Hoi An itinerary: How many days should you spend in Hoi An?
*** Disclaimer! This post was drafted back in August of 2022, but since I was super behind on blog posts , I thought I might as well just include it in with all my content about my second trip to Vietnam!
So I just got back from a quick little 10 day trip through Vietnam, and I can’t wait to share everything that I did during that time. Spoiler alert: My time in Hoi An is way up there in the rankings as far as locations I visited in Vietnam, but most of the people I’ve spoken to have only planned day trips there, which is 100% not enough time. So I decided to share my Hoi An itinerary, as well as give you tips for deciding how many days you should spend in Hoi An!
A lot of people go into planning their Vietnam trip with the goal of hitting everything, but the reality is that the country is so freaking ~long~ that it’s just not easily do-able in 10 days! Getting to spend time in fewer locations is better than speeding through and seeing half of everything, I guarantee it. So instead of zipping right through Hoi An, I suggest you spend 3 days and 2 nights there, if not longer! I’ll show you why.
Where to stay in Hoi An
Accommodation in Hoi An is SO affordable. You can have a really luxe experience for less than $100 dollars a night, which is something I love so much about countries like Vietnam.
Now, if you look at a map of hotels in Hoi An, You’ll see a high concentration of them further inland along the river, as well as beachfront properties. I KNOW your brain is programmed to see the resorts by the beach and think that they’re the best option, but I strongly urge you to book a hotel in town instead!
As you’ll find out further down in this post, there are endless things to do in Hoi An Ancient City, so much so that you probably won’t want to waste a day lounging on the beach! And if you do, I recommend a day trip to Da Nang, where the water is much more blue regardless.
You don’t want to have to take taxis to and from your accommodation every day, so booking in the Ancient City is your best bet.
If you’re okay with a little bit of a walk into town, I recommend staying at Lasenta Boutique Hotel - the rooms have stunning views of the rice paddies and the hotel itself looks incredible. I personally haven’t stayed there but looked into it for my trip! Little Gem is a hotel closer to the river, and the rooftop pool looks INSANE. And if you’re a full blown hotel girlie who doesn’t mind a short taxi ride to the sights, Grand Sunrise Palace Hoi An takes the cake.
If you’re more of a backpacker - never fear! Hoi An is either the place to “splurge” (maybe 20 more dollars than usual) for a nice private room in a mid range hotel, or give the wallet a break with 3-6 dollar per night hostel dorm rooms. I didn’t stay in a hostel in Hoi An, but we all know that I’m a Mad Monkey stan when I’m solo travelling, and there’s a location in Hoi An!
How many days should you
spend in Hoi An?
Hoi An Itinerary Day 1
The first thing I would suggest is planning your trip around the full moon! Down by the river in Hoi An, the city comes to life at night with lanterns lighting up the town, decorating all the boats, and floating in the water. While this does happen every night, as Hoi An is a pretty tourist-oriented place, It’s extra festive and decorated during the full moon.
So, my friend Victoria and I arrived in Hoi An from the Da Nang airport around 3pm, checked into our hotel, and went to go find some food, walk around, and get our bearings! We then changed, got ready for the full moon festival, and set out.
***** Hilarious Sidebar - we arrived late to the city because Victoria got detained for her visa being wrong - America writes their dates opposite of literally every country in the world - so her visa was for 12/08 instead of 08/12. After 3 hours, 160 USD for an emergency visa, and finding out that after this trip she would be banned from Vietnam for LIFE since she technically entered the country illegally, we finally made it to Hoi An. So like, you’ll probably have time for more the first day but that why we arrived late to the game. lmao.
Tailoring
One of the most popular things to do in Hoi An is to take a trip to one of the thousand tailors that call the city home! I suggest that if you have plans on getting anything custom made, that you come the first day to allow room in your schedule to come back for fittings and try-ons!
The streets of Hoi An are FILLED with tailor shops, and it’s something you should definitely plan for when visiting Vietnam. There are so many videos on TikTok showcasing these tailor’s skills - even if you don’t think you need anything, a quick little scroll will give you all the inspiration you need. How often in your life are you able to splash out on something completely custom like this - for such an affordable price?
While I only got a maxi skirt tailored to me, I’ve seen videos of people who buy whole new wardrobes. At a lot of the Tailoring shops, you can show them your favorite photos of pricey Revolve, House of CB, or Reformation pieces, pick your own fabric, and then come and pick them up a few days later.
