Hoi An Travel Tips
Hidden Alleys of Hoi An: Six Quiet Lanes, a 1.6 km Walking Loop and a Thousand-Year-Old Well
Hidden Alleys of Hoi An: Six Quiet Lanes, a 1.6 km Walking Loop and a Thousand-Year-Old Well
The hidden alleys of Hoi An are where the Old Town goes quiet. Here are six we actually walk, the 1.6 km loop that links them, and the Cham-era well most visitors never find.
Hoi An is famous for lanterns and the river, but the streets most people photograph are also the ones they can barely move in after 4pm. Step one house back and it changes. The hidden alleys of Hoi An, called kiet by everyone who lives here, are a metre or two wide, paved with old brick or cracked concrete, and lined with the mossy back walls of houses that face the main streets. Washing hangs over them. Cats sleep in them. A grandmother sorts herbs on a plastic stool in one, and in another a well that has been drawing water for more than a thousand years sits at the end of the lane.
Our shop is at 84 Phan Chau Trinh, on the edge of the Old Town, and these lanes are the shortcuts we use every day to deliver bikes. This guide to the hidden alleys gives you the six we would show a friend, with walking distances we measured on Google Maps from our door, the order to walk them in, and the hour when each one is at its best.
- The hidden alleys at a glance
- What a kiet is, and why the Old Town has so many
- The golden alley at 94 Nguyen Thai Hoc
- The Tran Phu lanes and alley 150
- Sica Alley, the one with a name
- Ba Le well: a Cham-era well at the end of a lane
- Le Nghia basketball court
- A 1.6 km walking loop
- When to go: light, crowds and vehicle hours
- Alley etiquette: people live here
- Getting there and where to park
- FAQ
The hidden alleys of Hoi An at a glance
If you only have an hour, use this table to pick. Distances are walking distances from our shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh, measured on Google Maps in October 2026. Every one of these lanes is inside the Old Town and none of them charges anything to walk through.
| Lane | Where | From our shop | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden alley | Beside 94 Nguyen Thai Hoc | 400 m, 5 min | Yellow-wall photos |
| Tran Phu lanes | Off Tran Phu, around no. 150 | 300 m, 4 min | Moss, old brick, quiet |
| Sica Alley | Entrance at 56 Le Loi | 350 m, 5 min | A lane with a story |
| Ba Le well lane | 45/51 Tran Hung Dao | 550 m, 7 min | History, local life |
| Le Nghia court | 31 Phan Chau Trinh | 450 m, 6 min | Walls of Chinese characters |
| Unnamed back lanes | Between Tran Phu and Phan Chau Trinh | From 100 m | Wandering with no plan |
What a kiet is, and why the Old Town has so many hidden alleys
In central Vietnam a small lane is a kiet. In Hanoi it would be a ngo, in Saigon a hem. If you ask a Hoi An local for directions you will hear “kiet 45” or “trong kiet”, meaning down the lane, and house numbers like 45/51 simply mean house 51 down the lane that starts at number 45.
The reason the Old Town is full of these lanes is the shape of its houses. Merchants here built tube houses: a narrow shopfront on the street, then a long run of rooms, a small open courtyard for light and air, and living quarters at the back. Plots were deep rather than wide. The famous Tan Ky house is the classic example, with its front door on Nguyen Thai Hoc and its back door opening towards the river on Bach Dang. When blocks of houses like that sit side by side, the only way to reach the houses behind, the wells and the back gates, is a gap between two plots. Those gaps are the alleys.
That history explains what you see. The walls on either side are usually the plain back or side walls of shophouses, never painted for visitors, so the moss, the patched plaster and the lime wash that has faded to ochre are all real. It also explains why the hidden alleys feel so private: many are the front path to someone’s home.
The front of a Hoi An house is for selling. The alley at the side is for living. If you want to see the town that is not on a postcard, walk the side.
The golden alley at 94 Nguyen Thai Hoc
This is the lane most Vietnamese travel sites call hem vang, the golden alley, and the one you have probably seen on Instagram. It opens beside 94 Nguyen Thai Hoc, 400 m and about five minutes on foot from our shop. The walls are an old ochre yellow, streaked with moss and darker where the rain runs off the tile roofs above.
Two things make it photograph so well. The lane is narrow enough that the walls fill both sides of the frame, and it runs at an angle to the sun, so from mid-afternoon the light hits one wall and bounces warm colour onto the other. Nguyen Thai Hoc itself gets very busy from late afternoon, so this is not a secret, but walk ten metres in and the noise drops away.
- Best time: before 8:00 for an empty lane, 15:30–17:00 for warm light.
- Wear: white, cream or a plain ao dai; bright patterns fight the wall.
- Be quick: the lane is someone’s way home. Step aside for anyone carrying shopping or pushing a bike.
The Tran Phu lanes and alley 150
Tran Phu runs parallel to Nguyen Thai Hoc, one block back from the river, and it is the street with most of the assembly halls. Between its old houses, a string of narrow passages runs north towards Phan Chau Trinh. The one beside 150 Tran Phu is the best known for its yellow walls and moss, and it is only 300 m, about four minutes, from our door.
