After 2 days in Ho Chi Minh City, we headed north to Hoi An!
Hoi An Ancient Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a well-preserved example of what used to be a major trading port. Buildings date back to the 15th century. We flew from Saigon to Da Nang and took a 40-minute cab ride from Da Nang to Hoi An for roughly $15.
Upon arrival, we checked in to Thanh Van 1 — a decent hotel located a five-minute walk from the Ancient Town. As soon as we dropped our bags, we set off to explore!
Hoi An Ancient Town
Hoi An is a wonderfully beautiful setting that is, unfortunately, tainted by tourism.
The Ancient Town is lovely — old buildings line the river and lanterns fill the streets. When the sun goes down, it is gorgeous and romantic. The river lights up with floating paper lanterns with candles inside. However, amidst the beauty there is a lot of harassment from street vendors.
You can’t go more than a few steps without a vendor approaching and asking you to buy something or visit their shop. Often, they do not like it when you say “no, thank you” and begin following you asking, “why?” or complaining about how it is a slow day, business has not been well and they really need your help. I understand everyone is out to make a living as best as they can, but after the 50th encounter, patience wears thin. Even if you score a nice patio seat along the river for dinner or drinks, the vendors are not afraid to walk right up to your table. My apologies if this sounds bitter, I’m just setting fair expectations.
Aside from the vendors, we really enjoyed Hoi An! The restaurants are a little pricier than what we encountered in HCMC, but still cheap by U.S./European standards. Dinner and drinks typically cost us less than $20.
Note: There is a posted entrance fee of about $5 to get into the Ancient Town, but the ticket is good for your entire stay. Ticket checking seemed to be inconsistent; and some entry roads had a ticket booth while others did not. If you want to avoid the $5 fee, it’s doable. However, they say proceeds go toward the preservation of the Ancient Town and its attractions, so we had no issue paying the small fee.
On our first day in Hoi An we enjoyed lunch at Morning Glory restaurant, which I had seen recommended by a few different blogs. It was great, so I wanted to give it a shout-out as well!
After lunch, we walked along the canal taking in the beautiful sights to include the old Japanese Bridge.
That night we stumbled upon a lovely hidden gem (pun intended) — The Gem Art Museum (GAM) and wine bar. This place had a perfect balcony overlooking the streets and lantern displays, and it was completely empty! We enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine, great music and an awesome view.
Tailor Shops
One of the main must-do’s in Hoi An is to visit a tailor and design some clothes. There is no shortage of tailor shops throughout this little town. Just be wise with which one you choose, as some are certainly better quality than others. We were happy with the one we chose (MAYA).
The ladies at MAYA were so friendly, the prices were excellent and the finished products are fantastic! Ben had a suit, two dress shirts and a blazer made; I had a floor-length dress made. All together we paid less than $200.
Do not wait until your last day to do this, as the tailors need time to work and get everything perfect. We went to our initial appointment on our second morning in Hoi An, then came back for our fitting on the morning of our third day. During the fitting, be sure to point out anything that you want corrected. For example, I decided I wanted thinner straps, shorter sleeves and a higher slit. Make it perfect! We came back for the second fitting later that day and everything was perfect.
In between tailor appointments, we snuck away from Hoi An for a few hours each day to visit surrounding attractions.
An Bang Beach
We rented bikes from a lady outside of our hotel and rode for 20 minutes to An Bang Beach. Maybe on a hot sunny day it’s popping, but it was overcast and only around 70° F the day we went, so the beach was practically empty. We sat at one of the several restaurants/bars along the beach and enjoyed a beer, but were harassed by vendors every couple of minutes.
Though the beach was a bit of a bust, we were okay with that. We were only a couple days away from the beautiful white sand beaches in Phu Quoc, and the bike ride through the rice paddies was lovely!
Marble Mountain
The next day, we visited Marble Mountain in Da Nang.
We paid about $6 per person for a private guide from Barri Ann Travel and it was so worth it! Marble Mountain is incredible. Hindu and Buddhist statues are carved into marble in the caves and 14th century pagodas are scattered throughout the mountain. We hiked (and in some parts, climbed!) to the top for a beautiful view of Da Nang.
Phi Báhn Mì
Also deserving of a mention is Phi Báhn Mì! We read on TripAdvisor that this is the best báhn mì in Hoi An, and we definitely were not disappointed! We ate lunch here twice. The owners are super friendly and the food is so inexpensive (less than $1 per sandwich). We were never the only Westerners there, so clearly word has traveled about this awesome spot. Check it out!
We spent the rest of our time in Hoi An enjoying the things we loved — another meal at Morning Glory restaurant and another evening at the GAM! Sitting on that balcony overlooking the water, the lanterns and all of the people below… it doesn’t get much better than that in Hoi An.
Hoi An was lovely and it was very interesting to get a glimpse at “ancient” Vietnam, but we were so anxious and excited to hit the road for our next destination: 6 Days in Phu Quoc, Vietnam.
