Hoi An, Vietnam
Japanese Covered Bridge in the Old Town
Our impressions of Hoi An
Charming and quaint: Hoi An is the most charming place that we visited in Vietnam and possibly on our trip to-date. It has an incredibly well-preserved old town with bright yellow, traditional Vietnamese buildings flanking either side of the picturesque river. At night, the ambiance on the river is magical with boats lit up and lanterns everywhere. It’s an easy and relaxing place to walk around, especially in contrast to the constant frogger game that ensues when crossing streets in other Vietnamese cities
Festive and celebratory for Tet: Tet (January 22 in 2023) is Vietnam’s New Year – the largest, most celebratory holiday in the country. We were in Hoi An for the two days leading up to Tet, Tet, and the day after Tet which made for a fun, festive visit. Some people warn against visiting Vietnam during Tet because many typical tourist sites are shut down, but it couldn’t have been a better time to be there for us. The streets were full of fresh flowers and Tet decorations and the town was abuzz with celebration. It was fun to observe many Tet traditions in Hoi An too (cards, family meals, drinking with friends)
Catered to tourists: The foil of “charming and quaint” Hoi An is the sheer volume of tourists that come here. While Hoi An’s population is only 150,000, it had over 2 million tourists a year prior to the pandemic. As a result, the town feels very catered to tourists with plenty of higher end coffee shops and tons of souvenir vendors. It didn’t feel overwhelmed with tourists when we were there (likely thanks to Tet), but was definitely the most tourist-friendly place we visited in Vietnam
What we saw in Hoi An
Cooking class and basket boats: After spending a week in Vietnam learning about the diversity of the cuisine, we were all excited to take a cooking class in Hoi An. We booked a class through Airbnb, but it ended up being much more of an experience than we initially thought it would be! The highlights were:
- Local market visit: Our first stop of the day was a local market which was a particularly awesome experience for Debbie and Joel (their first Asian market). It was an exciting place to be with a flurry of activity – mongers selling their freshly caught fish, fruit vendors with full rainbows of fruits in front of them, and plenty of raw meat including bags on innards on the ground (to the disgust of Jessie and Debbie). We even saw a fish get gutted and then continue to flop around, which reaffirmed Jessie’s commitment to veganism when we get home
- Basket boats: The description of the cooking class casually mentioned a boatride through the coconut forest, but it didn’t seem like a pivotal part of the experience. We were wrong on that one! After arriving in a charming residential area along the river, we hopped onto two basket boats – the Smarts in one and the Schreiers in the other. It was a hilarious ride through the coconut forest that included Doug and Jessie chanting with their guide, a show in the middle of the river to the tune of Gangnam Style, casting a fish net in the middle of the river (we caught four tiny fish), and “fishing” for crab with a bamboo rod. We had a ton of fun, spending most of our time on the boats laughing
- Cooking: La piece de resistance as Barrett would put it – the cooking class! We almost forgot that the main intent of the experience was the cooking class given all of the exciting activities before it. The class didn’t disappoint – we made four delicious dishes and ate until we were beyond stuffed. We cooked spring rolls wrapped in rice paper, rice pancakes that we wrapped in rice paper with herbs, ramen noodles with bok choy and seafood, and banana leaf salad with shrimp and other fixings. In addition to these four courses, our guide from the market visit prepared clams with lemongrass and fresh mango for us to snack on. Our tummies and hearts were happy after this meal and awesome day. We’ll definitely cook up these recipes when we’re back stateside
Strolls around the Old Town: We spent most of our time in Hoi An walking around with no real destination in mind. Hoi An is a very walkable city, especially in the old town where there are far more pedestrians and bicycles than cars and motorbikes. We walked along both sides of the river, down many of the narrow side streets and adorable alleys, and through the markets. On our walks we passed some of the major sites like the Japanese Covered Bridge, but the main attraction was the beautiful architecture of the Old Town. Notably, Hoi An was spared from bombing during the Vietnam/American War as both sides agreed to preserve it
