Hoi An

Hoi An (Vietnamese: Hội An) is a beautiful city in Vietnam about 30 km to the south of Da Nang. The Old Town of Hoi An is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Hoi An is also commonly used as the base for half-day trips to a cluster of abandoned and partially ruins of My Son, another UNESCO World Heritage Site in the west of the Central Highlands.

Understand
Hoi An, once known as Faifo, with more than 2,000 years of history, was the principal port of the Cham Kingdom, which controlled the strategic spice trade with Indonesia from the 7th-10th centuries and was a major international port in the 16th and 17th centuries. The foreign influences are discernible to this day.

The culture and heritage is mostly from the Cham people whose kingdom originally stretched from Hue south to Phan Thiet (south of Nha Trang). The Champas were most likely originally from Java. The original Cham political capital was Tra Kieu, the commercial capital was Hoi An and the spiritual capital was My Son (Hindu). The Cham people were Hindu, and by the 10th century the influence of Arab traders to Hoi An resulted in the conversion of some to Islam.

The second major influence was Chinese, first by traders, then by escaping Ming Dynasty armies, who after settling in Hoi An for some years, moved further south and created Saigon as a major trading port.

The third and last major influence of culture and heritage was from the Vietnamese and is fairly recent and only came after the Cham lost control of this area. For a tourist wanting Vietnamese culture and heritage, Hue is a much better destination than Hoi An.

While the serious shipping business has long since moved to Da Nang, the heart of the city is still the Old Town, full of winding lanes and Chinese-styled shophouses, which is particularly atmospheric in the evening as the sun goes down. While almost all shops now cater to the tourist trade, the area has been largely preserved as is, which is unusual in Vietnam, and renovation has proceeded slowly and carefully. It's mercifully absent of towering concrete blocks and karaoke parlours.

Alas, since 1999, when UNESCO status was awarded, there has been a massive increase in mass tourism, with the result that most houses have been sold to speculators and shop owners to be used for commercial purposes. So while the shell of the town remains (and a pretty shell it is), the community that created it is long gone and in their place are shops, restaurants, art galleries, etc. Domestic Vietnamese tourists have also discovered Hoi An, with the result that particularly on holidays and weekend evenings the Old Town gets packed with standing-room-only crowds.

Orientation
The main thoroughfare in the Old Town is Tran Phu. Just south of the Old Town, across the Thu Bon River, are the islands of An Hoi to the west, reached via Hai Ba Trung, and Cam Nam to the east, reached via Hoang Dieu.

By plane
The nearest airport is Da Nang, which has domestic connections from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, Can Tho, and Da Lat and some international flights from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Singapore, Siem Reap (for Angkor Wat), Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and charter flights from China.

A taxi between Da Nang airport and Hoi An costs about 300–500,000 dong (Nov 2023). This is one occasion where haggling to set a fixed price is cheaper than going by the meter. Shuttle buses cost 130,000 dong per person. The journey takes about 45 min.

By train
The nearest railway station is, 15 km from Hoi An by road. Train tickets can be booked online.

A Grab there should be around 80-100,000 dong (Nov 2023).

From Da Nang
The public bus from the center of Da Nang to Hoi An has been discontinued since COVID.

As of Nov 2023, you can take Bus 16 from downtown Da Nang to its most southern stop (6,000 dong), Việt Hàn "bus station". From there, just outside of the bus station, is the where a (village) bus goes at 05:30, 06:30, 08:30, 14:45, and 17:00 for 20,000 dong to the.

If you can wrap your head around the schedule of the latter bus found at Việt Hàn bus station (see picture), you might get a clearer picture of bus times and route. For the return route for example, i.e. back to Da Nang, it is unclear whether the bus is running and if takes the same route. (If you have updated information, please leave it here.)

There is a direct shuttle bus between Da Nang airport and Hoi An (130,000 dong, 1 hour, Nov 2023) — ask your accommodation for more information.

