Hôi An
We spent 2 nights in Hôi An before moving to Da Nang for 3 nights. If we could go back and do it again, I’d move one of those days from Da Nang to Hôi An. Hôi An is a beautiful, historic city with much to offer in terms of food, sites, and things to do. Also, taxis between Da Nang and Hôi an are less than $20 and 20 minutes so it’s ok to do both.
We stayed at an amazing hotel, Boutique Hôi An Resort, on the beach that we “splurged” on (~$115 / night) relative to everything else in Vietnam. It was worth it! The hotel is located a short 5 minute taxi ride from the historic Hôi An center, but the taxis were cheap and it was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of tourists while we relaxed on the beach ($15 massages and $0.50 beers!). Note that there are 4 small lunch options directly across from the hotel.
You can explore pretty much all of historic Hôi An in a full day, but we took our time and wandered around at all times of day and night exploring the markets, street fairs, restaurants, and historic sites. The street-side donuts were definitely my favorite discovery; perfectly rounded, sugar-coated balls of heaven… I couldn’t get enough. At night, the city is mostly lit by lantern, which was absolutely stunning. The city is divided by a small river (like 12 feet wide) and there is lots to explore on both sides, taking you across beautiful lantern-lit bridges.
It’s worth buying a pass to the historic sites one day and wandering through the open houses, where they have tours giving interesting background. We learned that near-annual flooding led the architects to build their houses with the knowledge that 4-foot flood waters would inevitably enter their houses. The inhabitants would move all of their furniture and belongings to the second and third story of the house while the floods consumed the first flood, before moving everything back down until the next year. Highly worth the $10 for the pass.
Yaly, is a professional clothes tailor where you can have anything you want made for you overnight, literally. People come from around the globe to have Yaly make or tailor things for them. We spent a lot of time here picking out things to be made and returned 2 times to do final fittings. We ended up purchasing an extra suitcase to bring our clothes home, but it was still cheaper than doing it all in the states (about 10% the price we would’ve paid in NY). They also save your measurements in case you need anything else made, as they can coordinate via email (I had my wedding dress made here a year later, and Mark has his and all of the groomsmen’s suits made here).
On one of our last days we rented 2 scooters (Mark and I on one, Kelsey on another) for next to nothing. They asked us for $8 total for 2 scooters and handed us the keys and helmets. No license, no paperwork, no nothing. We bopped around town a little bit, stopped for gas, and then I tried to drive the scooter in a quiet lane nearby (crashing twice) with some old ladies watching me fail miserably. When we’d had our fill, we returned the scooters and were on our way.
Marble Mountain
While in Hôi An you can take small day trips. We visited Marble Mountain which was a series of temples atop a small mountain that jutted out randomly from the flat land around it. We hiked up a few hundred steps (while sweating our butts off, but we’d started getting used to just always being sweaty in Vietnam), purchased a marble souvenir, then headed back to the city.
My Son
My Son was a set of ruins that was badly damaged during the “American War.” It was interesting to wander around a bit, but it was so hot and there were a lot of tourists that we ended up not staying too long before heading back to the city. If we could go back, we’d probably skip My Son.
