Hoi An is the kind of place people come for two days and stay for a week. The UNESCO-listed Ancient Town — a perfectly preserved old trading port of yellow merchant houses, the Japanese Covered Bridge and thousands of silk lanterns — is the headline, but the real magic is in the doing: floating a candle on the river at dusk, having a suit run up overnight, cooking your own lunch after cycling to a herb garden, or drifting through a coconut forest in a round bamboo boat. This guide rounds up the best things to do in Hoi An — the unmissable icons and the hands-on experiences — and links you to a deep guide for each. (Planning the logistics — getting there, the Ancient Town ticket, where to stay? Our complete Hoi An travel guide has it all, and you can reach Hoi An from Da Nang with our transport guide.)

1. The Best Things to Do in Hoi An at a Glance

If you do five things, do these: wander the Ancient Town, see the lanterns and the river at night, take a cooking class, ride a basket boat, and have something tailor-made. Here’s the full menu before the detail:

2. Explore the Ancient Town

The Ancient Town is the heart of Hoi An — a tangle of lantern-strung lanes lined with 15th–19th-century merchant houses in faded ochre, best explored slowly and on foot (it’s largely car-free).

• The Japanese Covered Bridge (Chùa Cầu) — the 400-year-old symbol of the town, freshly restored, spanning a small canal.
• Old houses & assembly halls — step inside Tan Ky House, the Fujian (Phuc Kien) Assembly Hall and the trade museums to feel the old port’s Chinese-Japanese-Vietnamese mix.
• The Ancient Town ticket covers entry to a set of these heritage sights — see our Hoi An guide for how the ticket works and which sights to pick.

Go early morning for soft light and few crowds, or late afternoon to roll straight into the lanterns.

3. Lanterns & the Thu Bon River by Night

This is the moment everyone comes for. As dusk falls, the Ancient Town switches on thousands of silk lanterns, the riverfront fills with reflections, and vendors sell little paper lanterns with a candle (around 10,000 VND) to float on the Thu Bon River for good luck.

• Take a boat: a short ride in a lantern-decked sampan puts you in the middle of the glow — gentle, romantic and great for photos.
• Time the full moon: on the 14th day of each lunar month, the town turns off its electric lights for the Lantern Festival — pure lantern light, music and floating candles. The standout night of 2026 is the Nguyen Tieu celebration around 3 March (the first full moon after Tet).
• Even on ordinary nights it’s beautiful — you don’t have to wait for the festival.

4. Make Your Own Lantern

For a hands-on hour, join a lantern-making workshop and build your own silk lantern from the bamboo frame up, guided by a local maker. The best part: the lanterns are collapsible, so they fold flat to fit in your luggage and become the souvenir you’ll actually hang at home.

It’s a lovely, low-key activity — especially good with kids or on a rainy afternoon — and it makes the evening lanterns mean a lot more once you’ve made one yourself.

5. Get Clothes Tailor-Made

Hoi An is the textile capital of Vietnam, with hundreds of tailor shops that can run up a bespoke suit, dress, coat or shirt — often in as little as 24 hours. Having something made here is one of the town’s signature experiences.

• Allow time for a fitting or two: order on day one, collect (and tweak) on day two or three. Don’t leave it to your last afternoon.
• Bring a reference — a photo or a garment you love — and choose your fabric carefully; quality varies a lot between shops.
• Agree the price, fabric and number of fittings up front, and inspect the finished piece before you pay in full.

6. Take a Cooking Class

A Hoi An cooking class is one of the most fun half-days in central Vietnam. A typical class (about 4–5 hours, roughly $25–50 / 600,000–1,250,000 VND) starts with a market visit or a cycle to a herb garden to gather ingredients, then you cook regional favourites — fresh spring rolls, bánh xèo (crispy pancakes) and more — and eat the lot.

It’s hands-on, sociable and genuinely useful (you’ll recreate the dishes at home). Want to know the food first? See our guides to bánh xèo and the wider central Vietnam food scene.

7. Ride a Basket Boat in the Coconut Forest

Just outside town in Cam Thanh, the Bay Mau coconut-palm water forest is the setting for Hoi An’s most playful boat trip: a ride in a traditional round bamboo basket boat (thúng chai), paddled by a local boatman through the palms.

• Expect crab-fishing demos, coconut-leaf weaving and — if you’re up for it — the famous spinning basket-boat show.
• It’s fun, cheap and family-friendly, and pairs naturally with a cycle out through the rice paddies.
• It’s also a quick taster of the watery, palm-fringed landscape that surrounds Hoi An.

8. Cycle Through the Rice Paddies & Tra Que Village

Hoi An is flat, green and made for cycling. Many hotels lend bikes free, and within minutes you’re rolling past emerald rice paddies, water buffalo and farming villages.

• Tra Que Vegetable Village is the classic ride — an organic herb village where you can walk the beds, try your hand at farming with local growers, and eat super-fresh food.
• Go early to beat the heat; the light over the paddies at sunrise and sunset is magic.
• Cycling is also the nicest way to reach An Bang Beach.

9. Hoi An’s Beaches: An Bang & Cua Dai

When the Old Town heat builds, the coast is a short ride away:

• An Bang Beach is the livelier, more popular strip — soft sand, beach bars and seafood shacks, a relaxed crowd, and sunbeds to rent. The easy default for a beach afternoon.
• Cua Dai Beach, a little further, is quieter (parts have been affected by erosion but it’s still a pleasant, calmer stop).
• Best swimming is in the dry months (roughly Feb–Aug); in the rains the sea can be rough. Time it with our best time to visit guide and weather guide.

10. Day Trips from Hoi An

Hoi An is a brilliant base for central Vietnam’s heavy-hitters:

The My Son ruins are best at sunrise — see our My Son guide. For sea and snorkelling, the Cham Islands leave from nearby Cua Dai. And the city of Da Nang — with the Marble Mountains, the beaches and Ba Na Hills — is just up the coast; see everything to do there in our things to do in Da Nang guide and the Da Nang day trips guide.

11. Hoi An by Traveller Type (and Free Things)

Lots of Hoi An’s best moments are free — wandering the lanes, watching the lanterns, floating a candle, cycling the paddies and lazing on the beach. Pick by who you are:

12. How Many Days & a Simple Plan

Three to four days is ideal — enough to explore the town, do a cooking class and a basket-boat trip, get clothes made (with time for fittings), enjoy the beach and take one day trip. A simple frame:

• Day 1: settle in, wander the Ancient Town, order any tailoring, stay for the lanterns at night.
• Day 2: morning cooking class or cycle to Tra Que; afternoon basket boat at Cam Thanh; collect tailoring.
• Day 3: beach morning at An Bang; a day trip to My Son (sunrise) or the Cham Islands.
• Day 4 (optional): Da Nang for the day, or a slow final lap of the lanes and a lantern-making workshop.

Sort the practicalities — transfers, the Ancient Town ticket and where to stay — with our complete Hoi An travel guide, and tie the wider trip together with our Da Nang & central Vietnam master guide.

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