over. It is less a serious shopping trip than a social event. You will find cheap clothes, phone accessories, tiny toys, hand-painted fans, grilled snacks and a lot of couples eating ice cream. Prices are low and the quality matches, so keep your expectations in proportion and your hand on your wallet.
The streets around Hoan Kiem Lake also close to cars at weekends, and that is the better place to be with children. Families bring scooters and bubble guns, buskers set up, and the whole circuit feels like a very large street party. The lake loop is flat and about a mile around, which makes it an easy stroll between meals.
My night-market routine is boringly consistent. Arrive at about six, when the stalls are still setting up and prices are most flexible. Eat first, shop second, because you bargain better when you are not hungry. Set a budget of one or two small notes per person for souvenirs and stick to it. And if you would rather have the food and the context without the guesswork, the weekend night market and street food tour starts from S$23.94 and walks you through the stalls that locals queue for.
What to buy after dark
Wooden and bamboo toys, enamel pins, cotton tote bags with Hanoi illustrations, small scented candles, hand-painted fans and cheap fridge magnets are the night-market sweet spot. These are fun, light and under 100,000 dong each. Skip electronics, branded sportswear and anything with a famous logo, and be sceptical of anything described as "handmade" if there are fifty identical ones on the table.
Malls: what each one is good for
Hanoi's malls are not what you fly to Vietnam for, but they solve real problems. They are air-conditioned, the toilets are clean, prices are fixed, and you can compare things without a stallholder reading your face. I treat them as supporting actors in a shopping trip, to be used for exactly what they are good at.
The big malls in the western part of the city are each built around an attraction as much as retail. Some have an indoor aquarium or a children's zone on the top floor, which is a lifeline on a rainy afternoon when the Old Quarter is a wet mess. If you are travelling with children, one of those mall visits is worth a slot in the plan. The Mega Grand World Hanoi ticket starts from S$10.00 and the Lotte World Aquarium Hanoi ticket from S$15.00, both easy ways to turn a shopping stop into a family afternoon.
| Mall type | Go for | Not for |
|---|---|---|
| Big attraction-led malls | Rainy afternoons, children, cinemas, supermarkets | Authentic souvenirs |
| Central department stores | Cosmetics, sunscreen, pharmacy, fixed-price clothes | Bargains |
| Neighbourhood supermarkets | Coffee, tea, sauces, snacks to take home | Fresh produce for the flight |
The supermarkets deserve more credit than they get. A Vietnamese supermarket is where I buy the coffee and tea I give to colleagues, because the packaging is honest, the price is on the shelf, and nobody follows me around. Check the best-before dates, and pick up a few sachets of the local 3-in-1 coffee for the office pantry.
Bat Trang and the craft villages outside the city
If you have a half-day spare, spend it at Bat Trang, the ceramics village on the Red River about thirty minutes from the Old Quarter. The village has made pottery for centuries, and its lanes are lined with workshops and showrooms selling everything from tiny sauce dishes to garden urns. The big showrooms near the entrance have the widest range and the highest markup; walk further in and you find family workshops where the same teapot costs a third less and you can watch a wheel in action.
Go on a weekday if you can. Weekends bring tour groups and the pace drops from interesting to crowded. Bring a small tote, because you will want one. Most workshops will wrap fragile pieces well, but the packing varies, so ask for extra paper, and carry the breakables on board rather than checking them.
Many workshops let you try the wheel for twenty minutes or so, and it is a lot more fun than it sounds. My first bowl looked like a collapsed hat. The kids at the next stool made lovely ones, which was humbling. Fired pieces can be collected or shipped, so ask early whether your piece will be ready before you fly.
Other craft villages
Van Phuc is the silk village, where you can see looms and buy from the people who weave. Quang Phu Cau is the incense village, famously photogenic when the sticks are drying in the sun, and a short stop on some day trips out to Ninh Binh. If your itinerary already includes a longer excursion, ask whether it passes a village on the way; combining a craft stop with a scenic day beats spending a separate morning in a taxi.
