Vietnam’s best and most colorful city is Hoi An. This tiny ancient town is well worth multiple days of your trip. A Unesco World Heritage site this town is worth the visit just to walk/bike around and enjoy the unique french inspired architecture and the multi colored lanterns strewn between the buildings. Their unique Vietnamese cuisine featuring the Banh Mi as well as Hoi An’s one of a kind noodle bowl, Mi Quang is also well worth the trip. On top of that, the town sports the most tailor shops per capita of any place on Earth. If you want suits, jackets, coats, dresses, skirts, pants, etc made to your body measurements this is the place for you to stop during your Vietnamese vacation. A 3-pc suit with top end fabric will run you about $75. A shoppers dream, the town is filled with markets, specialty stores and more slightly irregular high end purses and accessories rejected by nearby Coach and Louis Vuitton factories due to minor inconsistencies than you can handle. There’s also a host of cool tours that can be taken around the surrounding area which provides all of the nearby towns with their food and vegetables from endless beautiful farm fields.

Where to Stay

We stayed at The Vinh Hung Heritage Hotel. The hotel was excellent and had the most unique lobby as the entire hotel seemed to be made from expertly carved dark wood. It’s small and cozy, quaint and seemingly from a time long lost. If authenticity and being in the heart of the old city center is important to you this is an excellent place to stay. However, the one downside of staying at this hotel was that because it was in the center of everything it could be somewhat noisy on the streets below us. If you don’t mind staying on the other side of the river from the quaint old town which is a couple blocks walk and prefer a more typical hotel experience with large open grounds, restaurants and bars I highly recommend staying at the Vinh Hung Riverside Resort and Spa. Whether you stay at their Heritage location or their Riverside location you are entitled to a free ride on their boat up and down the river in Hoi An which is a fun experience and a great way to see the city from a different angle.

Cuisine

Banh Mi

The Banh Mi, specifically the one made by Madam Khanh, was once described by Anthony Boudain as the best sandwich on Earth. Banh mi is a unique French-Vietnamese sandwich featuring a toasted baguette, pickled vegetables, pate, butter, soy sauce, cilantro, chillies, and hot peppers. You typically will be able to pick your meat filling between heo quay (roasted pork belly), trung op la (fried egg), thit nuong (grilled pork loin), cha ca (fried fish with turmeric and dill), cha lua (boiled sausages), xa xiu (Chinese barbecued pork), and thit ga (poached chicken). The Two best places in town are Madam Khanh’s and Banh Mi Phoung. Both are delicious, but I can confirm that Madam Khanh’s is the greatest sandwich I’ve ever eaten. Best part is that each sandwich costs less than a dollar.

Madam Khanh – The Banh Mi Queen: 115 Tran Cao Van Street

Banh Mi Phoung: 2B Phan Chau Trinh Street

Mi Quang

Pronounced Me Wang (don’t laugh), this is one of the most perfect Vietnamese dishes you’ll eat on your trip. Originating in Central Vietnam you won’t find this dish in all Vietnamese provinces and certainly nowhere outside of Vietnam. This tumeric based dish, distinguished by its yellow-coloured rice noodles, is made from a hearty mix of bone broth seasoned with fish sauce, black pepper, shallot, and garlic, as well as meaty ingredients such as river shrimp, boiled quails eggs, and roast pork. As with most Vietnamese dishes, mi quang also comes with a variety of herbs, including basil, peanuts, coriander, lettuce, sliced banana flowers, and sesame rice crackers. Do not leave Central Vietnam (Danang or Hoi An) without eating this dish a couple of times.

Tailormade Clothes

Hoi An is known as the tailor capitol of the world and they do not disappoint. You are literally within 15 feet of a tailor shop at all times while within city limits. They have more tailors per square foot than any place on Earth. As such the quality, craftsmanship and skill is through the roof while the prices are rock bottom. The three piece suits that I purchased while in town are some of the nicest suits I’ve ever owned. They were measured to my body, designed to my specifications, cut, sewn and put together for me to try on in under 24 hours. They fit so perfectly that no additional adjustments were needed. Each suit only cost me about $75.

If I ever go back to Vietnam, I’m going with an empty suitcase and a folder full of ideas for clothes to have handmade. Think about what you want before your trip. They can make everything you can think of from suits and dresses to jackets to pants. If you can find it in a magazine, chances are they can make it for you within the day.

Check out our friends at Lucky Number Tailor (603 Hai Ba Trung street) and Kimmy Tailor (70 Trần Hưng Đạo) who both made some excellent suits for us in the past.

Markets and Shopping

Besides tailor shops, food and coffee there are hundreds of shops throughout the city. You’ll be able to pick up purses, wallets, belts and shoes from Louis Vuitton, Coach, Louboutin, Valentino, Gucci, etc for a fraction of the cost. Some of these items are true knockoffs, but many are items made in the same factories as the actual high end items you’d pay thousands of dollars for, but they are rejected for some minor irregularity. If some barely noticeable difference doesn’t bother you and picking up a $4000 Louis Vuitton purse for $40 seems like a steal, make sure you bring an empty suitcase for all the stuff you’re going to want to bring home. My wife has an entire collection of high end purses mixed in with her accessories that no one has ever noticed came cheaply from Vietnam. It’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between the real things and the items you can find in Hoi An.

Across from the Thu Bon River from the main Old Town, you will find dozens of street markets that pop up once the sun starts to go down. These are a great place to go for an evening stroll and pick up some small handmade trinkets or jewelry. These markets are on the same side of the river on the little island that the Vinh Hung Riverside Hotel is located. The boat trip we talked about before leaves from the dock of the Riverside Hotel. Stopping by these markets on your walk back to town is the perfect activity after an early evening boat ride.

Tours

There’s dozens of bicycle sightseeing tours available on viator.com or getyourguide.com. It’s something that they are known for in Hoi An. If you have time to take a bike ride through the countryside check out what they have to offer. There’s some amazingly beautiful rides you can take with a guide.

However, the tour we absolutely recommend as a can’t miss, must-do, is either the sunrise or sunset photography tour. We booked the sunrise tour which takes you to a semi-illegal fish street market where local fishermen sell their catches on the open market before the police start strolling the area. This unlicensed market is allowed by the local authorities on a wink and nod basis so long as the fish mongers are gone and cleaned up by sunrise. So don’t worry about it being “illegal.” You won’t get in any trouble for taking photos there. From there you’ll head on to a sunrise boat ride through the rivers, that takes you to the local fishing docks where night fishermen are arriving regularly with the day’s haul, from here you will head to the village of Tra Que where they farm all of the regions vegetables.

Depending on your skill level and desires there’s a couple different options. The one from Viator is pretty bare bones. Just a local guide (ours was Khe and he was hilarious) and transportation to all the sites listed above. Don’t expect much instruction on photography. This tour is basically just taking you around to all these cool spots and that’s it. The tour is cool enough even if you don’t take photos. Plus for about $35 each we were the only people on the tour. Click here to check it out.

There are other more advanced photography tours available that are much more expensive, but can tailor your experience to exactly what you want if you’re a professional photographer or simply more intense about your hobby. If money is no object check out Hoi An Photo Tours. They offer some really nice and instructive packages.

Check out some of our photos from our tour below:

Hoi An is a magical place with incredible architecture, amazing food, shopping for days, handmade bespoke clothing everywhere and surrounded by some of the most beautiful areas of Vietnam. It will for sure be a highlight of your trip to this incredible country.