Every afternoon a few minutes before three, a guard drags a metal barrier across the end of Tran Phu street, sets a small table beside it and sits down. From that moment until the lanterns are well lit, no motorbike or car goes past him. Visitors who do not know the schedule ride up, get waved back, and spend the next ten minutes looking for somewhere to park.

We watch this from the other side of the block: our shop is at 84 Phan Chau Trinh, a three-minute walk from the Japanese Covered Bridge. This guide is what we tell riders when they pick up a bike. It covers the real hours, the one street where the signs and the barriers disagree, which roads close and which stay open, what happens if you ride in anyway, where to park, and how to plan a day on a rented bike around it all.

Hoi An Old Town vehicle restriction hours at a glance

The Old Town is run as a zone for pedestrians and non-motorised vehicles, the official name of a scheme the city started in 2004 with car-free Saturdays only. It grew a day at a time, and since April 2013 it has applied every day of the week, Sundays and public holidays included. The Hoi An Old Town vehicle restriction hours in force today were set in April 2014 and have two windows:

During those windows motorbikes, scooters and cars cannot enter the core streets. Walking is always allowed, and ordinary bicycles are allowed because they are non-motorised. Outside the windows the streets are open to traffic like any other part of town.

The sign at each entrance always wins. Hoi An adjusts the schedule for festivals and floods, and the notice pinned by the barrier is more current than any website, this one included.

Phan Chau Trinh: the barriers go up at 5:30 PM

Phan Chau Trinh is the long street that runs parallel to Tran Phu, one block north of the river. On 15 May 2023 the city turned the stretch from Nguyen Hue to Cao Hong Lanh into a walking street too, about 1.5 km of it, from 17:30 to 21:30 in summer and 17:30 to 21:00 in winter. That first phase is reported by the Hoi An heritage centre’s own press page and by Tuoi Tre.

The same announcement set out a second phase from 1 January 2024: start at 15:00, like the rest of the Old Town, and extend the zone east to Hoang Dieu. That is why many English guides, and the older version of this page, tell you Phan Chau Trinh closes at 3 PM.

It does not. Our shop is on this street, so we see the barriers every evening, and in September 2026 they still go up at 17:30. Between 15:00 and 17:30 Phan Chau Trinh carries normal traffic while Tran Phu, one block away, is already closed. That gap is useful: it is the street you ride along to reach the parking lots on the west side of town in the late afternoon.

A timetable announced in 2023 for 2024 is not the same thing as a barrier on the street. For Phan Chau Trinh, believe the barrier.

A day in the Old Town, hour by hour

The two windows are easier to plan around when you see them as one day. This is what a normal summer day looks like from a scooter seat.

The midday gap is where visitors get caught. It exists so that the roughly 900 people who still live inside the Old Town can shop, work and take children to school, which is why the city has kept it for twenty years despite calls to ban motorbikes all day. Riding in at 13:00 is allowed, but the lanes are one-way in places, parking on the street is not, and you will meet the barrier on your way out if you linger past three.

Which streets close, and the roads that stay open

The zone is the core of the Ancient Town, roughly everything between Hoang Dieu and the Hoai River, in what has been Hoi An ward of Da Nang city since the July 2025 reorganisation. You meet barriers on:

• Tran Phu, the heritage spine from the Japanese Covered Bridge past the assembly halls.
• Nguyen Thai Hoc and Bach Dang, the two riverside streets.
• Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, the stretch through the Covered Bridge.
• The river end of Nguyen Hue, Le Loi and Cong Nu Ngoc Hoa, and the small lanes that link them.
• Nguyen Phuc Chu on An Hoi islet across the river, the lantern street by the night market.
• Phan Chau Trinh from Nguyen Hue to Cao Hong Lanh, from 17:30 only.

The ring around it stays open, and these are the roads you use to get round: Hai Ba Trung and Ly Thuong Kiet on the west and north-west, Tran Hung Dao on the north, Hoang Dieu on the east, and the bridges over to An Hoi. A barrier and a guard’s table at a junction mean the zone starts there.