A day trip south to Hoa Lu and Trang An is one of the best things you can do from Hanoi, and some of the private options include an incense village stop, such as the Quang Phu Cau incense village, Hoa Lu and Trang An private tour from S$68.78. It is the kind of trip where you come back with sore calves, a bundle of incense and a better photo than the one you came for.
What is worth the suitcase space
After enough trips I have a short list of things I buy again and again, and a longer list of things I regret. The keepers have three things in common: they are made locally, they are hard to find at home, and they survive a flight.
Coffee. Vietnam grows some of the world's most interesting robusta and increasingly good arabica, and the supermarket shelves are the best place to learn the difference. Buy ground coffee for a phin filter if you want the traditional drip, or whole beans if you have a grinder at home. Look for a roast date. A phin filter itself costs a few dollars and makes a lovely gift, but buy the lid and saucer too, because the cheap sets lose the little cap in the first week.
Tea. Lotus-scented and Thai Nguyen green teas are the ones I take home. Lotus tea is expensive because the flowers are hand-scented, and a good tin is a proper present. Ask to smell before you buy; it should smell like a flower, not like perfume.
Silk and linen. A scarf, a tailored shirt, a table runner. These pack flat, weigh nothing and last for years. A silk scarf is the one gift I have never seen anyone politely hide at the back of a drawer.
Ceramics. Bat Trang bowls, teapots and sauce dishes are sturdy and attractive. Smaller pieces travel better; large vases are a gamble unless the seller offers proper packing.
Lacquer. Trays, coasters and small boxes. Real lacquer is layered and polished by hand, so it feels heavy and slightly cool. Thin, glossy plasticky ones are a lot cheaper for a reason.
Spices and dried goods. Cinnamon bark, star anise and cardamom from the medicine street are cheap and good. Dried mango, lotus seeds and cashews make easy gifts.
Embroidery and prints. Small framed embroidery and illustrated prints make a more personal souvenir than a fridge magnet and weigh almost nothing in a flat folder.
What I stopped buying
Branded sportswear from the stalls (poor stitching, and the logo peels after two washes), electronics, anything described as antique, and any "gemstone" sold by someone who approached me first. A cone hat looks wonderful in Hanoi and ridiculous in a Singapore HDB corridor. I own two of them and I have no idea why.
| Buy | Skip | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pure silk scarves | Anything labelled "silk" under 100,000 dong | That price is polyester |
| Small Bat Trang pieces | Large unpacked vases | Breakage on the flight |
| Ground coffee and phin filter | Pre-flavoured "weasel" coffee | Often flavoured beans with a story |
| Whole spices from Lan Ong | Pre-packed "traditional medicine" kits | Hard to know what is in them |
| Lacquer coasters and trays | Mass-produced plastic lookalikes | They crack and look cheap |
Bargaining without being a pain
Bargaining is part of the transaction at stalls and markets, and nobody is offended by a reasonable counter-offer. What does offend people is theatrical haggling over the equivalent of fifty cents. My own approach is simple and I have never had a bad exchange with it.
First, ask the price and listen. If the number sounds fair for what you are holding, you are done; there is no medal for beating a fair price down. Second, if it sounds high, counter at roughly sixty to seventy percent of the ask and smile while you say it. Third, expect a middle number and settle near it. Fourth, and this is the one most tourists forget, if you say you will buy at a price, buy at that price. Walking away is allowed; going back on a spoken agreement is not.
Some practical rules. Do not bargain in design shops or any shop with price tags. Do not bargain for food at a stall unless you are buying a lot. Never start a negotiation for something you do not actually want. Be kinder in the morning, when the first sale of the day is considered lucky, and be quicker at closing time, when everybody wants to go home.
Also, learn four words. "Bao nhieu" is "how much", "dat qua" means "too expensive", "cam on" is "thank you" and "khong, cam on" is "no, thank you". Using any of them gets you a warmer reception than a perfect accent ever will, and a gentle "khong, cam on" is also the best way to turn down the woman who has put a pole of fruit on your shoulder for a photograph. Walk on, keep smiling, and do not hand over money until you know what it is for.
