Chapters
3 days itinerary in Hoi An
"The city of my thousand colors"
Located on the banks of the Thun Bon River, Hoi An is one of the most beautiful and charming cities in Vietnam. Made up of Chinese, Japanese, French, Dutch and Indians who created the ancient city of Hoi An, turning its old town into one of the most influential commercial areas in all of Asia. Declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, it is a place anchored in time that has managed to preserve the same appearance it had centuries ago, back when it was an important commercial port.
DAY 1
Discovering Hoi An
Leave your accommodation in Da Nang to head to Hoi An, which is an hour away by car. Check in at your hotel in Hoi An and take a bike to go around the town.
We stayed at the “Golden Holiday Hotel & Spa” hotel, we paid about €33/night for a deluxe double room with a balcony. The hotel is new, the rooms are big and comfortable and it is a 15′ walk from the center. They offer you free bikes during your stay (also with baby seat).
13:00h - 15:00h
Have lunch at Restaurant Secret Garden and enjoy the best local food.
16:00h - 17:30h
Make your Clothes to measure.
Hoi An is known for its many tailor shops. You can design your own clothes here for great prices or use an existing example. These garments are custom made for you. You can design, for example, a suit, a dress or even a bag or shoes. We recommend the Bebe Taylor store, they have all kinds of quality fabrics and are very professional.
19:30h - 22:30h
Visit the beautiful Night market, where you can find all kinds of local food, as well as souvenirs, clothes etc. Do not forget to try the Vietnamese pizza.
DAY 2
Discovering Hoi An
10:00h - 14:00h
Visit the most important cultural places buying the “Old Town Ticket”, a Hoi An tourist voucher. The tourist ticket allows us to visit 5 tourist places from a list in which we find old houses, museums, temples, etc. We recommend to visit the followings:
120.000 Dongs (5€ aprox.)
1. JAPANESE BRIDGE.
The chùa cầu (Japanese bridge) is a covered stone bridge-pagoda in the city of Hội An, in central Vietnam, today a historical monument. It divides two traditional neighborhoods, the Chinese and the Japanese. Its construction lasted from 1593 to 1595. It is 18 meters long and its roof is made of wood. According to legend, the people of Hội An built the bridge to hunt a monster believed to be responsible for several earthquakes in the region. They believed that the stone pillars of the bridge were going to pierce the heart of the monster.
2. QUANG TRIEU CANTONESE ASSEMBLY.
A few meters from the Japanese Covered Bridge, on Tran Phu Street, is the Quang Trieu Cantonese Assembly. The Chau Tribe Assembly Hall was built in 1845. General Ba Phuc, who was said to be able to catch the calm and quiet air, was worshiped there. The Hall possesses special value in the architecture of skillfully carved wood and decorated wooden frame and many works made of glazed terracotta.
3. FUJIAN ASSEMBLY
Phuc Kien Assembly Hall is said to have once been a small temple dedicated to Thien Hau Thanh Mau (a goddess who protects merchants who sail the sea). Due to the restorations and the support of the people of Phuc Kien, the Assembly Hall became a spacious and resplendent hall that has Hoi An architecture participation in the embellishment. The arrangement of the cult statues in the hall signifies "human happiness" and deeply expresses oriental philosophy.
4. VAN DUC PAGODA.
The Van Duc Pagoda is one of the largest to see in Hoi An. What attracts the most about this pagoda is the main palace, which is divided into five different parts: three prayer spaces and two corridors. In addition, it is a place where you can see Buddhist monks.
5. CHUC THANH PAGODA
At the end of the 17th century, the priest Minh Hai founded Chuc Thanh Pagoda, in his time it was known as the site where Thien Chuc Thanh capitulated from the Thien Lam Te religion and the place where he lived. The pagoda was built in a combination of Chinese and Vietnamese architectural styles. Pilgrims come to Chuc Thanh Pagoda to worship Tam Phat, Di Lac, and La Han. In the pagoda, there is a statue of Quan Am “Bo Tat”, goddess of mercy, and it contains the tombs of Minh priests. Hai, from Thiet Tho, from Bich An, and from Thien Qua.