What we like about the Tran Phu side is that it keeps going. You can come out of one lane, cross a few metres of street and drop into the next. Some lanes are wide enough for a scooter; some are so narrow that two people have to turn sideways to pass. In the late afternoon you will smell rice cooking and hear televisions through open back doors, which is a better reminder than any sign that these hidden alleys are lived in.
Our other favourite way into this part of town is simply to start walking north from Tran Phu, away from the river, and turn into every gap you see. You cannot really get lost; within two or three minutes every lane comes out on Phan Chau Trinh or Tran Hung Dao.
Sica Alley, the one with a name
Most of the hidden alleys have only a number. Sica Alley, entered beside 56 Le Loi, has a name, and the name is French. It comes from S.I.C.A., the Société Industrielle et Commerciale de l’Annam, a French company founded in 1907 to make and sell alcohol in central Vietnam. Its distilleries were elsewhere; Hoi An had the warehouse, and the lane kept the initials. From our shop it is 350 m, about five minutes, and it sits almost exactly in the middle of the Old Town.
We have written a full guide to it, with the company’s history, a story from the war years that almost no one tells, and where to eat at the end of the lane: read our Sica Alley guide before you go.
Ba Le well: the hidden alley with a Cham-era well
This is the stop that makes the walk worth doing, and the one almost nobody on a tour sees. Down a short lane off Tran Hung Dao, at 45/51 on Google Maps and 550 m (seven minutes) from our shop, is Gieng Ba Le, the Ba Le well. Vietnamese researchers date it to the Champa period, around the 8th to 9th century, which makes it older than every house, bridge and assembly hall in the Old Town.
The opening is square, which is how you tell a Cham well from the round wells built later. The walls are fired brick laid without mortar, standing on a frame of ironwood at the bottom. Reported depths differ: Bao Phap Luat gives about 8 m, other Vietnamese sources say about 12 m. Everyone agrees on the important part, which is that the water stays clear and the well does not run dry, even in drought years.
That water is part of the reason Hoi An food tastes the way it does. Cooks have long carried Ba Le water for cao lau, mi Quang and the black sesame sweet soup sold in the Old Town. One water carrier, Mr Nguyen Duong, was recognised by the Vietnam Record Organisation in December 2014 as the country’s longest-serving water carrier, having hauled water from this well since 1975. A recent report in Tien Phong notes that the carriers have almost all gone, and that the well gets far fewer visitors than it did when foreign media first wrote about it.
The Ba Le well is the best known of many. A survey by Hoi An’s heritage management centre, reported by Bao Phap Luat, counted about 80 old wells across Hoi An, roughly half still in use. In the Old Town they are mostly square or square at the bottom and round at the top; out in the villages they tend to be round. Once you know to look, you will notice old well heads in courtyards all through the hidden alleys.
Le Nghia basketball court
A basketball court is not an alley, but this one feels like the end of one. The Le Nghia court at 31 Phan Chau Trinh, 450 m (six minutes) from our shop, sits on school grounds enclosed by old yellow walls painted with large black Chinese characters on white panels. It became a photo spot after the 2017 Vietnamese film Co gai den tu hom qua made school-days nostalgia fashionable, and Vietnamese students now come in white ao dai for that look.
It is free to enter and local players still use it, often in the evening. If a game is on, watch from the side and save your photos for later. Early morning is quietest.
The best hidden alleys are the ones where nobody is performing for visitors. A basketball game at dusk beats any staged photo.
A 1.6 km walking loop through the hidden alleys
We measured this loop on Google Maps, walking, starting and finishing at our shop: 1.6 km, about 21 minutes without stops. With time to look around, photograph and sit for a coffee, plan on 1.5 to 2 hours. It is flat all the way, links all six hidden alleys and works in either direction.
| Stop | Address | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|
| Start | 84 Phan Chau Trinh (our shop) | 15.8786, 108.3259 |
| 1. Tran Phu lanes | Around 150 Tran Phu | 15.8772, 108.3273 |
| 2. Golden alley | 94 Nguyen Thai Hoc | 15.8767, 108.3276 |
| 3. Sica Alley | 56 Le Loi | 15.8778, 108.3286 |
| 4. Le Nghia court | 31 Phan Chau Trinh | 15.8782, 108.3302 |
| 5. Ba Le well | 45/51 Tran Hung Dao | 15.8792, 108.3300 |
| Finish | 84 Phan Chau Trinh | 15.8786, 108.3259 |
The order you walk the hidden alleys in matters a little. Doing the Tran Phu lanes and the golden alley first means you reach the river side before the afternoon crowds, then you move north into the quieter residential streets around Le Loi and Tran Hung Dao, which stay calm even at night. If you do the loop in the evening, reverse it so you finish near the river when the lanterns are lit.
Want the quiet version of the whole Old Town, not just the lanes? Our guide to a peaceful early morning in Hoi An covers the hour after sunrise, and Hoi An’s reputation as one of the world’s most walkable towns is explained in our piece on the 2026 walking city ranking.
