5 Days in Hoi An

Start with the symbol of the town, and with the ticket. Walking the streets is free, but to enter the monuments foreign visitors pay 120,000 VND (5 USD) for a ticket that covers five sites: the bridge or the Quan Cong temple, one place from the museum group, and three others of your choice. The official notice says it stays valid for up to three days (older guides say one) and asks you to keep the stub. A cheaper 80,000 VND (3 USD) ticket covers the bridge or Quan Cong plus two sites of your choice, with no museum. Tickets are checked at the monuments.

The bridge is more than 400 years old and links the Japanese quarter to the Chinese one. A small temple sits on its north side, and a monkey and a dog guard the two ends. Legend says it pins down a monster with its head in India and its tail in Japan. After a restoration of almost two years it reopened on 3 August 2024. The repaint drew complaints that the old bridge now looks too new, and the city said the color would be studied further. It is small, packed and best seen early.

Chinese merchants settled here in groups by home province and each group built its own meeting hall, a mix of temple, clubhouse and trade office. The Phuc Kien hall, built by the Fujian community in the late 1600s, is the grandest, with ornate gates, a dragon fountain and a statue of Thien Hau (Mazu), the sea goddess said to have washed up near Hoi An.

Pick one or two halls, not all five. The Cantonese hall (1885) is smaller and red-heavy with a dragon fountain; the Hai Nam hall (1875) honors 108 merchants who were wrongly executed as pirates (Emperor Tu Duc later apologized), and is one of the quieter ones; the Trieu Chau hall (1845) has fine carving; and Trung Hoa, built in 1741 for all five communities, is reported free. Do Phuc Kien and Hai Nam and you've seen both ends of the range.

Between the halls you'll find the narrow merchant houses that made the town. Tan Ky is the best known, and the Quan Thang house, built in the late 17th century, is among the oldest. Duc An is another stop on the usual route.

Take one house, not four. They share the same ideas (wooden beams, carved panels, a family altar), and the souvenir pitch at the end is similar everywhere. The better way to understand the old town is to walk the back lanes between the main streets, where the same shophouses have laundry on their balconies instead of lanterns.

Anthony Bourdain called the sandwiches here a symphony in a sandwich on his TV show around 2009, and ever since there has been a line at 2B Phan Chu Trinh. The baguette is thin and crisp, the filling is a pile of pork, pate, herbs, pickles and chili, and the shop is open from early morning until evening (about 6:30am-9pm, cash only).

The honest verdict: it's very good, and it's one of the best in town, but it isn't worth 40 minutes in the heat. Madam Khanh, the Banh Mi Queen, is a well-known alternative, and a baguette from a market stall usually costs less. Order the mixed one (thap cam), eat it on the nearest curb and move on.

Hundreds of shops make clothes to order here. Done well, it's a good souvenir: a shirt, a dress or a coat copied from one that fits you, in a fabric you picked. Done badly, you pay for a stiff jacket that fits like a sack.

Be realistic about time. A good tailor measures you on day one, wants you back the next day for a first fitting and again a day or two later, so two to four days in total. A shop promising a suit in 24 hours leaves no room for changes. Most want a deposit of about a quarter, and refunds are rare. Skip your hotel's or a motorbike driver's recommendation, because they earn a commission and the price rises to cover it. Walk into three shops, read the fabric label, order one item first and say no firmly if you're pushed.

Cao lau is the dish you can't get anywhere else, because the noodles are made with water from an old Hoi An well and soaked in a lye solution that gives them a brown color and a chewy, slightly smoky bite. They come topped with slices of roast pork, crunchy fried dough, bean sprouts and a heap of herbs, with very little broth.

Thanh Cao Lau, at 26 Thai Phien street, is a long-standing specialist (opening in 2026 not confirmed) that can close when the noodles run out, so make it an early dinner. The food stalls inside the Central Market also do cao lau, mi quang and white rose dumplings. Prices for food and drinks right in the tourist center can be double the local rate.

After dark the town changes. Silk lanterns light the streets, the night market sets up near the river and the boats along the Bach Dang embankment light theirs. A ride past the old houses costs 150,000-200,000 VND (6-8 USD) for half an hour, a regulated price, but agree it before you step in. On busy nights the river is bumper to bumper and the view is no different from the bank, so a better plan is to walk across the An Hoi bridge, find a seat with a drink and watch.

The little paper lanterns (5,000-10,000 VND, or 0.20-0.40 USD) that you set on the water are a tradition, and also litter: they end up as soggy paper, wire and candle stubs in the river, and crews have to fish them out. If you want the ritual, release one, not five.

Rent a bicycle from your hotel and leave by 8am. The lanes north-east of the old town run between paddy fields and ponds, and a couple of kilometers out you are in a different Hoi An: village lanes, small shrines and almost no tourists. Motorbikes cut through at speed, so stay right and use the bell.

