Tam Thanh Mural Village from Hoi An: The 2026 Ride, the 111 Painted Boats and the Honest Verdict

Routes & day trips · August 2026

Tam Thanh mural village is a working fishing hamlet on the coast south of Hoi An where more than a hundred house walls were painted by Korean and Vietnamese artists in 2016, making it the first mural village in Vietnam. It is free, it is 47,5 km down a beautiful coast road, and it is genuinely half a day rather than a full one. This guide covers the ride, what there is to see beyond the walls, when the light is good, and the honest verdict on whether Tam Thanh mural village is worth the trip.

№ 01Is Tam Thanh mural village worth the ride?

Short answer: yes if you like riding, no if you are only there for the photos. Here is the honest breakdown before you commit a morning to it.

№ 02How Tam Thanh mural village happened

In June 2016 the Korea Foundation ran a Korea-Vietnam community art exchange in Tam Thanh commune, Tam Ky. Korean and Vietnamese artists and volunteers spent weeks painting more than a hundred murals directly onto the walls of houses in Hoa Trung hamlet, with the residents’ permission and often their input on what should be painted. It was the first project of its kind in Vietnam, and every mural village that has appeared since copied this one.

By 2017 the place had been formalised as the Tam Thanh Community Art Village. That is also when the second, better idea arrived: instead of buying canvases, the project painted 111 retired thung chai – the round bamboo basket boats every fisherman here uses – and lined them along a lane. Vietnam’s records body recognised it as the first and largest set of painted basket boats in the country.

The murals fade, and they get repainted

This is the part visitors are rarely told. Sea salt, sun and typhoon rain destroy exterior paint in a few years. Tam Ky has run repainting rounds since, most recently a full refresh of the original walls reported in 2024, so what you see is not the 2016 artwork so much as a living, maintained collection. Some lanes look new. Some look like they have been through ten wet seasons, because they have.

№ 03The ride from Hoi An to Tam Thanh mural village

47,5 km, about an hour and ten minutes without stops, and almost all of it on one road. This is an easy ride – no passes, no mountain, no traffic worth the name once you are past Duy Nghia.

The route

Head south out of Hoi An over the Cua Dai bridge, pick up Vo Chi Cong – the coastal road – and stay on it. It runs past the river mouth, through Duy Nghia and Binh Duong, across a series of bridges over the lagoons, and delivers you to the coast road at Tam Thanh. Google will offer you QL1A as an alternative at 54,7 km; ignore it. QL1A is trucks and dust, Vo Chi Cong is water on both sides.

Fuel and stops

Fill up in Hoi An before you leave. There are petrol stations along Vo Chi Cong but they thin out in the middle stretch, and a 50cc scooter will be close to reserve by the time you arrive. Coffee stops are plentiful in Duy Nghia and then almost nothing until Tam Thanh.

What bike

Anything works – the road is flat and paved the whole way. A 110cc automatic is the comfortable minimum for two people over 95 km round trip; a 50cc is legal without a licence but you will be slow into a headwind on the open coastal stretch. See our Hoi An motorbike rental range if you have not picked one yet.

№ 04What to actually see when you get there

The village is small. You will walk it in under two hours, and it splits into three things worth your attention.

The mural lanes

Concrete alleys between single-storey houses, painted with fishing scenes, portraits of villagers, fish, boats and a lot of children. Wander rather than navigate – there is no route and no map, and the best walls are the ones you find by turning down a lane that looks like somebody’s yard. It is somebody’s yard. That is the point of Tam Thanh mural village.

The painted basket boats

The 111 thung chai stood on end along a lane, each one a separate painting. This is the most photographed part and deservedly so – it is the one thing here you will not see anywhere else in Vietnam.

The beach

Tam Thanh beach runs behind the village: wide, grey-gold, almost empty, with working boats pulled up on the sand. There are a handful of seafood shacks. It is not a swimming-resort beach, it is a fishing beach, and after the lanes it is the right way to finish.

№ 05When to go, and the light

Tam Thanh mural village is an outdoor, unshaded, walking-around place, so timing matters more here than at most sights.

Seasons

March to August is dry and bright. September to December is the wet season and central Vietnam’s typhoon window – the coast road floods in places and the village takes the weather head on. January and February are cool, grey and quiet, which is not bad for photographs of painted walls but poor for the beach.

№ 06Tam Ky, and what else is nearby

Tam Ky is 7 km inland from the village and is where you eat properly. It is a provincial town with almost no foreign tourists, which means restaurant prices are local prices.

Ky Anh tunnels

About 10 km from Tam Thanh mural village: a wartime tunnel network dug by villagers, far less visited than Cu Chi and considerably more atmospheric for it. Small entrance fee, worth an hour.

Bien Rang and the coast south

Keep going south along the coast and the road stays empty for another 30 km of dunes and casuarina. If you have the day and the fuel, this is the better use of it than doubling straight back.

Eating

Seafood shacks on Tam Thanh beach do the obvious thing well – grilled fish, squid, clams, cheap. In Tam Ky itself look for com ga Tam Ky and the local beef noodle. Nothing here is set up for tourists, so point and smile.

The name on the map has changed

Worth knowing before you argue with a map app: the 2025 administrative merger folded Quang Nam into Da Nang and abolished the district tier, so Tam Thanh now appears under Da Nang rather than Quang Nam province. Every guide written before mid-2025, including most of what you will find searching for Tam Thanh mural village, still says Quang Nam. Same beach, same murals, different label.

№ 07What the day costs from Hoi An

One of the reasons we keep recommending Tam Thanh mural village is that it is close to free. There is no ticket, no guide, and no tour operator between you and it. Realistic numbers for two people on one bike:

Compare that with a private-car day tour to the same village, which starts around 1.200.000₫ and gets you there at eleven in the morning with the light gone. The bike is not just cheaper here – it is the better version of the day, because the road is most of what you came for.

№ 08Practical notes for Tam Thanh mural village

There is no ticket and no gate

Tam Thanh mural village is free to enter. Anyone asking you for an entrance fee at the roadside is freelancing. Parking at the beach end may cost 5.000-10.000₫ and that is legitimate.

Bring cash

Card payment is essentially nonexistent here. Drinks, parking, seafood, all cash. A couple of hundred thousand dong covers a visit comfortably.

Wear something you can walk in

Sand, concrete lanes, no shade. Hat, water, sunscreen. Flip flops are fine; the whole village is flat.

Time your fuel

95 km round trip. A 110cc will do it on one tank with room to spare. Fill before leaving Hoi An and again in Tam Ky if you are continuing south.

Riding home after dark

If you stay for the afternoon light, you will ride part of Vo Chi Cong at dusk. It is well surfaced but unlit in stretches and there are cattle and unlit bicycles. Slow down and use the high beam between villages.

№ 09Frequently asked questions

Distances were measured on Google Maps to Tam Thanh mural village with expressways excluded, in August 2026. Prices and conditions can change without notice. Anh Khoa Hoi An Motorbike Rental, 84 Phan Chau Trinh, Hoi An · Zalo 0935 439 306 · WhatsApp +84 935 206 306.