Chạm Collective

The full route through every carriage and the Central Station: a bowl of phở to open, a coffee class, an artisan workshop in the subsidy-era hall, a cooking class that becomes your main meal, and a tea ceremony to close.

Detailed itinerary

01

Meeting Point & Welcome

The Chạm Collective team welcomes you at 11A Ngũ Xã, Ba Đình. Your guide introduces the itinerary, explains the guidelines and gives an overview of the journey before the experience begins.

02

Appetizer at ‘Phở – The Original Bowl’

Begin at the Phở Tram, discovering the culinary heritage of Hanoi through its stories, over a bowl of traditional family-recipe phở to awaken the senses.

03

Coffee Class at ‘Coffee – Beans to Brew’

Continue to the Café Tram for an interactive coffee-making class in a nostalgic setting. Learn to prepare coconut coffee and salted coffee, and discover the role coffee plays in Hanoi's everyday life.

04

Heritage Discovery at ‘Central Station’

Spend 1.5 hours in the heritage space: artistic displays, historical materials you can handle, and nostalgic stories of old Hanoi — followed by a traditional handicraft workshop alongside skilled artisans.

05

Cooking Class & Main Meal at ‘Rice – A Trading Currency’

At the Rice Tram your main meal takes the form of an interactive cooking class. Under the guidance of culinary artisans, prepare traditional Vietnamese dishes with the ingredients provided, then enjoy the meal you have created.

06

Tea Appreciation & Farewell at ‘Tea & The Eight Elegant Pursuits’

Conclude at the Tea Tram with a traditional tea ceremony inspired by one of the eight refined pastimes of old Hanoi. Relax, share your impressions and capture photographs before the tour ends.

The compact route, built around Hanoi's two defining flavours: a full bowl of phở as the main meal, a coffee class, and an artisan workshop at the Central Station.

Detailed itinerary

01

Meeting Point & Welcome

The team welcomes you at 11A Ngũ Xã, Ba Đình. Your guide introduces the itinerary and gives an overview of the culinary journey before the experience begins.

02

Phở as a Main Meal at ‘Phở – The Original Bowl’

At the Phở Tram, savour the rich flavours of a complete bowl of authentic Hanoi phở while discovering its origins, its historical development and its significance in Vietnamese culinary heritage.

03

Coffee Class at ‘Coffee – Beans to Brew’

Continue to the Café Tram for an interactive coffee-making class in a nostalgic cultural setting — coconut coffee and salted coffee, and the distinctive role of coffee in Hanoi's daily life.

04

Heritage Discovery at ‘Central Station’

Spend 1.5 hours at the Central Station among artistic displays and historical materials, listening to the stories of old Hanoi, and take part in a traditional handicraft workshop with skilled artisans before the tour concludes.

The short format: the full Central Station and its artisan workshop, paired with either a tea ceremony or a coffee class.

Detailed itinerary

01

Meeting Point & Welcome

The team welcomes you at 11A Ngũ Xã, Ba Đình. Your guide introduces the itinerary and gives an overview of the cultural journey.

02

Vietnam’s Patriotic Heritage at ‘Central Station’

Spend 1.5 hours in an immersive heritage environment that carries you back to Hanoi during the subsidy era — state-run shops, ration coupon counters, vintage transistor radios and the everyday objects that hold the memories of a bygone time. Through multisensory experiences you gain insight into the daily lives of previous generations, and create traditional handicrafts inspired by the resilience, creativity and patriotic spirit of the Vietnamese people.

03

Then choose: ‘Coffee – Beans to Brew’

At the Café Tram, an interactive coffee-making class in a nostalgic setting — coconut coffee and salted coffee, and the role coffee plays in Hanoi's everyday life.

04

Or: ‘Tea & The Eight Elegant Pursuits’

At the Tea Tram, a traditional tea ceremony inspired by one of the eight refined pastimes of old Hanoi. Relax, share your impressions and capture photographs before the tour concludes.

You know phở — but do you know how different the original bowl was?

