Discover the Best Traditional Handicraft Villages in Vietnam, showcasing authentic culture, skilled artisans and timeless crafts.
Vietnam is home to a rich tapestry of traditional craft villages, many of which are still active today. These villages not only preserve centuries-old skills but also provide sustainable livelihoods for local communities. Below is a curated list of some of the most iconic and vibrant craft villages across the country.
One of the most famous traditional craft villages in Vietnam – Bat Trang ceramic village
🏞️ Northern Vietnam
Northern Vietnam is a treasure trove of centuries-old craft villages, where local artisans continue to practice and preserve their traditional skills. These villages are not just centers of cultural heritage – they are vibrant communities producing high-quality goods, often using methods passed down through generations. Here’s a closer look at eight of the most iconic craft villages you should visit when exploring Vietnam.
🏺 Bat Trang Pottery Village (Hanoi)
Located along the Red River, Bát Tràng is a must-visit destination for lovers of art and culture. Famous for its handcrafted ceramics, the village produces everything from household wares to intricately designed decorative pieces. With over 700 years of history, Bát Tràng artisans are known for blending traditional pottery techniques with modern aesthetics, creating products that are both timeless and stylish.
🧭 Travel Tip: Visit the Bát Tràng Pottery Market to shop for unique souvenirs, and don’t miss a hands-on workshop where you can try shaping your own clay masterpiece!
🧵 Van Phuc Silk Village (Hà Đông District, Hanoi)
Famous for: Luxurious handwoven silk from natural fibers
Located about 10 km from central Hanoi, Vạn Phúc is one of Vietnam’s oldest silk-weaving villages, with a history spanning over 1,000 years. The silk here is known for its softness, durability, and shimmering beauty. Walking through the village, you’ll see traditional wooden looms and skilled weavers turning silk threads into exquisite garments and textiles.
🎁 What to Buy: Scarves, dresses, áo dài (Vietnamese traditional dress), and embroidered silk artworks.
Van Phuc silk village – A weaver at work.
🛎️ Dai Bai Bronze Casting Village (Gia Bình, Bắc Ninh)
Famous for: Bronze statues, religious artifacts, and ceremonial items
With roots tracing back to the 11th century, Đại Bái Village is a powerhouse of bronze casting in Vietnam. Artisans here use age-old molding techniques to craft items like ancestral altars, bronze drums, and Buddha statues. The bronze items are not only durable but are also deeply spiritual and artistic in design.
⛩️ Cultural Note: Many temples and pagodas across Vietnam are adorned with bronze artifacts from Đại Bái.
Dai Bai Bronze Casting Village
🎋 Phu Vinh Bamboo & Rattan Village (Chương Mỹ, Hanoi)
Famous for: Eco-friendly furniture and decorative items
Located about 25 km southwest of Hanoi, Phú Vinh is a leading center for bamboo and rattan craftsmanship. The village has more than 400 years of history and produces beautifully handcrafted chairs, trays, lampshades, and wall art. Each piece highlights the Vietnamese philosophy of sustainability and harmony with nature.
🌍 Eco Insight: These biodegradable products are increasingly popular in global markets for their sustainable materials and handmade charm.
Artisans weaving bamboo and rattan products – Phu Vinh Village
👒 Chuong Conical Hat Village (Thanh Oai, Hanoi)
Famous for: Traditional conical hats (nón lá and nón quai thao)
Chuông Village is iconic for making the timeless nón lá, a conical hat that is a cultural symbol of Vietnam. Here, artisans use palm leaves and bamboo to craft hats by hand, often adding decorative embroidery or poetry inside. Some specialize in the more ornate nón quai thao, worn in traditional festivals and folk performances.
📷 Don’t Miss: Try on a nón lá and snap a photo under the village gate for an authentic Vietnamese moment.
🕯️ Quang Phu Cau Incense Village (Ứng Hòa, Hanoi)
Famous for: Vibrantly colored incense sticks made with traditional herbs
Located 35 km from Hanoi, Quảng Phú Cầu is known for producing millions of incense sticks used in temples and households across Vietnam. Walking into the village, you’ll be met with bursts of red, pink, and yellow as bundles of incense dry in the sun. The whole process – from splitting bamboo to mixing herbal powder – is done by hand.
📸 Instagram Spot: The drying incense creates mesmerizing patterns, making it one of the most photogenic villages in Vietnam.
Quang Phu Cau Incense Village
💍 Dong Xam Silver Village (Thái Bình Province)
Famous for: Intricately engraved silver jewelry and worship items
Đồng Xâm boasts a 400-year legacy of silver carving, where artisans use fine tools to engrave delicate patterns on jewelry, candlesticks, and altarpieces. The designs often reflect scenes from folklore, Buddhism, and Vietnamese daily life.
🛒 What to Buy: Handcrafted earrings, bracelets, and small silver figurines – great as meaningful gifts or keepsakes.
🥁 Doi Tam Drum Village (Duy Tiên, Hà Nam)
Famous for: Festival drums and religious ceremonial drums
Just 60 km south of Hanoi, Đọi Tam is the heartbeat of Vietnam’s drum-making tradition. With more than 1,000 years of history, this village produces drums for schools, temples, and cultural festivals. Crafted from jackfruit wood and buffalo skin, each drum is finely tuned for clarity and resonance.
🎶 Fun Fact: The village made the giant drum used for the opening ceremony of the SEA Games held in Vietnam.
