After a couple of days in Ho Chi Minh City, we flew to Da Nang on Vietjet Air and grabbed a taxi to Hoi An. We had researched how to take a taxi or bus to the bus station in Da Nang and then hop on another bus headed to Hoi An, but once we did the math, it was only an extra few dollars for the three of us to take a taxi (410,000VND) and avoid the hassle of a bus station transfer.
We had planned to stay at the Hoi An Travel Lodge. It was on the higher end of our budget, but we were ready to try to negotiate the price down. Unfortunately, due to the Full Moon Lantern Festival being in full swing, the hotel was completely booked. We went in search of another comfortable, clean place to stay. We ended up at the Village Homestay on one of the smaller islands that makes up Hoi An. The room was spacious, had a small balcony, refrigerator, air conditioning, and cable TV. We were able to negotiate with the owners and paid 400,000VND per night. The family who runs the homestay was very helpful and really made us feel welcome.
After settling into our room, we walked around to scope out the town and, more importantly, the food. Many of the restaurants are more expensive than what we’d found in Saigon because Hoi An is a tourism hot spot. Ultimately, we were able to find some delicious, reasonably-priced restaurants both off the beaten path and right in the heart of the tourist area. We ate a lot of street food while we were there. Much like anywhere else in Vietnam, we would ask the price before we ordered just in case a high price was being quoted. We ate in the market a few times as well and found delicious phở and bún soups for about 20,000VND per bowl.
While in Hoi An, we did not visit any of the museums or cultural sites, so I can’t comment on them. We did, however, rent bicycles one day (20,000VND per bike) and it was the best decision we made in Hoi An. We looked at a map and found some nearby islands that were connected by bridges and rode around for most of the day enjoying the countryside and taking in its beauty. The only issue we had with the bike ride was when we stopped in a town to get lunch, we were routinely turned away or were quoted prices that were ridiculously high. I’m not sure why we receive this treatment but it definitely put us off. Thankfully, we had brought snacks with us and eventually did find a small restaurant that would serve us phở for a reasonable price.
In the evenings, we went looking for cheap drinks. We found a few places that were much cheaper than others and frequented these over other bars that were more centralized and more expensive. One bar called Chips ‘N Fish had super cheap “draft” beer. We figured that someone in town had a keg of beer and would dole the beer out to multiple restaurants. The beer was a little flat but for 4,000VND a glass, it would do (at least for awhile). The concept of happy hour has definitely caught on in Hoi An but the specials can range from 20% off to half price to a discount off drink prices so inflated that it’s not really a discount at all. Shop around before settling in.
frugaltravelbug 