Born on Hanoi's streets in the early 1900s, phở began simply: beef bones — newly abundant once the French brought beef to Vietnam — rice noodles, and a broth kept deliberately plain, with no fresh herbs, no lime, no chilli. The lush, herb-piled bowl most of the world knows only appeared decades later, once phở travelled south.

Beyond the bowl itself, the carriage traces the story behind Vietnam's noodles — phở, bún, miến, bánh đa — each one a strand of the country's food culture. You will discover how phở shifts from region to region, and how to eat a dish Vietnamese people call quốc hồn quốc túy: the very soul of the nation.

On Chạm Vị the bowl is the main meal; on Hồn Phố, Nếp Nhà it opens the journey, because your main meal is waiting at the Rice Tram.

Ready for the strongest coffee you have ever tasted?

Vietnam's coffee is mostly Robusta — nearly double the caffeine of Arabica — grown in the Central Highlands, brewed slow through a phin. So strong that in 1946, a Hanoi bartender softened his cup with whipped egg yolk instead of scarce wartime milk, inventing egg coffee.

The carriage follows Vietnamese coffee from its arrival to the beans grown here today, each variety carrying a story of its own. You will see how extraction has changed — from the slow traditional phin to modern methods — and taste how the same bean becomes a different drink in every cup.

Here you don't just taste it — you make it. The interactive class covers coconut coffee and salted coffee, and the part coffee plays in ordinary Hanoi life.

There is an old Hanoi saying: “as sad as losing your rice booklet.”

During the subsidy era, every family's monthly rice was tracked in a small booklet — lose it, and you lost your food for the month. That is how deeply rice was woven into daily survival: from planting and harvest to milling and winnowing, all the way to the family table.

The carriage opens onto Vietnam's wet-rice civilisation — the whole culture that grew up around the paddy field. Following one grain from the green field to the family table, you begin to understand why rice has shaped daily life here for so long.

This is where the main meal of Hồn Phố, Nếp Nhà happens — as a cooking class. Culinary artisans guide you, the ingredients are provided, and what you cook is what you eat.

The 8 elegant pursuits of the old Hanoians: “Zither, Chess, Calligraphy, Painting, Poetry, Wine, Flowers, Tea”

For generations, Hanoi's scholars trained mind, character, body and eye for beauty through eight elegant pursuits. Each visit goes deep into just one, freshly chosen every Sunday.

At its heart is Shan tuyết, a rare tea picked from ancient trees in the northern highlands, poured and explained by artisans who carry the stories of Vietnamese tea culture. The eight pursuits are named here: cầm, kỳ, thư, họa, thi, tửu, hoa, trà — music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine, flowers and tea. In a green and quiet room, they call back a Hanoi that moved more slowly.

Settle in with our house tea, and let fragrance, ritual and quiet conversation carry you into the art of it — the closing note of Hồn Phố, Nếp Nhà, and one of the two options on Tour Yêu Nước.

This armchair is older than you.

Every piece in this room — down to the bricks it is built from — was collected from real subsidy-era households, then brought here and preserved. State-run shop counters, ration coupon desks, vintage transistor radios, the everyday objects that hold the memories of a bygone time. This isn't a themed room. It's Hanoi as it actually was.

Step into a subsidy-era Vietnamese kitchen, where an oil stove and a battered thermos flask hold as much memory as any photograph. Alongside it are the trades people lived by in those years, and the plain stories of getting by with very little — a time that was hard, and yet is remembered warmly.

Every journey passes through here for 1.5 hours, and every journey includes the handicraft workshop alongside skilled artisans — inspired by the resilience, creativity and resourcefulness of the generations who lived it.

A group visits one floor per journey — never both in the same visit.

One bell, two journeys.

“Leng Keng Tới Trường” — Ding-Ding to School — is the community project of Chạm Collective, helping children in Vietnam’s northern highlands reach school more easily. Used bicycles are donated by the community on Trúc Bạch street, then repaired, painted and decorated before being delivered to schools in remote districts, shortening a walk that can otherwise take hours.

A share of the proceeds from every Chạm Collective experience goes to the project — so each journey you take here contributes to a child’s journey to school.

Journeys so far

The project is now opening further donation points at schools and in local neighbourhoods, so that more children can be accompanied on their way to class.