Skip to content
MASA
Itineraries

48 Hours in Hoi An: The Perfect Itinerary

Hoi An, VietnamJuly 26, 20252 min read
By MASA Editors
ShareWhatsAppXFacebook
Strings of glowing red lanterns hung above a crowded night market street lined with food stalls01
Strings of glowing red lanterns hung above a crowded night market street lined with food stallsPhoto: Chris Slupski / Unsplash

Two days among the lanterns — old-town mornings, beach afternoons, riverside evenings, and every bowl of cao lau you can manage.

Hoi An is small enough to learn in a weekend and lovely enough to ruin you for other towns. A preserved 15th-to-19th-century trading port on the Thu Bon River — UNESCO-listed since 1999 — it runs on a gentle daily rhythm: misty mornings, hot beach afternoons, and evenings when thousands of silk lanterns turn the old town amber. Here's how to spend a near-perfect 48 hours.

Key facts

  • Getting there: fly into Da Nang, then roughly 45 minutes south by taxi
  • Old town access: a heritage ticket funds preservation and admits you to a selection of historic houses and halls
  • Getting around: everything in town is walkable; bicycles rule the paddies and beach roads
A sunlit lane in Hoi An's Ancient Town, its mustard-yellow shophouses hung with silk lanterns and shaded by a flowering vine overhead, bicycles and motorbikes leaning against the wall and stacked conical hats outside a shop opposite.
A sunlit lane in Hoi An's Ancient Town, its mustard-yellow shophouses hung with silk lanterns and shaded by a flowering vine overhead, bicycles and motorbikes leaning against the wall and stacked conical hats outside a shop opposite.Photo: Thuy / Unsplash

Day one

07:00 — Old town before the crowds. Walk the empty streets while shopkeepers unbolt their shutters. Cross the Japanese Covered Bridge, the town's 400-year-old icon, and photograph the yellow walls in soft light.

09:00 — Merchant houses and assembly halls. Use your heritage ticket on Tan Ky Old House, a beautifully preserved merchant home, and the ornate Fujian Assembly Hall with its dragon fountains and coils of incense.

12:00 — First cao lau. Hoi An's signature noodle — chewy, smoky, topped with char siu-style pork and crisp croutons — is served all over the central market and old town. Legend insists the water must come from a local well; the texture is genuinely unlike anything else in Vietnam.

14:00 — Get measured. Hoi An's hundreds of tailors can produce made-to-measure suits, dresses, and coats in a day or two. Commission now so fittings fall naturally into tomorrow.

16:30 — Thu Bon River at golden hour. Take a sampan ride as the light turns; after dark, the riverbanks and night market fill with lanterns, and candle-lit paper boats drift downstream.

19:30 — Dinner and white rose. Order banh bao banh vac — "white rose" shrimp dumplings, a local monopoly — plus crispy banh xeo, then drift through the lantern-lit An Hoi night market.

The Thu Bon river at Hoi An after dark, lanterns burning along both banks
The Thu Bon river at Hoi An after dark, lanterns burning along both banksPhoto: Jason Pham / Unsplash

Day two

06:30 — Ride to the paddies. Rent a bicycle and pedal the flat lanes through rice fields toward Tra Que vegetable village, where garden plots of herbs supply half the town's kitchens.

09:00 — Banh mi benchmark. Anthony Bourdain crowned Hoi An's banh mi among the world's best; the famous stalls, Banh Mi Phuong chief among them, still earn their queues.

10:30 — An Bang Beach. Twenty minutes by bike brings you to pale sand and gentle surf, with loungers and seafood shacks for a slow, salty lunch. (Beach conditions are best in the dry months; surf and erosion vary seasonally.)

15:00 — Final fitting. Collect your tailoring, then reward yourself with Vietnamese coffee in a shuttered-courtyard cafe.

17:30 — Cooking class or last lantern walk. Many riverside kitchens run evening classes ending in dinner you made yourself — the best souvenir Hoi An sells.

