Come for the lanterns. Stay for the basket boats, the kitchens and the ruins at dawn.
Which coconut-forest boat ride is worth the crowd, what a market-to-wok cooking class really costs, and whether My Son is better at sunrise or sunset. Reviews of the tours you can book from the old town.
Four bookings that make a first Hoi An trip.
A walk through the old merchant houses, a round boat in the palms, the Cham towers before the heat, and a market-to-wok class. What each one costs and what people say after.
01Morning oneHoi An Ancient Town Walking Tour with a LocalThe assembly halls and shophouses with a local guide, before the day-trip groups arrive.
02The coconut forestBasket Boat Ride in the Coconut ForestRound bamboo boats spun through the nipa palms at Cam Thanh. Cheap, silly and the photo everybody takes home.
03The early startMy Son Sanctuary Early Morning w. Champa Food BrunchOut to the Cham temple towers while the valley is still cool, with a brunch of Champa dishes on the way back.
04The long lunchCooking Class Hoi An:Local Market, Basket Boat, Fishing & CookingMarket shopping, a basket-boat crab hunt, then the cooking. You eat everything you make.
Basket boat, lantern boat or a slow run up the Thu Bon. Which one is yours?
Half of what people come to Hoi An for floats. Four ways onto the river and the backwaters, what each costs, and what kind of hour it fills.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · Basket Boat Ride in the Coconut Forest · from $4
Basket boatsSpun through the coconut palms at Cam Thanh.
Lantern boatsA wooden sampan at dusk and a paper lantern set on the water.
River tripsUpstream past the boatyards and the island villages.
Fishing tripsCast nets and crab traps with the families who work the estuary.
See all 210 Hoi An boat trips →
The old town is the base. These are the days out from it.
Inside the merchant streets, out to a Cham sanctuary in the hills, up to a bridge held by stone hands, into caves in the five marble peaks, over the pass to the old imperial capital.
The Hoi An tours with the longest queue of happy customers.
Every Hoi An tour we have reviewed →The days out more travellers take from Hoi An than any others, and why each one keeps filling up.
1
Basket Boat Ride in the Coconut Forest
At Bay Mau Coconut Forest, a local boat guide takes two people in a round basket boat through the waterways, with chances to try crab fishing and watch a fishing net cast. The 50-minute ride costs from $3.88 per person. Arrive before 9 a.m. for a quieter river, and budget extra if you want boat spinning or photos.
From · $3
Read our review →
2
Vietnamese Coffee Culture and Coffee Making Class
from $14
3
Vietnamese Foldable Lantern Making Class
from $10
4
Cooking Class Hoi An:Local Market, Basket Boat, Fishing & Cooking
from $28
5
Hoi An Cooking Class(Market,BasketBoat Crabfishing&Cooking Class)
from $28
6
My Son Sanctuary Early Morning w. Champa Food Brunch
from $20
7
Ba Na Hills – Golden Bridge Deluxe Small group
from $21
8
Market Tour, Basket Boat Ride and Cooking Class
from $17
Cao lau, a phin of coconut coffee and a silk lantern you made yourself.
Hoi An teaches with its hands. Market-to-wok classes in garden kitchens, a coffee bar that shows you how the phin works, and lantern tables where the bamboo frame is already bent for you.
At dusk the old town switches to lantern light.
The river fills with sampans, the night market opens on the An Hoi side and the paper lanterns go out on the current one candle at a time. Book the boat for the hour after sunset; that is when the light is best.
Every night tour in Hoi An →
Three things you will not find done like this anywhere else in Vietnam.
Plenty of towns sell a river cruise. Round boats spun in a coconut swamp, lanterns stitched from silk and bamboo, and a riverbank village still throwing pots on a foot wheel belong to Hoi An.
