Quang Nam, central Vietnam

Day tours from Hoi An

Hoi An is a small trading port that stopped growing in the nineteenth century and so is still standing, which is why the old town is a UNESCO site and why it fills with people every evening for the lanterns. What most visitors underestimate is how much of central Vietnam is a day trip from here: the My Son temple ruins are an hour west, Da Nang and the Marble Mountains half an hour north, the Ba Na Hills cable car and Golden Bridge about ninety minutes, and even Hue over the Hai Van Pass is doable in a long day. Almost every guided day here leaves from a hotel in town between about seven and eight in the morning, and the pickup is included, which is the practical reason people base themselves in Hoi An rather than anywhere else in the region.

Day tours from Hoi An

22 tours

Cheapest first, per adult, hotel pickup included. Children pay less on every one.

Red brick Cham temple towers standing in cut grass with jungle-covered hills rising behind

Amazing My Son Sunset Tour

13:00 – 18:00 · Brunch with Banh My · (Without Entrance Fee 150.000)

₫360,000 per adult

View south-east over the coastline and beachfront buildings from a high viewpoint among trees

Marble Mountains - Monkey Mountain - Am Phu Cave Sunset Tour

13:30 – 18:00 · NO MEAL

₫420,000 per adult

Wide view of the wooded limestone outcrops of the Marble Mountains rising straight out of low-rise streets

Marble Mountains - Monkey Mountain, Am Phu Cave Morning Tour

7:30 – 13:00 · 1 Local Dish For Lunch

₫490,000 per adult

A rower sitting in a round bamboo basket boat on a narrow channel between tall water-palm fronds

Cam Thanh Basket Boat & Cooking Class

8:20 – 12:20 / 13:20 - 17:20 · 1 set menu lunch

₫570,000 per adult

Cam Thanh Basket Boat + Lantern Making

9:00 – 12:00 / 14:00 - 17:30 · 1 set menu lunch

₫570,000 per adult

Green island shore meeting clear blue water, with small wooden boats moored off a low settlement

Cham Island Sightseeing and Snorkeling Tour

8:00 – 14:00 · 1 set menu lunch

₫650,000 per adult

Brick temple ruins across a clearing of grass and trees, with a wooded mountain behind

My Son Holyland Luxury Morning Tour

7:30 – 13:30 · Set Menu Lunch

₫650,000 per adult

Long raised beds of herbs and salad leaves in a flat market garden, with houses and palms behind

Lantern Making - Be a Real Farmer at Tra Que Village

8:00 – 13:00 · 1 dish local lunch

₫710,000 per adult

Narrow earth paths running between planted vegetable beds under an overcast sky

Tra Que Farming & Cooking Class

9:00 – 13:30 · 1 set menu lunch

₫720,000 per adult

Coconut Jungle-Hoi An City-Boat Ride & Release Flower Lantern

12:30 – 19:00 · 1 Set Menu Dinner

₫820,000 per adult

Silk lanterns strung under a shopfront awning with bougainvillea spilling over the frame above them

3 Traditional Handicrafts Villages in 1 Tour

8:00 – 12:00 / 13:30 - 17:30 · 1 set menu lunch

₫900,000 per adult

Marble Mountains-Monkey Mountains-My Son Holyland Full Day Tour

7:30 – 18:00 · 1 Local Dish for Lunch + 1 Set Menu Dinner

₫1,050,000 per adult

Looking straight down on a wide green channel through the coconut palms, a cluster of round basket boats gathered in a ring on the water

Farming & Fishing Life by Bike

8:00 – 13:00 · 1 set menu lunch

₫1,060,000 per adult

Boats hung with glowing lanterns on a dark river, their colours doubled in the water at night

Hoi An City Tour, Boat Ride, Drop Flower Lantern

14:00 – 19:30 · 1 Set Menu Dinner

₫1,200,000 per adult

Aerial view of the walled Imperial City, its moat, flag tower and tiled gate laid out among trees

Hue City Explore Full Day Tour

7:00 – 19:00 · 1 Set Menu Lunch

₫1,200,000 per adult

The dragon's head and coiled body of the bridge silhouetted against a cloudy dawn sky

Marble Mountains - Monkey Mountain - Am Phu Cave - Da Nang by Night & Han River Cruise

13:30 – 21:45 · 1 local dish for dinner with solf drink

₫1,200,000 per adult

My Son Sanctuary & Hoi An City Full-Day Tour

7:30 – 19:00 · 1 Set Menu Lunch + 1 Set Menu Dinner

₫1,200,000 per adult

Tiered pagoda hall with sweeping tiled roofs, approached across a paved court lined with bonsai

Monkey Mountain - Marble Mountains - Coconut Jungle - Hoi An City Full-Day

7:30 – 19:00 · 1 Set Menu Lunch + 1 Set Menu Dinner

₫1,310,000 per adult

Golden Bridge held up by two giant stone hands, curving above a sea of cloud on a forested ridge

