Hoi An Ancient Town

How much is the Hoi An Ancient Town ticket?

There are two ticket types, both open to every visitor. 80,000 VND covers the Japanese Bridge or Quan Cong Temple plus two more sites; 120,000 VND covers the bridge or temple, one museum and three more sites. Under-16s go free, and groups of eight or more get a guide at no extra cost. That is how the Hoi An heritage conservation centre's notice puts it; Da Nang's tourism price table labels the same amounts as Vietnamese and foreigner prices, so check at the booth.

It’s a stub with tear-off coupons. Officially it covers either the Japanese Bridge or Quan Cong Temple, Hoi An’s museums and three more sites of your choice — old merchant houses like Tan Ky House, Chinese assembly halls like the Fujian Assembly Hall, family chapels or the Minh Huong communal house. Staff tear off one coupon at each door.

The ticket is valid for up to three days, and you should keep the stub for all of them: it’s what gets you in and out of the zone. Booths sit at the entrances — travel guides count around ten — and take cash in dong. Foreign Visa and Mastercard work in larger hotels and restaurants, but street food, markets and ticket windows are cash only. Grab rides can be paid in cash or with a linked foreign card.

Hoi An Ancient Town opening hours

The streets are open 24 hours. Ticketed sites — houses, halls and museums — open 8:00–17:00 according to Da Nang’s tourism board, though a few keep longer hours and travel guides list the Japanese Bridge as open into the evening. Mornings before 10:00 are the quietest; day-trip coaches from Da Nang arrive towards lunchtime.

The Old Town is a pedestrian zone: cars and motorbikes are kept out from 9:00 to 21:30 in summer and 9:00 to 21:00 in winter. Phan Chau Trinh Street on the northern edge joins the walking area in the evening, from 17:30. Taxis and Grab drop you at the edge, on Tran Hung Dao or Phan Chau Trinh.

What is Hoi An Ancient Town?

The Ancient Town is the historic core of Hoi An: a few blocks between Phan Chau Trinh Street and the river. From the 15th to the 19th century this was a busy port for Japanese, Chinese and European ships. Then the river silted up, trade moved to Da Nang, and the town was largely left as it was — which is why it survived.

Today the protected zone holds more than a thousand old buildings: two-storey timber merchant houses with ochre walls and tiled roofs, assembly halls built by Chinese communities, family chapels, pagodas and French-era shophouses. UNESCO listed the town in 1999.

It’s a living neighbourhood rather than an open-air museum. Ground floors are tailors, cafés and souvenir shops, families still live upstairs, and the best thing to do is simply walk: yellow facades, bougainvillea and silk lanterns strung overhead. Since 2025 Hoi An has been administratively part of Da Nang city, but on the ground it’s still its own small town.

What to see in Hoi An Ancient Town

• Japanese Covered Bridge (Chùa Cầu) — the roofed bridge with a tiny temple inside, Hoi An’s emblem, around four centuries old. It reopened in 2024 after almost two years of restoration. Crossing it uses one coupon.
• Tan Ky House — a merchant house on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street that mixes Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese details; a good first look at how traders lived.
• Fujian Assembly Hall — the most ornate of the Chinese halls on Tran Phu Street, with a big gate, mosaic dragons and incense-filled courtyards.
• Quan Cong Temple — the temple of the general Guan Yu opposite the market; the ticket’s alternative to the Japanese Bridge.
• The museums — History and Culture, Folk Culture, Sa Huynh Culture and Trade Ceramics. Each is small, 15–30 minutes; Trade Ceramics best explains why ships came here at all.
• Bach Dang riverside and the Hoai River — fishing boats by day, lanterns on the water at night. This is where you take a boat and set a paper lantern afloat.
• Hoi An Central Market — the eastern edge of the zone: fish and greens in the morning, food stalls and fabric later on.

When is the Hoi An lantern festival?

Every evening is a lantern evening to some degree: silk lanterns light every street, vendors sell paper lanterns by the river, boats take people out on the water, and across the bridge the night market on An Hoi islet opens. That’s what people mean by the “lantern quarter” — there’s no separate district, it’s these same streets and the riverbank.

Once a month, on the 14th day of the lunar calendar, the eve of the full moon, the town holds Old Town Night, with folk singing, bài chòi card games and street music. According to travel guides, the regular street lighting goes off at around 18:00 that night and the quarter runs on lanterns alone. Check a lunar calendar for the date in your month.

Normal evenings are busy too, especially 19:00–21:00. For photos without the crush, come at dusk, around 18:00, when the lanterns are already on and the tour groups are at dinner.

How long to spend, and is it worth it?

Allow about 3 hours for the Ancient Town itself: the three main streets, three to five ticketed sites and a drink by the river. The best plan is to be at the first houses when they open, see the halls before the heat, rest in the afternoon and come back for the lanterns around 18:00. The ticket lasts up to three days, so splitting the visit costs nothing extra.

It’s worth it: this is the most complete old quarter in Vietnam, and it’s genuinely beautiful after dark. The honest downside: at midday in high season Tran Phu is packed, many ground floors are souvenir shops and tailors, and the houses are small and fairly alike inside. On a single day trip from Da Nang, don’t spend all five coupons on houses — save energy for the evening.

Morning or evening in the Old Town?

Site hours from Da Nang’s tourism board price table; vehicle-free hours from the same portal and the Hoi An Centre for Cultural Heritage Conservation. One ticket covers both if you split the visit.

Hoi An’s history

Historic places in Hoi An rated by YesGo. Tap a column heading to sort.

Nearby and on your route

39

Tan Ky Old House

Hoi An, Vietnam

20 min · One Old Town ticket coupon · 3 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Tan Ky Old House

39

Fujian Assembly Hall

Hoi An, Vietnam

30 min · Old Town ticket, 80,000–120,000 VND · 5 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Fujian Assembly Hall

40

Japanese Covered Bridge

Hoi An, Vietnam

20 min · Old Town ticket: 80,000–120,000 VND · 5 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Japanese Covered Bridge

44

Hoi An Central Market

Hoi An, Vietnam

45 min · Free entry · 5 min walk

Yes — add to my route: Hoi An Central Market

How to do it right

• Buy the ticket on your first evening — it lasts up to three days, so the house and museum coupons are ready for the next morning.
• The Japanese Bridge and Quan Cong Temple share one coupon slot: to see both you need a second ticket.
• 8:00–10:00 is the calmest window, before the Da Nang day-trippers arrive.
• Cover shoulders and knees for assembly halls and temples.
• Find lantern boats along Bach Dang Street and agree the price before you board.
• Set Grab pickups on Tran Hung Dao or Phan Chau Trinh — cars can’t enter the zone for most of the day.

Questions