They take approximately one million measurements of your body, so the clothes just FIT, which is more than I can say about some of my online shopping escapades.
If you’re interested, I’ve heard amazing things about Cloth Shop 52 as well as Skyline Tailor!
Full Moon Festival
There are so many things to do at night in Hoi An. The riverside comes to life, with street vendors selling lanterns, good luck charms, and souvenirs, as well as offering their boating services.
The first thing Victoria and I did was buy ourselves 2 little lanterns to set into the river, and then we found a boat that could take us up and down the river! It was about a 20 minute boat ride, and I would recommend going for sunset! We were unlucky and had a random summer downpour during sunset, so we set out at night. The boat ride was 100,000 dong for the two of us, which is about 5 dollars each. Make sure you have cash, as literally nowhere accepts card in this little historic town.
Was the boat ride worth it? In my opinion, no, but maybe I would’ve had more fun at sunset. It was pretty underwhelming, but it was a cute little moment to set our lanterns out on the water. In hindsight, however, I don’t know how they get those lanterns out or if they just become trash further down the river, so I probably wouldn’t recommend participating unless you do some research on it!
Hoi An Night Market
After getting out of our boats, we headed across the main bridge to explore the night market. There are so many cute stalls selling adorable woven purses and bags, jade statues, fans, silk scarves, and trinkets to take home. If you go shopping here, don’t be afraid to barter and get those prices down! Every vendor is pretty open to sorting out a fair price, and you definitely don’t want to pay the initial price.
There are also super cute photo ops in front of all the lanterns, but you do have to pay someone a small fee to take pictures. You’ll see these photo ops right away, and the fee is super small so I’d say it’s 100% worth it. We took some photos, bought some banana pancakes, and headed back to swim in the pool of our hotel! That all we did for the first day of our Hoi An itinerary - but if you don’t get detained in the airport I’m sure you could squeeze in much more… LOL.
Hoi An Itinerary Day 2
Egg or Coconut Coffee
The first thing you should do at the start of the second day of your Hoi An itinerary is to go try some coconut coffee or some egg coffee. Both coffees are iconic Vietnamese drinks, and you should definitely try both during your time here! Typically, egg coffee is served hot and coconut coffee is cold, but I also stumbled across a rare cold egg coffee in Hanoi so you just have to ask!
We went to Hoi An Roastery because we wanted to stay in Old Town, but there are also so many other places you can go! The cafe called “Home” is about a 15 minute walk from old town but has the best coconut coffee we had in Vietnam (and we had coconut coffee probably twice a day, so I like to think that we’re experts).
It’s absolutely DIVINE.
Ride a Bike through Old Town
After a coffee and croissant, we set out on a mission to find locals renting out bikes. We did this pretty early in the morning (around 8 - partly to beat the crowds but mainly because South Korea is 2 hours ahead so we woke up at 5:45 haha) and it was definitely a good call. The streets of the Ancient City get insanely crowded after noon, and the people riding bikes then were probably just as annoyed with the pedestrians as the pedestrians were with them - so just avoid the dirty stares by going in the morning!
We found bikes for rent right beside the Japanese bridge (which is always listed as one of the best things to do in Hoi An itineraries but in reality it’s just ~fine~), and the bikes were really cute with flowers and a basket, which made for perfect pictures. We paid somewhere between 50k and 100k for an hour, which is like 2.5-5 USD a piece.
Spoiler alert: this ended up being our favorite thing we did in Hoi An! Even though riding bikes seems so simple, something about being in old town Hoi An, biking under all the lanterns and along the river, makes it so magical. We went in August so it was also just too hot to walk through the streets, but we had no issue whizzing around on our bikes. You’ll get to see all the iconic sights and get a good grasp on the city pretty quickly, and we stopped for so many pictures! 100% worth it and something I highly recommend that you do!
Hoi An shopping
After biking we still had some time to kill before lunch, so we headed to a little market that we had discovered on our bike ride.
While the ~actual~ Hoi An market seems geared towards both locals and tourists, with more than half of the vendors selling produce and meat, there were quite a few people selling really cute (slightly tacky) souvenirs as well. It was also just interesting walking through all the local food markets and seeing how the locals live their lives!
We took a quick walk through, and then decided to head to a different area that looked like it had much more of the touristy stuff we were looking for - it was located across the Japanese Bridge (the left side if you’re looking at it from across the river!)
