Northern Vietnam - Vietnam in Focus - Photo Tours and Workshops

Location: Northern Vietnam

Vietnam in Focus run acclaimed photography tours throughout Vietnam and Indochina.
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Northern Vietnam and Hanoi

Vietnam’s north is rugged, traditional and full of new adventures.  If you want to photograph street traders, towering mountainscapes and colourful hill-tribes, this is the place to explore.

Hanoi has a unique, understated allure, and that’s what first sparked our interest in running photo tours here all those years ago.  Sure, there’s sightseeing to do, but the real attraction is the city’s street life, the maze-like alleyways, the railway village, and the bustling local markets.  It’s the conical-hatted cycle traders, the delicious street food you eat on plastic pavement stools, the crumbling colonial architecture and the cafe-circled lakes.  It’s so many things, and it all makes for a visual feast. Whether you’re setting off along the railway tracks, shooting sunrise from Long Bien Bridge or mixing with locals at Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum in the evening, your pictures and memories from one of our Hanoi tours will stay with you.

Northern Vietnam has some well-known gems like Ha Long Bay and Sapa, and we often include these on our multi-day Featured Tours.  Still, we feel the best experiences and photos are to be found off the beaten track. On a tour with us in the north, you’ll enjoy the benefit of our many years experience of travelling and shooting in this area.  We know where to find the best shots, when to go, and have friends in places you wouldn’t imagine. In particular, we have a close connection with many families from hill tribe groups in the region, allowing us (and you) unique insight and access for amazing photographs.

Tours that visit this Location: Northern Vietnam

Vietnam by Rail Photo Tour

Vietnam by Rail

Explore Vietnam’s stunning land and people from south to north on the Reunification Express

Travel from Saigon to Hanoi on the legendary Reunification Express, while creating a stunning visual narrative of life in all three regions of Vietnam. From street photography in Saigon’s Chinatown and little-known railway village, we’ll head up the eastern coastline, to the sand dunes of Mui Ne. By the sea, we’ll explore fishing villages and sleepy harbors, snap portraits of traders and fishermen at work with their nets. Between World Heritage-listed Hoi An and the Imperial capital of Hue, we’ll cross the Hai Van Pass, one of the world’s most spectacular short train journeys. Then it’s north to the scenic splendor of a cruise on Ha Long Bay, before we roll into Hanoi, Vietnam’s richly-cultured and highly photogenic capital.

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Thieves Market - Hanoi Street Photography

Into the Thieves Market

Venture into Hanoi’s most photogenic street market

Wander through alleyways packed with odd secondhand goods, vintage electronics, auto parts and other bric a brac, before ending up in a local veterans ping pong club set in an unforgettable location. One for the street and people photographers, and a truly Hanoi experience.

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Golden Harvest Photography Tour

Golden Harvest

Photograph the real northwest Vietnam during the season of golden rice

Get off the beaten track with the Vietnam photo tour experts, enjoying epic rice terraces, bustling markets and an authentic up close encounter with the Hmong, Dzao and Tay minorities. We travel from east to west across Vietnam’s mountainous north, an area we’ve been photographing for over a decade. In the company of our local friends, we’ll mingle with the tribes as they begin to farm the rice terraces, giving us unforgettable experiences and unique photo opportunities.

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Moc Chau Love Market

Moc Chau Love Market Photo Tour

Experience Moc Chau’s Love Market: a colorful carnival of ethnic games, torch-lit processions, and young love. Join our photo tour for an unforgettable adventure in Vietnam’s mountainous north

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Bac Ha Horse Racing Festival

Bac Ha Horse Racing Festival

Join us for one of northern Vietnam’s most colourful and exciting festivals. The Bac Ha Horse Races draw thousands of ethnic minority spectators to this scenic mountain town, making for a carnival of colour and festivity

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Ultimate Hanoi the best private photography day tour experience

Ultimate Hanoi

Capture the best of Hanoi in a single action-packed day

Shoot from dawn till dark on our most popular city day tour. Includes train street, Reunification Park, the Thieves Market, our iconic incense village tour, and exhilarating Long Bien night market. Experience and document authentic daily life in Vietnam’s capital, its places, people, sights and sounds, creating a rich visual narrative to remember.

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Quang Phu Cau Incense Village

Ultimate Quang Phu Cau Photography Experience

Document real life at Vietnam’s most colorful craft village

Only a short trip from Hanoi, the villagers here produce traditional red incense, making for stunning imagery at all stages of the process. We get behind the scenes, mixing with our local friends, photographing their workshops and of course capturing those iconic images of dazzling red incense.

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Photographer Tung Phan

Hanoi Explorer

Encounter the authentic Old Quarter

Hanoi Explorer mixes the best of our private half day photography tours through the capital’s oldest neighborhood – with train street, Long Bien bridge and market, and the most atmospheric ancient trading streets. Perfect for those who want to capture the city’s iconic images in one evocative morning.

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Hanoi city tour of Long Bien Market travel photography

Long Bien Sunrise

Capture the action at Hanoi’s wildest market

Welcome the day at the capital’s historic wholesale trading spot, as couriers from the provinces provide city sellers with stock. We’ll capture dawn breaking over Long Bien Bridge, before exploring the stalls below, offering endless opportunities for candid people photography. Along the way, we’ll craft a dramatic visual story of daily life at Hanoi’s oldest market.

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Ninh Binh - The boat man

Ninh Binh Explorer

Discover soaring mountains, authentic craft villages, and timeless country life

Get off the tourist trail and experience true lowland life in Ninh Binh province. We’ll enjoy some of the area’s most iconic activities, including a longboat ride at Tam Coc and a climb to Hang Mua Peak, but our main focus will be craft villages producing stonework and handbuilt ceramics, and images of classical rural life.

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