Travel Dates: March 2018 for 5 days
Travel Buddies: Ben + Stacey
Located on the central coast of Vietnam, Hoi An is an undeniably charming UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was a Southeast Asia trading port between the 15th and 19th centuries. Unless you’re touring the coast of Vietnam, you’ll likely fly to Hoi An. The thing is, Hoi An does not have an airport. You must fly into Da Nang, the neighboring town to the north, but it is a quick 30 minute taxi ride into Hoi An. This small separation from an airport has helped Hoi An maintain a quaint feeling, with the larger developments happening closer to Da Nang.
We arrived in Hoi An from spending a few days in chaotic Hanoi. The scale of Hoi An is exponentially smaller and exudes a more personable and tranquil feel. The Old Town district contains beautifully well-preserved buildings that architecturally blend influences of European and Asian styles. It is also the popular tourist center and thus is mostly all shops vying for your business. Each narrow street has hundreds of handmade lanterns strung across between the two-story historic buildings. As with many places like this, the crowds can be quite thick of tourist from all over. A blessing and a curse of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
However it’s very much worth spending a day or two walking Old Town soaking it all in. It is a perfect place to walk slowly, people watch from second floor cafes, and appreciate the simpler things.
Especially at night, the town comes alive in the streets and along the river. The lanterns create quite the spectacle.
Hoi An is located on the small Thu Bon River and contains the An Hoi and Cam Nam islands as part of the city. The dense tourism focused buildings consume An Hoi, while Cam Nam is more residential than businesses. We found a lovely place to stay on Cam Nam, the Bonsai Homestay. The friendly owners have an impressive collection of bonsai trees in the courtyard and it proved to be the perfect serene stay only a short walk from the city center.
The Bonsai Homestay had functional bikes to borrow, which were wonderful for exploring outside of the city. One fun trip was biking 20 minutes to An Bang beach. We swam in the warm ocean and sipped coconut water on the beach.
Another day Moni and I biked out into the countryside around Hoi An. The green rice fields are incredibly vibrant and seem to go on for days. So much of Vietnam is like this outside of the cities. Simple yet beautiful farms tended to by hardworking families.
For a half-day trip, Moni and I visited My Son Sanctuary which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Accessible by a 1.5 hour bus ride from Hoi An, the site contains beautiful stone temples dating back to the 4th century in various states of ruin. The site was the religious and political capital of the Champa Kingdom for most of its existence, which owed its spiritual origins to Indian Hinduism. A large part of the sanctuary was bombed by Americans during the Vietnam War.
Hoi An is informally known as a tailoring capital of Southeast Asia. The countless tailor shops line every street selling suits, clothes, shoes, and anything you can imagine out of leather. Prices are very low which is the major draw. However with most things in life, you still get what you pay for. If you’re planning on having anything made, do some quick research online to find the most reputable tailors. The best ones will be fractionally more money (but still incredibly inexpensive) and the quality of work speaks for itself. Ben and I came to Hoi An with the goal of having our wedding suits made, as we are both getting married in 3 months! My research found the top tailors for quality suits were A Dong Silk and Yaly Couture. We ended up both having our suits made at A Dong Silk. The process was easy, fun, and honestly quite addictive. We both ended up with high quality suits that fit like a glove for a third of the cost in the US. I also had a pair of oxford shoes, sandals and belt made at Ken Da. Monica had a dress and coat made for her.
Overall we thought 5 days was a pleasant amount of time to spend in Hoi An. After our adventures in Lan Ha Bay, Sapa, and Hanoi, Hoi An proved to be a lovely downshift. Its humble feel, beautiful colors, and delicious food, make it a place we’d highly recommend going!