14:00h - 15:30h
Have lunch at Restaurant Café Tuan and enjoy the best local food. Do not forget to try their Cau Lau, white Rosey & Won Ton.
It is run by a very friendly local Vietnamese family, the treatment is unbeatable as is the quality of their food, they care about your food intolerances and in my case, they offered me with the best gluten-free options, and everything was delicious!
16:00h - 17:00h
Walk through its old town and take the opportunity to do some shopping, Hoi An is a place with a lot of local crafts, you will find many special things to take home a memory of this beautiful town. You can also buy clothing sets for the whole family with super fun prints, we chose this one!
17:00h - 18:00h
Stop at a very special tea house called “Reaching Out Tea House”. All the people who work there are deaf, it is a very special place.
At the back of the store you will find a shop where they create handmade jewelry, crockery and many other objects, it is a place full of corners that will surprise you!
20:30h - 22:00h
Dinner at the Vietnamese Firefly restaurant .
DAY 3
Discovering Hoi An
09:30h - 14:00h
Excursion to know the sanctuary of My son, a set of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples, built between the 4th and 14th century by the Champa kings (Chiêm Thành in Vietnamese).
Book your experience with GET YOUR GUIDE
14:30h - 16:00h.
Lunch at Nhan’s kitchen local food. They know about gluten free!
Another option if you don’t want to eat Vietnamese food is to go to the restaurant “Good morning Vietnam” where you will eat pasta as good as if you were eating it in Italy.
16:00h - 20:00h
Have a coffee with a wonderful cheesecake! There is a place called Lagom Coffe & Bakery where you can enjoy delicious pastries, and they have gluten-free options! You have to try the salted caramel and pecan cheesecake, it’s just AMAZING!
20:00h - 21:30h
Dinner at Com Linh ( they know gluten). We recommend you to try the duck!
21:30h - 23:00h
Enjoy drinks on Market Bar. This cozy terrace has beautiful views to the local market square.
The team is very friendly and always willing to help you in any way they can. They organized my brother-in-law’s birthday there, they put some balloons for us and they ordered the best cake (Gluten free). The snack-type food was very good, the homemade french fries with their different sauces (which are more good), the Guacamole, the Cocktails, everything! We recommend it 100%.
- If you need to celebrate a special occasion, they offer you the possibility of ordering a cake, they work with the best pastry shops in Hoi An and the price is very good!
VISA
If we are going to make a trip to Vietnam, the first thing we should take into account is that if our stay is going to be longer than 15 days, we will need a visa to enter Vietnam, and among the types of visas that can be processed, the e Visa Vietnam is the fastest and easiest way to obtain it.
The electronic Visa for Vietnam, or eVisa, is a type of visa aimed at those people who are going to be visiting the country for up to 30 days, and plan to enter the country through the entry points that are enabled for it.
The visa is valid only for a single entry into the country. So if we leave the country before 30 days, we will have to process a new visa.
You can check the updated list of countries that can process the visa online from here.
To obtain any of the visas or visa exemptions for Vietnam it is mandatory to comply with the following General Regulations:
- Passport with 6 Months of Validity.
- Passport with 2 Blank Pages (without stamps or visa from other countries on at least two pages),
- Vietnam Exit Ticket, sometimes the authorities check that you have a Vietnam exit ticket with date prior to the expiration of the visa or visa waiver.
- If you are Spanish, you have the right to a Simple Entry to Vietnam for a period of time not exceeding 15 consecutive days without the need for a visa.
For the latest updates on Covid Travel Requirements please click here.
HOW TO VISIT
All you need is the Grab app on a smartphone with a local SIM and all your city-based transportation needs are sorted.
You can buy an eSIM online here with 5GB internet for a 15 days stay.