The round boats
The thung chai is a woven bamboo bowl sealed with resin, steered with a single paddle. Fishermen on this coast have used them for generations, and the story told in the coconut forest is that a boat shaped like a basket once escaped a tax on boats. Now the boatmen spin them for visitors, sing, and fold palm leaves into crickets and rings.
- 1Basket Boat Ride in the Coconut Forest★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 4,956 reviews
- 2Cooking Class Hoi An:Local Market, Basket Boat, Fishing & Cooking★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,660 reviews
- 3Market Tour, Basket Boat Ride and Cooking Class★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,208 reviews
The lanterns
The lanterns that hang over every street in the old town are made a few doors away: split bamboo bent into ribs, silk glued over the frame, the seams trimmed by hand. The newer folding designs collapse flat for a suitcase, which is what most classes teach. You leave with the one you made.
- 1Vietnamese Foldable Lantern Making Class★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,742 reviews
- 2Hoi An Full Lantern Making Class- A special Foldable lantern★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,007 reviews
- 3Local Foldable Lantern-Making Class with Locals★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 410 reviews
The pottery village
Upriver on the Thu Bon, Thanh Ha has been turning river clay into jars, roof tiles and cooking pots for centuries. Some workshops still use a wheel spun by a second person’s foot while the potter shapes. A short class puts your hands on the clay; the bigger tours add the village by bicycle.
- 1Thanh Ha Village: Pottery Workshop with Locals★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 223 reviews
- 2Thanh Ha Village Tour with Pottery Making and Gift★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 78 reviews
- 3Experience Pottery Making With Local Craftsmen★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 54 reviews
Hoi An is cheap. Here is how cheap.
Every Hoi An tour on the site, grouped by price per person. A surprising share of the best days cost less than a tailor’s fitting.
Basket boats, lantern boats, lantern tables and the coffee class.
Market-to-wok cooking days, My Son mornings, countryside bikes and Ba Na Hills by minibus.
Private guides, jeep and Vespa days, the Hai Van ride and island speedboats.
When the Thu Bon climbs into the streets of the old town.
Autumn is flood season on this coast. Heavy rain upstream pushes the river over the quay and boats paddle along roads that were dry the week before. The coconut forest and the islands go quiet, and the kitchens, coffee bars and lantern tables carry on under a roof.
Four Hoi An bookings to settle before you land.
Most of this town can be booked from a cafe the evening before. These four run on the clock, the tide or the season, and the good places go first.
- 01My Son Sanctuary Early Morning w. Champa Food BrunchThe valley is coolest in the first hours after the gates open. The early minibuses fill first, and by late morning the heat sits on the towers.
- 02Cham Island Speedboat Tour with SnorkelingSpeedboats out to the islands run in the calm months, roughly spring to early autumn, and stop when the sea picks up.
- 03Hoi An Memories Show & Hoi An Impression Theme Park TicketAn evening performance on an island stage in the Thu Bon, with seats sold by section. The better sections are the first to go.
- 04Ba Na Hills – Golden Bridge Deluxe Small groupThe Golden Bridge is quietest on the first cable cars of the morning. Small groups that leave early get there before the crowds.
Old town, coconut forest, My Son, then north to Da Nang and Hue.
Ancient Town
My Son
Marble Mountains
Ba Na Hills
HueBy place, from the old town outwards
By kind of day: river, kitchen, saddle or old town
Our latest Hoi An tour reviews.
Newest from the old town →
Hoi An Photographer & Vacation Photoshoot – Private Session
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BaNa Hills with Golden Bridge 1 Day Tour from Hoi An/Da Nang
Read our review →
Ba Na Hills – Golden Brigde included Buffet lunch 1 day trip
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Ba Na Hills, Da Nang & Hoi An Optional Private Tour
Read our review →
Full day Private tour in Hoi An – My Son with delicious lunch
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Private Hoi An Scooter/Motorbike Tour Village By Aodai Lady Rider
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Hoi An Walking City Afternoon & Evening- Night Market- Boat ride
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