How to Rent a Motorbike in Hoi An: The 2026 Guide From Our Counter

By Anh Khoa Hoi An·84 Phan Chau Trinh, Hoi An·Updated 7 Nov 2026

Most guides to renting a bike here start with the price. We run a rental shop, and the price is the last thing that goes wrong. What goes wrong is a tourist on a 125cc with a permit Vietnam does not recognise, a scratch nobody photographed, or a beach ride that ends with a flat tire 14 km from anyone who can help. If you want to rent a motorbike in Hoi An without any of that, the order you decide things in matters more than the shop you pick. This guide follows that order, the same way we walk people through it at the counter.

The short version: how to rent a motorbike in Hoi An in five decisions

If you only have a minute, this table is the whole process. Each row depends on the one above it, which is why we do them in this order.

Your license decides the bike, not the other way round

People choose a bike by looks and then ask whether they are allowed on it. Reverse that. Vietnam asks two things: what engine you are sitting on, and whether the paper in your bag is one it recognises.

Your home license alone is not valid here. To ride anything over 50cc you need an International Driving Permit issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention, with the motorcycle category on it, carried together with your original home license. Vietnam never joined the 1949 Geneva convention, so the 1949 permit issued in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan has no legal weight here, however official it looks. British riders can get either, and need to ask for the 1968 version by name.

The ten-second test: open your permit and look for the convention year printed on the cover or first page. If it says 1949, treat yourself as having no license at all. We go through every country in our guide to whether you need a license to ride in Hoi An.

No permit does not mean no bike. Four vehicles are legal without any license: a bicycle, a pedal-assist electric bicycle, a true 50cc moped, and a low-speed electric scooter (under 50 km/h and 4 kW). By law the last two need the rider to be 16 or older, and to rent from our shop you must be 18. Read how to rent without a license if that is you, because that is plenty of bike for the Old Town and the beaches.

The officer at a checkpoint does not ask where you are from. He reads the engine size on the registration card, then asks for the permit that covers it.

Which bike to rent, and what each one costs

Hoi An is flat and small, so you do not need much engine. Below are the bikes people actually ask us for, at today’s shop prices per day. They move with season and stock, so we always confirm the price by message before you pay.

A note on those last rows: anything over 125cc sits in a different legal class, with a higher fine. If your permit covers only light motorcycles, a PCX or a Winner is not covered, even though it looks like just another scooter. See the whole range on our motorbike rental in Hoi An page.

Automatic or semi-automatic? If you have never changed gear on a bike, take an automatic and stop thinking about it. A semi-automatic like the Wave has no clutch lever, but you still shift with your foot, and a stalled gear in a junction is not where you want to learn.

What it costs to rent a motorbike in Hoi An once you add it all up

The daily rate is only one line. Here is the arithmetic for a Honda Vision at 180,000₫ a day, using our standard discounts: 10% off for 7 days or more, and 30% off for 30 days or more.

These are worked examples, and your official quote comes by message. Fuel is on top. Petrol bikes leave our shop with one free liter in the tank, which gets you to a station, not to Da Nang. Vietnam moved to E10 RON 95 fuel in June 2026, and any station will fill you up with it. Booking at least a day ahead with code HOIANIT10 takes 10% off, and our current rental deals list anything else running. Staying a month or more? Start with monthly rental.

Small costs you will meet on the road are parking, mostly. Beach lots at An Bang charge around 5,000₫ for a motorbike, though you may be asked for 10,000₫. It is not worth an argument, just take the ticket.

Deposit and paperwork: what we ask for, and what nobody should

We ask for one of two things as security: a refundable deposit of 2,000,000₫, or a copy or photo of your passport. We never keep your original passport, and neither should any shop you rent from. Your passport is the one document you cannot replace on a Sunday, and a hotel, a clinic or the police may need to see it.

Cancelling before your pickup time is free, and you get everything back. Before you ride away, make sure three things are physically with you:

• The bike’s registration card, or the copy we hand you. Not carrying it can cost 200,000–300,000₫.
• Your original home license plus your IDP, if your bike needs them. A photo on your phone does not count, and leaving them at the hotel is a fine of its own.
• The shop’s number saved in WhatsApp. Ours is +84 935 206 306.

