Hoi An Ancient Town: An Honest Review & Practical Visit Guide

Description and Is It Worth Visiting

Hoi An Ancient Town is the historic heart of one of Vietnam's most atmospheric towns, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Essentially, this is the main attraction of the town, where every street, every yellow house with a tiled roof and wooden shutters is an open-air museum. Its interest lies in the unique blend of Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese architectural traditions preserved here from the 15th-19th centuries when Hoi An was a major international port. People come here not to see one specific point, but to immerse themselves in a special environment, especially magical in the evening when hundreds of silk lanterns light up over the narrow streets.

You can wander here endlessly, simply admiring the details of ancient facades, popping into souvenir shops, and watching life by the river. The entire center becomes a pedestrian zone in the evenings, with limited traffic, making the walk very comfortable. The main value of the Ancient Town is precisely in this cohesive atmosphere that transports you several centuries back. However, besides freely exploring the streets, there is also an official system for visiting key historical sites, which is important to know about. We'll tell you all about it now.

How to Visit the Ancient Town: Practical Information

Entrance to Hoi An Ancient Town is free and there are no clear boundaries or fences marking its start and end. You can walk anywhere you want and look at anything you want. However, a number of sites are accessible for internal viewing for a fee. A unified ticket system is in place for this.

This ticket costs 120,000 VND and is valid for three days from the purchase date. It gives the right to visit five sites of your choice from a general list of 25 places: museums, ancient merchant houses, Chinese Assembly Halls, and temples. If you want to visit 10 sites, you need to buy two tickets, and so on. The ticket is not personalized, so you can buy one for two or three people and visit the sites in turns in any order.

You can buy the ticket at special ticket counters easily found, for example, near the Japanese Covered Bridge or on An Hoi Island, but it's more convenient to purchase it online with card payment on trip.com (Russian cards work, price is the same as cash payment). The ticket from the counter and on the website is electronic: at the entrance to each attraction, it is scanned, deducting one visit.

Along with the ticket, you will receive a paper map. On it, attractions are grouped by type and highlighted in different colors. It's best to explore everything on foot. You can also download the Organic Maps or Maps Me apps and load the points from our Hoi An map, where we've marked the most interesting places in our opinion.

In our experience, it's not necessary to try to cover everything; it's enough to choose the most interesting ones. We recommend including these sites in your route:

• Traditional Performance (Hoi An Traditional Performance House). Shows at 10:15, 15:15 and 16:15.
• Hoi An Museum
• Tan Ky Old House
• Quan Cong Temple
• Minh Huong Communal House

This set of locations will give you a general understanding of the history and culture. You can visit the other places optionally as desired.

At the same time, most of the pleasure from the Ancient Town can be obtained absolutely free of charge. Locations that are free to visit and simply mandatory for a leisurely stroll include Bach Dang Embankment, offering postcard views of the river and boats, and the An Hoi Lantern Bridge, connecting the center with the island of the same name.

Be sure to walk along Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, known as Lantern Street, especially picturesque in the evening. It's equally interesting to simply wander along parallel streets like Tran Phu or Nguyen Thai Hoc, where many historical buildings, cafes, and shops are located. You can also see the symbol of the city, the Japanese Covered Bridge, for free, although entering the small chapel inside it requires a ticket. For shopping and immersing in the local flavor, it's worth visiting the main Hoi An Market. On An Hoi Island, the evening night market operates, dominated by lanterns and street food.

When planning your walk, consider that it can be quite hot during the day, but more comfortable in the evening, though very crowded. The most beautiful, but also peak, atmosphere occurs after sunset when the lights come on and large groups of tourists are brought in from Da Nang.