Aside from roaming around the ancient town, one of the more popular things to do in Hoi An is to rent a bicycle for a day and head outside of the main town to explore. You’ll come across rice paddy fields, a few water buffalo, and, if you fancy, you can end your ride with a few hours at the beach to cool off. While there are numerous companies that charge for bicycle tours, I’d recommend renting bicycles on your own and mapping out a route based on what you want to see. 

Renting Bicycles in Hoi An

Most accommodation in Hoi An should have complimentary bicycles for their guests to use for the day. If yours doesn’t, they will likely work with a shop a few meters away who rent bicycles to tourists. You shouldn’t have to pay more than US$1 or VND20,000 for a day’s rental. I would suggest you take the bike on a quick test run up and down the street to ensure the breaks and gears are all working (I actually ended up having an issue with the left pedal of my bike that didn’t begin until I was 3/4 of the way to the beach).

Hoi An Bicycle Tour – Route

Starting point and village

Begin by heading down Cua Dai towards Cua Dai Beach. The road is fairly wide and not particularly “scary” to bike down. Head through an entrance-way with flags on your left before you cross the bridge over the river (see first photo above). You’ll bike through a small street with a handful of homes on either side. There are quite a few dead-ends, so if you find yourself on one, just turn around and go a different way. Eventually you’ll get to the paths along the rice paddy fields.

Rice paddy fields & water buffalo

After 5-10 minutes of biking through the little village, you’ll come out into the rice paddy fields. There are about a dozen different paths you can take around the paddy fields. We ended up biking around for a bit in hopes of finding water buffalo. When we finally did find one, I felt a bit bad that the water buffalo were being ridden, so we just stayed and watched for a bit, took a few photos, and continued on our way.

We spent some time wandering through the fields – it’s really not that big, so you shouldn’t get lost. Because I was here over Tet, the fields were pretty much empty. There was a tiny bridge over the river we crossed (one of the larger paths you’ll see on Google Maps before Hai Ba Trung Street), which then connects to Hai Ba Trung Street – cross this little bridge and stick to the left. Then, you’ll have to make a right down Hai Ba Trung Street. Follow this busy street to the beach.

Ending at the beach

If you keep following Hai Ba Trung Street, it will take you directly to An Bang Beach. This is Hoi An’s most well-known beach and while it is nice, I decided not to stay here this time because it’s crowded, you have to pay to rent loungers, umbrellas, and to park your bicycle (or they make you buy a water in order to park your bike “for free”), and you’ll likely get hassled while trying to relax on the beach. If you’re not too fussed about that, just keep it simple and stay there. If you’re looking for something a bit more secluded where you don’t need to pay to use the loungers/umbrellas or park your bicycle, head down the beach a bit to Hidden Beach.