Introduction.
Now that we are back in Australia, Asia is thankfully, so much closer than it was from the US. After Malaysia and Singapore and Japan, we hit up Vietnam. Although we didn’t love Hanoi (aside from a sky high afternoon tea), we did quite like Hoi An. In this dessert adventure post, we reveal the best 4-day itinerary for your future trip to Hoi An…plus our favourite dessert spot in Hoi An for repeat visits, of course. 🙂
The best 4-day itinerary in Hoi An
Day 1: Explore Hoi An Old Town
- How to see? DIY walk-around.
By day, Hoi An is a sleepy town, its laneways lined with souvenir shops and quaint coffee stores. By night, it is a lantern-filled spectacle. If you are looking for an off-the-beaten-track or “secret” destination, Hoi An is not it. It completely pulsates with tourists at night. As the sun sets, immense — and I do mean immense — crowds cram the city’s bridges to photograph the city, and they also congregate along the riverfront to float their own glimmering lanterns on the river. Chaos has been never more beautiful than in Hoi An.
While many visit Hoi An for the lanterns, don’t miss the food, but also be careful. We had the worse food poisoning experience in our lives here. 😦 Hoi An’s highlight dishes include:
- Cau Lao – characterized by its thick chewy lightly brown-toned noodles, it’s a rich noodle dish lined with thick slices of pork.
- White Rose Dumplings – tranluscent lightweight dumplings filled with shrimp, mushroom and beansprouts.
- Banh Xeo – these crispy pancakes, accompanied usually with the freshest salads, are incredible.
And of course, don’t miss dessert. Of all the che spots, we recommend Tiệm Chè Xíu. Like the city, it comes alive at night. While there, the coconut ice cream is a must, but any of the che desserts are fabulous. Dotted with pandan jelly, taro, fresh coconut trips, sago, and tofu pudding, and housed in an air conditioned space, the sweet che soups are the perfect antidote to the humid weather.
Day 2: Golden Bridge
Travel tip: To get tourist-free photos, depart Hoi An by car at 6.30am to arrive by 8am, and be one of the first to enter.
The famed Golden Bridge is located in the most unlikely of places, specifically inside a Disneyland-like amusement park called Ba Na Hills. At the base of the mountain, the Ba Na Hills experience starts with entering an area reminiscent of an Ancient Chinese imperial courtyard. One then continues by jumping onto a cable car ride that soars over lush rainforest terrain and into the clouds. We would put it on par with Hong Kong‘s similarly breathtaking Ngong Ping cable car ride. At the first cable car station, alight for the Golden Bridge. Early in the morning, the mountain rain still drizzles and the mists slowly roll away to reveal not a golden bridge, but a stone-grey hand sculpture. Part Lord of the Rings, there is a sense of not being quite in the same world anymore…until the squeal of the first mass tourist groups start to arrive around 9am. Go early, and you have approximately 30 minutes-1 hour before the bus groups arrive. You will only need 5-10 mins to walk the length of the bridge itself.
The rest of Ba Na Hills is predominantly styled as a faux European experience, complete with beer halls and fairytale turrets. Our favourite part was the lotus-filled Chinese tea house nestled at the top of a hill, and… the somewhat out-of-place Korean bungeoppang. Is it worth a trip? For a half day, yes, but if you are pressed for time, we recommend Hue and My Son more.
Day 3: Hue
- Travel tip: This is a full day-trip. The drive from Hoi An to Hue takes around 3 hours one-way.
Hue was the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945), and we highly recommend it as a daytrip to learn about this significant period of Vietnam’s history. On our daytrip, we visited Thien Mu Pagoda, Tomb of Khải Định and the Old Citadel. The most striking aspect of our visit was the indelible Chinese influence on the city’s architecture, traditions and folklore, and the similarity between many Vietnamese words and Southern Chinese dialects. There’s a sense of sadness to see the scars of the Vietnam War that have pockmarked the city. There’s deeper sense of loss when we learned that pre-1945, literate Vietnamese people were able to read the Chinese inscriptions on the old monuments, but with the Romanization of the Vietnamese language, that is no longer the case. It’s a very strong reminder of how invasive colonialism was to this part of the world, and also almost completely its after effects have been whitewashed too.
Day 4: My Son Sanctuary
- Travel tip: To get tourist-free photos, depart Hoi An by car at 5.30m to arrive by 6.30am, and be one of the first to enter. It gets stifling hot by 9am.
If the Golden Bridge/Ba Na Hills is a reminder of Vietnam’s colonial past, Hue a capsule of Ancient Chinese imperial influence, My Son is a relic of the Champa Kingdom that reigned from 4th-15th century. After that kingdom collapsed, the jungle reclaimed the area until it was rediscovered by a French archaeologist in the 1890s. It was then largely destroyed during the Vietnam War. The ancient Hindu monuments of the Champa Kingdom that still stand today comprise a UNESCO heritage site that has been labelled “Vietnam’s Angkor Wat.” When we visited at dawn, there was a strange stillness to the place. One could even hear the blades of grass rustle as tiny spiders embroidered their glistening dew-dripped webs in the early morning light. It felt almost like we were trespassing on something rather sacred and forgotten for a reason.
Dessert adventure checklist
- ☑ Dessert destination: Hoi An, Vietnam.
- ☑ Budget: $.
- ☑ Sweet irresistibles: Vietnamese che.
- ☑ Travel notes:
- How long? We highly recommend at least 3-4 days in Hoi An. It’s a great base for the above-mentioned day trips.
- When to vist? We visited in March, which was towards the end of the ideal dry season. It was warm, with no rain, in the range of 30 degrees Celsius.
- How to get there? We flew into Da Nang – it is about a 45 minute drive from the Da Nang airport to Hoi An. The alternative is to be based in Da Nang, which offers a more seafront resort experience compared to historical Hoi An. For tours in Asia, including in Vietnam, we recommend Klook, over Get Your Guide/Tripadvisor.
- Where to stay? We stayed at Hoi An Rivertown Resort & Spa, and highly recommend it. Located on the riverfront, the hotel is about a 10-15 minutes walk from the busy city centre, and affords spectacular views of the old town. The hotel grounds are bedecked in pretty lanterns, and the onsite restaurant serves some of the best food that we ate during our time in Hoi An – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Don’t miss it. As with most hotels in Asia, service was 10-star.