We had a little walk through - Victoria was set on a woven hat and bag and I was set on getting a cute fan to relieve me from the intense heat everywhere, and it was definitely a success.
Below are some screenshots from a video I took due to the lack of mirrors - which one should she get you guys? (Spoiler: she got the lighter one)
Reaching Out Tea House
After scoring at the Hoi An Handicraft Market, we decided to go sit somewhere and grab a juice for some energy, as we hadn’t really had a proper breakfast. We decided on Reaching Out Tea House, which is the sweetest little NGO that employs deaf and hard of hearing people. You communicate with little queue cards and sign language, and sit in silence. It was a nice break from the heat, the setting was beautiful, and the people working there were so kind and genuine. It’s something so small, but we walked out of there smiling and talking about how glad we were that we went there. It’s an amazing experience that’s more than just delicious juice and tea.
Quán Cao lầu Bá Lễ
If there’s one thing you need to know about Victoria and I - it’s that we are ALWAYS hungry. We could leave a restaurant, have a little 10 minute digestion walk, turn to each other, and say, “I don’t know about you… but I could eat” - to which the other always replies, “Thank God you said that. I could EAT.”
So that’s just what we did. We went straight from our mid-morning snack at Reaching Out Teahouse strait to Quán Cao lầu Bá Lễ (No, we do not know how to pronounce that).
Hoi An is famous for a few specific dishes, and not just any old dishes you can find anywhere in Vietnam. There’s a set of Islands of the coast of Hoi An called the Cu Lao Cham islands, which are interestingly vital to Cao Lau, which is the signature dish of Hoi An.
For one, the rice used to make the noodles of the dish has to be rinsed in water drawn from a very specific (magical??) well on one of these islands, and then to make the noodles, the rice must then be soaked in water containing ash from the burnt wood of the specific species of tree that grows on the island.
…Obviously we had to try it.
It has a much different flavor profile than all the other Vietnamese food we tried, lacking the sweetness of pho and Bun Cha - but it was delicious! We also tried the infamous white rose dumplings - and let me tell you.
These little frilly white dumplings are the greatest thing that have ever graced my taste buds. Victoria took one bite and immediately grabbed my hand, eyes wide and teary in disbelief at just how incredible they were. It was a religious experience.
BRB while I drop $800 dollars on a flight back to Vietnam just so I can have these one more time.
(Victoria if you’re reading this - why didn’t we come here for every meal?? I can’t understand our logic.)
Quan Cong (Pink Temple)
After a quick nap (probably dreamt of white rose dumplings) and a dip in the pool back at our hotel (really you guys - the heat in August is unbearable. We were both DRIPPING in sweat after the morning activities and A-okay with trying to avoid the late afternoon heat by floating in the pool. Thankfully, Hoi An is pretty compact so we didn’t feel like we were giving anything up by spending a few hours cooling off and getting our energy back).
When the sun started to set, we changed into cute outfits (photo evidence above showing that these cute outifts lasted all of 15 minutes before they TOO were ruined by sweat stains) and set off to stop by a few different pagodas. First up: Quan Cong.
Quan Cong is a bright pink temple dedicated to a famous war general, and it’s built in a traditionally Chinese architectural style, which was a fun switch up from classic Vietnamese architecture.
All of the temples and Pagodas in Hoi An, while stunning, are quite small and don’t take much time to walk through! There are places to donate some money and light a stick of incense, but most of the visit will contain of just taking in the statues, carvings, and artifacts they have on display.
Please be mindful of places you step - as many platforms in front of sacred statues require you to take off your shoes in respect.
Ba Mu Temple Gates
A beautiful example of classic ~Vietnamese~ architecture (instead of Chinese) can be found at Ba Mu Temple. This temple only opened to the public in 2018. We only stopped in front of the Tam Quan Gate, which is the entrance to Ba Mu Temple, as we didn’t have our shoulders covered and were unsure of the rules regarding such things.
The gate is the main attraction of the temple however, with the reflecting pool overflowing with water lilies and mirroring the reflection of the perfect circle in the middle of the gate.
We got one or two straggler lilies when we were there in August, and I can only image how much more picturesque this sight would be when they are in full bloom!
Dinner By the River
The riverside is the best place to be in the evening. There are countless restaurants and bars lining the waterway, and this is where I suggest grabbing dinner and watching the sunset! Most places had a second story with balcony seating, and no trip to Vietnam is complete without a piping hot bowl of pho - so that’s just what we ordered.
