The port city of Hoi An is located on the coast of central Vietnam, and is popular with tourists for its charming Ancient Town, nearby beaches, and great shopping (including affordable custom tailors). The least-populated destination on our Vietnam trip (population of approximately 120,000), the city felt touristic at times, but offered a wide array of activities, and I was glad that we had decided to spend three nights there. It also didn’t hurt that we were staying at one of the top hotels in the country: Four Seasons Nam Hai.

Getting from Hue to Hoi An

As previously mentioned in the post about my Vietnam itinerary, the quickest route from Hue to Hoi An is to fly to Da Nang, then drive 45 minutes or so to Hoi An. However, we opted to book a private car transfer between the cities so we could see all the sights along the way, which proved to be much more insightful and amusing than a quick flight.

We booked our transfer through BNT Travel, which earned my stamp of approval. The booking process was easy, communication was excellent, and our driver was professional and accommodating.

Next we drove up and over Hai Van pass, which offered beautiful views of the coastline and greenery as we traversed the winding road. At the summit of the pass, we stopped to explore the bunkers that had mostly been built by the French, but were used by the U.S. during the Vietnam-American War (I can’t bring myself to call it the Vietnam War in this context since the people in Vietnam refer to it as the American War).

Our third stop would be the Golden Bridge, which I was eager to visit after seeing several pictures on Instagram of the dramatic pedestrian bridge cradled by a couple massive hands sculpted in stone. As we drove south and east, I envisioned a lush national park that happened to include a modern, Insta-friendly foot bridge.

Upon arrival at Ba Na Hills, I realized I had been sorely mistaken. We weren’t going to a national park, we were going to a massive amusement park. As our driver pulled our car into the huge parking lot and led us to the tram that would take us to the ticket booth, Vicki and I looked at each other with alarm. “Are we sure we want to do this?” Vicki asked me with an understandably dubious expression. I shared her concern. This seemed like a less-than-authentic Vietnamese experience. We hadn’t traveled to Southeast Asia to go to a theme park full of tourists. And we certainly didn’t want to be surrounded by throngs of screaming children.

However, we were already at the park, and one of the joys of travel is experiencing spontaneous surprises. Plus, I really wanted to see that damn Golden Bridge for myself. Vicki and I headed to the ticket booth to purchase our tickets (not included with the transfer, and only slightly less expensive than the entire car ride had cost us, i.e. not cheap). We braced ourselves to be ready for anything and agreed to meet our driver in two hours. Would we even need that much time?

Some more background on Ba Na Hills that will help put the park into perspective: the resort was founded in 1919 by French colonists that wanted a cool retreat from the hot, humid summers in Vietnam (located nearly 1500 meters above sea level, it can be 10-15 degrees cooler up in the hills, which we can confirm based on our own experience). The site was essentially abandoned and left to ruin during the country’s tumult later in the twentieth century, but was acquired by Sun World in more recent years and renovated into a modern theme park based on its French resort roots.

We certainly hadn’t come to Vietnam to visit a reproduction of French culture, but it made me feel better that the site did have some historical context, even if it was rather confused and messy. Plus, we were two of the only white people visiting the park; the vast majority of visitors were Asian. While this wasn’t the cultural experience that I would typically seek out in my travels, it did seem to offer a unique perspective.

The Golden Bridge was the first attraction that we saw after disembarking from the cable car. With the one must-see site checked off our list, we then needed to figure out what else we wanted to do in the expansive park. Suddenly, two hours seemed like an overly restrictive constraint of our time.

The final stop before reaching our hotel would be the Marble Mountains, where we could hike and view Buddhist temples.

From the Marble Mountains, it was a fifteen minute drive to our accommodations: the Four Seasons Nam Hai. I had heard only good things about the resort and couldn’t wait to check it out myself.

Staying at the Four Seasons Nam Hai

Sure enough, the Four Seasons was heavenly. The expansive beachfront property felt luxurious, private, and calming. After the past four nights of staying in (very nice) city hotels and jumping from place to place, I was ready for a slight change of pace.

After settling into our lovely villa and enjoying our bottle of sparkling wine, we decided to venture into town. The Four Seasons is about a fifteen minute drive from the Ancient Town of Hoi An and offers regularly scheduled shuttles to transport guests to/from town. We took the shuttle a couple times, but found that it was easy and affordable to book a car via Grab if we didn’t want to be tied to the hotel schedule.

One of the nice things about being in the Ancient Town was that motorized vehicles weren’t permitted. As much as I had enjoyed the buzzy energy associated with the ubiquitous motorbikes in Vietnam, it was a relief to not have to stress every time we wanted to cross the street.

Our plan was to stop at Tadioto, a restaurant/bar known for having great cocktails, then have dinner at Co Mai, a higher end restaurant (by Vietnam standards, that is). Both were excellent.

Then it was back to our villa for a good night’s sleep. Our bike tour didn’t start until 12:45pm the following day, but we wanted to get up early to work out (definitely needed to do some damage control after all the incredible food) and explore Hoi An a bit during the daytime.

Day Two: Exploring Hoi An’s Ancient Town and Biking Through the Local Villages

After hitting the gym (very nice) and having breakfast (massive multi-cultural buffet and a la carte options were included in our room rate), it was back to the Ancient Town to check out the daytime scene.

Vicki was starting to get overwhelmed thinking about all the shopping that she wanted to do, but clearly wasn’t going to lug a bunch of newly purchased goods around on our bike tour. We’d be back.

