Hanoi: Incense, Hat-Making, Lacquer Villages, or City Tour
Choose from several options. Option HALF DAY: Visit 2 Villages: Conical Hat and Incense Craft Village ( No Lunch ) + Train Street (optional) Duration: ~ 6 hours Morning from 7:45~13:30 Afternoon from 11:45~17:30 Start with a pickup from Hanoi’s Old Quarter and head to Chuong, a village that has been well-known for the craft of conical hat-making for over 300 years. Meet your tour guide at the house of a local artisan and observe how conical hats are made. Depart for the Quang Phu Cau village, which has been producing incense for more than 100 years. Take a walk to the center of the village and see how locals make incense on the artisanal, family scale. Meet a family who specializes in dyeing incense sticks and take in the colorful bundles of incense. See the next level of incense production with a tour of a nearby factory. Learn how incense is made from scratch and more about the lives of manual workers. Take home memories of your visit with incense souvenirs from the place they’re produced before returning to Hanoi. Back to the city center. End at Train Street, enjoy a coffee, and explore (costs at your own expense). Note: You are responsible for your return from Train Street. Option HALF DAY: Hanoi City Tour and Water Puppet Show 2:00pm: Start with pickup by your guide and begin your exploration of Hanoi. Arrive at Tran Quoc Pagoda located on Golden Fish Island at West Lake. Then visit THE Ho Chi Minh complex. Then visit One Pillar Pagoda where one worships the Goddess of Mercy. Continue to visit the Temple of Literature, the first university of Vietnam, established in the 11 century. Enjoy a final stop at the Water Puppet Theater where you will get to witness a 50-minute show. The puppet theater is right near the Sword Lake, in the center of the Old Quarter. Option FULL DAY: Visit 3 Villages with home cooked lunch: Lacquer, Conical Hat and Incense + Train street ( optional drop off) Duration: 8:00~16:30 After pickup from your hotel, meet your tour guide and head to your first stop, the incense stick-making village. Learn more about the techniques from local artisans as you walk through the village. Stop at some places in the village to take some awesome photos. Then, get back on the bus, and hop to your next destination, just 15 minutes away, the traditional conical hat-making village. Not only observe but also get involved in the process of making and painting your own hat, a souvenir to remember your day. Continue to a local artisan’s house or a riverside restaurant for a meal. After bidding farewell to a hat-making village, depart for the last stop, the lacquer art-making village. Observe and learn the quintessence of local artwork from the artisans as you visit a large family-run factory. Visit the local artist house in the village to know the process of producing lacquer art products and have chance to paint a lacquer. Finally, get back on the bus and head back to Hanoi city center and Train street ( optional drop off)