Hoi An Starter Pack

Da Nang International (DAD) is the airport for Hoi An, about 45 minutes north.

Airport transfer: private car, Grab or a hotel pickup. Fixed-price cars are widely sold.

Trains stop at Da Nang, not Hoi An. The ride south from Hue is one of the best in Vietnam.

Sleeper buses connect Hue, Nha Trang and further, and drop centrally.

The Hai Van Pass between Hue and Da Nang is worth doing by car or motorbike in daylight.

Tip: quote your hotel address in Vietnamese to drivers. Hoi An has several similarly named streets.

E-visa: applied for online in advance, single or multiple entry, up to 90 days.

Apply on the official government portal. The lookalike sites charge a markup for the same thing.

Some nationalities still get a short visa exemption. Check yours before booking.

Longer stays generally mean a business (DN) visa with a sponsoring company.

Extensions are handled through agents in Da Nang rather than in Hoi An itself.

Your accommodation registers you with the local police. Hotels do it automatically, private landlords may not.

February to May: the best stretch. Warm, dry, and not yet fierce.

June to August: hot and bright, and the busiest domestic holiday season.

September to November: the wet months, with typhoons possible along this coast.

Flooding: the Thu Bon river floods the Old Town most autumns. Boats on the streets are routine.

Ground floors flood, so check the flood history before renting a low-lying place long term.

December and January are cooler and grey, which surprises people expecting tropical all year.

Ambulance: 115

Police: 113

Fire: 114

Serious cases go to Da Nang, so know which hospital your insurer uses before you need it.

Save your embassy contact in Hanoi or the consulate in Da Nang.

Bicycles are the local transport. Most of what you need is within fifteen minutes of pedalling.

The Old Town is closed to motor vehicles for much of the day. Walk it.

Motorbike rental is cheap by the month. A licence valid in Vietnam is legally required.

Grab operates here for cars and bikes, with fewer drivers than Da Nang.

An Bang and Cua Dai beaches are a flat ten to fifteen minute ride from the centre.

Da Nang is 45 minutes by car and worth the trip for the airport, hospitals and big shops.

Viettel has the best coverage, with Vinaphone and Mobifone close behind. All are cheap.

Data plans cost a fraction of Western prices. Bring your passport to register.

Home fibre is fast and inexpensive, and installation is quick.

Power cuts and storm outages happen in the wet season. A mobile hotspot is a sensible backup.

Cafes with proper work setups cluster in the An Hoi and Cam Nam areas.

Coworking is thinner than in Da Nang, which is where people go for a full office setup.

The dong runs to large numbers. Count the zeros before you hand a note over.

ATMs are plentiful. Bank-branded machines usually charge less than the standalone ones.

Cards are accepted in hotels and restaurants, cash rules markets and small shops.

A local bank account needs a longer-stay visa and is far easier arranged in Da Nang.

QR payment apps are ubiquitous locally but usually need a Vietnamese account.

Keep small notes. Nobody at a market wants to break a 500,000.

Old Town: beautiful, protected, and busy with visitors all day. Few long-term rentals.

An Bang: the beach village, the biggest foreign community, and the highest rents.

Cam Chau and Cam Thanh: quieter, rice fields and coconut palms, ten minutes by bike.

Cam Nam: an island in the river beside the Old Town, cheap and central.

Tra Que: the herb-growing village, rural and green, popular with longer stays.

Ask about flooding, ask about the neighbours’ roosters, and visit at night before signing.

Hoi An handles routine care. Anything serious means Da Nang, 45 minutes away.

Da Nang has international-standard private hospitals with English-speaking doctors.

For complex specialist treatment, expats travel to Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi or Bangkok.

Pharmacies are common and cheap, and staff are used to helping foreigners.

Insurance that covers evacuation is worth having on this stretch of coast.

Dengue exists here. Use repellent in the wet season and clear standing water at home.

Cao lau is the town’s own dish and exists nowhere else in the same form.

Banh mi in Hoi An has a reputation the rest of Vietnam concedes.

White rose dumplings, com ga and mi quang round out the local canon.

The central market is the cheapest place to eat and the best place to shop.

An Bang has the beach restaurants and the Western menus, at beach prices.

Cooking classes are a local industry and genuinely good ones are easy to find.

The Old Town needs a ticket for the heritage houses and assembly halls. Buy it, use it slowly.

Tailoring is the local trade. Allow several days and at least two fittings for anything good.

My Son, the Cham sanctuary, is an easy half-day inland. Go at opening to beat the buses.

Cycle out through the rice fields to Tra Que and the basket-boat waterways of Cam Thanh.

The lantern-lit riverfront on the full moon is the town at its most touristic and most beautiful.

Da Nang for nightlife, cinemas and anything the small town does not have.

Prices for foreigners start high in the market. Polite haggling is expected, not rude.

Book tailoring early in your stay, never in the last two days.

The Old Town empties of visitors by mid-morning and after 9pm. Those are the good hours.

Rip currents at Cua Dai and An Bang are real. Swim where the locals swim.

Motorbike accidents are the main thing that goes wrong here. Wear a helmet, do not drink and ride.

In flood season, keep a few days of water and a charged power bank at home.