Hoi An Ancient Town

Why I like this one

Hoi An is a walking town and the whole trick is timing. Arrive at eleven in the morning with everyone else and you queue behind a flag. Arrive when we do, break when it gets hot, and come back as the lanterns are lit, and it becomes the evening people talk about for years.

It was a working port for five hundred years — Japanese, Chinese, Dutch and Indian merchants all traded here — which is why the architecture makes no sense until someone explains it. That is my job.

If you want something made by a tailor, tell me in the car. We order early so it is finished before you fly home.

Highlights

• A round bamboo basket boat through the water-coconut palms at Cam Thanh
• The Japanese Covered Bridge, built in the 1590s and printed on the 20,000₫ note
• Tan Ky House — a merchant home from 1741, still lived in by the seventh generation
• Floating a paper lantern on the Thu Bon after dark

The plan, hour by hour

This is how the day usually runs. Nothing is fixed — if you want longer somewhere, or you'd rather skip a stop entirely, just say so on the day.

1. 08:30

   Hotel pick-up

   Forty-five minutes down the coast road, past My Khe and the Marble Mountains. A good stretch for the questions you have been saving up.

2. 09:30

   Basket boats at Cam Thanh

   Round bamboo thung chai boats through a forest of water coconut palms, with a fisherman showing you how to cast a net and, if the mood takes him, spinning the boat on the spot. Yes it is touristy. Everyone gets off grinning. About an hour.

3. 11:00

   Into the Ancient Town

   The town ticket is 120,000₫ and admits you to five of the twenty-two heritage buildings — the streets themselves are free. It is valid twenty-four hours, so nothing is wasted if we split the day. I pick the five that are worth your time.

4. 11:20

   Japanese Covered Bridge

   Built by the Japanese merchant community in the 1590s to reach the Chinese quarter, with a dog at one end and a monkey at the other. It is the symbol of the town and the reason the 20,000₫ note looks familiar.

5. 11:50

   Tan Ky House

   A merchant house from 1741, lived in by the same family for seven generations. Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese carpentry in a single room, and flood marks up the wall showing how high the river comes in November.

6. 12:20

   Fujian Assembly Hall

   The most theatrical of the Chinese halls — a dragon gate, spiral incense coils hanging from the roof for a month at a time, and an altar to Thien Hau, the goddess who protects sailors.

7. 13:00

   Lunch

   Cao lau, thick chewy noodles that exist nowhere else because of the well water they are made with; white rose dumplings, folded by a handful of families; and a banh mi at about 30,000₫ that deserves its reputation.

8. 14:30

   Rest, or a tailor, or lanterns

   The hot hour. Take an air-conditioned coffee, get measured at a tailor, or make your own silk lantern in a workshop. Your call — I will suggest, not push.

9. 16:00

   Coffee by the Thu Bon

   The hour the yellow walls start to glow. This is the photograph that ends up framed at home.

10. 17:45

    Lanterns and the river

    The streets close to traffic, the lanterns come on and the whole town changes colour. We take a rowing boat on the Thu Bon, and 20,000₫ buys three paper lanterns to float on the water.

11. 19:00

    Dinner and the night market

    Street food across the bridge on An Hoi island, or a proper sit-down meal facing the river. Both are good; one is quieter.

12. 20:30

    Drive back

    Home to Da Nang, about forty-five minutes, everyone quiet in the back.

What's included

Good to know

• MeetingYour hotel in Da Nang or Hoi An
• TimingStay for the evening. The lanterns come on around 17:45 in winter and 18:30 in summer, and the town is closed to traffic until 21:30.
• LengthFull day, into the evening
• GroupPrivate — your group only