From Hue
Most hotels in Hue can organize minivans directly to your hotel in Hoi An. Standard minivan 13 passengers for 280.000 dong, very confortable limousine minivan with only 9 passengers for 380.000 dong. Leaving daily at 8AM, 1:30 and 4:30PM, travel time 3 hours. (Feb. 2024)

Other destinations
There is no shortage of travel agencies and private buses travelling to Hoi An from destinations such as Hue, Hanoi, Saigon, Dalat and Nha Trang. Guesthouses can arrange tickets for a surcharge, although they may not release the ticket to you until after you check out.

If you arrive by bus not on an open ticket, you may not be dropped off at the Hoi An bus station, but at a guesthouse about a 10-min walk from the station. The motorbike taxis or tuk-tuk waiting for your bus there will take you to your lodging for 20–30,000 dong (Nov 2023).

Open-tour buses run daily up and down the coast from Da Nang: Hue (3½–4 hr, 90,000-100,000 dong), Nha Trang (9–10 hr).

Buses from Buon Ma Thuot or other cities in central Highlands going to Da Nang will drop you off just outside of Hoi An, at a stop along the highway if asked. From there it is a 15-minute motorbike ride to anywhere in town.

By taxi
Fixed price for taxi from Da Nang is 500,000 dong (2022), passing one of the stone handicraft shops on the way.

The usual price for a private car/unofficial taxi directly from Da Nang is around 300,000 dong (2022).

A Grab is about 120,000 dong (Nov 2023).

On foot
The centre of Hoi An is very small and pedestrian-friendly, so you will be walking around most of the time. Motorbikes are banned from the centre of town during certain times of day (08:00 to 11:00, 13:30 to 16:30), but you should keep an eye out for motorized kamikazes, even in the most narrow alleys.

The city government does not allow motorbikes to enter Old Town on the 14th and 15th of each lunar month. On those evenings, a lot of activities, including traditional games such as bai choi, trong quan, and dap nieu are held in all over the town.

By bicycle
Pedal bicycles can be rented quickly and easily for as low as 20,000 dong per day, and is one of the best ways to get around town.

If you are not staying directly in Old Town, this is an outstanding option for traveling back and forth and to the beach. You will see many tourists riding the bicycle through Hoi An.

Some guesthouses and ho(s)tels will even have bicycles for free for their guests, often not the best though — check their reviews to find out about potentially free bicycles.

By boat
Near the river, especially in the evening, Western faces will be besieged by touts offering boat rides. Unless you opt for a longer charter, this is not a practical means of transportation, and while pretty enough, the view from the river doesn't really look any different from what you can see from the banks. From 200,000 dong for 15 minutes on a 4-person boat, including lighting your own little lantern so you can make a wish. Expect to haggle, and on busy nights the river gets jammed, so insist on life vests.

By motorbike
Traffic in Hoi An is minimal, so if you've been avoiding getting on a bike in the big cities, Hoi An and the surrounding countryside like is ideal to get used to the road rules.

There are plenty of places in Hoi An offering motorbike rentals. Take a short ride down to the beach and enjoy the water, explore the island community of Cam Thanh, or travel toward Da Nang to visit the stunning Marble Mountains.

The most common rental motorbike or scooter is a Honda Nouvo which is fully automatic, comfortable for two people and has storage space under the seat for helmets or other similarly-sized gear. It's standard practice for a rental bike to have only enough fuel to make it to the next filling station. Make sure you get a helmet for everyone on the bike.

You can get a bike for 125,000 dong without haggling (2018). Petrol costs around 22,000 dong/litre and 2-3L is enough for a good day of sightseeing, going to the beach and zipping around town. In addition to filling stations, there are also little hand-operated roadside pumps everywhere; these can be convenient, but they're more expensive (30,000 dong/litre) and the quality of the fuel is questionable.

