Hoi An 7 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)
Heads up: some links here are affiliate links. Book or buy through them and we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only point you to things we would actually use.
Seven days is our 6-day itinerary , the Ancient Town, My Son, Da Nang, the craft villages, and the Cham Islands, plus one long day trip to Hue’s imperial city. If a full week feels like too much, our 5-day itinerary is the tighter version without Hue or the islands.
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 |
| 6 | Cham Islands (Cu Lao Cham) boat trip | ~600,000-900,000 VND |
| 7 | Hue: the Citadel and Imperial City, via the Hai Van Pass | ~700,000-1,000,000 VND |
Book these before you go
- A Hue day trip via the Hai Van Pass : a long day, consider an overnight instead if your schedule allows.
- A Cham Islands boat trip : seasonal and sea-dependent.
- A Ba Na Hills and Golden Bridge day trip .
- A My Son sunrise tour .
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. 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, 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, 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, a real stair climb through cave pagodas.
Afternoon: Ba Na Hills by cable car, ending at the Golden Bridge, opened 2018.
Evening: My Khe Beach and the fire-breathing Dragon Bridge on a weekend evening.
Day 5: Cam Kim island and the craft villages
Morning: Cam Kim island and Kim Bong carpentry village, quieter than anything on the mainland old town.
Afternoon: Thanh Ha pottery village, then Reaching Out, a deaf-run crafts shop and tea house at 131 Tran Phu.
Evening: An early night before the islands.
Day 6: The Cham Islands
Morning: Boat out to Cu Lao Cham, a marine biosphere reserve, for snorkeling. Confirm the crossing the evening before, since it’s genuinely weather-dependent.
Afternoon: Back in Hoi An by mid-afternoon.
Evening: Pack light for tomorrow’s long day, and confirm your Hue transport for an early start.
Day 7: Hue, honestly paced
Morning: Leave early for Hue via the Hai Van Pass, roughly 3-3.5 hours each way. This is genuinely a long day: if your schedule has any flexibility at all, an overnight in Hue instead of a same-day round trip is far more comfortable.
Afternoon: The Citadel and Imperial City, the former seat of the Nguyen dynasty and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in its own right, plus the royal tombs if time allows.
Evening: Return to Hoi An, or, if you’ve opted for the overnight, continue your onward journey from Hue instead of transferring back through Da Nang.
Is 7 days enough for Hoi An?
It’s enough to do every major day trip properly, My Son, Da Nang, the Cham Islands, and Hue, without turning any of them into an afterthought. The only genuine trade-off is Day 7 itself: treat it as a long day or split it into an overnight, but don’t try to compress Hue into an afternoon.
If one day trip has to go, cut Hue before the Cham Islands: Hue is the furthest and least specific to a Hoi An base, while the islands are literally offshore.