The fields look their best when the rice is green, and in January they can be wet, flat and half empty. It's not a postcard in every season, but it's the best way to see what the old town grew out of. An offline map app such as Organic Maps shows the small lanes.

Tra Que is a village of small herb and vegetable beds about three kilometers from the old town. The farmers fertilize with seaweed and algae from the nearby lagoons, and in 2024 the village was named one of the UN Tourism's Best Tourism Villages.

You can walk through the beds for a small entry fee, or join a farming session with a shoulder yoke and a watering can, with a cooking class or a foot soak sold on top. It's a pleasant, mildly touristy hour, and the half-day packages are expensive for what you get. Do the short version.

An Bang is the beach people actually use: a few kilometers north of the old town, a long strip of pale sand with beach bars, a bakery or two and a calm village behind it. It's quieter than the beaches around Da Nang, and by afternoon the bars serve grilled seafood and cold drinks to a row of sunbeds.

Know what you're getting. From October to February the north-east monsoon brings heavy swell, red flags go up on most days and the water is about 23°C in January, so this is a beach for walking and eating, not swimming. Reliable swimming runs from about March to September. Even then, swim only where locals do, and if nobody is in the water, stay out.

Cua Dai used to be the town's main beach, with resorts lined up along it. Today it's a case study in coastal erosion. Officials blame rising seas and changes in the flow of the Thu Bon at its mouth, and jetties built since 2010 haven't stopped the loss. After storms in early November 2025 the waves tore out sections of embankment and swept away beach stalls, leaving overhangs of 3-5 meters in the sand, and Da Nang's civil defense office counted nearly 3.5 km of eroded coast in the Hoi An wards.

Visit for the context, not for sunbathing. An Bang is losing ground too, more slowly. If you want a proper beach day, come in the dry months and keep expectations modest.

On the 14th day of every lunar month the Ancient Town switches off its electric lights. Since 1998 the town has marked the night before the full moon with candles and silk lanterns, no motorbikes or bicycles in the old streets, folk games such as bai choi (a singing game like bingo) and temple visits. The lights go down in the evening.

In 2027 the 14th lunar day falls on 21 January, 19 February and 21 March (the lunar new year, Tet, is on 6 February), but the town can shift its program, so confirm with your hotel in the week you arrive. The February night comes two weeks after Tet and is likely to be one of the busiest of the year. The honest warning: the lanterns are lovely, the crowds are heavy and the narrow streets move slowly. Eat early, walk Nguyen Thai Hoc street rather than the riverfront, or watch from a rooftop cafe.

My Son is the holy valley of the Cham kings, a cluster of brick temples to Shiva built between the 4th and 13th centuries, about 40 km from Hoi An. French scholars found it again in 1898, and the archaeological site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. Most of it was destroyed in a single week of US bombing in August 1969: the grandest tower, called A1, is now a mound of rubble, and grassed-over craters sit between the groups.

Arrive as the gates open and leave before the buses come (the site closes around 5pm). The ticket includes a short dance show and a small museum. Groups B, C and D have the best-preserved towers, and groups A, H and K were restored by India's Archaeological Survey in 2017-22. It's not Angkor, and if your hopes are high it may feel small, but the setting is lovely. Stay on marked paths: unexploded bombs have been cleared around the main monuments, not necessarily everywhere.

Mi quang is the noodle dish of this region, from the historic province of Quang Nam, where My Son sits. Wide rice noodles lie on a bed of herbs with just a little turmeric-yellow broth, topped with pork, shrimp or chicken and roasted peanuts. It's less soupy than pho, and in 2024 Vietnam added it to its list of national intangible cultural heritage.

Pick a small, busy shop; Mi Quang Ong Hai (6A Truong Minh Luong, open daily, cash only) is a local favorite at about 40,000 VND a bowl. Mix everything to the bottom of the bowl before you eat.

Thanh Ha, about 3 km west of the old town on the Thu Bon, is one of the oldest pottery villages in Vietnam, formed in the 16th century. Its potters shape clay by hand and foot pedal without molds, and the finished pieces are mostly decorative.

It makes a gentle break after My Son. Watch a potter at work, try a few minutes yourself and buy something small, but expect souvenir stalls and a sales pitch. Keep it to an hour.

Com ga, Hoi An chicken rice, is the town's everyday meal: rice cooked in chicken broth with shredded poached chicken, onions, herbs and a tangy sauce. The rice is yellow, a little greasy and exactly what you want after a long day.

Ba Buoi, at 22 Phan Chu Trinh, has sold chicken rice since the 1950s and is a favorite. Reported opening hours vary (roughly 10am to 8 or 9pm) and busy shops can run out, so go for an early dinner. Afterwards, drop by your tailor for the first fitting.

