Remarkably Mediocre

This year, 2025, marked the 4th time that I’ve been to Hoi An, Vietnam. The first time was as a backpacker. This year (and the previous 2) with my daughter. I fell in love with the laid-back, magical charm as a backpacker and felt exactly the same 10 years later.

As someone who doesn’t typically love crowds, it always surprises me when I enjoy places like India and Vietnam. The hustle and bustle and energy is different to that in say Australia or the UK. In the latter, it always feels aggressive to me, but in Vietnam, it just feels like life.

Traffic in places like India and Vietnam always blows my mind. There doesn’t seem to be any identifiable road rules. The honking and traffic is always chaos but yet it flows. There could be 3 marked lanes for traffic with 6 actual lanes formed. White lines seeming to be merely a suggestion. Where I live, the rules are clear, and people still can’t work out how to merge from the slip lane onto the freeway. With only 3 lanes of clearly defined traffic.

Anyway, I digress. I can go into the traffic more if anyone is interested but my main point was about Hoi An. And how even after 4 visits, I still keep discovering more. As a backpacker, I mostly stayed around the old town, ate banana pancakes, had clothes tailored and lounged around. A decade later, I discovered a lot more.

An Bang Beach

An Bang beach in Hoi An is underrated in my opinion. Hop on one of the free bikes that your accommodation offers and cycle to the beach. You’ll be sweaty AF but dive into the refreshing water for a cool-down. It’s not warm like a bath but it’s not freezing either. Alternatively, hop in a Grab for a couple of dollars and get dropped off at Soul Kitchen.

There are multiple beach bars and restaurants that offer sun loungers, with umbrellas and towels for a small fee. They’re free if you order food. Trust me, you’ll order the food. We spent most of our time at Soul Kitchen. The fresh spring rolls here are bursting with flavour and the fruit platters are juicy and crisp. There’s plenty of space to play on the sand and then run to the ocean to escape the heat. You’ll want your flip flops, so you don’t scorch a layer of skin from the souls of your feet.

If you’re at the beach all day, there’s lots of seafood restaurants to pop into for dinner.

Vin Wonders, Hoi An

I’m not sure how I missed an entire theme park for 3 of the 4 years I visited Hoi An. But I did! The Vietnamese love a theme park. There seems to be one in every town. Vin Wonders, Hoi An is a complete surprise.

Everyone who visits the region seems to be familiar with the infamous, Ba Na Hills. A theme park on the outskirts of Da Nang, made infamous by the instagrammable, Hand Bridge. Mention the theme park 15 minutes from Hoi An though and you’ll be met with blank faces. Inside Vin Wonders, there’s a boat safari, theme park with rides for all ages, an indoor soft-play area, AND a water park. It’s huge. And on the day we went (In August), completely deserted.

My daughter is only 4. We couldn’t go on any big rides. However, they had plenty of options for little kids. And because it was deserted, if she loved it, she just went round again and again. No queues. Cleo’s favourites were the teacups and swings.

The safari is included in the ticket price. There is the option to get a semi-private boat for about $10-15 extra. I chose this as it had the added bonus of feeding the giraffes or elephants. It was super cool watching the joy on my daughters face as the giraffe took the banana from her hand. It’s a really quick safari tour and the animals are all on little islands.

I recommend heading to the safari first, then tackling the theme park. We then had an indoor break in the soft-play/arcade area before finishing off the theme park. We closed out the day with the water-park. The water-park provides towels, lockers and loungers for a small fee and refundable deposit. There’s also lots of showers so you can rinse off before heading to see the light and water show.

Hoi An Memory Land

Another one that I managed to miss for the last 4 years. Hoi An Memories Land is on ‘Clam Island’, on the Thu Bon River. The Moonlight Bridge connects it to the main land, near to the old town. Walking across the bridge and exploring the different cultural installments is the highlight of Memories Land. Hundreds of lanterns light up a magnificent tree, marking a striking welcome as you descend from the bridge. Keep walking and you come across more light installations and artworks that reflect Vietnamese culture synonymous with Hoi An.

There’s food stalls and gifts shops and lots of photo opportunities. There’s even a buffet dinner option that you can buy with the ticket. The main attraction of Memories Land is the show. Starting at 8pm, and lasting for one hour, it’s a grand production. There are different seating areas, organised by language so it’s possible to follow along if you don’t speak Vietnamese.

The show includes dancing, special effects, and even pyrotechnics. It can be hard to follow if you aren’t familiar with the history. It’s worth a visit but the show does feel a little long for smaller children.

Get creative with a lantern-making or pottery class

Hoi An is a creative wonderland. Many traditional skills and crafts are still practiced and a lot of businesses let you make your own. Lanterns are a symbol of Hoi An and they can be found decorating restaurants, shops and trees. I booked via Klook and opted for the express class. This option provided the ready-made bamboo frame. I was worried that Cleo would get bored. However, she embraced the class. She enjoyed picking the different fabric for the panels. She also enjoyed gluing the frame and stretching the fabric to fit. The staff were wonderful and helpful and you go home with a fully functioning lantern.

We also headed to the pottery village, a short drive out of the old town. Here, the streets are lined with rows and rows of homes that run pottery businesses. As well as selling what they make, you can pay roughly $3 to have a go on the pottery wheel. It’s a really quick process but they quickly fire it so that you can also paint it. It’s not glazed, so they aren’t food safe but it’s a cute souvenir all the same. I was terrible but Cleo took to it really quickly.

Lantern Boat Ride and Old Town

Don’t underestimate those lantern boat rides. They scream tourist trap, smell like diesel and look like pollution but there’s something magical about them for kids. My daughter got so excited about the lantern wishes that we ended up doing it twice, back-to-back. The first time on the small, gondola style boats which we had all to ourselves. The second time, on one of the bigger, communal boats. Again, we had it all to ourselves.

Don’t worry about finding one, they find you. There’s plenty of family members waiting by the water’s edge to take you to their family boat. Lanterns of all colours and sizes, hang from the boat. You hop on and putter down the river for 10-15 minutes. Then the driver provides you with a paper lantern and candle to release into the river. You lean over the boat (hold onto your kid!!), make a wish and release your lantern. It’s nice to see the old town from the river and feel the breeze cutting through the humidity. It isn’t expensive and it’s a great pre-dinner activity to expend some energy.

Optional Extras

Da Nang – A HUGE city that deserves more than just a day trip. Has multiple theme parks, water parks, night markets etc. Not to mention, the enormous dragon bridge that blows fire on a Saturday night. An attraction in itself.

Play Centres aren’t the obvious choice for 80% humidity. The one I visited was air-conditioned and very well-equipped. It kept Cleo occupied for hours on a rainy day.

Coconut Boats – A social media favourite, and for great reason. The villagers are friendly. They paddle you through the coconut groves, stopping along the way to hook crabs on DIY rods and sing songs. Then there’s the main spectacle of someone spinning the boats really fast. Tip them and you can even be a participant.

What are your favourite things to do in Hoi An? I know i’ll have missed so many things!