Are you planning a trip to Hoi An, Vietnam with a toddler or a baby? How exciting! Hoi An is a magical place that our whole family adored. Read on for my top tips for visiting Hoi An with babies or young children!
Explore the Old Town
Hoi An’s Old Town is marvelous. The lanterns, the markets, the food, the tree-lined streets: it’s all fantastic.
Look, some people will say that Old Town is very touristy and there are people selling stuff everywhere, and that’s true. But it is still one of the most charming Old Towns I have been to, and especially with kids, this is where you’re going to want to spend the bulk of your time. It’s lively, it’s beautiful, and you can see so much of the charm and history of Hoi An so long as you are able to look past the tourist amenities.
You don’t need a ticket to tour the Old Town, but you will need a ticket if you want to visit any of the museums or some of the attractions there. The ticket will also get you into street performances and arts shows, so it will likely be worthwhile to have if you want to do more than just walk around and admire the beauty of the area (although that is the very best part of visiting Old Town!)
Long flight? Plan for baby jet lag
If, like us, you need to travel a long distance to get to Vietnam, it’s important to think ahead about jet lag. Yes, babies and toddlers can suffer from jet lag, but it’s going to look a little different than it does for adults. You can read more about steps to take to prevent jet lag and help ensure good sleep on your trip here. Don’t expect to be up and full of energy on your first day, if you’re coming off of 12+ hours of travel (unless, of course, you manage to time your sleep just right… for you and for baby!)
But here’s the upside! If your sleep schedule is out of whack, it might be easier to get out and explore Old Town at dawn, which is the ideal time to get some great photos and have some space around you before it fills with tourists.
Wear your cutest outfits in Hoi An
For real, I don’t think we’ve ever been to such a photogenic city as Hoi An. There were photo opportunities absolutely everywhere. If Hoi An is just one stop on your Vietnam trip, like for us, it’s worth saving your cutest baby outfits (and let’s be real, your outfits too) for Hoi An.
Cultural activities with locals are great
But mention that you’re bringing a baby or toddler along! We signed up for a lantern making class through Airbnb Experiences, which will typically state whether or not it is suitable to bring a baby or small child along. When in doubt, you can always reach out to the host.
We loved our class. It was in a local woman’s home, where her family makes traditional lanterns and has done so for generations. She had a child a little older than mine, so the kids were able to play with toys while we worked. She even helped my toddler make her own lantern, which is now proudly displayed in our home.
Experiences with local host families are always the best experiences. Vietnam has a very family-friendly culture, so it won’t be hard to find one where your baby is welcome to join. You’ll likely be better off getting an experience that is outside of the Old Town, as chances are it will be a little more authentic and less touristy.
Take a food tour
Yes, even with your baby in tow! Food tours are a big attraction in Hoi An, and you can absolutely find one that is fine with your little ones coming along. The one we did didn’t really involve all that much walking, and there were options that my toddler would at least nibble at almost every stop. The vendors along the food tour were all perfectly fine with accommodating our babies. Again, just make sure to communicate about it up front, because it’s never a good idea to just show up with a baby and hope they can accommodate.
Spend an evening just enjoying the lanterns
Probably more than one evening, really. Obviously, you can’t come to Hoi An and miss wandering around town at night admiring the lanterns. It truly is magical, and whether you are in Hoi An with a baby or with a toddler, these will be a hit for your little one. Ideally, you can be there during the lantern festival, during the full moon each month. That’s when Hoi An is at its most beautiful. However, you can still see and enjoy the magic and lights any time of the month.
You don’t really need a planned path for this or anything – just go out and follow the lights. Be sure to walk along the river.
Visit some high-interest, but quick sites
Toddlers have terrible attention spans. As you are on your walk through the Old Town, make sure to sprinkle in some of those super easy, visually appealing stops to keep your little one engaged. While I found the Chùa Cầu 16th century Japanese bridge fascinating, my kid really didn’t care. But the colorful boats? Now we’re talking. Don’t miss a stroll through the cloth market, along the assembly halls (these were fine to just view from the outside for us as our toddler was getting tired), and through the hustle of the street vendors.
We opted to skip the museums during this trip, as we had limited time and just didn’t think it would work well for our toddler. If we just had a baby in tow, we would have spent the time. But with two little ones, we opted to prioritize the quicker, more visually-stimulating stops.
Don’t expect high chairs or kids’ menus
While we found all the restaurants we visited to be very welcoming to our daughters, we did not encounter any kids’ menus, and very few high chairs. This is pretty typical around SE Asia, in our experience.
