Hội An Ancient Town — a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Vietnam's central coast, 30km south of Đà Nẵng — is the most atmospheric and most beautifully preserved historic town in Southeast Asia: a former international trading port of the 15th–19th centuries whose old quarter of Chinese merchant houses, Japanese-built covered bridges, French colonial warehouses, Vietnamese tube houses and assembly halls (hội quán) has survived largely intact to create a streetscape of extraordinary texture and colour. At night, when the electricity is dimmed and hundreds of silk lanterns (Hội An's signature craft) glow in the streets and are floated on the river, the town achieves a beauty that is genuinely difficult to photograph without it looking like a postcard — and equally difficult to forget.
The town's trading heritage — it was one of East Asia's most significant ports between the 16th and 18th centuries, frequented by Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese and Cham traders — is still legible in its architecture: the Japanese Covered Bridge (Chùa Cầu, 1593) at the western end of the old quarter marks the boundary between the Chinese and Japanese merchant districts; the Chinese Assembly Halls (Phúc Kiến Hall, with its extraordinary ceremonial gates and murals) preserve the distinct identities of the Fujianese, Cantonese and Hainanese merchant communities that inhabited Hội An's quarters for centuries.
The Old Quarter
The Ancient Town's core (the area within the moat and the Thu Bồn River) is largely pedestrianised in the evenings and contains the key historic buildings. The Japanese Covered Bridge (Chùa Cầu) — covered since the 18th century to protect it from tropical rains, with a small Buddhist temple in the bridge's middle — is Hội An's most famous single image. The Phúc Kiến Assembly Hall (Fujian Chinese, 1697) has the most elaborate interior of the town's six assembly halls, with enormous elaborate paper effigies, painted murals and a sequence of ceremonial courtyards. The Tấn Ký Old House — an 18th-century merchant's home, still owned by the same family after seven generations — gives the finest insight into the architecture and daily life of the town's trading community. The old quarter entry ticket (approximately £3) covers most of the major sites.
Silk Lanterns, Tailors & Food
Hội An's two most celebrated commercial industries are its silk lanterns (the colourful paper and silk lanterns produced here are now found throughout Vietnam, but Hội An is where the craft originated and is most concentrated — the lantern-making workshops along the old quarter streets allow visitors to make their own) and its tailoring (dozens of tailor shops offer bespoke garment production in 24–48 hours — jacket, dress, suit or ao dai (Vietnamese traditional dress) — at prices that are extraordinary by European standards, though quality varies significantly and research before choosing a tailor is essential). Hội An's cooking school scene is excellent: the morning market tour followed by a half-day cooking class (producing white rose dumplings, cao lầu noodles with pork and herbs, Vietnamese spring rolls) is one of Vietnam's finest practical cultural experiences.
An Bàng Beach & the Surrounding Area
An Bàng Beach — 4km from the Ancient Town by bicycle — is one of central Vietnam's finest beaches: a long, relatively uncrowded strip of white sand with a bohemian beach café and seafood restaurant scene that provides the perfect counterpoint to the town's historic intensity. The My Sơn Sanctuary (45km west of Hội An) — a complex of 4th–13th century Cham Hindu temple towers in a jungle valley — is the finest example of Cham architecture in Vietnam and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Marble Mountains (20km north, near Đà Nẵng) is a cluster of five limestone hills with cave pagodas and panoramic views over the coast — easy to combine with the Hội An to Đà Nẵng journey. The Hai Van Pass road between Hội An and Huế (100km north) is one of Vietnam's most dramatic drives.
