Hoi An old town
A fifteenth-century trading port left intact, silk lanterns and yellow timber houses.
Duration
3 hrs – 5 hrs
Best time
Early morning, or after dark
Open
Every day
Entry price
120000 VND
Hoi An was South-East Asia's great trading port in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, until the Thu Bon river silted up and the traffic moved to Da Nang. Being forgotten saved it: with no money, nothing was pulled down, and eight hundred period buildings still stand.
The ticket admits you to five sites of your choice out of about twenty — merchant houses, Chinese assembly halls, the Japanese bridge. Walking the streets, on the other hand, is not charged for, whatever the touts say.
Getting there
Thirty-five kilometres south of Da Nang, about forty-five minutes by taxi. The old town is pedestrianised at certain hours; everything is on foot.
What the price covers
foreign visitor ticket; it admits you to five of the old town's twenty-one sites. 80,000 ₫ for Vietnamese nationals.
Rules on site
The combined ticket is checked at each site, not in the street: nobody can demand one just for walking. Tailors promise a suit in twenty-four hours — allow two fittings, so two days in town.
Checked on 29 August 2026 at Hoi An World Heritage — entrance ticket
Other places in Hoi An
- Japanese covered bridgeThe symbol of the town, built by the Japanese community around 1600, with a small temple inside it.
- An Bang BeachThe sand four kilometres from the old town, lined with unpretentious bars.
- My Son SanctuaryFourth-century Cham brick tower-temples in a jungle bowl, bombed and then restored.
- Central MarketThe herbs, the noodles and the fabric stalls where you order a suit in twenty-four hours.