Bicycles, e-bikes, cyclos and cars: who can go in

The rule turns on one word: motorised. Anything with an engine or a motor stays out during the closed hours; anything you pedal or push can go in.

Electric bikes cause the most arguments at the barrier, because they are quiet and some guards wave a slow e-bicycle through in the middle of the day. Do not count on it. Our guide to whether electric motorbikes are allowed in Hoi An Old Town goes through the legal definitions.

If you want to see the Old Town on wheels, a plain city bicycle is the right tool, and it is also the cheapest. Our Hoi An cycling routes include a loop that finishes in the walking streets as the lanterns come on.

If you ride in anyway: the fine and what really happens

On paper this is a real traffic offence. Riding a motorbike or moped past a sign that bans your type of vehicle is covered by Decree 168/2024/ND-CP, Article 7, clause 6(b): a fine of 2,000,000–3,000,000₫ and 2 points off a Vietnamese licence, as Thu Vien Phap Luat summarises the decree. Electric scooters fall under the same article as petrol ones.

In practice the Old Town is policed by guards, not traffic police. The usual result is a whistle, a raised hand and a request to turn round. Arguing that you did not see the sign does not help: the barrier is the sign.

The more common problem is the bike you leave inside. If you parked in a lane at 14:00 and wander off, the urban management team clears the zone when the window starts, and scooters are wheeled out to the nearest checkpoint. The bike is not stolen, but you come back to an empty kerb, assume the worst, and lose half an hour finding it.

• Move the bike out by 08:45 and 14:45 if you parked inside during an open window.
• Set a phone alarm fifteen minutes before each window.
• Drop a map pin where you park. The lots all look the same at night.

Where to park near the Old Town

Parking is the whole trick. The lots around the edge of the zone are open all day, attended, and cheap: expect 5,000–10,000₫ for a motorbike and 20,000–50,000₫ for a car, more on festival nights. Always take the paper ticket; a place that gives you no ticket is a spot on the pavement, not a guarded lot.

A simple rule of thumb: coming from Da Nang or Cua Dai, park on the Hoang Dieu and Tran Hung Dao side and walk in along Tran Phu; coming from An Bang or Cam Thanh, use the night market lot and cross the bridge with the river in front of you. Our guide to parking a motorbike in Hoi An has more lots and the unwritten rules.

Full-moon nights, Tet and flood days

Full-moon nights. On the 14th of every lunar month the Old Town turns off its electric lights, lights the lanterns and floats candles on the Hoai River. The restriction hours do not change, but the crowds multiply and the lots near the bridges are full well before sunset. Locals park before 17:00 or come on a bicycle.

Tet. Over the Lunar New Year the city sometimes suspends the walking-street programme for a few days and posts its own schedule for Tran Phu, Nguyen Thai Hoc and Bach Dang. For Tet 2026 it paused from the 27th of the last lunar month to the 3rd day of the new year. Read the notice at the barrier, not last year’s article.

Flood days. From October to December, Bach Dang and parts of Nguyen Thai Hoc can go under water. When that happens the streets are closed by water level, not by the clock, and nobody should ride through. Our Hoi An flood season guide shows which streets go first.

Planning a day on a rented bike

Should you still rent a motorbike if you cannot ride it into the Old Town for most of the day? Yes, because the Old Town is the one place in the area you do not need it. A scooter is how you reach everything else: An Bang and Cua Dai beaches, Tra Que vegetable village, the Cam Thanh coconut forest, My Son, the Marble Mountains and Da Nang. The trick is to fit the rides around the windows instead of fighting them.

We made a short video for our TikTok channel about the one mistake we see most: leaving the bike inside when the barriers go up.

Understanding the Hoi An Old Town vehicle restriction hours takes five minutes, and it saves you the ten-minute search for your scooter that every first-timer seems to go through. For the wider picture of getting around, from walking to Grab to buses, see our guide on how to get around Hoi An.

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FAQ: Hoi An Old Town vehicle restriction hours

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