Pick up at the shop, or have it delivered

Collecting from 84 Phan Chau Trinh costs nothing and takes about ten minutes. If your hotel is in the Old Town, just walk over, and you can look at the bike before you commit to it.

Delivery runs from 07:00 to 21:00 every day and starts at 30,000₫ within about 5 km of the Old Town. Three details are easy to misread. The fee is per delivery, not per bike, so three bikes to one hotel is one fee. It covers both directions, bringing the bike and collecting it. And it is fixed by hotel, so nothing gets added on the day. Beach resorts run from 20,000₫ to 70,000₫, and the far south around Nam Hoi An from 100,000₫ to 170,000₫. Dozens of hotels are priced on our delivery fee list.

The five-minute handover check

Most rental disputes in this town come down to one sentence: “that scratch was already there.” Do these before the keys change hands, at our shop or anyone else’s.

1. Film the whole bikeOne slow walk around it with your phone, including the seat, the mirrors and the fuel gauge. Keep the video until your deposit is back.
2. Pull both brakesSqueeze them with the bike rolling, not parked. They should bite well before the lever touches your fingers.
3. Press your thumb into the tiresLook at the tread as well. Hoi An’s lanes forgive a tired tire, and the wet road to Da Nang does not.
4. Try every lightHeadlight, brake light, both indicators and the horn. You will use the horn more than you expect.
5. Fasten the helmet properlyThe strap has to click. An unfastened strap is the same 400,000–600,000₫ fine as no helmet, and it does nothing in a fall.

We wrote up the other ways first-timers come unstuck in five common mistakes when renting a motorbike.

Insurance and roadside help: two different things

Every bike already carries the third-party cover Vietnamese law requires. On top of that, we offer optional insurance at 50,000₫ a day, added at pickup. It covers accidental damage to the bike’s bodywork, and only that. It will not pay your hospital bill, which is your travel insurance’s job, and it stops applying if you were drunk, racing, off-road or unlicensed. The full list is on our motorbike insurance page.

Roadside help is separate and easy to remember: free within 10 km of our shop, and you can call any hour on +84 766 766 087. Further out, we tell you the fee over the phone before anyone sets off. On one-way routes between Hoi An and Da Nang or Hue, help along the route is free if you took the insurance, which is why we always recommend it for those rides.

Where each bike can actually take you

Distances below were measured on Google Maps from the Old Town. Times are riding times with no stops. Add more if the coast road is windy or it is raining.

The usual question is whether a 50cc can do Da Nang. It can, and it is legal with no license, but expect to ride flat out and slowly among trucks, so go early and keep right. We also offer a 50cc one-way to Da Nang at 600,000₫. Battery bikes have the same problem from a different angle: the range is fine for the beach, and tight for a round trip you did not plan. Read our route guide to Hoi An to Da Nang by scooter first, or the ride out to My Son.

Going one way? We do Hoi An to Da Nang from 450,000₫ and Hoi An to Hue from 750,000₫, dropping you at a partner point at the far end. Hoi An to Hanoi is not something we offer. Luggage on the Da Nang route is 50,000₫ a bag.

Inside the Old Town, motorbikes are not allowed on the walking streets during restricted hours, and the signs are easy to miss if you ride in on a side lane. Park at the edge and walk. You will see more that way anyway. For anything official on visiting Vietnam, Vietnam’s national tourism site is the place to start.

When you should not rent one at all

We rent bikes for a living, and we still talk people out of it. If you have never ridden anything with an engine, your first attempt should not be in a Vietnamese junction at dusk, with a passenger and no helmet habit. If you have had a drink, take a Grab, because the legal alcohol limit on a motorbike here is zero, and the fine starts at 2,000,000₫.

For a lot of Hoi An, a bicycle is honestly better. The town is flat, the rice-field lanes are narrow, and you can stop anywhere without looking for parking. A bike at 50,000₫ a day will get you to Tra Que, Cam Thanh and An Bang, and no one will ever ask to see a permit. Rent a motorbike in Hoi An when you want Da Nang, My Son or the hills, not because it seems like the thing to do.

Frequently asked questions

Bike prices checked against our shop system on 7 November 2026 and they change by season and stock, so your official quote comes by message. Distances measured on Google Maps from Hoi An Old Town. Fines from Decree 168/2024/ND-CP as amended in 2026. This is general guidance, not legal advice.