Vientiane trades at village pace: weavers still work wooden looms in family compounds, markets open at dawn and shut by five, and prices are quoted in kip bundles. Three days covers the silk houses, the boutiques around Nam Phu and the outer-suburb workshops.
Open 07:00–17:00 daily. The old two-storey hall sells Lao silk sinh skirts, silver belt buckles, Buddha amulets and obsolete kip notes; the attached air-conditioned mall stacks gold, phones and cosmetics. Bargain down to roughly 60% of the opening quote.
The produce market directly behind the central bus station, trading 06:00–18:00. Stalls pile dried Mekong river weed, buffalo skin, palm-sugar blocks and the woven bamboo tip khao rice baskets that cost half what Talat Sao asks for the same weave.
American designer Carol Cassidy has run this studio in a restored 1920s French colonial house on Nokeokoummane Road since 1990. Weavers work upright wooden looms downstairs; the gallery upstairs sells museum-grade ikat and brocade wall hangings. Mon–Fri, Sat mornings.
Rows of red-roofed tent stalls unfold along the Fa Ngum riverfront promenade from about 18:00 to 22:00. Volume goods rather than craft: Beerlao shirts, elephant-print trousers, phone cases, hill-tribe-style bags and cheap silver. Everything is negotiable.
A courtyard workshop on Vat Inpeng Street behind Wat Inpeng, producing coconut-oil soaps, bamboo balms, rice-bran scrubs and beeswax candles from Lao raw materials. Staff will blend a custom massage oil while you wait. Open 08:00–20:00.
The best English-language bookshop in Laos, open 09:00–20:00. Two floors of Southeast Asian history, Lao language primers, Hobo Maps of the provinces and photography books on the UXO legacy that are hard to find outside Vientiane.
The city's main modern mall on Khouvieng Road, open 10:00–21:00. Five floors of international brands, a basement supermarket stocking Bolaven coffee and Lao whisky at fixed prices, plus a cinema and food court on the top level. Air-conditioned relief at fixed prices.
A fair-trade shop on Nokeokoummane Road working with Hmong and Khmu producer groups: appliqué textiles, natural-dye cotton, and jewellery cast from aluminium salvaged from Vietnam War-era bomb casings, each piece sold with its village provenance.
A non-profit in Ban Houey Hong, about 8km north of the centre, training rural women in weaving and natural dyeing. Open 08:00–16:00 Mon–Sat; half-day indigo dye or backstrap-loom classes run on request and the shop sells what the trainees produce.
A family weaving compound in Ban Nongbuathong where three generations produce Tai Lue and Tai Daeng patterns on looms set up in the open workshop. Custom commissions in natural dyes take several weeks; finished pieces hang in the front gallery.
A fair-trade cooperative shop south of the centre selling from about 30 producer villages: sa mulberry paper, Ban Mai bamboo baskets, rattan trays, cotton runners and ceramics. Open Mon–Sat, roughly 09:00–18:00, with fixed labelled prices.
A neighbourhood evening market east of the centre where almost no tourists shop. Second-hand clothing bales, enamel cookware, betel trays, dried herbs and grilled-food carts trade until about 21:00, with everything priced for residents rather than visitors.