When you’re in Hanoi, you surely want to get some souvenirs before flying back home. This is the same reason why Hanoi night markets are buzzing on many streets, hosting tourists and locals for their own pursuits. Even if you’re traveling on a budget, these shopping places can offer you cheap but quality products.
If you’re looking for the best places for binge-buying, here are the ten tourist favorites you can check out.
1. Dong Xuan Market
The largest market in Hanoi, Dong Xuan houses hundreds of stores in a Soviet-inspired building. The place can be dirty, especially if you chose to stroll on the ground floor where wet goods are sold. If you’re looking for fabrics, ceramics, and other dry goods, you should go on the upper floors. Don’t forget to buy the iconic Vietnamese hat!
The place is like a massive mall where you can find a large dining area with different stalls to choose from. Most of the products here are daily Vietnamese stuff so if you want to experience the Hanoian lifestyle, you should head here. It’s located in the Hoan Kiem District and it’s open from 6 am to 7 pm only.
2. Hanoi Weekend Night Market
From Friday to Sunday, the Hang Dau Street bursts into life with its night market open from 7 pm until 11:30 pm. It’s illuminating with lights and photographers love this when mixed with the crowd. Fashion items here aren’t that spectacular, but you can purchase a shirt or two for your friends back home.
Haggling is commerce here and you can go as low as 75% of the offered price. If you’re lucky to save 15,000 dongs from bargaining, you can already have a spree of Bun Thang noodles. The life of the place is sustained by cultural performances with locals performing Vietnamese tunes while clad in traditional clothes.
Just be alert for pickpockets and speeding motorbikes.
3. Hang Da Market
Unlike Dong Xuan, Hang Da is already a modern shopping place and is housed in an air-conditioned building. The Hanoi night market has numerous stalls of clothes, shoes, accessories, bags, and more. You can also haggle here but you have more chances if you buy in bulk.
Hang Da Market is a quiet place during weekdays with only a handful of tourists and locals shopping around. But during weekends, it is buzzing with a crowd of shoppers so I suggest that you visit on the morning of a weekday when merchants are just starting to unpack their goods. You can buy a traditional Vietnamese dress called Ao Dais as a souvenir.
The market is open every day from 5 am to 5 pm.
4. Cho Hom Market
You can find a wide collection of fabrics here, the biggest in the whole Hanoi. Many tailors go here to buy their fabrics for big clothes production. And like the other markets, Cho Hom’s ground floor is also dedicated to wet goods and appliances.
Head upstairs and you’ll drown in silk, brocade, tweed, linen, cotton, and nylon in large piles. You can haggle the price and if you’re charming enough, you can have it 50% off! But aside from the cloth, seafood products here are also a best-seller. But if you don’t like cooking, you can buy cooked seafood dishes.
The market is at Hai Ba Trung District and opens from 6 am to 5 pm.
5. Hang Gai Street
This Hanoi night market, also known as the Silk Street, has a stretch of boutiques and shops where you can purchase made-to-measure suits and dresses. You can already have your suit within 24 hours, but to make sure that it’s a perfect fit, I suggest that you let the tailor finish it for another day.
Though you can pay using your credit card, you can still haggle the price for 50% off. Just a tip: when you haggle, make sure that you’ll pay no more than 70% of the price. This is a normal transaction here so don’t feel that you’re ripping the merchants off.
This place is open from 9 am to 8 pm at Hoan Kiem District.
6. Lotte Center Hanoi
Lotte Center is the home of almost 250 brands in Hanoi. It’s a bit upscale but if you’re looking for sure quality, this is your place. Lotte is a high-rise building and you can find the hypermarket on the ground floor, imported jewelry and cosmetics on the 2nd floor, shoes and handbags on the 3rd floor, jeans and lingeries at 4th floor, men’s wear at 5th floor, and so on.
If you’re eager to scour the entirety of Lotte Center, you’ll need to allot a couple of days. But before you leave, make sure to go to the Observation Deck on the 65th floor for a view of the whole city.
7. Trang Tien Plaza Shopping Mall
Trang Tien is a high-end shopping place where you can find international brands like Louis Vuitton, Bvlgari, Cartier, and Dior. This six-storey luxurious building is the oldest shopping mall in Hanoi and is just a 10-minute stroll from the Old Quarter.
On the first floor, you can check out fashion apparels while the second floor houses mobile phone outlets. The third and fourth floor has the household equipment and grocery retailers respectively. Meanwhile, the fifth floor of this Hanoi night market has the restaurants and the top floor is a space dedicated to offices.
8. Nha Tho Street
Nha Tho Street is just a hundred-meter stretch of space, but it’s home to numerous fashions shops and restaurants. This place is an expat haven and a typical hang out destination for the middle-class locals. Here, you can buy Vietnamese and Western fashion apparels as well as visit some boutiques.
This place is also called as the Church Street, being situated in front of the St. Joseph’s Cathedral. It’s open from 9 am to 9 pm and you shouldn’t miss the “Thing of Substance” shop or “Mu Accessories”.
9. Hang Bac Street
“Bac” means silver, and with that, you have the idea of what you’ll see here. This is a small street but lots of jewelry stores to visit. These are just small stalls with glass cases with a display of ring, necklace, earrings, and bracelet varieties.
Aside from these, there are also propaganda poster and handicraft shops you can check out. If you’re going here from the Water Puppet Theatre, you just have to walk through Hang Be until you saw an intersection.
10. Bat Trang Ceramic Village
Bat Trang is a historical village in Hanoi with its pottery tracing back to the 14th century. You just don’t buy ceramics here, you can see it as locals create the piece by hand. And if you want to create your own, you can join a pottery class for just US$4.4.
They have a variety of bowls, vases, plates, and cups. You can find them at Gia Lam by taking bus no. 47 for just 70 US cents.
From economical to high-end, Hanoi night markets can provide your hunt. Hanoians are prolific merchants and they produce clothes, accessories, food, jewelry, and more all of the best quality. So make sure that you have your haggling skills in check because you’ll be in a lot of bargaining.
Have you shopped in any of these markets? Share with us your favorite find!
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