What We Thought Of Hoi An

This is for everyone we don’t know who reads this!

It’s quiet town that’s nice to stay in and has the expensive hotels and restaurants for holiday goers and cheap hotels and restaurants for backpackers. Perfect.

When We Arrived

We arrived late and struggled to find a decent cheap room. We eventually relented and got a $25 dollar room that had a full breakfast buffet. It was amazing and I missed it every morning after but after the first day we moved to a cheaper place down the road called Phuong Dong Hotel. The room was $15 and it was fine. Comfortable and clean. However as usual you find out the bad things overnight. The hot shower only lasted 10 seconds before getting stone cold and the water storage tank was above the room so all night we had dripping. Time to move on. Eventually we found Hop Yen and got a room for $12. Demand for rooms was high so haggling was minimal. Shop around but in high season you have to takes at you can get

Things to do in Hoi An

- Explore the old town
- Bike ride to the beach
- Guided tour of the local sights (we didn’t do this)
- Get a new outfit made for you
- Go to Phat Tire Ventures to have an adventure day.
- Go diving on Cham Island. They give you 2 dives and a chance to explore the island or lounge around.
- Exchange books. Expensive, you pay for the wide choice.

Thats pretty much it. We didn’t take a guide of the local area as so far we have not really thought much of them. Walking around the old town and Market is great and if you really want you can pay to go into some of the older buildings. It was also where all the best restaurants were. Our favourites were down by the river on the pavement opposite the ‘traditional dance’ show and next to the bridge.

The beach was nice and the bike ride is pretty short and only costs 20,000 dong to rent. There is a con as you approach the beach where you are told to park the bike and pay 5,000 dong but if you don’t want to do this, divert off before they stop you and come back on the parallel road.

Getting an outfit made is just a suggestion but we each had something made and love them. Clothes are cheap and may not have the longest lifespan but they fit perfectly and look great.

Phat Tire Ventures was where we went to do our rock climbing. They also offered bike treks to see some ofthe local villages and after spending the day with the guys who run the ‘adventures’ they seem like they would be fun. We paid $43 dollars for a day of rock climbing and abseiling. They don’t mind combining two activities if you ask and that’s what we did!

Hoi An is a peaceful and cheap place to stay for a while and there are plenty of bars that do free pool or bar games!

Getting There

Trains and planes go to Danang. You then have to get a taxi from there to Hoi An. We went with Mai Linh in the green cabs. Price was honest and upfront. $16.

Leaving Hoi An

Hoi An - Nha Trang
Trains were expensive so we took the bus. We paid $14 for a sleeper that wasn’t too uncomfortable. Leaves Hoi An at 18:00 and arrives in Nha Trang at 6:00 with breaks and dinner stop at 21:00. When you arrive at Nha Trang you do not get off at the bus station, wait until the driver tells you to get off. The bus then continues to Saigon. There is no bus station in Hoi An, we had to book through a “tourist information” company.