The usual disclaimers apply to motorbikes in Vietnam: foreign driving licences are not valid. In the event of an accident, foreigners driving a motorcycle without a valid licence are considered to be at fault and therefore liable for damages and may face a citation. Check your travel insurance exclusions, as generally you will not be covered for accidents when riding a motorcycle here. That means no reimbursement for hospital treatment or, worst case, the repatriation of your body. Drink-related motorbike collisions are a major issue in Vietnam. Traffic accident statistics for the region are frightful. As well, emergency services are not up to international standards.

By shuttle bus
The newest addition to Hoi An are Go E-buses. Basically they are the taxis for the center. Their prices are pinned against the front window and they can be reserved via or just stop one.

They are a convenient way to get around if walking is not an option.

By taxi
Taxis are abundant.

Motorbike taxis or Grab, of course, are always also an option especially if you are on your own.

Old Town
The Old Town, with its historical architecture and very walkable streets filled with shops and restaurants, is at its best at night, when the activity along the river front is lit by the soft light of silk lanterns.

Entry to Old Town is free, however entry to all historical sites is handled via a coupon system, where 120,000 dong (2016) gets a ticket that can be used to enter any five attractions. Tickets are sold at various entry points into the Old Town, including Hai Ba Trung St, and also at some of the attractions, including the Cantonese Assembly Hall.

Traditional old houses
There are four old houses that exist in an awkward halfway state between museum showpiece and somewhat shabby residence for the family that lives there.



Congregation halls
Numerous congregation halls, where Chinese expatriate residents socialized and held meetings, are dotted about the town. They are typically named after the home region of their members, such as Fujian and Canton. Some attractions do not have ticket-takers.

Do

 * Diving – Cham Islands is popular for scuba diving and snorkelling.
 * Cooking lessons – Offered at several restaurants around town. If you enjoyed your meal there, it can't hurt to enquire. There are several established cooking schools with good reputations who offer a variety of courses. In these schools you will learn only the mechanics of Vietnamese cooking: how to chop the vegetables and roll the spring roll, etc. All the rest are closely-guarded secrets: the making of the sauce, the techniques of frying the spring roll and the grilling the beef. The instructors are locals, and some are not used to English pronunciations and speak fast.
 * Cycling – Hoi An has many interesting nearby sights, which can easily be explored by bicycle. Stunning rural scenes, rice paddies, picturesque fishing villages, fields of water buffalo, a Buddhist pagoda and quiet roads, not to mention the beach to the north. Explore numerous picturesque pathways, some still bamboo bridged. Tour companies or private guides offer cycling tours, or just open your OpenStreetMap app (OsmAnd, Mapy.cz, Organic Maps, MapsMe) and search for "Tourist Attraction".

Day trips

 * Cham Islands – UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Cu Lao Cham - Hoi An 9 nautical miles offshore. Get there by slow boat or speedboat. Day trip (arrange with your hotel or local tour operators).
 * Non Nuoc Beach – Opposite the Marble Mountains and accessible by motorbike. There are beaches closer to Hoi An accessible by bicycle or motorbike, with parking near the beach. A Grab should be 50,000 dong one way.
 * Dong Duong – Ruined Cham tower, the sole major remnant of a large Buddhist Cham period (9th century, 875-915 under Indravarman II) temple-complex that was originally 155x326 m. Other minor remnants are also visible.
 * Lang Co – A fishing village that includes mountains, a river, a lagoon, an island and a 32 km beach between Da Nang and Hue.
 * The Marble Mountains – 9 km south of Da Nang, well worth a morning or afternoon trip from Hoi An. The largest of the five mountains has temples and caves. A Grab costs 220,000 dong one way (Feb. 2024). Any hotel in Hoi An can arrange a taxi that will wait for you a couple of hours and will take you back to Hoi An. 600.000 Dong as of Feb. 2024.
 * Entry is free at some times, while at others, there appears to be a small fee. It is worth paying extra for the small map. No one will tell you how to get to the top to overlook Fire Mountain to the west, there is one trail accessible from the WC—look for the handrails going up—another is nearby, near a temple complex and next to an arch over the trail.
 * Accessibility: An elevator available for a small fee (15.000 Dong, Feb. 2024). It may be broken, but it only leads to platform with an overlook towards the water; you would still need to take stairways to see the temples, so there is no advantage to the elevator. If you can make it up the stairs at the entrance, there will be no problem with the rest of the stairs. Cave floors and trails may be wet but are not slippery.