Doi Tam Drum
🌅 Central Vietnam
Central Vietnam is home to some of the country’s most authentic and lesser-known craft villages, where artisans maintain traditions that have lasted generations. Whether it’s clay, wood, or fabric, each village tells a story through its materials, methods, and cultural roots. Here are three must-visit villages that reflect the region’s unique heritage.
🏺 Thanh Ha Pottery Village (Hội An, Quảng Nam)
Located just 3 km from the UNESCO-listed town of Hội An, Thanh Hà Pottery Village is a living museum of Vietnamese ceramic tradition. The village has been making pottery for over 500 years, originally supplying bricks and roof tiles for nearby towns. Today, it’s famous for unglazed, handmade clay pottery used for home décor, plant pots, and kitchenware.
What sets Thanh Hà apart is its handcrafting technique – potters shape the clay by hand without using a wheel, relying solely on experience and dexterity. Pieces are then fired in open-air wood-burning kilns, giving them a rustic and earthy finish.
🎨 Don’t miss: Visit the Thanh Hà Terracotta Park, which showcases clay models of world-famous landmarks and offers workshops where you can try molding your own pot.
🪵 Kim Bong Carpentry Village (Hội An, Quảng Nam)
A short boat ride across the Thu Bồn River takes you to Kim Bồng, a village with a long-standing reputation for wood carving and traditional carpentry. Established in the 15th century, the village once provided skilled craftsmen for imperial structures in Huế and decorative work in temples across Vietnam.
Today, artisans here continue to produce ornate furniture, wooden boats, and religious sculptures – often carved from jackfruit or rosewood. Kim Bồng also plays a vital role in maintaining Hội An’s wooden architecture, with locals restoring and replicating the timber-framed houses in the ancient town.
🛠️ Insider tip: Wander through the workshops to witness intricate carving in action and buy beautifully handcrafted pieces directly from the makers.
🧶 Ta Oi Brocade Weaving Village (Thừa Thiên – Huế)
High in the Annamite Mountains, near A Lưới district, lies a vibrant weaving community belonging to the Tà Ôi ethnic group. Known for their striking, handwoven brocade textiles, this village preserves both art and identity through every thread.
Each piece of brocade is woven by hand on a traditional backstrap loom, using natural fibers dyed with organic colors. The fabrics feature geometric and symbolic motifs that reflect tribal beliefs, animals, and nature – no two patterns are ever quite the same.
🌈 What to buy: Scarves, bags, and shawls with unique Tà Ôi designs – perfect for cultural souvenirs with a meaningful story.
Ta Oi Brocade Weaving
🌴 Southern Vietnam
Southern Vietnam offers more than just vibrant cities and lush deltas – it also holds deep-rooted artisan traditions. Across the region, craft villages continue to thrive, producing beautiful, functional goods that are vital to both cultural identity and local livelihoods. Here are three unique villages where age-old techniques still shape everyday life.
🏺 Bau Truc Pottery Village (Ninh Thuận)
Nestled in the dry coastal plains of Ninh Thuận Province, Bàu Trúc is one of the oldest pottery villages in Southeast Asia, dating back over 800 years. This village is home to the Chăm ethnic minority, who maintain their ancestors’ unique pottery-making techniques.
What sets Bàu Trúc pottery apart is the entirely hand-shaped process – no potter’s wheels are used. Artisans mold the clay directly with their hands, often kneeling on the ground, and fire their creations using open-air wood or straw kilns, rather than enclosed ovens. The results are warm-toned, slightly rough ceramics that feel both ancient and artistic.
🎨 Cultural note: Many designs carry spiritual or natural motifs that reflect Chăm beliefs. These pots, vases, and figurines make for meaningful souvenirs.
🌾 Ca Mau Mat Weaving Village (Cà Mau Province)
In the southernmost tip of Vietnam, mat weaving is a timeless tradition passed down through generations. The craft flourishes in the rural areas of Cà Mau Province, where locals use natural sedge grass harvested from nearby fields.
The mats are woven by hand or on simple wooden looms, creating colorful patterns that often symbolize good fortune or family heritage. These sedge mats are not only essential household items for resting and sleeping in tropical climates but also play important roles in ceremonies and daily life across the Mekong Delta.
🧺 Travel tip: Visit a local workshop to see how raw sedge is dyed, dried, and woven into vibrant mats – and maybe even try your hand at the loom!
🥢 Trang Bang Rice Paper Village (Tây Ninh Province)
Famous throughout Vietnam, Trảng Bàng’s dew-dried rice paper (bánh tráng phơi sương) is both a culinary art and a cultural treasure. Made from a special blend of rice and tapioca, the rice sheets are steamed, sun-dried during the day, and then exposed to early morning dew – giving them a soft, chewy texture unlike any other.
This rice paper is the key ingredient in Trảng Bàng pork rolls, a must-try dish featuring herbs, boiled pork, and fermented fish sauce. Villagers here have perfected this delicate technique over generations, turning a simple food into a gastronomic symbol of Southern Vietnam.
🍽️ Don’t miss: Join a cooking class or enjoy a fresh roll at a local eatery to truly appreciate the craftsmanship involved.
Trang Bang Rice Paper
✨ Tips for Travelers
- 📸 Photography: Many of these villages are extremely photogenic, especially during production and drying stages.
- 🛍️ Shopping: Most offer direct purchases of handmade items – great for souvenirs and gifts.
- 🧑🎨 Workshops: Some villages allow you to try making your own craft for an immersive cultural experience.
