5 Tips for your Hoi An River Cruise at the bottom.
In Vietnam there is an ancient city that feels like an asian influenced pirate town trapped in time, this city is called Hoi An. There are many attractions to be seen here from the delicous egg coffees, pho and bah mihn roles, the well preserved architecture, the lanterns that flood the streets and ofcourse the river cruise.
On our first day walking down the streets enjoying the scenery and declining the many locals attempting to get us into their restaraunt or purchase their goods, we also had a few people attempt to sell us their river cruise. There was one guy though who had great English and stood out from the rest.
So before we knew it there we were the following day, hopping on his boat with another 7 tourists heading up river.
Only moments before our booking did a storm hit almost completely raining out the experience, luckily for us though this happened because it created a beautiful scenery that evening and also scared off all other tourists, so we had the entire river to ourselves.
Once we boarded the boat, met our new friends, had complimentary beers, we then head up river passing the scenery of fisherman, villages along the river and the river itself until we reached our first destination. The coconut boats.
Once we all awkwardly shuffled into our coconut boats with our new guides, they took us up stream into the coconut plantation. There we raced the boats, they spun the boats around, we did some mud crab fishing and made us gifts from the palm leaves.
We then headed back through the coconut plantation back to our boat, where the sunset was spectalur right after the storm had rolled over. So take note never let bad weather cancel your plans, even so there's no such thing as bad weather, just weather.
Once we got back to our boat we began our return journey, with ofcourse more beers. Before we reached the end of our tour though we first stopped to release our own lanterns in the water, making a wish whilst doing so.
Something I actually noticed the following day was locals fishing out the lanterns from the previous night to keep the rivers clean.
We then returned back to dry land where we did what any tourists would do after having beers with some random group of tourists, we went out and had more beers together.
5 Tips for Hoi An River Cruises
So if you ever find yourself in Hoi An wondering what you should do, I would highly recommend the river cruise. Here are some additional tips:
Go at Sunset: It's beautiful being out on the water as the light changes, even so return back to the town at dark where you can see all the lights reflecting on the water is a perspective you wouldn't be able to get elsewhere.
Try and book in a group: If you're in a group it is a lot of fun and cheaper, if you're travelling solo or as a couple just as your guide when they have an upcoming free spot with a group that they can slot you into,
Connect via Whatsapp with the guide: This was very helpful having the guides WhatsApp as we were able to communicate before hand whilst the weather was touch and go.
Expect to pay about $25AUD each: This was a farely normal price for this experience, if you find it cheaper good for you. If you find it more expensive, go to the next guide.
Have fun and socialise: If you can't tell from the photos we had a great time with this group the moment we hopped onto the boat. Even so we continued to travel on other tours with some of the people as we had such a great time with them. So being a lone traveller doesn't mean you have to be boring, so have fun.
If you have any questions about travelling Vietnam, Hoi An or the river cruise feel free to reach out.
Go live wild, free and your most authentic lives!