Getting between the shopping districts
Hanoi is a city that is easy to move around, once you accept that crossing the road is a skill. The Old Quarter and the lake area are walkable. For anywhere else, ride-hailing apps are the simplest option: you see the fare before you get in, which removes an entire category of argument. Taxis are fine if you pick a known company, and motorbike taxis are fast, cheap and, for first-timers, a bit of a thrill.
Bat Trang takes about half an hour by car and is best done by taxi or app with a driver who will wait, since the return leg from the village can be hard to find on a hot afternoon. The malls on the western side are twenty to forty minutes from the Old Quarter depending on traffic, so avoid weekday rush hour, roughly five to seven in the evening, when a short trip can become a long one.
If you would like to cover more ground without thinking about it, the hop-on, hop-off style double-decker city sightseeing bus from S$8.00 loops through the main sights, and it is a handy way to get a feel for how the districts connect. And if you want the shopping woven into a day with a local guide, the highlights of Hanoi full-day city tour starts from S$36.81.
A three-day plan with the shopping built in
Most visitors I know give Hanoi three days before heading to Ha Long Bay, Ninh Binh or Sapa. Here is the plan I give friends. It is gentle, it keeps you out of the midday heat, and it puts the shopping where it belongs, in the cooler parts of the day.
| Day | Morning | Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cyclo ride, lake walk | Hang Gai, order tailoring | Water puppet show |
| 2 | Dong Xuan market, Lan Ong spices | Tailoring fitting, design shops | Night market and street food |
| 3 | Bat Trang workshop | Collect tailoring, supermarket stop | Farewell dinner |
Day one: orient yourself
Start with the cyclo or a lake walk to learn the layout, then spend the afternoon on Hang Gai. Order your tailoring early, so that fittings land on day two. Finish with an evening at the water puppet theatre. The show is short, entirely charming, and works even if you do not understand a word of the narration. The Thang Long water puppet show ticket starts from S$7.39, and the live musicians alone are worth the price of entry.
Day two: markets and fittings
Do Dong Xuan and the medicine street in the morning, take lunch somewhere with a fan, and then go back for your fitting while you are still fresh. In the evening the weekend market takes over if the day falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday; on weekdays, a food tour is the better use of the night. If you want a lighter version of the night market, a join-in street food walking tour from S$24.86 is a relaxed way to eat well and see parts of the city you would not find alone.
Day three: ceramics and collection
Bat Trang in the morning before it gets crowded, back for a late lunch, collect your tailoring, and use the afternoon for the supermarket run that clears your list of coffee and tea. Pack the ceramics in your hand luggage, put the clothes on top of the suitcase, and leave an hour of slack for the airport run, because Hanoi traffic does not read timetables.
Shopping with children, and shopping on your own
With children, shop in short bursts. Aim for two hours in the Old Quarter, a break for ice cream, and an afternoon that has nothing to do with shopping. The weekend walking streets around the lake suit children better than the night market, which can feel crowded by eight. A cooking class is a good wildcard on a day when everyone is tired of shops; the market tour and traditional cooking class starts from S$33.30 and gives you a guided walk through a local market and then something to cook and eat.
On your own, Hanoi is easy and safe in the ways that matter, with a few ordinary city cautions. Phone snatching from motorbikes does happen, so keep your phone out of your hand near the road. Carry a copy of your passport rather than the original. Use an app for rides so the fare is fixed before you move. And do not feel obliged to accept anything pressed on you, whether it is a photograph with a pole of fruit or a "free" bracelet. A smile and a firm "no, thank you" is sufficient.
If you are travelling alone, I would suggest at least one small-group tour on the first day. A guided food walk is a gentle way to find your bearings, meet a few people and get a local's list of places to eat later. The egg coffee class with a street food walking tour from S$34.88 is a good example, and you leave with a recipe as well as a full stomach.
