The Ultimate Guide to Hoi An Surf
Don’t rely on the Hoi An surf. In our experience, the beaches here are mainly mush. But there are spots nearby that you can access while staying in this gorgeous Vietnamese river town.
An introduction to Hoi An surf
We’re not going to pretend that the Hoi An surf is anywhere near the best in Vietnam. It’s not.
To be frank the beaches that line the shores here give out little more than mushburgers most days. Sometimes – we really mean sometimes – they can pull in some of the more long-period swells and give knee-high log cruisers, but the Chàm Islands cast their shadow and the sandbars are mediocre.
That said, we actually don’t think Hoi An is the worst place to be based if you’re looking to do some surfing in Vietnam.
You’ll get to stay in one of the most enthralling towns in the country, where mystical Buddhist shrines but up to old Japanese bridges and lantern-lit restaurants serve the tastiest noodles you’ve ever had. From there, you can either travel 20 minutes to Da Nang to surf or just book onto a surf excursion and they’ll help you with the transfers.
It works for us because Vietnam’s great weakness is its consistency. Don’t throw all your eggs in the surf basket. Come here to get stuck into the culture and food and grab a surf if the swell allows. Hoi An is spot on for that.
We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!
This guide is just one part of our complete guide to surfing in Vietnam
Hoi An surf at a glance
The good…
The bad…
What’s in this guide to Hoi An surf?
Where is Hoi An?
Hoi An straddles the mouth of the Thu Bon River at the far southern end of the same bay that hosts the larger city of Da Nang.
Most people will arrive via either the train station in Da Nang or the airport there. You can get the famous re-unification express to the former or catch short-haul, low-cost flights from all over Asia to the latter.
We usually go for a direct taxi/transfer from Da Nang to Hoi An. They’re comfy, quick, and kinda’ cheap – we’re talking $15-20 ish right to the door of your hotel.
Hoi An surf spots
As we’ve mentioned, Hoi An doesn’t really have the best surf spots. You’ll need to travel north to Danang to find em’. Here’s a look at a few of the places you might hear of and the ones that might work nearer to Hoi An.
Cua Dai Beach
Cua Dai Beach used to be the darling of Hoi An. The big resorts all set up shop here and put their nice hotels and pools along the shoreline. 15 years ago – when I first visited Hoi An – it was the best beach in the town and kinda’ lovely.
Then came the inevitable coastal erosion so often paired with uncontrolled development. Cua Dai basically disappeared. Visitors were faced with little more than a pile of sandbags that looked urgh.
The government’s answer to all that was an ambitious embankment project that cost billions of dong, stretching all the way along the Cua Dai beachfront underwater about 200m out from the shoreline.
It’s returned the beach but means there’s essentially zero surf here. Any swells – wind or ground – bash into the embankment and loose all power and size. If someone tells you here is a good spot, they don’t know what they’re talking about.
An Bang
Unlike Cua Dai, An Bang never saw OTT resort development and so never really surffered too much from coastal development. It was always the more off-the-beaten-track beach of Hoi An. That kinda’ changed when Cau Dai closed but it’s still got a nice bohemian feel and is a great place to be based if you want Hoi An on the doorstep (it’s a 20-minute cycle away through the rice paddies) but a beach life.
Also unlike Cua Dai, the beaches here are surfable. Don’t expect much. The beach makes a reallllly shallow shelf and it’s flatter than a Vietnamese green onion pancake, so there’s hardly ever any shape to the waves.
Mainly mush and more mush but can be fun if you’re a grom/beginner/too lazy to travel too far to find a wave. Don’t rely on board rentals on the beach. There aren’t any. Some surf schools from Danang might come down here if there is a wave.
Danang
Danang is the city that’s just to the north of Hoi An. If you’re already in Hoi An, there’s a good chance you’ve been there on your way into town. Most people get a taxi from the airport or the train station – which takes 30 minutes ish and costs between $15 and $25.
We mention that to show you just how easy it is to go from Hoi An to Danang, because it makes sense from a surf perspective.
Danang has a long beach that runs the whole western side of the city. It’s considered – and we’d agree with this – to be the best surf spot in Vietnam in terms of consistency. It’s mainly sandbars that work with windswell and typhoon swells, but they can clean up when there’s an offshore and even hold some size on rare days.
Mostly, it’s a very fun, beginner-friendly beach, which is why there are now more surf schools here than just about anywhere in Nam’.
We have a complete guide to surfing in Danang here
Where to stay in Hoi An?
We’d plump for either An Bang beach – the area near the main beach in Hoi An – or an area known as Tra Que village.
The first will put you within earshot of the small, bumpy waves of the main beach of Hoi An. They might not offer the best surf but it’s a really fun neighborhood with hipster coffee spots (check out Sound Of Silence Coffee Shop – our fav) and family restaurants selling great food beside the sand.
Tra Que is about 5 mins’ cycle up the road. It’s a little garden area known for its pretty veg patches and temples. Still out of town, it offers a glimpse at real Hoi An life, good proximity to both the town and the beaches, and some lovely places to stay…
- The Watermark Beachside Hotel – This is a real nice pad, with a leafy pool hidden in its garden, boho rooms, and walking access to An Bang beach.
- Hoi An Cabbage Garden – A super budget-friendly choice that’s still got plenty of comfort, a pool, and rooms with balconies overlooking fields filled with rice and waterbuffalo. This one’s in Tra Que village.
- Ocean House An Bang – If you want to stay long-term and like your own space then the Ocean House is perfect. It’s a great digi nomad home, with views over the beach and super-serene sitting areas in the garden.
Surf lessons in Hoi An
A good way to go about sorting gear and surf teaching in Hoi An is to book onto one of the packages offered by the surf schools up in Danang. You can contact them to see if they’ll add on transport but it’s easy enough to get a taxi from your hotel in Hoi An to the main beach in the city, which is the meeting point for most of the surf schools.
That includes the Surf Clan, who run well-rated 90-minute surf lessons in Danang for all levels, though they’re generally better for kids/total beginners.
When to surf in Hoi An?
The best time to surf in Hoi An is during the NW monsoon.
That runs from November to March and brings the best windswells and occasional groundswell pulses through the South China Sea. If you’re lucky to get offshores (usually in the morning), there’s a chance that the whole coast here will work, from Hoi An up to Danang.
There can be surf all months of the year, especially with typhoon swells off the Philippines that come through between May and August, though they are rarer and shouldn’t be relied on. You could be waiting days and days, weeks and weeks.
We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!