 * My Khanh – Rare seaside ruin of a Cham tower dating from the 8th century.
 * My Son – Best done as an early morning half-day trip from Hoi An by motorbike, private car, or organized tour. A return by boat can be arranged. Trails may be slippery in rainy weather.
 * Tháp Bằng An - Twelfth-century Cham octagonal tower dedicated to Shiva. By motorbike, about 30 minutes northwest of Hoi An. There may be a someone on the site who will sell you a ticket for 10,000 dong. Can be combined with a day trip to Tháp Khương Mỹ.
 * Tháp Khương Mỹ - Three Cham towers, contemporaneous with Bagan in Burma. Small museum on premises. There may be someone at the site who will sell you a ticket for 10,000 dong. By motorbike, a half hour south of Hoi An. Can be combined in a day trip with Tháp Bằng An for about 120,000 dong.

Money
There are many ATMs around Hoi An. is on the way to the center along the parallel S-roads, and is in the northern, less touristy part of the city, both not charging fees. But you can also try ACB, they might not charge either.

For changing money the best places are the gold shops near the market.

Shopping

 * Brass gongs and bells – There are many foundries on the road to My Son. Items can be made to order. This is the origin of the souvenirs sold in Hoi An tourist shops.
 * Hand made silks and lanterns – Old Town tourist shops.



Bespoke clothing
Hoi An is known as the centre for affordable custom-made clothing. There are around 400 tailor shops in the city, some better than others. Most can complete something in one day, so you may wish to make an order on arrival so there will be time to complete the work. The principle of caveat emptor is definitely relevant. You will probably need to leave a deposit of about 25% the finished price before the work is started. If there are problems, shops may or may not be willing to make adjustments; you will not get a refund. Some strategies to minimise your risk:


 * Do not use recommendations from your accommodation and not from motorcycle drivers (both the hotel and drivers get a kickback), check TripAdvisor/Google Maps, and go to multiple shops for quotes. Do not go with shops that hurry through the design process or are pushy.
 * Avoid Yaly’s and Be Be. They are tourist trap. Hotels will earn 30% from commissions by recommending to you.
 * Order one thing at a time: if something goes wrong with one item, you lose less money. On the other hand, you could negotiate discounts if you ordered multiple items at once.
 * Take something that fits, they work better with copies.
 * Make sure they understand any special instructions: pockets, shortening, etc., the language barrier is not your friend.
 * Price things in more than one shop: materials and prices vary.
 * Order from more than one shop, again so all your eggs are not in one basket.

Tailor shops:

What
In addition to the usual suspects, there are dishes that Hoi An is particularly famous for:
 * Bánh Xèo – Crispy fried, stuffed rice pancake or wrap, similar to a Taco, that you half and roll into eatable paper with additional vegetables and then dip into a delicious sauce.
 * Cao Lầu – A dish of rice noodles soaked in lye, tinting them light brown and giving them a firmer, chewier texture not unlike pasta or Japanese udon. The noodles are topped with slices of roast pork, dough fritters, and this being Vietnam, lots of fresh herbs and veggies.
 * Mì Quảng – Wide rice noodles atop a bed of fresh herbs in a bowl (or vice versa), with a small amount of warm or lukewarm broth, generally strongly flavored and infused with turmeric, just enough to partially cover the vegetables. Meat is added on top of all this.
 * Bánh Bao Bánh Vạc (White rose) – A type of shrimp dumpling made from translucent white dough bunched up to look like a rose.
 * Hoành Thánh Mỳ (Wonton dumplings) – Essentially the same as the Chinese kind, served up in soup or deep-fried.

