Quang Nam
Hoi An
Fly into Da Nang and give Hoi An three or four nights: stay near the lantern-lit Ancient Town, buy the heritage ticket once, allow tailors two to three days for fittings, and balance it all with An Bang beach and the rice paddies.
Best length
3-4 nights
Airport
Da Nang (DAD), ~30km north
Airport to centre
Taxi/Grab ~45 min; no train or direct bus
Best base
Ancient Town for atmosphere; An Bang for the beach
In short
Hoi An at a glance
Hoi An is best as a 3- or 4-night base in central Vietnam: you fly into Da Nang (about 45 minutes by taxi), stay in or near the lantern-lit Ancient Town, buy the 120,000-dong heritage ticket once, give tailors two to three days for fittings, and balance the old town with An Bang beach and a bike ride through the rice paddies.
The short version
- There is no Hoi An airport: you fly into Da Nang (DAD), about 30km and 45 minutes north by car.
- The Ancient Town is a ticketed heritage site (120,000 dong, about £3.40) covering five of its old houses and temples, not a turnstile at every street.
- Order anything from the tailors on your first full day: a good suit or dress needs two or three fittings before you fly out.
- Stay in the old town for lanterns and food on the doorstep, or out by An Bang beach for a pool and quieter nights.
- Three full days is enough for the Ancient Town, a beach afternoon, a cooking class and a Hai Van Pass or My Son day trip.
Hoi An is the rare Vietnamese town that lives up to the photographs: a small grid of 18th-century merchant houses, a roofed Japanese bridge and thousands of silk lanterns that come on at dusk over the Thu Bon river. The catch is that there’s no Hoi An airport, so almost everyone arrives confused by the Da Nang transfer, and the old town empties of magic by mid-morning when the coach groups arrive and refills only after dark. The job of a good first trip is to base yourself for the evenings, do your sightseeing early, and treat the tailors as the time-bound project they really are rather than a last-day souvenir run.
Three full days is the practical minimum: one for the Ancient Town and your first fitting, one for An Bang beach and a cooking class, and one for My Son or the Hai Van Pass. Four nights is more comfortable, and gives a suit or dress time to come right. Below, the structured planning — where to stay, how the heritage ticket works, the Da Nang run, and a realistic budget in pounds — picks up from here.
Plan your Hoi An trip
Keep a first trip focused: book the big timed sights, then leave room for neighbourhoods and food.
Top things to do in Hoi An
Hoi An Ancient Town
Hoi An's old town isn't a gated attraction: you can walk every lantern-lit street, eat and shop for nothing, and you only buy a ticket to go inside the heritage buildings. The single 120,000-dong (about £3.40) pass gives you five tear-off stubs to spend across roughly 20 listed sights — old merchant houses, Chinese assembly halls, the museums and the Japanese Covered Bridge. Buy it once at any of the staffed booths on the edges of the pedestrian zone, walk the streets free in daylight, then come back at dusk for the lanterns and the candle boats on the Thu Bon.
My Son Sanctuary
Book a sunrise tour from Hoi An rather than turning up mid-morning — the 5am departures reach the Cham towers before the day-trip coaches and before central Vietnam's heat makes the open valley brutal. Entry is 150,000 dong (about £4.30) and includes the electric buggy and an apsara dance performance; most Hoi An sunrise tours add transport and a guide for around 380,000–650,000 dong (£11–£19). Allow about two hours on site, and treat the ruins as an atmospheric half-day, not an Angkor-scale wonder.
Where to stay first
The areas that make a first visit easier — not an exhaustive directory.
Ancient Town
££ mid-rangeInside or right beside the pedestrianised old town, with lanterns, tailors and riverside restaurants on the doorstep. The trade-off is evening crowds and tour-group noise until late; genuine boutique hotels here are small and book up.
Best for: First-timers wanting atmosphere and food on the doorstep
An Bang Beach
££ mid-rangeBeachfront and back-lane guesthouses 4km east, with pools, sea breeze and far quieter nights than the old town. You cycle or Grab in for dinner, which most couples are happy to do. The better choice if a pool and calm matter more than walking out to lanterns.
Best for: Couples and families wanting a pool and the beach
Cam Thanh / rice paddies
£ valueThe green belt between the old town and the river, dotted with garden resorts among the water-coconut palms. Peaceful, good value and a flat cycle into town, but you need wheels for everything. Best on a second visit or a longer, slower stay.
Best for: Value, quiet and a slower pace
Airport to city centre
| Option | Time | Cost | Book ahead? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private transfer / hotel car from Da Nang (DAD) | ~45 min | about 350,000-450,000 dong (£10-£13) | Easiest with luggage; pre-book or your hotel arranges |
| Grab car from Da Nang airport | ~45 min | about 280,000-380,000 dong (£8-£11) | Cheapest door-to-door; book in the app on arrival |
| Shared shuttle / minibus | ~60-75 min | about 150,000 dong (£4.30) per seat | Cheaper but waits to fill and drops at a central point |
When to go
Sweet spot: February to May is the sweet spot: dry, warm and before the summer heat peaks, with the river at its prettiest for the lantern evenings. The town runs a full-moon Lantern Festival each lunar month when motor traffic is banned and the old town glows by candlelight alone.
Central Vietnam is hot and dry from February to August, then takes the brunt of the autumn rains and tropical storms from September to November, when the Thu Bon river regularly floods and the old town streets can sit under water. December and January are cooler and can be grey and drizzly. Avoid late October and November for a beach-led trip.
What it costs
There are no direct UK flights to Da Nang; you connect through a Gulf or Asian hub, or fly into Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh and take a one-hour internal hop on Vietjet or Vietnam Airlines (often £35-£60). UK return fares to central Vietnam typically run £650-£900 booked ahead, spiking around Tet (mid-February).
Daily budget per person
Local prices here use £1 ≈ 35,000 dong (June 2026). The fastest way to overspend in Hoi An is the tailors; agree the full price, fabric and number of fittings in writing before you pay a deposit, and budget the days for alterations.
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