When to go: light, crowds and vehicle hours
| Time | What the alleys are like |
|---|---|
| 6:00–8:00 | Empty lanes, soft light, residents sweeping and buying breakfast. The best hour for photos. |
| 9:00–11:00 | Tour groups on the main streets; lanes still quiet. Motorbikes kept out of the core streets. |
| 11:00–15:00 | Hot and bright, harsh shadows. Good for coffee, bad for photos. |
| 15:30–17:30 | Warm light on the yellow walls. Busy on Nguyen Thai Hoc, calm in the back lanes. |
| After dark | Lanterns on the main streets; many lanes are dim. Lovely, but watch your step. |
Vehicles are kept out of the Old Town core every day from 9:00 to 11:00 and again from 15:00 until 21:00 in winter or 21:30 in summer; the barriers, streets and parking options are all in our guide to Hoi An Old Town vehicle restriction hours. Outside those hours scooters do use the wider lanes, so keep to one side.
Rainy season, October to December. The lanes nearest the river are the first to take water when the Hoai and Thu Bon rise, and moss turns slick after a shower. Check the forecast, wear shoes that can get wet and leave the low lanes by Bach Dang for another day if the river is high.
Hidden alleys etiquette: people live here
The hidden alleys are not a museum. They are front paths, drying yards and playgrounds for the families who live along them, and the goodwill that keeps them open to visitors is easy to lose.
- Do not walk into open doors or courtyards unless someone invites you. A gate left open is for air, not for visitors.
- Ask before photographing people, especially older residents and children. A smile and a raised camera is usually enough.
- Keep your voice down early in the morning and at lunchtime, when many people rest.
- Do not block the lane for a photo shoot. If someone needs to pass with a bike, they go first.
- No drones. Flying over the Old Town needs permission, and the lanes are too narrow anyway.
- Buy something. A drink at a family cafe or a cone of rice paper snacks is the simplest thank-you.
Getting there and where to park
Walking is the only way to see the hidden alleys properly, so the question is really how to get to the Old Town. If you are staying in the centre, walk. From An Bang, Cam Thanh or the rice-field homestays, a bicycle or an electric bicycle is ideal: flat roads, ten to twenty minutes, and you can lock it at a parking spot on the edge of the Old Town. Parking usually costs 5,000–10,000₫.
Our shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh is on the loop itself, which makes it an easy place to start: pick up a bike, ride your other errands, and come back on foot for the lanes. If you would like a bike delivered to your hotel instead, we deliver in central Hoi An. For longer days out, the motorbike rental in Hoi An page lists every model and price, and bicycle rental is there for anyone happy at cycling pace.
Bikes Rental
Start the loop from our door
Our shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh is on the walking loop. Bicycles, electric bicycles and motorbikes with helmets and raincoats, delivery from 30,000₫ in central Hoi An, and a 24/7 roadside number if anything stops.
FAQ
Are the hidden alleys of Hoi An free to visit?
Yes. The alleys are public lanes and walking through them costs nothing. Tickets are only needed to go inside heritage houses, assembly halls and museums.
Which alley is best for photos?
The golden alley beside 94 Nguyen Thai Hoc is the most photographed, followed by the lanes off Tran Phu around number 150. Go before 8:00 for an empty lane or between 15:30 and 17:00 for warm light on the yellow walls.
Where is the Ba Le well?
Down a short lane off Tran Hung Dao, listed on Google Maps as 45/51 Tran Hung Dao. It is about 550 m, a seven-minute walk, from our shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh. It dates to the Cham period, around the 8th to 9th century.
How long does it take to walk the hidden alleys?
Our loop through six hidden alleys is 1.6 km and takes about 21 minutes without stops. With photos and a coffee, allow 1.5 to 2 hours.
Can I ride a scooter or e-bike through the alleys?
Some wider lanes allow scooters outside the restriction hours, but the narrow ones are for walking only. Vehicles are kept out of the Old Town core from 9:00 to 11:00 and from 15:00 until 21:00 or 21:30. Park on the edge of town and walk in.
Is it safe to walk the alleys at night?
Yes, Hoi An is very safe, but many lanes are dim and the paving is uneven. Use your phone torch, watch for wet moss and stick to the busier lanes near the river late at night.
What does kiet mean in Hoi An?
Kiet is the central Vietnamese word for a small lane or alley. An address like 45/51 means house 51 inside the lane that starts beside number 45.
Đọc bằng tiếng Việt: Các con hẻm đẹp Hội An. More quiet places outside the lanes in Hoi An, the world’s best hidden gem and the Hoai River at night.
Walking distances and the loop were measured on Google Maps (walking mode) from 84 Phan Chau Trinh in October 2026; coordinates are the Google Maps pins. Ba Le well facts are from Tien Phong, Bao Phap Luat and Mytour; sources differ on its depth (about 8 m or about 12 m), so we give both. Photos are of Old Town lanes and are captioned where they are not of the exact alley described.
Pick your ride in Hoi AnChọn xe cho chuyến đi Hội An
Scooters, electric bikes and bicycles from one shop in the Old Town — delivered to your hotel, helmets and roadside help included.Xe máy, xe điện và xe đạp — giao tận khách sạn, kèm hai nón bảo hiểm và hỗ trợ dọc đường.
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