Things to do in Hoi An, and the hours that decide them

The things to do in Hoi An are concentrated into a small, beautiful old town, shared with about six thousand other people who also came to see it. Almost everything on this page is a decision about timing rather than about what to do.

What should you actually do in Hoi An?

Walk the old town at either end of the day, ride to the beach in the middle of it, and take a boat on the river at dusk. Add a tailor and a cooking class if you have three nights, and My Son if you have four. Most things to do in Hoi An sit within a fifteen-minute ride of each other, so the constraint is the hour rather than the distance.

The three-day route puts these in the order that keeps you out of the old town at its worst hours.

The Hoi An hub covers the ticket, the floods and how long to stay. This page is what fills the days.

When should you be in the old town?

Before nine and after seven, and it is not a small difference. The coach parties arrive mid-morning and leave before dinner. The same lanes are quiet and workable at both ends of the day, and solid with people in between.

Early morning is the better of the two. The market at the eastern end is working rather than performing, and the light is low along the yellow walls. You can also stand on the Japanese Covered Bridge without queueing for it.

What does the ticket actually get you?

Five heritage sites from a list of about twenty — assembly halls, old merchant houses, the Japanese Covered Bridge, a couple of small museums. You choose which five.

Walking the streets is free. Sellers at the barriers will imply otherwise at busy hours, and the honest position is that the ticket is required for the sites and not for the pavement. Two or three of the houses are genuinely worth a ticket slot; the museums are thin.

Is the beach worth the ride?

Yes, and it is the half of Hoi An most day-trippers never see. An Bang is about 5 km out through rice fields, flat the whole way, and most places to stay lend bicycles.

An Bang has the better sand and the better beach bars; Cua Dai has suffered badly from erosion and is patchier. Go late in the afternoon, when the heat has dropped and the day groups have gone back to the old town.

What about the boat and the lanterns?

Take the boat, keep it short. A twenty-minute row on the Thu Bon at dusk with a paper lantern is exactly as touristy as it sounds. It is still worth doing once: the old town from the water at that hour is the view the place is famous for.

Prices are negotiated on the bank and vary wildly with the hour and your face. Agree the number and the length of the trip before you step in.

The full-moon lantern night falls on the fourteenth day of each lunar month, when the electric lighting goes off. That is twelve chances a year rather than one, as the festivals guide sets out.

Are the tailors any good?

Some are excellent and many are not, and the difference is time rather than price. A shirt in four hours will look like a shirt made in four hours. Two fittings over two or three days is the minimum for anything you want to keep — the tailoring guide sets out the fabrics, the fittings and the prices.

Bring a photograph of what you want and, better, a garment you already like the fit of. The shopping guide covers the bargaining and what things should cost.

Should you do a cooking class?

Yes, here more than anywhere else in the country. The standard Hoi An class starts at the market, crosses the river by basket boat through the water coconut palms, and finishes with four or five dishes you actually cook.

Pick one that takes you shopping, or picking at Tra Que, rather than one that presents pre-measured bowls. The cooking class guide sets out what separates the two.

What is worth leaving town for?

My Son, the Cham temple site about 40 km southwest, on the first bus at seven rather than the mid-morning tour. The ruins are modest by regional standards and the early hour is what makes the trip: mist, no crowd, and birds instead of guides.

Da Nang is thirty minutes north and a different city rather than a day trip, and the five-day central route shows how the two fit together with Hue.

Closer in, Thanh Ha and Kim Bong are working craft villages on the same flat bicycle ride as the beach, and Tra Que grows the herbs on your plate 3 km out of town.