Three days in Hoi An, and the day that belongs outside it
On this page
Hoi An can be walked end to end in an afternoon. That is why so many visitors give it one, and why so many leave slightly puzzled by the fuss. The old town is not a large sight. It is a small one that changes completely with the hour you are standing in it.
Three days in Hoi An is the length that lets you choose those hours. It is not three days of heritage streets. Two of the three barely touch them.
How should you split three days in Hoi An?
Give the old town the two ends of two different days, and give everything else to the coast, the fields and one trip out of town. The heritage streets are at their best before 09:00 and after 21:00, and those four hours will not fill a day. This Hoi An itinerary is built around that, not around a list of sights.
The Hoi An hub covers what the town is and how it survived. This page is the order to do it in.
| Day | Morning | Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|---|---|
| One | Arrive, settle | Old town, ticket, tailor order | Riverfront after the groups leave |
| Two | An Bang beach or a bicycle ride | Tra Que, a cooking class | Old town again, late |
| Three | My Son at dawn, or the Cham Islands | Fitting, second walk | Depart or stay on |
Day one: the old town, late in the day
Buy the old town ticket and walk in the last two hours of daylight. It costs 120,000 dong, covers 5 heritage sites from a list of about 20, and stays valid for 10 days. Nothing about it forces you to see everything at once, and at roughly 24,000 dong a building it is the cheapest entry on any first day in Vietnam.
The Japanese Covered Bridge, the assembly halls and the merchant houses are the ticketed part. The streets between them are free, and they are most of what people remember. Both improve after 16:00. The light goes orange along the yellow walls, and the day groups start back towards Da Nang.
If you want clothes made, this is the evening for it. A tailor wants 24 hours and realistically 48, with one fitting in between. Order on day two and you collect in a hurry on day three. A rushed fitting is how a jacket ends up in a wardrobe unworn. The things to do page sets out how the tailoring works and what a fair price looks like.
Day two: the coast and the fields
Hoi An sits about 5 km from the sea and is surrounded by rice paddies. Both are the reason the second day of a three-day trip exists. The bicycle almost every hotel lends out reaches either in 15 to 20 minutes, and the ride through the fields is as much of the day as the destination.
An Bang is the beach most people use. Cua Dai, further south, has lost much of its sand to erosion, and it is worth knowing that before you book a room expecting it. The national beach guide puts both against the rest of the coast.
Inland, Tra Que is the herb village that supplies the restaurants, about 3 km from the old town. A cooking class usually starts at the market and runs 4 to 5 hours. The good ones spend more time on why the herbs are on the plate than on the recipes, which the herb guide covers in its own right.
Come back into the old town after dinner. The second visit is when the streets stop being a checklist and start being a place. The lanterns along the Thu Bon are worth the walk on their own.
Day three: My Son, or the islands
The My Son day trip is the one worth taking, and it is worth taking at dawn. The Cham towers sit about 40 km southwest, in a bowl of hills that traps heat by 10:00, and the site is brick, dust and almost no shade. The first bus leaves around 07:00 and reaches the ruins in mist. The mid-morning tours arrive with the heat and with everybody else.
About 20 structures survive at My Son of some 70 recorded, built by the Cham between roughly the 4th and 13th centuries. The World Heritage guide covers what the war destroyed, which is most of what makes the visit make sense.
From March to September the alternative is the Cham Islands, about 15 km offshore and 30 minutes by speedboat. The snorkelling is pleasant rather than remarkable. Outside those months the sea is usually too rough for the boats, and the trip is cancelled on the morning.
When is the old town worth being in?
Early morning and late evening, and that is not a small detail. It decides where you sleep. Between about 10:00 and 16:00 the heritage streets carry day groups from Da Nang and the cruise berths, and every second shopfront sells the same lantern. By 21:00 the groups have gone and the town belongs to the people staying in it.
The empty evening is the whole argument for sleeping here rather than commuting in. A day trip from Da Nang gets you the four hours the town is at its worst. The three areas that make an early start possible are set out in where to stay.
What about the lantern night?
The lantern night on the fourteenth day of each lunar month is the version of Hoi An that ends up on postcards, and it happens 12 times a year rather than once. The electric lighting along the riverfront goes off, the boats put candles on the water, and the crowd roughly doubles.
The lantern night is worth arranging a trip around if the dates land conveniently. It is not worth rearranging one for, because the ordinary evenings are already lit. The festivals guide has the dates against the Gregorian calendar, which shift every year.
When should you come, and when should you not?
February to May is the reliable stretch for three days in Hoi An: dry, warm, and before both the summer heat and the domestic holiday season. June to August is hot and busy, and it works well for the islands. September to November is the wet half of the central coast.
Hoi An floods properly rather than metaphorically. The old town carries flood marks painted at chest height, and in a bad November the shops move their stock upstairs while the streets carry boats. The typhoon season guide covers when that risk runs and what else a storm closes. The month-by-month guide sets the central coast against the rest of the country, which runs on a different calendar entirely.
How does this fit a longer trip?
Hoi An sits 30 minutes from Da Nang and about 2.5 hours from Hue, so almost nobody comes here alone. Three days here is the middle of a week in the region rather than a trip in itself.
The five-day central Vietnam route is the compressed version of the same ground. The one-week version is where the extra days go. Arrive by air into Da Nang: Hoi An has no airport and no station, and the transfer takes about 45 minutes by car.
FAQ
Is three days enough for Hoi An?
Three days is the right length, and it is more than the old town needs on its own. Two half-days cover the heritage streets at the hours they are worth walking, and the rest of the time goes to the beach, the countryside around the town, and one trip out to My Son or the islands.
What should you do on your first day in Hoi An?
Arrive, buy the old town ticket, and walk the heritage streets in the late afternoon rather than at midday. If you want clothes made, the first evening is also when the order has to go in, because a tailor needs a day and usually two.
Is the Hoi An old town ticket worth buying?
It costs 120,000 dong, covers five heritage sites and stays valid for ten days, so it works out at a few dong a building. The streets themselves are not gated, but inspectors do check the ticket at the houses and halls, and it funds the conservation that keeps them standing.
When is the old town least crowded?
Before about nine in the morning and after about nine at night. The tour groups arrive from Da Nang in the late morning and thin out after dinner, so the two ends of the day are when the streets look like the photographs that brought you.
Should you day trip to My Son from Hoi An?
Yes, and go at dawn rather than mid-morning. My Son is about an hour away, the Cham brick towers sit in a bowl of hills that traps heat by ten, and the first departures reach the site before both the temperature and the coaches do.
Is Hoi An a better base than Da Nang?
For Hoi An itself, yes, by a wide margin. The town is worth having at dawn and after dark, which is exactly the two windows a day trip from Da Nang misses. Da Nang is the better base only if the beach and the city are the point and Hoi An is one afternoon.
What is there to do in Hoi An in the rain?
A cooking class, a tailor fitting, the museums on the ticket, and the coffee houses along Nguyen Thai Hoc. October and November bring genuine flooding rather than showers, and in a flood year the old town streets carry boats instead of visitors.