Hoi An

Can Tho was an amazing experience due to the floating markets, but Rain and I were extremely excited for the city of Hoi An. We boarded the flight with such excitement and made our way to Da Nang. Once you enter the city of Da Nang, you can see there is significant beachfront area. Looking back, it would have been a great experience to stay in one of these spots along the beach. It did look very “Expat” in they way that it was newly developed for people who travel the world. it was a different type of experience. The only thing I can relate to it was it reminded me of being in Miami and living along A1A. It’s just a completely different lifestyle and experience.

As you arrive in Hoi An and really get into the city center, the first things that will stand out to you are the lanterns and the beautiful colors. The bridges that cross the river are very quaint and crowded at time. More importantly… in front of the homestay that we chose there were puppies!!! As you have seen among our previous travel blogs, puppies are always a win.

Hoi An is really such a beautiful city with great energy and beautiful views. The first thing that stands out is the vibrant colors and how lively the city is. It’s a city that you can walk around everywhere and continue to explore. We stayed in a homestay and rented a room. This is really the Best Option in the city. There is going to be limited options to rent an entire building, and to be honest, its not really necessary. Everyone is so friendly and helpful.

The city and great areas to walk around didn’t feel too big and could easily be fully explored in a day or so. Anything along the river has a great view and is a really good people watching opportunity. I will say most of our favorite spots to eat were further into the city. Com Ga Ba Buoi was a solid spot for an authentic taste. I will say there are some better options, but I think this is a decent default. Miss Ly was probably my favorite restaurant we went to with delicious options. The BEST Bahn Mi I could find in Vietnam was here in Hoi An. It’s a very popular spot, but rightly so as Anthony Bourdain said the same thing when he visited. Definitely need to give this place a shot Bánh Mì Phượng.

I do recommend you save your appetite for the night market. Hoi An has a couple of great market areas but I really liked their night market. It included a full street cart setup of food options that were delicious. We kept hopping cart to cart trying a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Everyone was really friendly and it was enjoyable.

We spent one day at the My Son Sanctuary. It was a beautiful spot that consisted of temples from the 4th to 14th century. The temples were still very well preserved from the war and included such amazing details and designs. The temperature was extremely humid and muggy, but from my understanding that’s relatively standard for this location. I do recommend this as a nice detour away from the city. The excursion that we went on included a river boat ride on the way back which was a fun experience. Great group of people that we found via trip advisors.