Is Hoi An worth visiting or overrated now in 2026

I go down to Hoi An most years, usually more than once, and usually when I’ve had enough of Hanoi. So you can probably guess where I land on this.

But I do understand why people ask. Every second person who messages me about it has already booked and has just read something that made them nervous, and they want to know whether they’ve wasted the flights.

Which is a fair question, and the answer changes depending on what you’ve actually booked, so I’ve done this by situation instead of trying to give one verdict for everybody.

• Quick Answer: Is Hoi An worth visiting in 2026? Yes, and I’d say that without much hesitation. The trap is booking it as a day trip from Da Nang, which gets you there for the busiest hours and out before the good ones, and that’s where nearly all the overrated reviews come from.
• By Month:
  • Feb-Apr: dry and mild, the easy answer.
  • May-Aug: hot, up to 35°C, best for the beach, midday is a write-off.
  • Sep: rain starting, quieter, my favourite of the shoulder months.
  • Oct-Nov: heavy rain and it floods most years.
  • Dec-Jan: cool and drizzly, cheap, and lovely if you’re coming from somewhere cold.
• The Complaints, Sorted:
  • Too touristy: true 11am to 6pm, not true otherwise.
  • Expensive: no. Two people manage on $40-60 a day plus a room from $15.
  • Unsafe: no, and it’s one of the easiest towns in Vietnam to walk around alone at night.
  • Nothing to do after two days: fair, if you spend both of them in the Ancient Town.
• Costs: Ancient Town ticket 120,000 VND, bicycle 30,000-50,000 a day, cao lau around 30,000, homestay from $15.
• What Changed: three floods late in 2025, the worst water since 1964, and Hoi An is a ward of Da Nang now so booking sites are using new ward names.

You’ll notice I’ve linked to a few hotels and activities I used or recommend, you can even highlight any text to check prices and book instantly. If you make a booking through them, I receive a small commission, which really helps support the work I do here, at no additional cost to you.

The Version of Hoi An I Keep Going Back For

Before the caveats, what actually pulls me down there, because otherwise none of the rest makes sense.

It’s the first hour of the day. I am not a morning person and I resent this town for it, but I set an alarm in Hoi An and I don’t anywhere else. You get coffee somewhere on Tran Phu, the shutters are still going up, and for about ninety minutes the whole heritage quarter is yours. Then a bike out through the paddies towards Tra Que, which takes twenty minutes and puts you somewhere with buffalo in it.

That’s it. That’s the trip. Everything else here is optional and most of what people argue about is stuff I’d skip anyway.

If that sounds like your kind of morning, you’ll like it here. If you were hoping for a big-ticket sightseeing town, this isn’t one, and it’ll start feeling thin around day three.

I’ve had that trip too, the one where I stayed a week and ran out of Hoi An by Wednesday, and it was my own fault for not leaving the old town.

If You’ve Booked October or November

This is the bit I’d actually worry about, and it’s the thing nobody explains properly.

Hoi An sits at the bottom of the Thu Bon and it floods, not once in a while but most years, and in a bad season you get maybe ten goes at it.

Late October into November 2025 there were three back to back and the water came up higher than it had since 1964. The two riverside streets went over a metre.

Tan Ky house, the old merchant house everyone visits, flooded worse than the people working there had ever seen.

A normal one is 30 to 60cm through the low streets and it drains in a day or two. A bad one cuts the road to the beach and sometimes the airport.

Here’s the thing I didn’t expect though. The town doesn’t empty out. People keep coming, locals put little boats onto the walking streets and row visitors around for 50,000 to 100,000, cafés let you sit with your feet in it, and everyone looks like they’re having a better time than they planned to.

I’d rather not build a holiday around that. But if it happens to you, go with it, because you’ll come home with the trip everyone else on your flight didn’t get.

What I’d do with November dates is book something cancellable, keep the beach and any day trips loose, and be alright with an afternoon in a café watching it come down.

There’s a proper month by month version in the best time to visit Hoi An guide, and where to stay in Hoi An matters more than usual in the wet months, since the low streets by the river are the ones that go under first.

If You’re Coming in December or January

Everyone writes these off and I think they’re wrong, though I’ll admit my reasons are specific to living in Hanoi.

Hanoi in January is ten degrees, damp, and nobody has heating. Hoi An in January is low twenties, grey, drizzly on and off, and it is an enormous relief. I’ve done that trip more than once purely to be warm for a week and it works every time.

The town is quiet then, prices are at their lowest, and the wet streets with the lanterns reflected in them is honestly the prettiest I’ve seen this place.

You won’t be swimming and the sky won’t be blue in any of your photos. If neither of those things is the point of your trip, it’s a good month and a cheap one.

If Someone Told You Hoi An Is Too Touristy

They’re right about the hours they were there.

