Fashion’s Future in Ancient Vietnam

Your hotel in the upscale French Quarter is right in the middle of the city’s foreign embassies and affluent neighborhoods. You will be steps from the Trang Tien Plaza, where you will find high-end fashion houses and boutiques for your browsing pleasure.

Enjoy some downtime exploring the French Quarter before you gather with your group for dinner with your local guide.

Lucy’s Dream Fashion and Art Exhibition Center is a venue for Vietnamese fashion artists to display their creations. You will have the opportunity today to participate in two workshops.

First, you will join a design drawing workshop. Here you can work on your fashion ideas using state-of-the-art drawing techniques. Your creativity will take new twists and turns in this unique environment.

Secondly, you will participate in a sewing workshop where you will make a top from traditional Vietnamese textiles. Your instructor will guide you through traditional Vietnamese techniques, enabling you to create something combining old and new to fuel your design style.

Dinner is a walking street food tour of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. Sample authentic cuisine while your guide entertains you with stories of the history of the Old Quarter. Sample some amazing traditional street food like banh cuon (steamed rolls), pho chien phong (fried noodles), and che (sweet soup).

Early this morning, join your guide as you travel to meet your cruise director at Tuan Chau Marina, where you will begin your tour around the beautiful Halong Bay and Lan Ha Bay.

Soak up the sunshine while you cruise off into the bays. Stops on the cruise include rowing a bamboo boat through stalagmite caves with a guide, swimming in hidden lagoons with crystal clear waters, and relaxing on beautiful sandy beaches. On the way back to the marina, enjoy a sumptuous dinner and the enchanting colorful sunset over the bay.

Enjoy a quiet breakfast and a late start. Your guide will lead you on a walking tour of Hanoi, one of the most ancient capitals in the world.

Your walking tour will stop at the Ho Chi Minh Museum, where you can see where the nation’s communist leader lived and worked. Visit One Pillar Pagoda, a unique pagoda dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy. Explore the Temple of Literature, the oldest university in Vietnam. Round out your tour with a viewing of the Bodhi Tree – tradition states Buddha sat under one when he attained Enlightenment. 

After lunch, attend a traditional pottery demonstration where you will have a chance to try your hand at the wheel. If you are talented enough, you might have a piece of pottery to take home as a souvenir. 

Your early morning flight south will take you to Ho Chi Minh City. 

After checking into your hotel, meet your local guide for a tour around the city, focusing on local fashion designers. Visit the Ao Dai Museum, where they house traditional costumes. 

Your tour will include several local fashion houses where you can explore traditional and modern Vietnamese clothing. Meet the fashion designers who are driving the fashion revolution in Ho Chi Minh city.

Your guide will maneuver you through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, stopping at Ho Chi Minh Square, Chinatown, Binh Tay Market and Thien Hau Temple. 

Stop for a traditional Vietnamese lunch like a bahn mi (pork, veggies) or op la (eggs, pork) – yum! 

Continue your tour at Reunification Palace, and Ho Chi Minh City’s own Notre Dame Cathedral, built in the 1880s by homesick French colonists. Do some shopping at the Ben Thanh Market, the largest market in Ho Chi Minh City, where you can buy local textiles, crafts and souvenirs.

As you pack for your trip home, the textiles you bring home with you will always remind you of this amazing fashion travel experience.