Private tour · 1–4 guests · tailored to you
Van Phuc Silk Village Tour from Hanoi, Private and Guided
Half a day in a village that has been weaving silk on the Nhue river for more than a thousand years. A licensed local guide who speaks fluent English, a private car, the yards where the looms still run — and a piece of silk work you make yourself and carry home.
Your sample half day, stop by stop
What the private price actually buys
A car for your group alone
Nobody else is added, and it waits for you rather than the other way round.
A licensed guide who works only with you
A local who speaks fluent English and translates both ways inside a working house, where nobody else will.
Hotel pickup anywhere in Hanoi
No meeting point, no roll call on a pavement. Morning or afternoon, your choice.
The yards, not the shop windows
Warping, weaving and dyeing seen up close, with the family explaining what they are doing.
You learn what you are buying
The hand test and the burn test before you spend anything, so real silk and printed polyester stop looking alike.
Every fee already paid
The loom house and the workshop are settled in advance; nobody asks you for money during the morning.
Duration
4.5 hours
Departure
08:00 or 13:30
Pickup
Any hotel in Hanoi
from · $41 · / personChoose group size ›
Price is the total for the whole group, not per person
Solo traveller$115 BOOK →2 guests$135 BOOK →3 guests$150 BOOK →4 guests$165 BOOK →One price for the whole group · free to cancel until 3 days before · every stop can be swapped
The half day, stop by stop
This is a sample route: swap a stop, linger at the looms or skip the temple, and we rework it around you. The morning start sees more weaving; the 13:30 start has the better light in the dyeing yards.
Hotel pickup · 08:00 or 13:30 · anywhere in Hanoi · about 25 minutes to Ha Dong
The working lanes and a loom house
About 60 minutes · on foot, flat
Loom house fee included — nothing to hand over
3 photos · tap to enlarge
We start in the yards behind the main street, where the looms are. You watch the warp being set, the shuttle running and the pattern appearing only when the cloth is tilted into the light. Your guide asks first, translates both ways, and the family keeps working while you are there — this is a workplace, not a demonstration.
The silk lesson
About 20 minutes · seated
No obligation to buy anything
Most of what is sold on the main street is printed or imported fabric. In one sitting you learn the two tests that settle it: how real silk feels and recovers in the hand, and what a single thread does under a flame. After that you can shop anywhere in Vietnam and know.
On foot · about 5 minutes · through the lanes to the workshop
Your workshop at Vun Art
About 60 minutes · seated
Workshop and materials included
2 photos · tap to enlarge
Vun Art is a co-operative where artisans with disabilities turn the village’s silk offcuts into collage work. You sit with them, choose your own colours and build a piece — a small picture, a tote or a keyring — and it leaves with you the same morning.
The old village and the temple
About 40 minutes · on foot
No entry fee anywhere on this stop
The seventeenth-century village temple, the old well and banyan, the Ho Chi Minh memorial house, and the lane hung with umbrellas that everyone photographs. Ten minutes of history and twenty of walking, at whatever pace suits you.
Back at your hotel · about four and a half hours after pickup
One village, four and a half hours, your group only
Pick your group size. The total already covers the car, the licensed guide, the loom house, the workshop and every fee in the village — and the route can still change before you travel.
Group total · everything included
Solo traveller$115 BOOK →2 guests$135 BOOK →3 guests$150 BOOK →4 guests$165 BOOK →Group total · free to cancel until 3 days before
WhatsApp · +84 368 938 081Another village, a slower morning or five of you? Message us and we will send back a plan and one price. ›What is in the price
One price for the whole group, with every cost of the morning inside it.
Included
- Licensed local guide who speaks fluent English, with your group only
- Private air-conditioned car with driver, hotel pickup and drop-off in Hanoi
- Inside a working loom house - weaving, dyeing and warping explained, not a showroom
- How to tell real Van Phuc silk from printed polyester, before you spend anything
- Hands-on workshop at Vun Art - you make a silk-collage piece and take it home
- Every entrance and workshop fee, and bottled water
Not included
− Lunch and drinks beyond the water we bring
− Silk, tailoring or anything else you buy for yourself
− A tip for your guide and driver — never expected, always welcome
− Travel insurance, which we recommend you carry
Is this the right tour for you?
