10 best places to go shopping in Hanoi

Hang Gai Street is a great place to pick up some high quality, fashionable silk items in Hanoi. Also known as Silk Street, the entirety of this busy 300 meter-long street is lined with fashion boutiques and tailors, as well as stores specializing in home furnishing.

Famous brands on Hang Gai Street include the colourful Tan My Design, offering ready-to-wear pieces. Squeezed in between the high profile boutiques are some excellent art galleries and narrow souvenir shops selling far cheaper items.

The Hanoi Weekend Night Market is a busy, bustling gathering of stalls and vendors that brings crowds in droves. Taking place on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 7 pm, the market runs through the Old Quarter, starting from Hang Dao Street and running north to the edge of Dong Xuan Market.

The fashion items on sale may not turn many heads, but many come to the market to enjoy its fun environment and street food.  The vendors have plenty of interesting and exotic things for you to try. Bartering is normal, even encouraged here.

Dong Xuan Market has a wide array of products for sale over 4 floors. Located on the northern edge of the Old Quarter, it is an imposing Soviet-style building, surrounded on all sides by merchant shops and stalls.

Dong Xuan Market is a rough-and-ready type of market, especially on the ground floor. Head upstairs and you will find printed tees, bolts of fabric, school uniforms, luggage stalls and much more, all available at wholesale prices. It is quite an experience, even if you only leave with a pair of cheap sunglasses and a Vietnamese conical hat.

Lotte Center Hanoi offers approximately 250 fashion and lifestyle brands. This shopping spot also offers enough entertainment and dining possibilities that you could easily spend half a day here.

You can reach the 65-storey skyscraper from Hoan Kiem Lake by car within 20 minutes. This high-rise building that houses the Lotte Shopping Center Hanoi also has a hypermarket, a hotel, residential apartments, several restaurants, a gym, a spa, and an observation deck.

Trang Tien Plaza is where you can shop for luxury items and international designer goods in Hanoi. This shopping mall is spread out over 5 floors, with leading fashion brands such as Cartier, Burberry, Ermenegildo Zegna and Louis Vuitton occupying the ground floor. Electronics and home furnishings are available on the 2nd and 3rd floors, while a supermarket that stocks many international goods is on the 4th floor.

There are some excellent international restaurants on Trang Tien Plaza’s highest floor. You can find this upmarket mall on Trang Tien Street, at the beginning of the French Quarter.

Hang Bac Street has been synonymous with jewellery (bac means silver in Vietnamese) for hundreds of years. This small yet atmospheric street still retains many small outlets of jewellers selling rings, necklaces and many types of inexpensive fashion pieces.

There isn’t a particular shop to check out – instead, take a wander from one end to the other and check out the many jewellers, handicrafts and propaganda poster shops along the street. To reach Hang Bac Street, start from the Water Puppet Theatre on the northern side of Hoan Kiem Lake and walk up Hang Be Street until you come to a T-junction.

Nha Tho Street is packed with small fashion stores and excellent restaurants – despite only measuring 110 metres. Located in front of St. Joseph’s Cathedral, it is very popular with the sophisticated set of Hanoi’s middle-class and expat community.

You can find independent boutiques selling Vietnamese-style fashion in western sizes, handmade jewellery and accessories at reasonable prices.

Hang Da Market occupies a modern and air-conditioned building on the western edge of the Hanoi Old Quarter. It has a collection of stalls selling clothes, shoes, bags and accessories. Prices are relatively affordable, and it’s possible to haggle, especially if you are buying in bulk.

On most weekdays, Hang Da Market is quite empty as most of the customers are Vietnamese. Visit on a weekend to enjoy more of a pulse to this sizeable shopping space. The complex is close to Ba Dinh Square and the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

Hang Dau Street is quite unbelievable at first glance because of the sheer amount of shops selling 1 thing: shoes. There are hundreds of shoe-sellers lining the street, making it a great place to shop around for a nice pair of shoes or sandals in Hanoi.

Most of the footwear consists of brand names made at Vietnamese factories that have been rejected as seconds, making them a great purchase with usually only a small imperfection.