After our first trip to Thailand with a baby, we learned that we would need to plan ahead if we didn’t want to hold the baby for every meal. We got a cloth travel high chair that folds up to about the size of a wallet and that thing was an absolute lifesaver. It didn’t fit perfectly on every chair, and it wasn’t my daughter’s favorite place to be, but it did the job and contained the baby long enough that we could actually halfway enjoy our meals.
Download the Grab app
Grab is the Uber equivalent in Vietnam. It’s reliable, safe, and cheap. If you plan on taking a taxi even one time, it is worth downloading. The taxis in Vietnam are infamous for their scams. They will charge you 5 times the actual price. Even taxis with their meters on can still scam you. While there are a few reliable, official taxi companies, there are also a ton of unofficial taxis and it’s challenging to tell them apart, especially when there is not oversight to ensure that they don’t make themselves look official (copying the name of the official company, for example).
Grab is as easy as Uber, and works pretty much the same way. But what’s even better is that in Vietnam, you can use Grab Family to request a car with a car seat. You may still want to consider bringing your own, as you never know the size or the history of the car seat that you might get. But, if you’re out and about and in a pinch, this is a great option. You can learn more about Grab Family here. And even without using Grab Family, we were allowed to install our car seats every time, and we never once had a Grab driver give us a hard time about it. (In case you are wondering, yes we have absolutely been told by taxis in other countries that we cannot use the car seat.)
To avoid scams, book experiences ahead of time
Whether it is a boat ride, tour, or a cultural experience, it is always advisable to book online ahead of time (unless there is an official ticket counter you can go to, like in a museum). You will get accosted by vendors offering you a “special” price. Either the price will change, the experience will not be what was promised, or both. You were already a target if you are a foreigner. Holding a baby? You just became an even easier target.
Another very common scam in Vietnam is vendors giving you back incorrect change. When you are juggling a baby, you obviously aren’t super familiar with the currency, and you’re maybe thrown off by a language barrier, you are a very easy target for this. Use your card where available to avoid this, and count your change when you can’t.
One more thing to look out for – don’t let anybody put toys or souvenirs into your toddler’s hand. Once your child is touching it, they will try to say it’s yours and you have to pay for it. Toddlers are such easy targets for this, because they’re thrilled when someone is randomly handing them a toy. Give a firm but polite “no, thank you” and grab your child’s hand. If they managed to get it into your toddler’s hand, just hand it right back with a firm “no”.
You can easily get by with English in Hoi An
Hoi An is a very tourism-dependent town. Even outside of the Old Town, we had zero difficulty getting by without speaking Vietnamese. Of course, it is always best to learn a few phrases and niceties before your trip, but you will not have any difficulty communicating in almost all situations in Hoi An.
Consider bringing a lightweight stroller
There are many places, especially throughout SE Asia, that I do not recommend bringing a stroller. However, Hoi An isn’t one of them. In the Old Town, the sidewalks are actually wide enough to comfortably navigate with a stroller, and they’re not too cobbly. We did not bring one, but wished we had one just for this part of the trip. We did so much walking around Hoi An’s Old Town that it would have been really nice to have!
However, you don’t want to bring any old stroller. Definitely opt for something light and small. You may need to fold it to fit into the tiny restaurants, and you might not have an elevator in your accommodations. Our Uppababy Minu (read my Uppababy Minu review here) would have been ideal for Hoi An, but we knew that it would not work anywhere else we were planning to go for this trip, so we left it at home. We got by fine with babywearing.
Look out for scooters, especially around the hectic markets
As with everywhere in Vietnam, there are a lot of scooters in Hoi An. Keep your toddler close and on the sidewalks. The markets are especially hectic, where it would be easiest to either babywear or carry your little ones. While we were pleasantly surprised overall by the size of the sidewalks in Hoi An, there are definitely some areas that we found ourselves surrounded by scooters. Just keep your guard up and never let your toddler out of arms reach.
Order some noodles
Got a picky toddler eater? Will that child eat plain noodles? (I’m guessing yes, based on every toddler I’ve ever met.) You’re in luck! When in doubt, order a bowl of plain noodles. There is a lot of spicy food, and probably a lot of random ingredients your child is not used to, as well. My toddler discovered that she loves pho (a love she carries to this day), but most places, to be sure that she would actually eat, we knew we could just get plain noodles and be in good shape.
So, there you have all of my best tips for bringing a toddler to Hoi An or visiting Hoi An with a baby. Anything I missed? Drop it in the comments below!
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