Grab is a mobile app that allows you to book cheap and safe taxi service. The app matches passengers with taxi drivers for transport with cars and motorbikes.
BEST TIME TO VISIT
The best time to visit Vietnam is between November and April.
The weather in Vietnam can be split by region. In Hanoi & the north, May to October is hot and humid with high rainfall; November to April is cooler and dry. In the far north, December & January can be particularly cold.
Central Vietnam experiences hot, dry weather between January & August when temperatures can hit the mid-30°C’s; whilst high levels of rainfall can occur in September, October & November.
Southern Vietnam is generally dry and hot from November to April, and warm and wet between May & October, with the highest rainfall in June, July & August.
WHERE TO EAT
Vietnamese cuisine is reputed to be one of the best in Asia and caters for all tastes. It is based on fresh ingredients and cooked at the moment. The most common are chicken, beef and pork, fish and shellfish, abundant aromatic herbs, rice and rice noodles, soy and fish sauces.
What is bánh trang nướng?
Often called Vietnamese pizza, bánh trang nướng is a Vietnamese snack that appeared about 20 years ago. Bánh tráng is the name of rice paper and nướng means roasted, so we could translate it as roasted rice paper.
The most famous dish in Vietnam is Phô soup, but here in Hoi An the typical dishes that you must try are the following:
1. Cao Lau (Cao Lầu)
2. Fídeos Quang (Mỳ Quảng)
3. Arroz de pollo (Cơm Gà)
4. Banh Mi (Bánh Mì) . There is a perfect place to try it in the center of the old town, make click here.
FOR LUNCH:
- Café Tuan for the best local food. Do not forget to try their Cau Lau, white Rosey & Won Ton.
- Nhan’s kitchen. Local food, the know about gluten free!
- Good morning Vietnam. Italian restaurant with a very good quality in the old town, must try their home made pizza and pasta!
FOR DINNER:
- Cena en Firefly restaurant restaurante vietnamita.
- Com Linh ( the know gluten). We recommend you to try the duck!
- The night market, where you can try the popular Vietnamese pizza.
BEST HOTELS
In Hoi An you can find a wide variety of accommodation at really low prices and luxury hotels that will make your stay unforgettable. We are going to recommend you two of the hotels we have been to, which we can highly recommend.
As soon as you arrive, they invite you to sit down while you check in, on comfortable sofas while they serve you a delicious Hibiscus tea.
We had a Suite with views of the city and it cost us about 110€/day with buffet breakfast included.
The bed was very comfortable and the pillows too, you had one high and one low, and we appreciated it because in most hotels the pillows are very high. The bathroom was lovely, we had a great shower and bath, we had a balcony overlooking the pool.
The buffet was just amazing, very big, it had different stations of eastern and western foods, there were so many options and all of them were very good!
The hotel had free bicycles available to guests, and although it is very close to the center, they are very useful for exploring the entire town and getting to know all its corners.
The pool area was very large, and although we didn’t get the chance to swim in it, it looked amazing!
We had the deluxe double room with balcony and it cost us 33€/night with buffet breakfast included. The room was large, the beds and pillows comfortable, and it had a large bathroom inside with a bathtub.
The establishment offers bicycles for free to guests, several have baby seats in the back to be able to move with the little ones.
The buffet was good, it was basic but there were enough options, although in my case, I am celiac, I hardly had anything, so we used to go often to a very good coffe shop that is 350 meters from the hotel Called Rosie’s, it had everything and it was super Nice! The coffee was very good, they offered a lot of western breakfast options, the price was a little higher than what you find in the rest of Vietnam but it’s worth having breakfast there.
QUICK TIPS
We have created another post called “TIPS TO TRAVEL THROUGH VIETNAM” in which we advise you what to carry in your travel backpack when you are going to travel through Vietnam, where to exchange money and many other things that may be useful when preparing your trip.
If you also travel with a baby like us, we recommend another of our posts called “TIPS FOR TRAVELING WITH BABIES” where you can find some extra tips that will help you organize yourself better.
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