Ba Na Hills, Golden Bridge Full Day Tour

7:30 – 17:30 · With Buffet Lunch

₫1,400,000 per adult

The gold-coloured walkway of the Golden Bridge seen along its length, held by two weathered stone hands

Late Departure Ba Na Hills, Golden Bridge Full Day Tour 9:00am

9:00 – 19:00 · With Buffet Lunch

₫1,400,000 per adult

My Son Sanctuary & Coconut Jungle-Hoi An City-Lantern Boat Ride

7:30 – 19:00 · 1 Set Menu Lunch + 1 Set Menu Dinner

₫1,500,000 per adult

Afternoon Ba Na Hills, Golden Bridge & Dragon Bridge by Night

11:45 – 19:30 · NO MEAL

₫1,510,000 per adult

What Hoi An is actually good for

An old town nobody rebuilt

Merchant houses, a Japanese covered bridge from the 1590s and assembly halls built by Chinese trading families, all on a handful of walkable streets. The ticket is sold as a set of entries to a choice of heritage houses rather than a gate fee, and the town itself is free to walk.

My Son, which is older than Angkor

A Cham Hindu temple complex in a valley an hour west, built between the fourth and fourteenth centuries. Morning tours get it before the heat, sunset tours get it emptier. Both run daily from Hoi An and most include a rice-paper-making or handicraft-village stop on the way back.

Water, in several forms

The Cam Thanh coconut palms are paddled in round basket boats, the Thu Bon river carries the lantern boats at night, and Cham Island is an hour offshore by speedboat with snorkelling on the reef. These are three different days, and the basket boat is the one families remember.

Food you actually cook

Cooking classes here usually start at the market or in the vegetable gardens at Tra Que, where you plant and water before you chop. It is the most common half-day people add, and it works in rain.

A base for the whole region

Da Nang's beaches and the Marble Mountains are half an hour up the coast, the Golden Bridge at Ba Na Hills about ninety minutes, and the Hai Van Pass and Hue reachable and back in a day. You do not need to move hotels to see central Vietnam.

When to go

February to May is the best stretch: dry, warm and before the summer heat. June to August is hot and busy but reliable for Cham Island, which does not sail in rough water. September to December is the wet season, and Hoi An genuinely floods, the old town has taken water into the ground floors most years, usually in October and November.

Getting there

Da Nang International Airport is about 45 minutes away by road and is the arrival point for almost everyone; there is no airport at Hoi An. Trains and long-distance buses also serve Da Nang, then a taxi or shuttle down the coast. Once here, the old town is walkable and the beach is a flat 10-minute cycle.

What it costs

Guided day tours here run from roughly 350,000 VND for a half day to about 1,600,000 VND for the long Ba Na Hills or Hue days, per adult, with children priced lower and infants usually free. Food and a room are cheap by comparison, so tours tend to be the largest line in a Hoi An budget.

Worth knowing first

Almost every tour price includes hotel pickup in Hoi An town and central Da Nang. Outlying hotels can attract a surcharge, so give your hotel name when you book rather than after.
Flooding in October and November is normal, not exceptional. Tours to My Son and Cham Island are the first to be cancelled when the river rises.
Cham Island tours depend on sea conditions and are often suspended from about October to February. If it is the reason you came, do not leave it to your last day.
Children are priced by age on some tours and by HEIGHT on others, so a tall young child can be charged as an adult. Each tour page here says which rule applies.
The Ba Na Hills day is long and almost entirely on your feet, and the cable car is included in the tour price on the full-day version.

Hoi An questions people actually ask

How many days do I need in Hoi An?

Three nights is the common answer: one for the old town and the lanterns, one for a day trip to My Son or Ba Na Hills, and one for the beach or a cooking class. Four or five lets you add Cham Island or the long day over the Hai Van Pass to Hue without rushing.

Is it better to stay in Hoi An or Da Nang?

Hoi An for the old town, the food and the atmosphere; Da Nang for the beach, the nightlife and a shorter airport transfer. Most day tours leave from both, though the Hoi An departure is usually earlier and occasionally a slightly different price, so it is worth checking the tour page before you choose your base.

Do tours include hotel pickup?

Yes, on essentially every tour listed here, for hotels in Hoi An town and central Da Nang. It is in the price rather than an extra, and the pickup window is usually 15 to 30 minutes before the stated departure.

What is there to do in Hoi An when it rains?

A cooking class, the lantern-making workshops and the heritage houses all work in rain, and the old town is arguably better under wet lanterns. Cham Island and the basket boats are the ones to move.

Elsewhere in Vietnam

Ha Long Bay Phong Nha Da Nang Hue Khe Sanh

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