destination · Hoi An

Hoi An Review: A Genuinely Beautiful Old Town With a Tailor-Shop Hustle and a Flood Season

Hoi An sits on the Thu Bon river in Quang Nam province, roughly 30 kilometres south of Da Nang, and it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on December 4, 1999 as an exceptionally well preserved Southeast Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries. That listing is earned. The Ancient Town core, essentially Tran Phu, Nguyen Thai Hoc and Bach Dang streets, is a dense grid of ochre shophouses, Chinese assembly halls and the Japanese Covered Bridge, known locally as Chua Cau, which reopened in early August 2024 after a two year restoration costing about 20.2 billion Vietnamese dong, funded equally by Quang Nam province and Hoi An city. The rebuilt bridge drew public criticism for looking too new, and visitors expecting a weathered 400 year old structure should reset expectations. Access to the heritage core runs on a ticket. Foreign visitors pay 120,000 VND, sold at the small yellow booths at the main entrances, valid 24 hours, and the ticket covers entry to five of the 22 listed heritage buildings, with a tear off strip surrendered at each door. Street level enforcement is inconsistent and many people wander the lanes without buying, but every assembly hall, old house and museum checks it at the door. Arrival is simple. Da Nang International Airport is the gateway, about 45 minutes out. Grab runs roughly 250,000 to 350,000 VND, plus a small airport pickup surcharge paid directly to the driver, metered taxis land around 300,000 to 400,000 VND, and prearranged private cars sit at 350,000 to 500,000 VND. Touts working the arrivals hall quote 500,000 to 700,000 VND for the identical trip, so use the app or the official rank and decline everything else. Timing decides the quality of the visit. February to April is the dependable window, warm and dry with low humidity. May to August stays dry but gets genuinely punishing, with highs approaching 40C. September to November is typhoon and flood season on the central coast, and this is not an abstraction. On October 30, 2025 the Thu Bon crested at 5.62 metres in Hoi An, 14 centimetres above the 1964 record, and water only drained out of the Ancient Town on October 31, leaving thick mud through the shophouses. Bach Dang, Nguyen Thai Hoc and Tran Phu, the exact streets visitors come for, sit lowest and flood first. November 2025 brought a second round of inundation. The lantern night, Dem Ram Pho Co, falls on the 14th night of each lunar month. Remaining 2026 dates include 27 July, 26 August, 24 September, 23 October, 22 November and 22 December. Motorbikes are cleared from the core around 5:30 pm, electric lighting goes down between roughly 6 and 10 pm, and the candle boat release on the Hoai river peaks between 7 and 9 pm. Outside town, My Son Sanctuary, the Cham temple complex about 50 kilometres inland, charges 150,000 VND for foreigners, which covers the site museum, the electric shuttle to the temple groups and the traditional dance performance. The honest caveat is commerce. Tailoring is Hoi An's signature industry and also its best documented problem. Hotel staff, drivers and friendly strangers routinely collect 20 to 40 percent commission for delivering a customer to a particular shop, and that cut comes out of either the price or the garment. Suits quoted under 100 US dollars are typically fused rather than canvassed, and synthetic blends are regularly sold to visitors as mulberry silk. A suit promised in 24 hours is usually a modified off the rack piece from a volume factory. None of this makes Hoi An a bad destination. It makes it a place where the visitor who books a tailor directly, allows three or four days for real fittings, and treats the first quoted number as an opening position ends up with a completely different trip from the one who does not.