Not even the STIFLING heat could prevent me from indulging in multiple bowls of pho. It’s hand’s down my favorite food, and obviously unmatched in Vietnam.
Luckily, instead of a downpour, we were blessed on our second day with a stunning sunset, and we passed the rest of the night sitting along the river, popping into expat bars, (hunting down flaming hot Cheetos, of which we have been so deprived of living in South Korea for over a year), and had one more late night swim in the hotel pool.
Basket Tour
For your last day in Hoi An, I suggest either a basket boat tour or a day trip to Da Nang! Either way, it’s a day spent by the water.
Let’s start with info on the basket tour!
You can either book one of these tours through a platform like Viator or Tripadvisor, or you can coordinate with one of the many locals offering this tour! We found our guide because we stopped at his coffee shop that morning for some coconut coffee, and he was very personable and offered to take us both for a really decent price.
While we had fun, I highly recommend booking through a reputable website. We were the only people we saw on the river for our tour, but I’ve seen videos from my friends who have also done this where it seems to be a much more populated section of the river. Having more people around would’ve made the activity a little less ~weird~, as it’s fun to be able to laugh with other tourists.
Once we had sailed about 30 minutes up the river and were settled into our bamboo basket boat with our little Vietnamese guide, we were off! These basket tours take you through mangrove forests, show you how to crab fish, and teach you how to make things out of the foliage.
Our guide fashioned us each a very cute ring out of a palm frond before teaching us how to spot the crabs and fish for them!
We caught three crabs in total, although Victoria, in an attempt to scare me by shoving the box of crabs into my face, accidentally set one free! it spent the rest of the tour scuttling around at the bottom of the boat.
Nice going, Victoria.
Towards the end of the tour, the guide stood up and told us to hold on to our seats - he was going to rock the boat and spin us around. We had seen videos of this done - it’s hard to describe but a quick little TikTok search will let you know what I’m talking about! It’s what sold us initially on the trip, and I can confirm: it is as fun as it looks.
While this tour was super hilarious and overall a little weird, I definitely recommend going with an actual tour group, as we didn’t love being the only ones around.
Banh Mi
After our (very strange) basket boat trip, we were famished and determined to complete our quest of visiting all the Anthony Bourdain filming locations through Vietnam, so we set off for Banh Mi Phuong.
Banh Mi is a combination of both traditional Vietnamese flavors and French colonization - It’s delicious Vietnamese style filling, but sandwiched in a fresh French baguette - and they’re divine.
Anthony Bourdain never steered us wrong; you have to try Banh Mi Phuong during your time in Hoi An!
Day trip to Da Nang
Another incredible thing to do around Hoi An is to take a day trip to Da Nang! I actually spent 2 days here on my first trip to Vietnam, but I can confidently say that just a day trip would be fine. Da Nang is only about a 30 minute taxi ride from Hoi An, so it’s super feasible.
Da Nang has absolutely INCREDIBLE beaches, where the sand is white and the water is a stunning shade of blue that honestly feels like bathwater. I loved the days I spent lounging on the beach, and especially if you decide to visit Hoi An when it’s stifling hot, it can be nice to get out of the city and into the ocean.
Additionally, Da Nang is home to one of my favorite pagodas: the Linh Ung Pagoda, which features the largest statue of Buddha represented as a woman in the world! The motorbike taxi ride along the coast to the pagoda is stunning, and a little lounge on the beach paired with a visit to Linh Ung Pagoda would make the perfect day trip to Da Nang from Hoi an.
Rooftop Cafe
The very last thing we did during our 3 days in Hoi An was watch the sunset from Tiem Ca Phe Tamy (Tamy Coffee - The Rooftop Hoi An). This is the CUTEST cafe, with plenty of balconies, gorgeous interiors, and even a stunning rooftop with all the cute yellow buildings as a backdrop.
We ended our time in Hoi An with yet another coconut coffee, because duh.
So how many days should you spend in Hoi An?
3 days is enough to see everything Hoi An has to offer, but I would even recommend 4 if Da Nang isn’t on your initial Vietnam Itinerary! This cute little historical city is such a gem, and while it is touristy, we enjoyed every second of our time there.
You cannot miss Hoi An on your next trip to Vietnam! We fell in love with everything it had to offer, and I highly recommend spending 3 days in Hoi An.
Have You been to Hoi An? How many days did you spend there?
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