Old City Hoi An

Hoi An's old city is small. About 30 hectares, total. You can walk the whole UNESCO-protected core in a morning. That is part of what makes it good.

I went the first time in 2017, after a winter in Bergen that had not stopped, and stayed nine days. Slept in a tailor's spare room above a fabric shop on Tran Phu street. Could hear the silk merchants opening their shutters at 6am. Have been back twice since. Each time it's a bit more polished, a bit more crowded, and still — I think — worth your time.

[IMAGE: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1559592413-7cec4d0cae2b?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop | The yellow-walled streets of the Hoi An ancient quarter at evening, with paper lanterns lit along the eaves]

What it is

Hoi An was a serious port from the 15th to the 19th century. Japanese, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese traders all passed through. The river silted up around 1830 and Da Nang took over the trade. Hoi An stopped growing. That stopping is the gift. The merchant houses, the assembly halls, the wooden bridges — none of them got demolished for new development because there was no new development. You walk these streets today and the layout is exactly what it was in 1820. The shop houses are still shop houses. The tile roofs still warp and dip the way they did when they were new.

UNESCO listed the old town in 1999. Since then preservation has been strict. No motor vehicles in the core during daytime hours. Buildings can be restored but not demolished. Hand-painted signage only. The yellow-and-ochre paint scheme you see on every wall is regulated.

How to get there

Hoi An has no airport or train station. The nearest airport is Da Nang, 30 km north. From the airport, taxi or rideshare costs about 400,000 VND (16 USD) and takes 40 minutes. There is a public bus (route 1) for 30,000 VND but it takes 90 minutes and you wait in the heat.

If you are coming from elsewhere in Vietnam, take a sleeper train to Da Nang and onward by taxi. Hanoi to Da Nang is 16 hours by train and the SE3 has good soft-sleeper cabins. From the south, Saigon to Da Nang is 18 hours.

I always take the train. Sleeper trains in Vietnam are a bit underrated — clean, on time, you wake up in a different country.

What to actually do in the old city

Three things stand out:

The Japanese Covered Bridge. Built around 1593 by the Japanese trading community to link their quarter to the Chinese one. Small wooden temple inside. The bridge is on the back of every 20,000 VND note. Free to look at from outside. The 80,000 VND combination ticket gets you across and into a cluster of other heritage sites — buy that and go around at your own pace.

The assembly halls. The Chinese merchant communities built these — Phuc Kien, Trieu Chau, Hai Nan. Quiet courtyards, ornate altars, koi ponds. The Phuc Kien hall is the biggest and most decorated. Ten minutes each is enough.

The merchant houses. Tan Ky house on Nguyen Thai Hoc and Quan Thang house on Tran Phu both let you walk through. Two hundred years of family living, mostly intact. Dark wood interiors, small interior gardens, kitchens at the back where the river used to come right up to the wall in flood season.

A good half day covers all of this. Then you can stop trying to see things and just sit.

What to eat

This is where Hoi An is unfair. The food is too good. Three things you must try:

Cao lau. Local noodle, only made here, theoretically because the dough requires water from a specific well. Grey noodles, char siu pork, herbs, crispy croutons, just enough broth to wet the bowl. Ba Le Well restaurant on a side alley off Tran Cao Van does it right. About 60,000 VND.

Banh mi. Yes, banh mi is everywhere in Vietnam. The Hoi An ones are different. The bread is crustier, the fillings are stacked higher, the chilli is hotter. Banh Mi Phuong is famous because of the Anthony Bourdain visit and the queue is half an hour at lunch — Madam Khanh's at 115 Tran Cao Van is just as good and you walk straight in.

White rose dumplings. Translucent rice-paper dumplings, shrimp filling, fried garlic on top. Made by one family, in one workshop, supplied to every restaurant in town. Try them once.

Beer is fresh draught (bia hoi), 8,000 VND a glass. The street stalls open at 5pm on the river.

When to visit

Dry season is February to August. The wet season can flood the old town in late October and November — water has reached chest height in some years. Locals have raised their thresholds. They are used to it. You don't want to be there for it.

The full moon festival, on the 14th day of each lunar month, is worth catching if your dates work. The town turns off all electric light in the old quarter and lights paper lanterns instead. Crowded but very good.

Where to base yourself

Stay outside the old town. Inside the protected zone is mostly homestays and a few boutiques; the noise and the tour-bus turnover means you don't sleep well. We stayed at An Bang Beach the third time, 4 km east, where rice fields meet a quiet beach and you bicycle in for dinner. Fifteen minutes by bike. The rented bicycles are 30,000 VND a day and almost everyone uses one.

The wider Vietnamese coast is easy to combine. From Hoi An you can take a half-day boat tour through the Cham Islands, do a cooking class on Cam Thanh's water-coconut canals, or — what I recommend — book a few days further north at Ha Long Bay and end your trip there. The Vietnam country guide covers the whole north-to-south route. If you'd rather have someone arrange the logistics, the tours in Vietnam listings have several Hoi An–anchored options.

A practical note on the tailoring

If you came to Hoi An because you heard you can get a suit made in 24 hours: yes, you can. There are roughly 600 tailor shops in town. Quality varies enormously. Bebe and Yaly Couture are the safe upper bracket; expect 200–400 USD for a wool suit and three fittings spread over two days. Don't try to compress it into 24 hours. The fabric is the thing — bring a photo of the cut you want, ask to see the inside finish on a finished piece, and don't accept the first sample. I've had two suits made there over the years. Both still fit, both still look proper.

Practical info from the official side

Vietnam Tourism's Hoi An page covers the public transport, opening hours and seasonal events. The UNESCO inscription page for Hoi An goes into the architectural history if you like that depth.

A few practical bits I wish someone had told me

Bring small bills. The market vendors don't always have change for the larger 500,000 dong notes. ATMs are scattered; the Vietcombank one at the corner of Hai Ba Trung and Le Loi was reliable.

Wet season notes. If you arrive in late October or November and find the old town flooded — they don't shut it down. The locals raise their merchandise to the second floor, put on rubber boots, and carry on. The boats that normally tour the river do tours of the streets instead. It is a different kind of trip and not a bad one. We hit a low flood in 2019 and spent a morning watching shop owners drink coffee on their first-floor balconies in the rain.

Cooking class. Almost every guesthouse can book one. The good ones include a morning trip to Ba Le market with the chef, two hours of cooking, and a long lunch you eat. We did the one with Red Bridge — about 35 USD, was excellent. Came home with the fish-sauce-and-lime ratios memorised.

A note on motorbike traffic. The old town is technically pedestrian-and-bicycle only inside the protected hours (typically 9am–11am and 3pm–9pm). Outside those hours the scooters return. If you are walking in the early morning be aware. Also: use the pedestrian crossings, even though they look advisory.

Final note

Hoi An is small. Its scale is its argument. Spend at least three nights, ideally five. Walk slowly. Eat twice as often as you think you should. Take a cooking class, even if you cook at home. Hire the bicycle and ride to the beach in the morning. Come back through the rice paddies in the late afternoon when the light goes orange. Sit by the river with a draught beer at 5pm and watch the lanterns get lit. That's the trip. No need to overthink it. The whole town is small enough that you can walk it twice on the same evening and notice different things each time, which is itself a small wonder. Take the time.