Review: Is the Hoi An lantern boat ride really worth it?

I think the Hoi An lantern boat ride is worth doing, and I also think most visitors pay several times more for it than they need to, which is why the reviews for it are so split.

The official rate at the riverside ticket booths is 170,000 VND for a whole boat carrying up to three people, for a ride of about twenty minutes. Sold online as a bookable activity, the same twenty minutes is usually priced per person, at somewhere between eight and ten dollars a head. Whether this feels like good value depends almost entirely on which of those two you happened to find first.

So this is what the ride actually involves, what it costs at the booth, and the few situations where I would still book it in advance.

Quick Answer: A Hoi An lantern boat ride costs 170,000 VND per boat for one to three passengers, or 220,000 VND for four to five, at rates fixed by the town’s boat syndicate. It lasts around twenty minutes on the Hoai River. Floating lanterns are not included and cost 5,000 to 15,000 VND each from sellers on the bank. Boats run daily from late afternoon until roughly 9:30pm, and tickets are bought at the booths on Bach Dang and Nguyen Phuc Chu.
The Numbers:
- 170,000 VND per boat for one to three passengers.
- 220,000 VND per boat for four to five. Small children usually aren’t counted.
- Paper lanterns 5,000 to 15,000 VND each, bought separately.
- Around twenty minutes, occasionally closer to fifteen.
- Operating roughly 4pm to 9:30pm, with the last boats leaving about nine.
- The 120,000 VND Ancient Town ticket is separate from all of this.
Practical Notes:
- Ticket booths sit along Bach Dang and Nguyen Phuc Chu, near the An Hoi Bridge.
- You can board at one point and get off at another if you say so beforehand.
- Boats are hand-rowed and carry life vests. They stop in heavy rain or strong wind.
- Full moon nights have the best atmosphere and the longest queues.
- October and November flooding can shut the boats down with no notice.

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.

What It Costs at the Booth

The fares are set per boat and not per person, and they are fixed by the town, so there is nothing to negotiate with the person holding the oar.

	Official rate
One to three passengers, one boat	170,000 VND
Four to five passengers, one boat	220,000 VND
Floating lantern, each	5,000–15,000 VND/ one for free
Duration	About twenty minutes
Maximum capacity	Five, with small children usually free

For two people with a lantern each, that comes to around 190,000 VND altogether, which is roughly seven dollars for the boat and the lanterns combined. At that price I have no hesitation recommending it.

Where to Buy Tickets

The booths are along the riverfront on Bach Dang and Nguyen Phuc Chu, mostly clustered around the An Hoi Bridge and the main crossings.

They are small kiosks with the rates displayed, and the staff will direct you to whichever hand-rowed boat is next in the queue. Hold on to the ticket until the ride is finished.

One detail that is genuinely useful and almost never mentioned is that you do not have to return to where you started. You can board near the An Hoi Bridge and get off on the night market side, or the other way round, as long as you tell the rower before you set out. It makes the ride part of your evening’s walk instead of a loop back to the same spot.

Where to Buy Tickets hoi an lantern boat scaled Vietadvisor

Where to Buy Tickets hoi an lantern boat 5 scaled Vietadvisor

The Price Gap Between the Booth and the Booking Sites

Several platforms sell the Hoi An lantern boat ride as an activity, priced per adult, generally somewhere between $7.85 and $10.42 a head.

Two people booking that way will pay somewhere between sixteen and twenty-one dollars. The same two people walking to a booth pay 170,000 VND for the boat, which is about six and a half dollars, plus a couple of lanterns.

I looked through a number of these listings while writing this, and one of them gives the duration as four and a half hours for what is a fifteen to twenty minute ride, which gives you some idea of how closely the details have been checked.

That said, there are three situations where I would still book ahead.

The first is arriving on a full moon night in high season, when the queues at the booths are long and a prearranged slot saves you standing around.

The second is wanting someone to meet you and walk you to the dock. That is what the guided versions provide, and it is reasonable enough if you would rather not work out which kiosk sells what.

