Hoi An at Its Best Hour
The Coconut Forest & Hoi An Ancient Town Tour is an 8-hour trip from Da Nang that starts at 1:30 pm on purpose: you skip the midday heat, see the coconut forest in soft afternoon light, and reach the Old Town exactly when the lanterns come on.
Most tours do Hoi An in the morning and call it a day. We think that misses the point. Hoi An is an evening town — the yellow walls turn gold, the river fills with lantern boats, and the streets close to cars. Our schedule is built around that hour.
From Basket Boats to Lantern Streets
- 1:30 pm — pickup at your Da Nang hotel; about 30 minutes by car to Bay Mau Coconut Forest;
- Basket boat ride — Vietnam’s round bamboo boats, paddled through quiet coconut-palm waterways by local rowers;
- Hoi An Ancient Town on foot — the Japanese Covered Bridge, Quan Cong Temple, and the alleys between them, with stories from your KissTour guide;
- Boat ride on the Thu Bon River — and your own paper lantern to release on the water;
- Dinner at a local restaurant — included, with Hoi An specialties;
- Evening — drive back and drop-off at your hotel in Da Nang.
Small Group or Private?
Both exist, and the difference is simple. The small-group tour (US $40 per person) shares the car and guide with a few other travelers — friendly, social, and the lowest-cost way to see both places. The private option (US $104 per person) gives you your own car, your own guide and a schedule that bends around you: linger in the Old Town, skip a stop, stay for more photos. Toggle “Make my tour private” when booking, or ask us on WhatsApp.
All entrance tickets, both boat rides, the lantern and dinner are included either way. Tips and anything not named in the program are not.
Is the Hoi An Tour From Da Nang Worth It?
It is worth it if you are based in Da Nang, you want Hoi An’s Ancient Town after dark rather than at midday, and you would rather not organise the 30 kilometres, the tickets, the boats and dinner yourself. It is not worth it if you are already sleeping in Hoi An, because you can walk to the lanterns for the price of a 120,000 VND town ticket.
- Have your hotel in Da Nang and one afternoon to give Hoi An. You get the coconut forest, the river and the lantern-lit streets in a single run, and you sleep in your own bed.
- Want the two things Hoi An is known for in the same trip. The basket boats sit 5 kilometres out of town in Cam Thanh; the Ancient Town is a separate stop. Doing both independently means arranging two legs and a dinner in between.
- Do not want to work out transport home at 9 pm. The yellow public bus between Da Nang and Hoi An stops running around 6 pm, so an evening in the Old Town means booking a car back in the dark whether you planned for it or not.
- Are travelling as a couple, a family or a pair of friends and would rather have a guide than a phone full of half-open map tabs.
- Prefer one figure to five. Car both ways, both entrance tickets, the boats, a lantern and dinner sit inside $40 USD per person, and the inclusions block above lists them.
- Are already staying overnight in Hoi An. You are 10 minutes’ walk from the river. Paying for a return transfer from Da Nang makes no sense — see the comparison in the next section, and consider our other Da Nang days instead.
- Came to Hoi An mainly to shop or to have clothes made. Tailoring in Hoi An needs a fitting and usually a return visit the next day, and the fabric streets are busiest in daylight. An afternoon tour that turns towards the coconut forest first is the wrong shape for that trip. Come on your own with a free day, then book us for a different afternoon.
- Are looking at the flood weeks. The Thu Bon rises from late October into mid-December, with October and November the worst of it. In late October 2025 the river at Hoi An reached 5.62 metres — 0.14 metres above the historic 1964 level — and streets in the Ancient Town sat under 30 centimetres to nearly a metre of water. Floods usually pass in one to three days, so the sensible move is to keep those dates loose and message us rather than lock in a fixed afternoon.
- Want a long, slow day. This is an afternoon and an evening, not a full day. If you want Hoi An from breakfast onwards, stay the night.
- Dislike crowds in the evening. Lantern hour is the most photographed hour in central Vietnam, and it draws the numbers you would expect. The forest is calm; the Old Town after dark is not.
Going on Your Own vs With Us
Doing this yourself costs less for two or more people and costs more for one. The tickets and boats are modest; the car is the part that decides it, and at 9 pm the car is not optional.
| Going on your own | With us at $40 USD |
|---|---|
| Round-trip Grab or taxi 500,000–700,000 VND (~$19–26 USD) per car, split between however many of you travel. The bus stops running before you need it | Car from your Da Nang hotel and back again, with the driver waiting through dinner and the lanterns |
| Ancient Town ticket 120,000 VND (~$5 USD) per person, bought at a counter on the night | Both entrance tickets already in the price. No counters, no coupon arithmetic |
| Coconut forest gate 30,000 VND plus a basket boat at 80,000–200,000 VND (~$3–8 USD), priced differently at every kiosk, plus a 100,000 VND holiday surcharge on public holidays | Basket boat and river boat both arranged, at one fixed figure whatever the date |
| Lantern boat 170,000–220,000 VND (~$6–8 USD) per boat plus 5,000–10,000 VND per floating lantern | River boat and one lantern each to release, included |
| Dinner 150,000–250,000 VND (~$6–9 USD) a head, at whichever restaurant has a table when you are hungry | Dinner at a local restaurant with Hoi An specialities, booked in your name |
| Roughly 1,020,000–1,490,000 VND (~$38–56 USD) for one person; roughly 700,000–1,020,000 VND (~$26–38 USD) each for two sharing a car | $40 USD per person, small group, with nothing left to buy on the night |
| You plan the sequence yourself, and getting the forest and the lantern hour in the right order takes some working out | 1:30 pm daily, built around sunset. Forest in low light, Old Town as the lanterns come on |
| You book a car home in the dark, at the hour everyone else is booking one | Your driver is there. No app, no surge, no standing on Bach Dang Street with a phone |
| Nobody explains the assembly halls, the covered bridge or what the water coconut is used for | An English-speaking guide in áo dài with your group, who can also translate at the counters |
| If the river is up, you sort out your own refunds and your own evening | We watch the forecast, move you, or cancel and refund in full |
