Hoi An, a coastal port city dating back to the 15th century, is well-known for its beautiful and well-preserved Ancient town. It was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1999. Hoi An is located in central Vietnam, in the Quang Nam province.
How To Get There
From Kuala Lumpur, just take a direct flight to Da Nang (2-hour flight) which is the international airport. Da Nang is only about 45 minutes away from Hoi An. Transport to Hoi An can be arranged by the hotel or getting a taxi. We requested for the hotel transport since there were 8 of us. I forgot how much the hotel charged us for this. The ride was comfortable a 10 seater van.
Phone Data / Internet Usage In Hoi An
As soon as you land in Da Nang airport, you can get yourself a phone data / internet package for about RM30 (USD7) – unlimited data which is more than enough to use for 5 days. Don’t worry about how to insert the sim card into your phone because the telco companies staff are very efficient and they will handle everything for you. The internet is high speed and very reliable.
Accommodation in Hoi An
There are many hotels in Hoi An and we stayed at Lantana Riverside Hoi An Boutique Hotel. We are glad that we chose this hotel because we thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. The rooms are stylish, clean and comfortable. The staff are very friendly and helpful. We love the breakfast spread offered by Lantana too. We did most of our tour bookings through Lantana hotel because we were not sure where to visit. Lantana Riverside Hoi An Boutique Hotel’s staff were very accommodating and knowledgeable. They recommended us a few lovely tourist spots, restaurants, and tailor (yes we got ourselves some tailor-made dresses and pants). I will be sharing them later.
These 2 photos were taken from their website.
The entrance of the Lantana Riverside Boutique Hotel.
Our room overlooks the river. This is the view from our hotel room. So serene, and calm.
One of the rooms’ bed. Every day, the bath towels are folded in different animal designs. Very creative. Do you know which animal they are?
After we have checked in, we took a stroll along the street right in front of our hotel. We walked all the way to the Ancient town and it took us about 20 minutes. The weather was around 25 degree Celsius that day.
It was nice to look around at some of the houses and see how the Viets live. I find that they are similar to Malaysian homes, maybe 30 years behind us.
Some of them do not have gates nor do they lock their doors during the day. Not sure if they lock the doors at night. Pretty safe place I guess.
Hoi An is famous for tailored clothes and there are many ( nearly 400 cloth shops and tailor shops) in this small town. You can get your clothes done within 24 hours. I got a pair of lovely green pants done in less than 24 hours. Quick eh?
Will post more later on what to do in Hoi An.
