Things to do in Hoi An | Vietnam
Hoi An is a must go town while you are on your travels in Vietnam. With its charming old town with Japanese architecture and Chinese temples, colourful lantern lit streets, rice fields around the town as well as long pristine sandy beach, it is one of the highlights of the country. Here is a list of the top things to do in Hoi An.
#1 An Bang Beach
Enjoy a dip in the Southern China Sea, on the East Vietnam Sea at An Bang Beach. This beach is only 4 km away from the Hoi An town and is the best go-to beaches. You can enjoy getting sun kissed on a deckchair under a bamboo umbrella for only 20000Dong, unless you have lunch there on the sand or a cold beer. That means you’ll get the deckchair and facilities for free.
#2 Go on an Eco Coconut Tour
One of the fun things to do while in Hoi An is to do an Eco Coconut tour. This tour is one of the highlights while at this beautiful town. You start off cycling across the rice fields, such a great adventure. They first stop you at Tra Que Vegetable Village. This village is a must see while in Hoi An and it is special because they grow organic vegetables to supply the rest of Hoi An. Here you get hands on fun where you can help in watering their picture perfect crops and meet the cutest locals.
After Tra Que Village you would cycle further through the rice fields to get to the coconut farm. The fun part about this coconut farm is that you get to go through the farm in a coconut basket (known as Thung Chai in Vietnamese and is used by local fishermen) paddling and relaxing along the coconut trees. Here you learn how they harvest them and how they use the leaves.
Contact An Bang Beach holiday for a great tour.
#3 Cycle through Hoi An
Enjoy a day getting lost around Hoi An. Enter one of the size roads that take you to the rice fields. Forget your GPS and just enjoy cycling around the charming fields of the town. You are most likely to get to local restaurants where they have never seen a tourist and these are the fun times of getting lost.
#4 Make a Tailored Dress
Hoi An is famous for its tailor made tailoring. The town has so many of them. From evening dresses to suits and coats, whatever you need tailor made just for you for a great price, it’s such a fun time, choosing your style and fabric and having your dream dress or suit ready the next day. I have made 2 tailor made dresses at Wild Orchid and they turned out perfect and I’m a happy customer ready to flaunt my beautiful dress.
#5 The night market
Enjoy the lantern lit colourful night market in the ancient part of the city. If you go after 8pm admission is free. It’s even prettier in the evening anyway with all the colourful lanterns lighting up the streets. Here you can not only buy lanterns, but shop for souvenirs and enjoy a delicious meal at their river front restaurants.
#5 Walk Hoi An Ancient Town
Enjoy a stroll around the ancient’s town narrow windy but well preserved roads. Hoi An’s ancient town has been awarded UNESCO world heritage for a reason. During the day to enter this part of town it costs 120000Dong which would allow you to enter museums.
#6 Visit My Son Ruins
My Son ruins lay 1 hour away from Hoi An. If you haven’t visit the temples in Cambodia of Angkor Wat then these temples are the closest looking you can see while in Hoi An. Here there are the remains of the ruins of Champa which flourished between the 2nd and the 15th century.
#7 Get a massage
Hoi An is popular also for its many massage parlours some of which you can haggle a lot with for great prices.
Staying in Hoi An
There are many places to stay in Hoi An. If you want to avoid the noisy town then stay away because it is quite a hectic one. If you want peace you have two options. You can either stay inland in a beautiful homestay surrounded by rice fields. The down side to this is that these places have no restaurant options and you have to get a taxi every time, which could be pricey.
The best option we found is when we decided to stay at An Bang Beach area, here the area is quiet, beautiful, with loads of restaurants to choose from and not to mention it’s a plus because it’s on the beach. And it is close to the rice fields if you want to go and get lost and only 3.5 km to town which would cost around 70000Dong for a taxi between you.
We stayed at An Bang Beach holidays and definitely recommend them, they have very clean modern air conditioned rooms which are only 25 meters to the restaurants and 150 meters away from the beach. They have also arranged for us the Eco coconut tour which was one of the highlights while staying here. Contact them on anbangbeachholidays@gmail.com
