Hoi An City Tour with Boat Ride & Lantern Release

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.00 (3 reviews)

Free cancellation

1/9

Duration5h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Market, temples, a 400-year-old bridge, and lanterns on the water

A guided tour of Hoi An's Old Town starting with the market, moving through the Phuc Kien Chinese Assembly Hall and Japanese Bridge, then ending with a boat ride where you release flower lanterns on the river to pray for good fortune. Hotel pickup, English-speaking guide, entrance tickets and dinner are included; the tour runs about five hours.

Step-by-step itinerary

Hoi An city tour and lantern release

Pick up from hotel
Visit bustling Hoi An Market
Buy entrance tickets
Visit Phuc Kien Chinese Assembly Hall
See Phung Hung or Tan Ky Ancient House
Stop at Japanese Bridge
Boat ride on river
Release flower lanterns

The Experience

The day starts at your hotel in central Hoi An, where your guide meets you and heads straight to Hoi An Market—the place where locals shop for everything from produce to textiles. The market is the real working heart of the town, not a tourist version of one, and your guide navigates you through it before moving into the Old Town proper. From there you walk to the Phuc Kien Chinese Assembly Hall, a building that has stood for two centuries with its bright gates, dragon statues and elaborate rooftops still intact. Inside, your guide explains ancestor worship while you watch local devotees making offerings at the family altar—a moment most visitors miss on their own.

You'll see two of the town's best-preserved ancient houses: Phung Hung Ancient House and Tan Ky Ancient House, both of which have weathered 200 years without losing their character. Then comes the Japanese Bridge, built over 400 years ago to connect the Japanese merchants on one side of the small waterway with the Chinese community on the other. The bridge is short enough to cross in seconds but old enough that you can feel the weight of the centuries in its wooden frame. Entrance to all these sites is covered in the tour price, and your guide handles the tickets.

The boat ride is where the day shifts. You get on the water at dusk when the lantern street comes alive, and you release a flower lantern into the river—a moment people come back to Hoi An to repeat. The lanterns drift downstream while you watch, and the act itself is the prayer: for good luck, for family, for whatever brought you here. Dinner at a local restaurant rounds out the five hours, and you return to your hotel as the evening settles in.

What’s included

Hotel pickup and drop-off.
English-speaking guide.
entrance tickets to Phuc Kien Chinese Assembly Hall, Phung Hung Ancient House and Tan Ky Ancient House.
boat ride on the river with flower lantern release.
dinner at a local restaurant.
bottled water and air-conditioned vehicle throughout.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleAccessible transportStroller friendlyPublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by longtravel-hoian

Is this one for you?Choose the private tour if you want to move at your own pace and have the guide's full attention for questions about the sites and the lantern ritual; the group sharing tour works well if you're comfortable with a small group and want to share the cost of the guide.