The Marble Mountains are five limestone and marble hills named after the five elements, rising out of flat sand south of Da Nang. All of them have caves and tunnels, and the tallest, Thuy Son (water), can be climbed to cave temples and Buddhist sanctuaries. The area is known for stone sculpture, and the workshops at the foot of the hills sell marble carvings.

Arrive when the gates open at 7am (tickets are sold until about 5pm). The steps are steep and slippery after rain. The lift costs a little extra (reports say about 15,000 VND a ride) and only saves part of the climb, so skip it unless you can't climb. Allow two hours: it is hot and crowded by 10am. From Hoi An it is about 25 km each way, so check the Grab fare in the app or ask a hotel taxi to wait and bring you back.

Central Vietnam does its pancake differently from the south: smaller and crispier, filled with shrimp and pork, then rolled in rice paper with herbs and a thick dipping sauce. Da Nang has plenty of specialist shops, and a bowl of mi quang is the other obvious lunch if you didn't have one yesterday.

Pick a busy place where the pancake arrives with a pile of herbs, tear a piece, wrap it and dip it in the sauce. Locals use their hands and so should you.

After My Son this museum is the sequel. The Cham kingdom left sandstone sculpture as well as brick towers, and this museum is where a large part of it is kept: dancers, deities and carved altar bases from sites like the one you walked through on day three. The brick towers at My Son are impressive but bare, and this is where they start to mean something.

It's small, shady and calm, and an hour is plenty.

My Khe is Da Nang's city beach, a long, wide strip of sand with high-rise hotels behind it. It's busier and more built up than An Bang, and on a good day perfect for a long walk and a coconut. It faces the same winter monsoon, so in January expect rough surf; check the flags before you wade in.

This stop is an hour of sea air between the museum and the evening, not a full beach day. If the weather is bad, skip it for a coffee by the Han River.

The Dragon Bridge is a 666-meter steel dragon crossing the Han River, opened in 2013. At 9pm on Saturday and Sunday nights (some listings add Friday, plus major holidays) its head breathes fire and then water.

It's short, a few minutes of fire and then water, and free. People gather on both banks, so arrive 30-45 minutes early and eat dinner by the river first. Bad weather can cancel it, and the city sometimes changes the schedule, so check the day before.

Hoi An's Central Market, at 19 Tran Phu, is best early. The food court serves the local specialties (cao lau, mi quang, white rose dumplings, pho) at a few stalls with English menus and others for Vietnamese only, which serve rice with side dishes. Beyond the stalls there is produce, fish, tea and spices.

Eat a bowl of noodles with an iced coffee, then walk through the fruit and herb section. Prices in the market can be higher for tourists, so look at what the person ahead of you pays. Keep your bag in front of you in the crowded aisles.

Your clothes should be ready, or close to it. Try them on, move around, sit and raise your arms. Check seams, buttons and linings and ask for changes now, because a good shop fixes them on the spot or by tonight. Make sure the fabric matches what you chose.

If something isn't right and the shop pushes back, stay calm and polite. Pay only when you're satisfied, and ask whether the shop can ship the order if you'd rather not carry it on to Hue.

Cam Thanh is the water-palm area east of town, where the Bay Mau coconut forest grows along the creeks. Round basket boats of woven bamboo carry two or three passengers, and the boatman paddles you through the palms, spins the boat, catches crabs and throws a fishing net. The scenery is real: green palms, narrow channels, a sense of being on the water.

The honest bit. It is loud, crowded and made for tour groups. Many baskets spin at the same time, there's a show and a sales pitch, and reviewers mention tipping and rubbish in the forest. Many still enjoy it, and it's fun for children, a little silly for adults. Go for the earliest slot you can, keep small bills and expect to be done in about 40 minutes on the water.

The Museum of Trade Ceramics, on Tran Phu, is about the real reason Hoi An mattered: trade. Ceramics were what ships carried through this port, and the objects here show how far the town's networks reached.

Both this and the Museum of Folk Culture nearby are small and a good place to wait out the midday heat.

Finish with two local dishes. Banh xeo here is a small, crisp rice pancake rolled with herbs and dipped in sauce, and white rose dumplings (banh bao banh vac) are translucent shrimp dumplings pinched into the shape of a rose.

For banh xeo, a simple local place north of the center, near the morning market, with plastic stools and a few thousand dong a wrap, is the right idea. A 2023 listing named Thien Bao Quan on Hong Phong street, but check it's still open. The White Rose restaurant on Hai Ba Trung is the classic address for the dumplings.

For the last night, go up. Several rooftop cafes in the Ancient Town overlook the lantern-lit streets; Faifo Coffee is one of the best known, and Market Terrace looks onto the market and the river. Order a ca phe sua da (iced coffee with condensed milk) and watch the evening below.

Then walk the lanes you know by now, cross the An Hoi bridge and wander the night market without a plan.