Then it was time to get on our bikes. We found the local office of Heaven & Earth Bicycles, met our guides and our fellow group of travelers, and we were off. While Hoi An’s Ancient Town is on the mainland of Vietnam, the city is actually made up of a number of small islands surrounded by the Thu Bon River. Thus, we started our tour with a boat ride to Duy Vinh Island.

Upon reaching the local home, our guides gave us a tour of the simple, open-air wood structure. The ceiling contained wood beams where the residents could climb with their valuables to stay safe during monsoon season, when the heavy rains regularly flood the area.

Stop #3 would be a home “distillery” of sorts, to see how rice wine is made (and taste the final product).

Next up was one of my favorite activities of the tour: we’d learn how the local “basket boats” are produced, and would then have an opportunity to paddle around in a boat on our own.

We were joined by an energetic and jovial older woman to help guide us with the boats. She introduced herself as “Sexy Woman.” Wait? Did I hear that correctly? Apparently, yes. On a previous tour, someone had asked her how old she was. She responded, “Sixty-one,” but the tourist interpreted that as “sexy one” and burst out laughing. Not one to miss out on a good joke, she cracked up herself, and has been known as “Sexy Woman” amongst tour groups ever since.

Some quick background on the basket boats native to Vietnam: while it has not been confirmed why the boats were first created, the widely accepted theory is that the ingenious Vietnamese people designed the multi-purpose baskets during the French colonial era. France levied a tax on boats that the Vietnamese couldn’t pay, so the fisherman came up with a creative solution: build baskets that could also function as boats, thereby evading the tax.

After our thrilling experience navigating the basket boats (nobody fell in the water), the day was nearly over. It was time to head to the ferry that would take us back to the mainland.

Once safely back on land, we decided to enjoy the night scene in Hoi An for a bit, then return to the Four Seasons for dinner at their main restaurant, La Sen. Although expensive for Vietnam, the menu looked delicious (a mix of Vietnamese and Indian dishes), and if our breakfast had been any indication, we would be in for a treat. I also wanted to spend some more time at the beautiful property.

Dinner at La Sen did not disappoint, but I was trying my hardest to not overindulge since I knew we’d be eating a lot more the following day.

Day Three: Cooking Class and More Exploring Hoi An

For our third and final day in Hoi An, we had booked a cooking class through Hoi An Eco Cooking Class. We got picked up in the morning at our hotel, then headed to the market to buy fresh ingredients with our guide and fellow travelers.

Throughout our many tours, we had the opportunity to taste a number of herbs, some of which were familiar to me (peppermint, lemongrass, coriander, Thai basil etc.) But we tried one that was brand new to my palate: fish mint. This herb deceptively looks like mint, but has a strong fishy flavor that I found revolting. so I learned to be careful before dumping a pile of herbs into a dish indiscriminately.

We completed our shopping at the market and headed to the cooking school, along the river. Before beginning our lesson, we had one more activity: paddling through the river in… what else? Basket boats! Except this time we’d be passengers.

Finally, it was time to learn how to cook some delicious Vietnamese food. In total, we would cook five dishes (plus sweet & sour sauce). The school was very accommodating of my special dietary needs, substituting shrimp or tofu for meat in my servings. We’d also learn the process for making rice milk used in the rice pancakes found throughout Vietnam.

Like many Asian cultures, the Vietnamese put fish sauce in pretty much everything. The fish flavor is very mild, so I didn’t mind it, but it would have been a challenge to eat in Vietnam if I was a strict vegetarian.

After trying so many delectable dishes in the past week, it was great to learn a bit more about how at least a few items were actually made. We were especially impressed with the aubergine dish, since we had yet to taste anything like it in Vietnam. For the record, soya sauce is the same thing as soy sauce, but we added a number of ingredients (tomato, sugar, oyster sauce), then reduced the liquid to make it particularly delicious.

Once we returned to our hotel around 1:30pm, we were delighted to see that the sun had come out. I had booked a massage for later in the afternoon, and Vicki wanted to get back to the Ancient Town to cross off all the items on her growing shopping list, but we finally had some time to lounge by the luxurious hotel pool, cocktail in hand.

After my massage (I sadly took no pictures of the spa – it was the pure image of peace and tranquility), I knocked out some travel planning and coordinated a meetup with Vicki for a pre-dinner glass of wine at our new favorite wine bar in town. She had embarked on quite the shopping spree, and I found myself feeling regretful that I hadn’t partaken on the retail frenzy myself, but then I remembered that a) I didn’t want to lug any additional items around with me on my travels, and b) I really didn’t need anything else in my already jam-packed Manhattan apartment.

For our last meal in Hoi An, we opted to try Green Mango. It definitely catered to tourists, but still offered a wide assortment of local food.

Our flight to Saigon was at 10am the next morning, so we called it a night after dinner to allow us to get to bed at a reasonable hour (we also really wanted to get up early enough to enjoy one last incredible breakfast at the Four Seasons).

Despite the touristic feel of the old quarter, I was glad we went to Hoi An, even if I didn’t take advantage of the shopping or affordable bespoke tailors. It was enjoyable to stroll through the charming town, biking through the countryside was a highlight, and the cooking class was a fun and engaging activity. And of course, I could’ve moved into our hotel.

After a full week in Vietnam, I still had three nights left. Onward to Saigon!