Shopping for bags: As a very touristy spot, Hoi An has no shortage of souvenir opportunities. We passed a crafty leather shop on our first walk into the Old Town and from that point on Debbie and Joel had their sights set on getting bags – a backpack for Joel and a tote for Debbie. Over our three days together, we walked into at least a dozen stores in Hoi An in search of the best bags, only to settle on the very first store we walked into a few days earlier. In our quest, we learned about the sales tactics that some of the stores employed – claiming they would be closed the next day for Tet (totally reasonable) as a way to close the sale. They were of course open… sneaky, sneaky
Massages at Relaxy: We saw a ton of massage places when walking around Hoi An which was a bit of a surprise (we hadn’t seen too many spas in Hanoi). We decided it could be fun to get a massage one day! The day before Tet, we were walking around the Old Town when we happened upon Relaxy – a quiet, nice looking spa. We decided to go for it! The massages were great for three out of the four of us – Doug struggled with his Thai massage. We were all in the same room so we could hear Doug’s pain and his masseuse saying “relax, relaaaax!” Suffice it to say and to Jessie’s dismay, Doug won’t be getting another massage any time soon
Night Market: We were still pretty full from our cooking class, so thought that street food at the night market could make a good dinner. We grabbed beers from one of the first stands and wandered around the market in search of delicious eats. Debbie had a banana roti (Thai specialty), but the rest of us didn’t see anything too appetizing. We ended up settling on a sit-down spot, but still had fun strolling around the market
Hearts and foosball: We spent a non-negligible amount of time playing hearts at different spots in Hoi An. It was a big treat for us as we had mainly been constrained to two-person card games for the past four months. Each of us took turns winning (though, Debbie would probably say she won the most). Joel, Jessie, and Doug also discovered that the hotel had a foosball table one night. After an evening fueled by many beers, they had an intense late evening foosball match (Doug and Jessie v. Joel). We reprised the game the following night with Debbie
Where we ate and drank
Vy’s Deli: After not having any luck at the night market, we happened upon a food hall/market area that looked interesting. We checked out the menu for Vy’s Deli – one of the restaurants in the food hall – and decided it would be a great place to eat with a handful of Hoi An specialties and a full vegetarian menu (Debbie and Jessie rejoiced)! It was one of our favorite meals as a foursome. We had delicious shrimp and water spinach dumplings, chicken and ginger dumplings, vegan cao lau, pork banh mi, and a vegetarian curry that we washed down with multiple rounds of craft beers. The meal was so delicious that we decided to come back to the same market complex the next night for dinner
Morning Glory: As things started to shut down early due to Tet, we decided to have linner for our last real meal together. We explored a few menus, but decided to go back to the Vy’s Deli market because our dinner the night before was so delicious. This time, we sat upstairs at Morning Glory. We had an awesome view of all of the activity on the road and the river and had another delicious meal (three of us even ordered two entrees). We played a handful of hearts games and had many laughs – one of which ended in Debbie spitting her water across the table because she was laughing at Jessie’s clumsiness. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree..
Nha Hang: For our last meal in Hoi An (sadly Debbie and Joel had left), we biked into the Old Town from our new digs and settled on a charming spot on the river. We both ordered cao lau (a noodle dish that’s a Hoi An specialty) and shrimp spring rolls. The cao lau was okay, but the spring rolls were excellent. We also tried Larue beer which was a first for us in Vietnam
Where we stayed
Hotel Royal Hoi An: We stayed at this spot for our last three nights with Debbie and Joel and it was lovely! The rooms were incredibly comfortable, spacious, and well-designed – likely our last taste of luxury for awhile 🙂 It was located on the river within walking distance from the Old Town, had a rooftop view of the Old Town, and served a delicious breakfast spread – our favorite in Vietnam
Rustic Villa Homestay: We were funnily downgraded from “royal” to “rustic” after Debbie and Joel left, but this spot was much better than the name suggested. This place was outside of the main area of Hoi An, so we had an interesting walk along the rice paddies to get here. The highlights of staying at this spot were the owners – they could not have been more hospitable or lovely – and the breakfast – it was absolutely delicious. We wish we had another night at this place
