08:30 AM — Hotel Pickup
Your private, air-conditioned vehicle and English-speaking guide will meet you at your hotel lobby. This is a fully private tour — no shared minibuses, no fixed group schedule. The journey southwest from Hanoi takes approximately 30 minutes, passing through wide boulevards, banyan-lined lanes, and the scenic Nhue River corridor.
09:00 – 10:30 — Van Phuc Silk Village
Van Phuc is Vietnam's oldest continuously operating silk weaving community, with a heritage dating back over 1,200 years to the 9th century. The village's signature product — van silk — is a double-sided fabric prized for its natural sheen, its ability to keep wearers cool in summer and warm in winter, and its extraordinary precision of weave.
Guests will walk through the main weaving street, where nearly 800 households operate traditional and modern looms side by side. The rhythmic sound of the looms is as much a part of Van Phuc as the silk itself.
Historical significance: During the Nguyen Dynasty, Van Phuc silk was supplied to the royal court in Hue. In the 1930s, it was exhibited in Marseille and Paris — the first Vietnamese textile to receive international recognition in Europe.
Your experience includes:
Observing the complete weaving process, from raw silk thread to finished fabric
Shopping directly from local weavers (scarves, áo dài lengths, ties, and accessories)
Visiting the ancient Van Phuc Communal House at the village centre
11:00 – 12:30 — Son Dong Wood Carving Village
From silk to something altogether more sacred — your next stop is where Vietnam's most revered religious sculptures are born, one careful chisel stroke at a time.
Recognised by the Vietnam Book of Records as the country's largest producer of Buddhist statues and religious worship objects, Son Dong Village in Hoai Duc District supplies over half of Vietnam's domestic market for temple sculptures, altar panels, and gilded deity figures.
The primary material is jackfruit wood, selected for its softness, durability, and natural moisture resistance. Artisans work through a meticulous multi-stage process — carving, sanding, lacquering, re-sanding — repeated across many layers before gold leaf is applied by hand. A single masterwork statue can represent one month of skilled labour.
Your experience includes:
Walking through active family workshops
Witnessing the full lacquering and gold-leaf gilding process
Direct interaction with artisans, many of whom represent families practising this craft across multiple generations
12:30 – 13:30 — Lunch
Enjoy a sit-down lunch at a family-run countryside restaurant. The menu reflects traditional northern Vietnamese home cooking: bánh cuốn (steamed rice rolls with wood-ear mushroom and minced pork), slow-braised pork with fermented mustard greens, fresh herb platters, and steamed rice.
14:00 – 15:00 — Thach Xa Bamboo Dragonfly Village
Thach Xa Village is the home of the Vietnamese bamboo dragonfly (chuồn chuồn tre) — a traditional folk toy that has been handcrafted here for centuries. Each dragonfly is hand-split, hand-carved, and balanced using a three-point principle — beak, wings, and tail — that allows it to rest perfectly still on a fingertip or the rim of any surface without adhesive or weighting of any kind.
Your experience includes:
A hands-on dragonfly-making session guided by a local artisan
Guests take their finished dragonfly home as a handmade souvenir
Each dragonfly is individually made and unique — a lightweight, meaningful keepsake.
15:00 – 16:00 — Tay Phuong Pagoda
A short distance from Thach Xa, 239 moss-edged laterite steps ascend through ancient tree cover to Tay Phuong Pagoda — one of Vietnam's most historically and artistically significant sacred sites.
Key facts:
Origins dating to the 8th century; current architecture shaped by a full renovation in 1794 under the Tay Son Dynasty
Designated a Special National Relic by the Vietnamese government in 2014
Statue collection designated a National Treasure in 2015
The pagoda's three parallel halls, arranged in the form of the Chinese character, along the hillside, house 72 jackfruit-wood sculptures. The most celebrated are the 18 Arhat figures: each face individually carved with a distinctive expression and joy, anguish, deep contemplation, quiet amusement and regarded by scholars as the pinnacle of 18th-century Vietnamese sculptural art. The statues were carved by artisans of the Thach That woodworking tradition, the same lineage guests encounter earlier in the day at Son Dong.
From the hilltop, panoramic views stretch across the Red River Delta, rice fields, bamboo groves, and river bends that have sustained these craft traditions for over a millennium.
Please note: Tay Phuong Pagoda requires climbing 239 stone steps and is not suitable for guests with limited mobility.
17:00 – 17:30 — Hotel Drop-off
Guests return to their Hanoi hotel by approximately 17:00–17:30, having experienced four of the capital region's most authentic traditional craft communities — and the living artisans who keep them alive.