Hôi An, Vietnam: Lantern-lined streets and beautiful beaches

I’ll start this post by talking about how we got to Hôi An because our journey there was an adventure in itself!

From Hanoi (which we’d gone back to for a night after our trip to Ha Long Bay), we decided to take the scenic route and book a motorbike tour along the Hai Van Pass, so that we could both get to Hôi An quickly and see some beautiful landmarks along the way.

On our motorbike tour, we stopped at a traditional Vietnamese fishing village, swam by the beautiful Elephant Waterfall, sped past the scenic Da Nang coast and took in the views at the famous Hai Van Pass (which is just as beautiful as people say it is).

I actually think this motorbike tour was one of my favourite things we’ve done in Vietnam so far - which at this point is definitely saying something! Maybe we could have made the journey on our own motorbikes, but it was definitely nice to leave it to the professionals who were super fast and knew exactly where they were going!

Arriving in Hôi An

As for Hôi An town, this place has hands down been my favourite place we’ve visited in Vietnam so far. I love it!

Nearly all of Hôi An’s streets are painted yellow and lined with colourful lanterns, giving them a really friendly, happy feel. Life also seems to run at a slower pace here, with Hanoi’s crowds and speedy motorbikes being replaced by just a few bicycles peddling around the town’s little cafés, galleries and markets.

Plus, in my opinion, Hôi An’s banh mi sandwiches are by far the best we've had so far in Vietnam!

I could list a lot of reasons why Hôi An is great during the day, but I think its Ancient Town Centre is at its best after dark. At night, the river which runs through the centre of the streets is lit up with hundreds of colourful lanterns - and none of my photos did the view any justice!

Multi-coloured lanterns float on the water alongside little canoes, meaning that as you walk along the oriental bridge you’re surrounded by glittering colours and lights. Sadly, we never got round to getting into a canoe ourselves but sitting in one of the many lively bars by the river and having a drink was still an amazing way to experience Hanoi's Old Quarter.

Away from the centre of town, the beaches in Hôi An are also incredible. We’ve had some really nice mornings on Cua Dai Beach, which is pretty uncrowded and basically paradise - especially when the weather is as good as it's been for the last few days.

Most days, we've followed our beach mornings with a shuttle bus trip into the Ancient Town just to wander around and enjoy the atmosphere, views and amazing food.

Our stay in laidback, colourful Hôi An has been a really relaxing few days in our trip – and also really different from the other experiences we’ve had in Vietnam so far.

We also struck gold with our accommodation there because we saw online that the 4-star Ally Hotel was 75% off - which was already a bargain - and then somehow we got a free upgrade to one of their suites! The room was incredible (especially as we’ve mostly been staying in cheap hostels and homestays while travelling) and made our time in Hôi An feel like a real holiday.

The hotel also ran a free bike trip around some of Hôi An's beautiful rural areas, where we met Vietnamese rice farmers watering their crops and and also saw some majestic water buffalo wandering around the area.