Hoi An at Night: The Lantern Festival Dates, the River Boats, the Night Market, and What Is Worth Your Evening

Hoi An's old town is closed to motorbikes for most of the day and the evening belongs to walkers: silk lanterns strung across the streets, the assembly halls lit, the Japanese bridge reflected in the river, and the quay lined with sampans hung with lanterns. It is the most photographed hour in Vietnam and, from 18:30 to 21:00 on a weekend, the most crowded street in the country. The trick is timing: dusk itself, around 17:30, before the coaches from Da Nang arrive, and after 21:30, when the town clears and the lanterns stay on.

On the 14th day of every lunar month the town switches off its electric lights, the streets and houses run on candle lanterns, families make offerings at the ancestral altars and the river fills with floating paper lanterns. It runs from dusk to about 22:00 and the dates shift each month with the lunar calendar; the tourist office publishes them a year ahead. It is beautiful and it is the busiest night of the month; book accommodation in the old town well ahead and go to the river early or late. The floating-lantern ritual happens every night now, on a smaller scale.

A 20- to 30-minute sampan ride on the Thu Bon from the old-town quay, rowed past the lantern-lit facades, costs a few dollars per boat and is the night's one essential; you set a paper lantern on the water from it. The An Hoi night market across the bridge sells lanterns, street food and souvenirs from about 17:00, and is where the lantern photographs are taken. Lantern-making workshops, an hour or two of bamboo frame and silk for USD 10 to 20, run in the afternoon and you carry your lantern out.

The old town's restaurants are good and priced for visitors; the better eating is at the food stalls along the river, the banh mi cart that a television chef made famous on Phan Chu Trinh, the cao lau stalls in the central market until it closes, and the night market's grilled skewers. A guided food walk in the early evening avoids the guesswork. Bars cluster on the An Hoi side and along Nguyen Phuc Chu.

The old town ticket (a small combined fee for the heritage houses and halls) is checked at the entry gates by day and rarely in the evening. Sunset is 17:30 to 18:30 depending on season; the best time to visit page covers the rain, and October and November evenings can flood the quay. Wear something for the mosquitoes on the river, carry small notes for the boat and the lanterns, and walk: everything is within ten minutes.