Tip: Around the 14th day of each lunar month, the old town dims its electric lights for the Full Moon Lantern Festival — magical, but exceptionally crowded. Check the lunar calendar and decide which experience you want.

Still wandering?

Scroll the world one photograph at a time

Sixty places, each with the one fact worth knowing before you go

Open the feed
Same place, another angle

More from Hoi An

The Japanese Covered Bridge (Chua Cau) in Hoi An, its tiled roof and carved timber gallery raised on squat stone arches over the canal, a red Vietnamese flag flying from the ridge
01
Destinations

Hoi An for less: the thrifty traveller's playbook

Vietnam's lantern-lit trading port is already one of Asia's best-value destinations. With a bicycle, an appetite and a little timing, it becomes almost absurdly affordable.

Vietnam · 2 min
A night food stall on the Hoi An riverfront lit under a yellow sign reading Banh Trang Nuong - Grilled Rice Paper, dried squid and skewers hanging above the counter where the vendor works over rounds of grilled rice paper.
02
Food

Breakfast to midnight: eating your way through Hoi An

Cao lau at the market, Vietnam's most famous banh mi, white rose dumplings and riverside sweets after dark — a full day of eating in the lantern town.

Vietnam · 2 min
Women in conical hats sitting among wide flat baskets of herbs, spring onions, water spinach and limes at the morning market in Hoi An, under a patchwork of canvas awnings.
03
Hidden Gems

The backstreets and morning markets of Hoi An

Before the lanterns light and the crowds arrive, Hoi An belongs to fishmongers, herb farmers and potters. Where to find the working town behind the postcard.

Vietnam · 2 min
Keep exploring

More in Itineraries

The wooded promontory of Villa del Balbianello reaching into Lake Como, its terraced villa buildings and clipped trees above the blue water, with the lake's steep mountains behind
01
Itineraries

A Rainy Day on Lake Como: The All-Indoor Route

Low cloud on the lake is atmospheric rather than tragic. A day of silk, a duomo, a villa museum and a covered ferry deck — built entirely from things that work better in bad weather.

Italy · 2 min
Florence Cathedral: Brunelleschi's red-tiled dome and Giotto's bell tower rising above the rooftops of the city
02
Itineraries

Florence in Three Days: The Perfect Route Through the Heart of Tuscany

Three days genuinely cover Florence's classics, but only if you book the timed tickets before you fly and walk the city in the right order — here is that order, with what to skip and what it costs.

Italy · 10 min
A temple complex in Bangkok on a clear day: the gilded Loha Prasat and traditional Thai temple roofs
03
Itineraries

48 Hours in Bangkok: The Route That Makes Every Hour Count

Two days is enough for Bangkok if you stop fighting its geography: this route gives the old river city and the modern rail city half a day each, and uses the Chao Phraya as the seam between them.

Thailand · 13 min
A wooden abra crossing the Burj Lake at night in Downtown Dubai, the towers of the promenade reflected in the water around it
04
Itineraries

Dubai with Kids: Water Parks and Air Conditioning

A city that has built its family attractions on an industrial scale — and a climate that decides your timetable for you, whether you like it or not.

United Arab Emirates · 4 min
A traditional Zanzibari dhow under full sail silhouetted against a pink and grey sunset off Nungwi, the sun sitting on the horizon and its light running across flat water towards the camera.
05
Itineraries

Eight Days in Zanzibar: Three Bases, One Tide Table, No Backtracking

Zanzibar rewards just over a week if you split it into three bases and let the tide table, rather than the map, decide what you do each morning.

Tanzania · 10 min
Aerial view of the Midtown Manhattan skyline at sunset, with the Empire State Building rising at the centre
06
Itineraries

3 Days in New York for First-Timers

A momentum-first itinerary through Midtown icons, downtown history and Brooklyn's waterfront — with the queues, subways and pastrami handled.

United States · 3 min