The third is travelling in October or November, when free cancellation is worth having because the river may well be too high for boats to run at all.

Outside those three, I would walk down to the river and buy a ticket there.

Where to Buy Tickets hoi an lantern boat 4 scaled Vietadvisor

The Price Gap Between the Booth and the Booking Sites hoi an lantern 2 scaled Vietadvisor

Check the lantern boat option online

Check on Klook

What the Twenty Minutes Involves

You get a wooden boat, hand-rowed, out from the bank into the middle of the Hoai River, then a slow loop along the lit-up waterfront between the An Hoi and Cam Nam bridges, a pause to put your lanterns onto the water, and back to shore.

It is not a tour and nobody explains anything, although the rowers are local and several I have gone out with were happy to talk if you show any interest.

Twenty minutes is shorter than most people expect. I suspect that is the main reason some reviews are lukewarm.

If you have pictured something closer to a river cruise, you will be back at the bank before you have really settled into it. If you have pictured a short, quiet interval away from a very crowded street, the length is about right.

You can pay the rower a little more on the spot to stay out longer, though I have never particularly wanted to.

About the Lanterns

The paper lanterns are not included in the boat fare (only one free per person when booking online), whatever some listings imply, and you buy them separately on the bank for 5,000 to 15,000 VND each.

I would buy them from the older women and the children selling along the riverside instead of from a shop, since it is the same lantern either way and the money goes somewhere more useful.

About the Lanterns hoi an 7 scaled Vietadvisor — Lanterns from the older women along the riverside

About the Lanterns hoi an 6 scaled Vietadvisor — Lanterns from the older women along the riverside

The rower will usually hand you a pole so you can lower the lantern onto the water properly. That is more helpful than it sounds, because leaning over the side of a low wooden boat while holding a lit candle is not a comfortable manoeuvre.

There is a fair conversation to be had about several hundred paper and wax lanterns going into a river every evening. I do not think buying one makes you a villain, and I tend to buy a single lantern instead of one each, but I would understand someone reaching a different conclusion.

lower the lantern onto the water 3 Vietadvisor

lower the lantern onto the water 2 Vietadvisor

When to Go

Time of evening

Boats run from around four or five in the afternoon until 9:30, with the last admission at about nine.

The light between roughly six and seven is the best of it, with the lanterns lit and some colour still left in the sky, and it is also the busiest stretch of the evening. If queueing bothers you more than photographs do, going at half past eight gets you a much shorter wait on the same river.

Time of evening hoi an lantern boat 3 scaled Vietadvisor

Time of evening hoi an lantern boat 2 scaled Vietadvisor

Full moon nights

Once a month, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, the town runs its lantern festival, street lighting is switched off and the river fills with floating lanterns. That is the best version of this ride and also the one with the longest wait for a boat.

The dates and what actually happens on the night are a separate subject, and I have covered them in the Hoi An lantern festival guide.

Full moon nights hoi an lantern scaled Vietadvisor

Full moon nights hoi an lantern 3 scaled Vietadvisor

Season

October and November are the flood months, and when the river rises the boats stop running. There is rarely any warning, because nobody has any.

The Variations People Ask About

A sunset ride is the same boat on the same route, just earlier. Around five to six you get colour in the sky and the lanterns coming on, and the river is calmer than it is at eight. If I were only doing this once, that is when I would go.

A private boat is what you are already getting. The fare buys the whole boat and not a seat on it, so unless you have joined a larger organised group, it is just you and the rower. Listings advertising a private lantern boat are describing the ordinary arrangement.

Longer river cruises are a different thing altogether. Those run an hour or more, often include dinner, and generally go further downriver towards Cam Nam and back. I mention them so you do not book one expecting twenty minutes, or turn up to a twenty minute ride expecting dinner.

Boat plus a lantern-making class is sold as a combination and is decent value if you wanted the class anyway. The boat part is identical to the walk-up version.