Customs, packing and getting it all home
Pack for the return when you pack to leave: one soft foldable bag in the suitcase, and a roll of packing tape if you plan to buy fragile things. Wrap ceramics in clothes and put them in the middle of your bag, away from the edges. Bring liquids in sealed bags, since a leaking fish sauce bottle ruins a trip faster than a delayed flight.
For food, remember that Singapore has clear rules on what you can bring in. Packaged, shelf-stable items such as coffee, tea, dried fruit and sealed snacks are generally fine for personal use, but fresh meat, fresh produce and certain animal products are controlled or prohibited. Check the official list before you buy anything perishable, and never assume that a seller who says "no problem" knows the rule at your arrival airport. Duty-free allowances for goods also apply, so keep receipts for the bigger purchases.
At Noi Bai, leave more time than you think you need, especially at the weekend. If you want to make the wait easier after a heavy shopping week, a lounge or a fast-track service takes the edge off, such as the ACV Lounge at Noi Bai from S$43.93.
When to go for shopping specifically
The best months for comfortable walking are October to December and February to April, with cooler, drier days. Summer is hot and humid, which makes outdoor markets feel like a sauna by midday, though it is also when malls feel their best. The weeks before Tet, the lunar new year, are electric: flower markets, red decorations, lanterns and special foods everywhere. They are also crowded, and many shops close for several days over the holiday itself, so check the dates if you are travelling in January or February.
Mid-Autumn Festival, around September or early October, is a good time for lanterns and mooncakes. Weekdays are quieter than weekends everywhere except the night market, which is a weekend event by definition. If you only have one day for markets, choose a weekday morning for Dong Xuan and a weekend evening for the walking streets.
Eating while you shop
Every shopping day in Hanoi should include at least three stops for food, because the city's best meals are served within a few steps of its best shops. A bowl of bun cha for lunch near Hang Manh, a bowl of pho before the market opens, a banh mi on a bench by the lake. Then an egg coffee, which tastes like a liquid tiramisu and is a perfectly respectable afternoon pick-me-up.
Choose places where locals are eating, where the menu is short and the stools are low. Do not be afraid of the plastic stool. Ask the price before you sit if there is no menu, and keep small notes for the bill. If you would like to understand the dishes before you eat them, a food tour in your first two days pays back its cost quickly, because you will order better for the rest of the trip.
For the evening, if you want something more polished than the street, the Quintessence of Tonkin show from S$21.86 is a theatre performance rooted in northern Vietnamese village life, and a good way to end a day of shopping.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hanoi good for shopping, or should I wait for Ho Chi Minh City?
They are different. Hanoi is better for craft, silk, ceramics and lacquer, and the Old Quarter is a pleasure to wander. Ho Chi Minh City is bigger on malls and modern fashion. If craft and character matter to you, Hanoi wins.
What is the single best souvenir from Hanoi?
For most people, a pure-silk scarf or a small Bat Trang piece. If you only buy one thing, buy coffee and a phin filter, because you will use it every week.
Is bargaining expected everywhere?
No. It is expected at stalls and markets, and not at shops with price tags, malls or supermarkets. When in doubt, ask whether the price is fixed.
Can I pay by card?
In malls, chain cafes and better shops, yes. In markets and at stalls, no. Carry cash in small notes and withdraw from bank ATMs in safe places.
Can I bring Vietnamese food products back to Singapore?
Sealed, shelf-stable items like coffee, tea and dried fruit are generally fine in personal quantities. Fresh meat and fresh produce are controlled. Check the official guidance before you buy anything perishable.
How long does tailoring take on Hang Gai?
Usually about two to three days for a simple garment, with one fitting in between. Order on your first day and do not leave it to the last morning.
Is Bat Trang worth the trip if I only have two days?
Only if ceramics interest you. It takes the better part of a morning, and the Old Quarter will fill two days on its own. With three days or more, it is a lovely change of pace.
Do I need to book tours and shows in advance?
Booking a day ahead is sensible for timed activities such as shows, cyclo rides and food tours. Tickets are issued after our team confirms your booking, and you will receive them by email.