9 of the best things to do in Hoi An

For many travellers exploring Vietnam, Hoi An is more of a side trip than a main stop on the itinerary. But there are plenty of reasons to linger longer – both in the little town itself and to see all that lies nearby.

With those lovely sunsets over the bridges, those low-lit balcony restaurants and the lambent light from old town houses reflected in the river, Hoi An is a great place base for exploring Central Vietnam.

Here are the best things to do in Hoi An and beyond.

Hoi An’s Ancient Town could be an anime backdrop – you can picture a Studio Ghibli heroine running through the old cobbled streets past Portuguese and Chinese shop houses, over the tiny Japanese covered bridge or past the dragon-topped gables of the 16th century merchant’s temples. The 15th to 18th century old centre – which hugs a branch of the Thu Bon River and runs across to an island filled with lantern shops and merchant’s markets – is so astonishingly well-preserved that it has UNESCO World Heritage status. It’s lovely to wander at any time of the day, and to see reflected in the river from one of the many restaurants, bars and coffee shops that run along the waterfront.

Read next: Our guide to Vietnam’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Hoi An has another UNESCO World Heritage Site on its doorstep: Hidden in jungle at the feet of the steep-ridged rainforest-blanketed mountains is the crumbling Hindu temple city of My Son. It was the temple-littered, spiritual capital of the great seafaring Cham people from the 4th century until their eventual conquest by the Vietnamese in the 15th century. Nowadays, the temples are a haven for rainforest birds and small mammals today, who flit around the ancient, carving covered stones and the jungle vines. Come in the later afternoon or very first thing in the morning for the softest light and the fewest visitors.

Read next: The best places to stay in Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An sits on a river that flows into the South China Sea at a lovely, beach-fringed coast. Hotels along the strands offer an alternative, sunrise-over-the-ocean stay to the old centre. The nicest stretch is An Bang to the North. And there are islands, too. The Cham Islands seem little changed in decades. Tiny villages offer homestays, fishermen haul in the catch right on the sand from round, thung chai coracle boats and mend their nets on the sidewalk right in front of the sea. You can visit on a day trip or take the ferry and stay overnight.

Read next: Vietnam’s best beaches and islands

Hoi An’s more than one thousand 15th to 18th century timber frame buildings are like a living museum, showcasing architectural styles from Togukawa Shogunate in Japan, the Chinese Ming and Qing Dynasties and the European Age of Discoveries. The temples feel small next to the grandeur of Hanoi or Hue’s Imperial Forbidden Cities and tombs, but there are a handful of outstanding pagodas once used by merchants and locals over the centuries. Don’t miss the 17th century Quan Am Pagoda, dedicated to the Boddhisattva of compassion and laid-out in early Qing dynasty Confucian style, and Phuoc Lam, a lovely 18th century wooden temple built around three courtyards and with, which produced a string of Vietnam’s most important war time Buddhist leaders and has a yin-yang tiled roof topped with dramatic carved dragons.

Read next: 11 of Vietnam’s most spectacular temples and shrines

Getting a tailored outfit is a Southeast Asian often-do. And justifiably so. Choose the right place (and it’s more about the individual tailor than the shop) and you can get a favourite designer outfit bespoke made for you, or commission something of your own for the fraction of the cost. Hoi An offers the best tailoring outside Ho Chi Minh City, with dozens of shops, and the cobbling is the best in Vietnam. But check you’re getting leather throughout by using a hot paper clip or pin – leather doesn’t melt.

Read next: 9 of the best things to do in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

Most festivals in Vietnam are annual – not so in Hoi An. Every month during the full moon, the city, which is celebrated for its paper lantern art, hosts a spectacular lantern festival. Paper hot air balloons fill the sky, the river is specked with light from thousands of candle-filled boats and low amber light from tens of thousands of hanging lanterns illuminates the entire old centre. It can be hard to get a room during the festival, so be sure to book well ahead.

Read next: 7 of Vietnam’s most spectacular festivals

No building is more emblematic of the Hoi An’s trading past than this Chinese Assembly Hall in the heart of the old town. It started life as a simple thatched roof Buddhist shrine which fell into disrepair in the late 1600s, was purchased by Chinese traders, rebuilt and expanded, opening in its current glory in the mid-18th century. While merchants would gather here to talk over trade, this is more than an exchange. Everything within the walls is laid out to be propitious, ensuring luck and protection to traders and echoing organised cosmic harmony. Echoing concepts of Yin and Yang, opposites are balanced: moon and sun symbols are painted everywhere and there were separate entrances for men and women. Three arched brick gates, three courtyards and the ubiquity of the Chinese character for ‘three’, indicate the cosmic trinity of Heaven, Earth and Man, laid out in ordered harmony. Shrines hold statues of guardian lions, Bodhisattvas and the Thien Hau sea goddess (complete with a model Chinese trading ship).

There are great beaches and islands nearby, UNESCO World Heritage-listed ruins on the doorstep and plenty to keep you busy in the old centre of Hoi An, but you should still make time for a sedate bike tour of the lovely countryside that lines the Thu Bon River. The patchwork rice fields, laid out like a quilt of brilliant green and gold, cut by little canals and streams, is as flat as the Netherlands. Clear paths and lanes connect a string of tiny villages where you can stop for drinks and food, and a bike excursion is easily combined with a ride in a thung chai basket coracle or learning to make paper lanterns in a village workshop. Tours are easy to organise throughout Hoi An town or through your hotel.

These worn-down karsts are more limestone crags than marble mountain, so there’s no hiking or clambering involved; just a succession of steps leading through a three-arched gate (a symbol of the path to good fortune) to a series of shrines, caves and pagodas. While there have been Buddhist sanctuaries here for centuries, most of what you see today was built by the 19th and 20th century Nguyen Dynasty kings, who were based across the mountains in nearby Hue. Many symbolise the meeting of the heavenly and natural orders – in organic harmony. Vines overhang the leafy mouths of temple caves which are pierced by shafts of light. Frangipani and poinciana flowers litter the paths like fallen confetti, stepped pagodas meld with pinnacle peaks dotted with topiary-sculpted trees.

Read next: 7 of Vietnam’s best walking and hiking routes