"Hoi An" a Hoi An Travel Page by leffe3

Amazingly, Hoi An was a contemporary of Melaka (Malaysia) and Macau (China) in the 17/18/19th centuries, but there is little evidence of it today, with the river silting up access to the sea in the late 19th century, thus making the river mouth un-navigable to larger ships.

Nowadays, its a sleepy, picturesque town, one of the first Chinese settlements in southern Vietnam - Chinese architecture and its influences are to be seen all over the city, the result of which the old city has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Something tells me it will not stay sleepy for very long! Whilst undoubtedly a worthwhile place to hang out for a few days (and it's the perfect spot to travel on to My Son), tourism is more than creeping into the town. Many of the listed buildings are fast becoming galleries and tourist haunts and the probable 'laid-back' approach of only a couple of years ago is slowly ebbing away. But that doesn't mean it has no charm. It's actually an ideal spot for a bit of the more 'commercial' holidaying - a decent beach 4 kms from the old town (hire a bike - its a very easy and safe ride) with a number of cafes and restaurants, a wonderful market, plenty of curio shops to wonder through as well as that day trip to My Son and the widest choice of bars and cafes we encountered outside Hanoi. It's also the place to get your favourite leather jacket copied or full set of clothes made of silk - 2 days or less was the given time.

With half decent weather to spend on the beach, you can easily spend 4 or 5 days relaxing after rushing round the sites of the north of Vietnam.