If you’re visiting Hanoi for a few days, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology should be added to your itinerary. It focuses on the different ethnic groups of Vietnam. It’s west of the main area of Hanoi, though not as far west as the new-ish Vietnam Military History Museum.
If you’re planning to visit multiple museums, I would start your day at the military museum, then take a taxi to the ethnology museum. Entrance tickets here are 40.000 VND and free for children under six. There’s a restaurant inside the museum grounds, where you can have lunch before exploring the museum itself. This is what I did on my recent trip.
Besides this museum and the Military History Museum, I’d visit Hoa Lo Prison, the Temple of Literature, the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, and the National Fine Arts Museum. Here are more things to do in Hanoi.
Vietnam Museum of Ethnology Info
| Location | Google Maps |
| Hours | 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM (closed Monday) |
| Cost | 40.000 VND // free for children under six |
| How much time | Plan between 1 and 2 hours |
| When to visit* | Try to avoid visiting on a rainy day |
| Official website | Vietnam Museum of Ethnology |
| Accessibility | Mostly wheelchair-friendly (elevators, ramps) |
| Other notes | Exhibits/maps in Vietnamese, English, and French |
Visiting the Museum of Ethnology
Getting there: the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is about 6.5 km west of Hanoi’s Old Quarter. You won’t be able to walk here, so you’ll want to download the Grab app to book a taxi. You can get the app here. On my recent trip, I went to the Military History Museum in the morning, then came over to the Ethnology Museum. I had lunch inside the museum’s cafe before exploring the museum itself.
The museum’s cafe is very convenient to grab lunch before or after your visit, but the prices are slightly higher than normal. My meal, pictured below, cost 200.000 VND total. The food was 125.000, the coffee 60.000, and the water 15.000 VND. It was good, though — and convenient before exploring the museum.
There are three areas (or buildings) to explore at the museum. There’s the main building, the kite building, and then the outdoor exhibition in the back. This is really the highlight of the whole museum, and the grounds are pleasant and pretty well-maintained. There are several different types of homes constructed by various Vietnamese ethnic groups.
Here’s a video I filmed in the house exhibit of the museum. It started raining during my visit, so you’ll want to visit on a day with decent weather. This is only one small part of the area in the back.
The main building and the kite building are both air-conditioned. There’s a combination of elevators and ramps. The outdoor area is mostly flat. There are bathrooms inside the buildings and inside the museum restaurant.
Like many museums in Hanoi, this museum is frequented by a lot of tour groups, high school and college students, and class trips for younger students. So, depending on when you choose to visit, it can either be pretty quiet or touristy. And with some of the student groups in particular, they can sometimes be a little rowdy — just giving you a heads up as you explore more of Hanoi’s museums.
