Hoi An is this beautiful picturesque place that gives you a touristy view of Vietnam from a bygone era. This place can be a love or hate thing. However, I noticed this place is highly loved by Indians and Europeans. I believe the charm of hanging lanterns, colorful boats, heritage homes, old temples, and cute cafes makes your vacation feel fulfilled.
| Article Content |
| Vietnam Blog articles link |
| Things to do in Hoi An |
| 3 days itinerary |
| Essentials for Hoi An |
| Homestay options & prices |
| Travel Budget for Hoi An |
| Cost saving tips |
Vietnam blog articles to checkout for your planning
Things to do in Hoi An
1. Visit Old Town: Hoi An is sleepy ancient town filled with ancient temples and heritage homes. At one point in history this town served as an important pitstop for trade, this town now lives the shadows of its yesteryears. One of the best things to do in Hoi An is to chill by the riverfront or in a café and watch the world go by.
2. Visit ancient monuments based on the tickets (read about the tickets in Essential): Based on the ticket you can see one heritage home, one pagoda/ temple, Japanese bridge, ancient hall, and a museum. There are so many heritage monuments in this town that after a point they all look almost same. A tour guide will give you history of each monument and explain the significance but you will need to cover all 5 places in 1 day. Read about the interesting experience we had of going to a local temple with our homestay owner at 4:30am.
3. Chill by An Bang beach: Hoi An is beach town and there are couple of beaches to chill at of which An Bang is the closest. The drive to the beach from Hoi An town is lovely and ensure to cover it on a bike or open air vehicle. You can even rent a sun bathing lounger by the beach for per hour basis located outside restaurant and if you eat the restaurant than the lounger is free.
4. Eat at Central Market – One of the key things about Hoi An is their signature noodle Cao Lao which are a thick rice noodles served in broth with veggies and meat. Once you enter Central Market, almost all stalls sell Cao Lao. However, we preferred to eat at Cao Lao Ba Be stall which was highly recommended by Anthony Bourdain. Also try the rose dumplings at xx. Also refer my Vietnam food guide.
5. Go kayaking: Hoi An town has a river flowing near which has calm waters. This place is ideal for kayaking. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time for this since we chose to ride the local round boat.
6. Take a lantern boat on starry night : Take a night lantern boat wherein you can chill with some music, interesting conversations, and great barbeque food under the starry sky. Since we were just a couple, we invited our Homestay owner couple with their child to enjoy with us. They shared about life in Vietnam and Hoi An and how the tourism had changed Hoi An in last few decades. Its conversation like these that gives a peak into real life of people and it was sweet of them to share it.
Also to add, we were served unbelievable amount of tasty food that was local and home made. Vegetarians can request for complete veg meal in this case.
6. Shop vintage ceramics: During our stroll around the Central Market, we spot few shops selling ceramics in brilliant colors and shape. And then in the corner it caught my eye, vintage ceramics. The ceramic plates and bowls had hand painted designs in original indigo ink which had developed ceramic cracks over the years.
7. Cycle in and around the town: This is quaint little town with minimal traffic so this is an ideal place to hire cycles and just go around and explore. The government has restrictions on motor vehicles in some parts of old town to preserve the heritage sites, so cycle comes in very handy. Since we were living 5kms away from the main town, cycle wasn’t a very feasible option for us. however, in hindsight, even if its away you could hire cycles for a day and enjoy the thrill of breeze gushing on your face.
Additionally you could also (i) visit Cham Islands and do scuba and see My Son temple which is similar to Ankor Wat in Cambodia (honestly we gave this a pass since had limited days and we had witnessed something like this in Thailand. We would rather enjoy beautiful Hindu temples in India) (ii) take a trip to Marble mountain to trek to see limestone caves and pagodas. Both these activities will take one full day each and ideal to go with some tour.
Here is a 3 to 5 days itinerary for Hoi An
| Day 01 | Wander around the old town, visit temple, enjoy Cao Lao in Central Market and soak yourself in the Hoi An evening by the river front |
| Day 02 | Take a trip to Cham Island and see My Son temple |
| Day 03 | Go kayaking to enjoy the beautiful morning. Roams around to see community halls and0 museum. Enjoy an Vietnamese vegetarian meal for lunch at the Central Market. In evening take a lantern boat ride with friends/ family to enjoy starry night sky along with Vietnamese barbeque food |
| Day 04 | Take a trip to Marble mountain to see the caves and pagoda. |
| Day 05 | Take a cooking class in morning and enjoy your hand cooked food in lunch. Evening chill by the cafes and enjoy sunset |
Essentials for Hoi An
1. Tickets – One needs to buy ticket to visit Hoi An old town where all the heritage monuments such as temples, museums, homes, etc . are located wherein the ticket cost goes to town preservation. For each type of monument there are multiple options to choose from and ticket for one person gives you 5 tickets for monuments of your choice. You need to show the tickets to enter any of these monuments except the little temple on the Japanese bridge
| Sim card: Viettel |
| Copy of Lonely Planet for Vietnam |
| Flight: Vistara, Indigo, Spice Jet, and Viet Jet |
| Airport City Transfer: Mia Linh Taxi or Vinasun Taxi |
| Tours: Get Your Guide, Free walking tour |
| Food Guide in Vietnam: Vegetarian / Non vegetarian / Anthony Bourdain picks |
Home stay options
Usually people take homestay inside or closer to Old town. In which case there are many famous hotels and homestays. However, we chose a homestay closer to river which happened to be 5kms away from Old Town and in hindsight it was a good decision. The real Hoi An of current times is actually bit away Old town.
Prices vary from 500000 VND to 700000 VND per night for a good airbnb in the outskirts. We chose the tree house at Mercy Homestay from Airbnb owner is a super-host with 9.7 rating with amazing reviews, deservingly.
Budget
If you have street food then the prices will range from 4000 VND to 200000 VND per dish. Food is relatively cheap when compared to Indian prices.
Mode of travel can be local bus if you have time on hand, Grab cabs (they are like Uber of Vietnam) which we found to be bit pricey but good service or hire scooters which could be bit risky given that most of the people in Vietnam have their own driving rules.
For a Mid-range budget of INR 30000 to INR 45000 you can enjoy basic homestay, most meals at local street food, essential cab usage, and experiential spending at Ca Phes’ and breweries.
Here is our cost split for 2 people:
| Expense Type | Cost for 2 (VND) |
| Flight | 10000 |
| Local travel | 2523 |
| Meal | 12210 |
| Stay | 5700 |
| Tour | 6155 |
| Grand Total | 36589 |
2HappySouls 