Eleven until six, high season, the Ancient Town is packed, and I mean packed as in you’re walking at the speed of whoever’s in front of you. The heritage bit is only a few streets deep so there’s nowhere to duck away to.

Most of the people who’ll tell you Hoi An isn’t worth visiting are describing exactly that stretch of the day, and nothing else.

And then it clears. That’s the whole thing. Da Nang is half an hour up the road and it feeds day trips straight into the middle of the day, so the crowd arrives together and leaves together, and if you’re staying overnight you get both ends of it to yourself.

I won’t pretend it hasn’t got busier over the years I’ve been coming. It has. But I’d still rather have Hoi An with a crowd on a timetable than a place with no crowd and nothing in it.

If You’re Worried It’ll Be Expensive

Don’t be. The reputation is from comparing it to the rest of Vietnam, and Hoi An is expensive by Vietnamese standards in the way a nice sandwich is expensive.

Two people eat and get about on $40 to $60 a day. Homestays are $15 to $35, a mid-range hotel with a pool is $35 to $70.

Cao lau at a stall is around 30,000 and a bike for the day is 30,000 to 50,000, though most places lend you one so you may not pay at all.

The Ancient Town ticket is 120,000 for foreign visitors and you only need it to go inside the old buildings. Not to walk the streets. People get caught out by that at the gate constantly, in both directions.

My one piece of advice on money here: ask what things cost before you say yes to them. Boat rides, souvenirs, anything without a price on it. This town is soft about almost everything except that, and it catches nice people out because they don’t expect to have to.

The tailoring is its own question and I’ve put it in the Hoi An tailors guide, because the difference between a good shop and a bad one is bigger than the price gap between them.

If You’re Going Alone, or Worried About Safety

It’s fine, and it’s one of the easiest towns in Vietnam to be a woman on her own in, which is the version of this I can answer honestly.

No vehicles in the Ancient Town at night and people about until eleven, so walking back at ten never crosses my mind.

Further out it’s darker and quieter earlier, so coming back from An Bang after dark I’d take a Grab instead of cycling, mostly because that road has trucks on it.

The realistic annoyances are prices and, occasionally, bags getting grabbed off shoulders by someone on a bike, which is much rarer here than in Saigon.

Floods are the exception. The water moves faster through those streets than it looks and the boats out on them aren’t regulated. Life jacket, and don’t stand about in it for a photo.

Is Hoi An Worth Visiting for the Attractions? What I’d Pay For

A lot of the doubt about this town is really doubt about specific things people have been sold, so here’s where I’ve landed on them.

The three I’d protect on a short trip are the Ancient Town early, the ride out through the paddies, and an afternoon at An Bang. The rest I can take or leave, and the activities in Hoi An pillar sorts them out properly.

If You’re Bringing Children

Better than most Vietnamese towns for it, mostly because everything’s flat and close together.

Basket boats at Cam Thanh are what they’ll talk about afterwards. Lantern making takes an hour or two and they keep what they make. An Bang is calm enough to swim at most of the year. The cycling is easy once you’re clear of the first kilometre, which has enough traffic that I wouldn’t put a small child on their own bike for it.

Same advice as everyone gets, mornings and evenings. The afternoon crush is where family days come apart.

If You Only Have One Night, or You’re Choosing Between Hoi An and Hue

Two things people ask together, so together.

One night is enough to get the good version. Arrive in the afternoon, have the evening, get up early, leave after lunch. That’s a proper Hoi An trip and I’d take it over three days in a lot of places.

What doesn’t work is the day trip from Da Nang, which lands you in the worst hours and drives you out before the best ones.

If it’s a choice between one night here and a day trip, take the night without thinking about it.

Hoi An or Hue isn’t really a comparison, they’re different kinds of day. Hue is imperial history, a citadel and tombs, and it asks something of you. People who like that come away happy and people who don’t come away flat. Hoi An you do by wandering and eating.

If you can only take one and history isn’t your thing, Hoi An, easily.

How to fit either into a wider trip is in the Hoi An itinerary guide.

When I’d Tell Someone to Skip It

Not many situations, honestly, but there are some.

If you’ve got a single day in central Vietnam with no overnight, Da Nang gets more out of that day and doesn’t need you to time it right.

If you’re locked into late October or November and your schedule can’t move at all, the flooding is the one thing here that can genuinely take a trip apart.

And if what you want is a night out, this isn’t it. Quiet by eleven, and that’s part of why I like it.

Everyone else, I’d go. I keep going.

The timing thing is my whole argument here and I’ve never really checked it against anyone else’s experience, which is a bit embarrassing to admit after this many words.

So if you went and came away thinking it was overrated, I’d love to know what month it was and what time of day you were in the Ancient Town. My hunch is nearly everyone who says that was there in the afternoon, but that’s a theory built from my own habits and a handful of conversations.

And if you’ve been in October or November, tell me how it went either way. One flood trip and a lot of opinions is not a great ratio.

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