Where
Meals at restaurants in the touristy center of Hoi An are generally more expensive than outside at a more local place (depending on the dish and the location) and portions served are smaller, but most dishes are still inexpensive and delicious. A few touristy places can actually be more convincing than the local ones, like Madam Khanh — still running stong and fairly priced as of Nov 2023.

However, street snacks, bakeries, coffee places, and beverages in restaurants are often double the common local price.



Budget
For Mì Quảng try the following two inexpensive local restaurants (close to each other) in the northern part of Hoi An:

Drink
Walking along the river at night, you will find a lot of pubs. Beer is around 30,000 dong. Cocktails are 20,000-50,000 dong. There are some bar foods available, such as fried prawn crackers for around 15,000 dong a plate. Hoi An is not a real party destination and has a rather limited number of nightlife locations.

Sleep
Hotels in Hoi An are fiercely competitive, which means plenty of choice and generally high standards. Budget options start at 90,000 dong. Many are clustered around Hai Ba Trung St and "Ba Trieu" (formerly, Nhi Trung St), just north of the Old Town and within easy walking distance, and also along Cua Dai St, off to the east and a bit of a hike away.

Most of Hoi An's high-end hotels are located along the unbroken beach stretching from Da Nang to Hoi An. The closest is Cua Dai Beach, 5 km away.

November flooding
Hoi An regularly floods during November. Visitors who plan to arrive during one of their floods should book ahead.

The city stayed open during the November 2013 floods, although there were news reports of tourist evacuations. As hotels near the river flooded, tourists started moving to hotels on higher ground. Flooding affected streets up to four blocks uphill from the river, as well as the hotel and restaurant area across the bridge on An Hoi peninsula. The water levels for this flood seem slightly below the levels of the 2011 flood; the cleanup seemed to be well handled.

Connect
Most hotels, restaurants and cafés have free Wi-Fi. There is also a widely available citywide network: to connect, open your browser and click the banner at the top.

North

 * Da Nang – Largest city in central Vietnam and a seaside place with almost too many people, just 24 km north of Hoi An.
 * Hue – The former imperial capital, a few hours away by car or train. There are 3 or 4 trains a day, reservations can be arranged a day in advance. Although to catch the train you must go to Da Nang as trains do not go all the way to Hoi An. Besides, this train has the reputation of one of the top train journeys in the world.
 * Dong Hoi – A sleepy beach and seaside town with all the necessary infrastructure; laid back, authentic and genuinely friendly, with at least half a dozen hostels, convenient for accessing Phong Nha Ke Bang national park. 5–6 hr north of Hoi An, best by train from Da Nang.
 * One-way motorbike trips to Hue traveling through the Hai Van Pass are a very popular and scenic method to get north. One-way rentals with an English speaking guide can cost as low as US$25-30. Travel time, including numerous stops, is about 6–8 hours.
 * Hanoi is the capital city, and gateway to Sapa

South

 * Quy Nhon – The inexpensive and tourist-free alternative to Da Nang, yet off many people's radar and therefore still a tranquil and authentic, lively and pleasant city with a much (among the locals) hyped beach.
 * Nha Trang – Vietnam's premier beach resort town and the next stop for backpackers travelling south.
 * Dalat – built as a playground of the French, who built villas in the clear mountain air to escape the heat and humidity of the coast. From Hoi An to Dalat is at least 12 hours by bus, and can take several days during the flood season. There are no trains to Dalat.
 * Saigon / HCMC

Laos
From Hoi An bus station buses run to Da Nang, ending the route at the bus station, where there are many options. An early bus directly to Pakse, even a long ride to Vientiane. In order to cross the border to Lao, there are many buses to Kom Tum. Ask the to drop you at Pleikan, is a town where locals gather to take a minivan at sunrise and reach the border when it opens. The minivan will wait for you after the formalities in the Viet side. Back to the minivan you will be driven to the Lao border, where a visa on arrival will be issued. And back to the minivan. The route at Attapeu, capital city of Attapeu Province, Laos.