Hoi An 5 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
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Five days is our 4-day itinerary , the Ancient Town, My Son, and Da Nang, plus a slower fifth day away from the crowds: Cam Kim island and its craft villages. Want the Cham Islands or Hue too? See our 6-day or 7-day itinerary .
Day-by-day at a glance
| Day | Focus | Est. spend (excl. hotel) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrival, Ancient Town free walk, lantern evening, tailor order | ~150,000-250,000 VND |
| 2 | An Bang Beach, Tra Que village, Cam Thanh basket boat | ~200,000-350,000 VND |
| 3 | My Son Sanctuary, cooking class | ~500,000-800,000 VND |
| 4 | Da Nang: Marble Mountains, Golden Bridge, My Khe Beach | ~500,000-800,000 VND |
| 5 | Cam Kim island, Kim Bong carpentry, Thanh Ha pottery | ~150,000-250,000 VND |
Book these before you go
- A Ba Na Hills and Golden Bridge day trip .
- A My Son sunrise tour .
- A market-to-table cooking class .
- A tailor fitting slot : order on day one.
Day 1: Ancient Town, on foot
Morning: Fly into Da Nang International Airport and transfer to Hoi An, 30-45 minutes by Grab or taxi. Arrange your Vietnam e-visa beforehand through the official evisa.gov.vn portal only.
Afternoon: Walk the UNESCO-listed Ancient Town for free. The ~120,000 VND coupon booklet only buys entry to five of roughly 20 heritage sites.
Evening: The lantern-lit old town, amplified on the 14th of the lunar month at the monthly Full Moon Lantern Festival. Order any tailoring tonight: two or three quotes, one test item first, a modest deposit.
Day 2: Beach, village, canals
Morning: An Bang Beach, the better-kept of Hoi An’s two beaches now that Cua Dai has visible erosion.
Afternoon: Tra Que herb village for a working session in the plots, then the calm, private version of the Cam Thanh basket boat.
Evening: Fitting for anything ordered on day one.
Day 3: My Son and a cooking class
Morning: My Son Sanctuary, a UNESCO-listed Cham Hindu ruin complex about an hour southwest, on a sunrise tour. Much of it was damaged by US bombing over a single week in 1969.
Afternoon: Back in Hoi An, with time for the Central Market.
Evening: A market-to-table cooking class.
Day 4: Da Nang, the manufactured-spectacle day
Morning: The Marble Mountains, five marble and limestone hills with cave pagodas and a real stair climb.
Afternoon: Ba Na Hills by cable car, ending at the Golden Bridge, opened 2018, unapologetically manufactured spectacle and still worth it once.
Evening: My Khe Beach and the fire-breathing Dragon Bridge on a weekend evening.
Day 5: Cam Kim island and the craft villages
Morning: Cross to Cam Kim island, quieter and mostly bicycles and craft workshops rather than souvenir shops. Kim Bong carpentry village, where boatbuilders and furniture makers have worked for centuries, is on the same stretch of river; Vietnam’s official tourism site covers the wider craft-village tradition in the region.
Afternoon: Thanh Ha pottery village, where the wheel work is more interesting to watch than the finished pieces are to buy. Stop at Reaching Out, a deaf-run crafts shop and tea house at 131 Tran Phu, on the way back for a better souvenir than the lantern shops near the bridge.
Evening: A last old-town wander, or, if this is your last night, an early transfer to Da Nang Airport the next morning.
Is 5 days enough for Hoi An?
Yes, and it’s the point where the trip stops feeling rushed: four content-heavy days plus one genuinely slow one. If you want the Cham Islands or a proper trip to Hue on top, our 6-day and 7-day itineraries add exactly that.
Put the craft-village day last, not third: after My Son and Da Nang, a quiet bike ride through workshops is the right way to slow back down before you leave.