Hoi An

Hoi An is the most photographed city in Vietnam, and for good reason: its ancient town (Hoi An Ancient Town) is one of the best-preserved historic centres in Southeast Asia. UNESCO-listed since 1999, this former 16th-century trading port has kept intact its urban fabric of merchant houses, Japanese and Chinese community halls, temples, covered bridges and alleyways whose ochre-yellow façades glow each evening with hundreds of coloured silk lanterns.

The city was one of the great maritime trading ports of Asia between the 16th and 18th centuries, and the influences are written in the architecture: Chinese courtyard houses, a Japanese covered bridge, Korean community halls, Dutch warehouses. The Japanese Covered Bridge (Cau Nhat Ban, 1593) is the symbol of the city — a wooden bridge over a canal, decorated with statues of dogs and monkeys, the last vestige of the Japanese merchant community.

But Hoi An is also a living city: its markets overflow with silks, handmade lanterns and spices; its tailoring workshops deliver custom clothing in 24 to 48 hours; its local cuisine — cao lau (thick rice noodles with pork), banh mi Phuong (considered the best in Vietnam), mi Quang (turmeric noodles), banh vac (white rose dumplings) — belongs to central Vietnam and cannot be found in this authentic form anywhere else. Four kilometres away, An Bang Beach offers an ideal seaside break to complete the stay.