A good fit if
You want to see silk being made, not only sold.
You would rather be let into a working yard than walk past it.
You are two of you, a family or a small group and want the morning to bend to your pace.
You want to buy silk in Vietnam and know what you are holding.
Look elsewhere if
Money is the deciding factor here. The village is free to enter and a Grab gets you there in twenty minutes.
You want a full day with lunch and two more villages. That is the full-day tour, not this one.
You are travelling on a Sunday of Tet week, when many family workshops close — tell us and we will say honestly what is open.
You have less than four hours before a flight.
If you have a whole day, the full-day tour keeps this morning intact and adds the old village of Cu Da and the incense yards at Quang Phu Cau, with lunch at an artisan home. See the full-day craft villages tour. Or tell us what you would like to do and we will build the morning around it.
Questions before you book
About the morning
Will we actually see weaving, or just shops?
Weaving. The main street is mostly retail, so we go into the yards behind it where the looms run — a loom house is arranged for your group before you arrive. The looms work hardest between 8am and about 11:30am, which is why the morning departure sees the most.
Does the afternoon departure work as well?
Yes, with a trade. You see less weaving and more dyeing and finishing, the workshop runs exactly the same, and the light in the drying yards is better for photographs.
How much walking is there?
Under two kilometres in total, all of it flat, broken into short stretches with the car nearby. Some workshops have a raised door sill of about 15 cm.
Will our guide speak good English?
Yes. Your guide is licensed, speaks fluent English and translates both ways at the loom, in the dye shed and at the workshop table.
What do we make at the workshop, and can we keep it?
You build a silk-collage piece from the village’s own offcuts — a small framed picture, a tote bag or a keyring, your choice on the day — and you take it with you when you leave. Nothing has to be fired, dried or posted on.
Can we change the order, or slow it down for children?
Yes. This is a sample route: stay longer at the looms, drop the temple, or shorten the walking for small children or older parents. The workshop suits about five years old and up. Children under 5 travel free and do not count towards the group size; from 5 a child counts as one guest.
Before you book
Is the price per person?
No. The price shown is for the group, one to four guests. Children under 5 travel free and do not count towards the group size; from 5 a child counts as one guest. Five or more are quoted on WhatsApp.
How do we pay?
Two ways, and you pick at checkout: pay the full price online by card or PayPal, or put down a 30% deposit online and hand the rest to your guide in cash on the day, in US dollars or Vietnamese dong. Choose cash and the deposit invoice reaches you on WhatsApp or by email; the booking is confirmed once it clears.
What if we need to cancel?
It is free to cancel up to 3 days (72 hours) before the tour: you get back everything you paid, and a new date costs nothing if there is space. Inside 3 days, including no-shows, 30% of the tour price is kept, because the guide, the car and your workshop place are already held for you.
Where and when is pickup?
Any hotel in Hanoi, at 08:00 or 13:30, and back at the same door about four and a half hours later. Your guide is in the lobby at the agreed time and waits 20 minutes.
Should we buy silk, and will you take a cut?
Buy if you want to, and we take nothing either way — no shop pays us to bring you and your guide will not steer you. What we do is teach you the tests first, so the choice is yours and not the seller’s.
Book the half day
Tell us the date and how many of you there are. We answer on WhatsApp, usually within minutes, and the same day you get your pickup time and the name of the licensed guide who will meet you.
Group total · everything included
Solo traveller$115 BOOK →2 guests$135 BOOK →3 guests$150 BOOK →4 guests$165 BOOK →Group total · free to cancel until 3 days before
WhatsApp · +84 368 938 081Another village, a slower morning or five of you? Message us and we will send back a plan and one price. ›