If you are planning to go to Hoi An in beautiful Vietnam, then this guide can help you save some research time.
Here you will find places and food to try that I researched before travelling there, and hopefully in can save you time when planning!
Quick Info (prices in USD)
- Days to stay: At least 3
- Night in hostel dorm: $5–7
- Banh Mi Sandwich: $2
- Bike Rental: $10 per day
- Old city ticket: $5–6
- White rose dumplings: $4
Location of all the places mentioned
1. Visiting and exploring the old city
The old city is where most of the action in Hoi An is. You can stay hours just walking down the old streets looking at ancient houses and shops. In some parts of the city, like the market, streets are busy with people and bikes, and there is something going on around every corner.
You will need to buy the old city ticket to visit some ancient houses and historical sites. Each ticket allows you to go inside 5 sites. You can find them in booths around the old city, and they usually cost around $5–6 USD.
One thing to take into account is that the old city experience floodings every year (usually around November and December), so try to plan in advanced to avoid any high flooding.
2. Sit and relax in Hai Cafe ($$)
Recommended by my hostel, this café is located in the middle of the old city, and it’s an excellent spot to wind down and enjoy the environment of the city. The coffee is good, but the best part about this café is its location.
3. Try the famous white rose dumplings
White rose dumplings are famous in Hoi An. Made with shrimp or meat, they are soft and delicate. There is only supposed to be one family making this delicious treats and supplying them to all the restaurants in town. If you are lucky, you can see this family making the famous dumplings at Quan Thang Ancient House.
You can find them in various locations, but after doing my research, I decided to go to Miss Ly ($$), a well known restaurant whose owner has a couple of restaurants in town. The dumplings do not disappoint here, they are light, delicate and served with fried onions and chilli.
4. The best food in Hoi An: Banh mi phuong
This is the one, the most delicious sandwich I had in Vietnam, and I tried them everywhere. Come here at lunch or in the afternoon, and it is going to be packed.
Banh Mi is a sandwich made with baguette, pate, vegetables and cold meats. It deliciously showcases the mixture of Vietnamese food and French influence (Vietnam was a French colony at one point in history).
Banh Mi Phuong is the place every guide, map and website recommends. Supposedly, it is where Anthony Bourdain came to eat in his No Reservations show, but I have to say after watching the episode it doesn’t look like the same to me (maybe they moved). It doesn’t help that a few other Banh Mi shops around town also say that Anthony ate there.
Regardless of that, there is nothing compared to the taste of this delicious sandwich. If there is one dish you try in Hoi An, make it this one.
5. Eat like there is no tomorrow in Hoi An Market
Colourful, entertaining and full of action, the Hoi An market is one of the places you have to go to experience the local food and products.
Get ready to be bombarded with menus when you get inside the market, where assistants try to lure you to their shops. Don’t worry, take your time and look around, there is nothing worse than sitting in a place purely out of pressure.
Inside you can find all the local dishes to try in Hoi An at a fair price. When in doubt of where to sit, remember some cardinal rules of street food:
- Eat there if there are local people (granted, in this market it might be hard to find locals eating).
- If there is an old person doing the food, it probably means they have been doing it for a long time, which is good.
- They specialise in only one or a couple of dishes.
6. Cross the Japanese Bridge
This small and charming bridge is part of the sites you can visit with the old city ticket.
Take into account: You don’t need a ticket to cross the bridge, you only need it if you want to go inside the chamber in the middle of the bridge.
7. Enter an ancient house with your old city ticket
As part of your Old city Ticket, you can visit ancient houses and see how families in Hoi An lived before. Small and charming, these houses have a couple of interesting hidden treasures to discover.
For example, in Tan Ky ancient house, you can see the different water levels of past floodings marked on the wall, some of them almost cover the entire first floor!
But my favourite part was in Quan Thang Ancient House, where I was surprise to find the famous family in Hoi An that makes the White Rose dumplings.
8. Do a half day trip to Marble Mountain
Finally, to mix it up a little, going to Marble Mountain north of Hoi An and close to Danang is a great and easy to do half a day trip. You can get there by motorcycle (remember to wear your helmet!).
At Marble mountain, you can walk to the top and visit different caves with temples inside. Go to the top of the mountain to see the view of the ocean or just stroll down the many paths.
Take into account there are two sections where you can go up the mountain, one where you go up by stairs and another section where you use an elevator. You have to pay to go inside each section.
Tips
Transport
The old city, where most of the sites of interest and restaurants are, can be easily walked. However, if you need to get further away from or to the city, you can use Grab, an app that lets you order a car (or even a motorbike) to move around and pay in cash. You will need internet to use it, but it is really convenient to avoid being overcharged (the app shows you how much it cost to get from your location to where you want to go). Otherwise, you can always find bike drivers in each corner looking for customers.
Sleep
While I was in Hoi An, I stayed in Tribee Bana, it is a wonderful, recently open hostel close to the market. They have beautiful rooms, a good breakfast included, sell bus tickets and rent bicycles and motorbikes.
Wrapping Up
After reading this, I hope you found useful information for your trip in Hoi An. Knowing how time-consuming it can be to find the proper information, specially for foodies and budget travellers, this post is meant to help you save time and enjoy more. Have fun!