Photographs

The light is difficult and most phones struggle with it, which is why so many lantern boat photos come out as orange smears.

Use night mode and keep still. Take your pictures while the boat has stopped for the lantern release, because anything shot while it is moving tends to blur. The better angles look back towards the Bach Dang waterfront and the Japanese Bridge, so it helps to sit facing the old town side.

If photographs are the main reason you are doing this, the sunset slot is considerably better than the eight o’clock one, because you get some sky in the frame instead of a black band across the top.

Photographs hoi an lantern boat 2 scaled Vietadvisor — Night photos: Stay still during boat stops.

Photographs hoi an lantern boat scaled Vietadvisor — Night photos: Stay still during boat stops.

Is It a Tourist Trap?

That depends which part of it you mean.

The boats themselves are not a scam. The rates are posted and fixed, the rowers are local families working a real trade, and the ride is what it says it is. I have never heard of anyone being taken out onto the water and then told a different price.

Where people feel short-changed is the gap between what they paid and what the ride costs, which is a booking problem more than a boat problem, along with the sense that twenty minutes went quickly for the money. Both of those are avoidable if you know about them beforehand.

The one criticism I would push back on is that the ride is inauthentic because it is aimed at visitors. Lanterns have been going onto this river for a long time, the rowing is a genuine local occupation, and a town that lives on tourism running boats for tourists does not strike me as a betrayal of anything.

lower the lantern onto the water 4 scaled Vietadvisor

Is It a Tourist Trap hoi an lantern scaled Vietadvisor

Who I Would Tell to Skip It

If you get seasick easily, I would leave it. The river is calm and the boats are stable enough, but you sit very close to the water and there is a certain amount of movement getting in and out.

If anyone in your group has mobility difficulties, the boarding involves a step down into a low, unsteady boat, and most operators state plainly that it is not suitable.

If you are in Hoi An for a single night and have to choose between this and eating somewhere properly, I would eat. The waterfront looks much the same from the bank, which is free, and the boats you see in every photograph are the ones you would be sitting in.

And if you have already booked a Hoai River dinner cruise or another evening boat trip, you will be covering the same stretch of water twice.

Fitting It Into an Evening

Because it only takes twenty minutes, this works best slotted into an evening you were having anyway.

What I would do is eat first, somewhere off the river where the food is better and cheaper, then walk down to the booths at around eight, take the ride, and come off on the night market side to carry on from there. That puts you on the water after the worst of the crowd has thinned and leaves you somewhere useful at the end of it.

It sits comfortably alongside the rest of an evening in the Ancient Town, and I have put it in the evening section of my 3 days in Hoi An itinerary. For somewhere to eat beforehand, the short version is the five restaurants I recommend.

FAQ

How long is the Hoi An lantern boat ride?

Around twenty minutes, sometimes closer to fifteen.

How much does it cost?

170,000 VND per boat for one to three people, 220,000 for four to five, with lanterns 5,000 to 15,000 VND extra.

Do the boats run every night?

Yes, daily, roughly four in the afternoon until 9:30, weather permitting.

Can you book it online?

Guided versions are sold online. The standard boat is a walk-up ticket at the riverside booths.

Is the Ancient Town ticket included?

No, that is a separate 120,000 VND.

Where do you buy the lanterns?

From the sellers on the riverbank, not on the boat.

Is it private?

Effectively yes, since you are hiring the whole boat and not a seat on it.

What I Would Do With It

If you are in Hoi An for a few nights and you are wondering whether to bother, I would bother, once, on the night you are least tired.

Walk down to Bach Dang after dinner, pay the 170,000 at a booth, buy a lantern from one of the women on the bank, and get off on the night market side. It costs about the price of two beers and it takes twenty minutes out of an evening you were spending on that street anyway.

What I would not do is build the evening around it, book it weeks ahead, or pay per person for it. Those are the three ways people end up feeling short-changed by a ride that is perfectly good at the price it is meant to cost.