Why rent a costume in Hoi An at all

Hoi An is the one town in Vietnam built for this. The old quarter is a kilometre of ochre walls, wooden shutters, bougainvillea and lanterns, almost all of it closed to cars, and the light between seven and nine in the morning turns the whole thing the colour of weak honey. Put anyone in an ao dai in front of it and the photograph takes itself. That is why the costume rentals in Hoi An have multiplied from a handful of tailors’ side businesses into a proper little industry: shops with three hundred pieces on the rail, a make-up chair in the back and a photographer on call.

It is also cheap enough to be a whim rather than a plan. For the price of two coffees at home you can walk out in a full-length silk ao dai with a conical hat and a paper umbrella, keep it all day, and hand it back at nine in the evening. Nobody will look at you twice: half the people on Tran Phu at eight in the morning are doing exactly the same thing, Vietnamese visitors included.

What follows is the shortlist of costume rentals in Hoi An we give guests who ask at the shop counter — six places, what each is good at, what the day actually costs, and the parts nobody warns you about, like what a rented ao dai does when you sit on a scooter.

What costume rentals in Hoi An cost in 2026

Prices have been stable for a couple of years and barely differ between shops on the same street. The figures below are the ranges quoted around town in 2026, and they are per day, not per hour.

Three things are worth knowing before you hand over money.

First, “per day” almost always means same-day return by closing time, not twenty-four hours; if you want the outfit for tomorrow morning’s light, say so and expect to pay a second day.

Second, a deposit is normal — usually a few hundred thousand dong in cash or a photograph of your passport page. Hand over a copy or let them photograph it if you like, but you should never need to leave the passport itself, and we would not. Third, the hat and umbrella are included nearly everywhere, while make-up, hair and a photographer are extra and priced per session, so ask for the total before you sit in the chair.

The six best costume rentals in Hoi An, one by one

All six of these costume rentals in Hoi An are inside or a short walk from the Old Town, and all six do the same core thing. What separates them is stock, hours and whether they can also do your face and your photographs. Addresses and hours below follow the shops’ own listings and a January 2026 local round-up; phone numbers change, so treat them as a starting point.

1. Sweet Hoi An — the full package

The one most guests end up at, and the reason is on the sign: rental, make-up and photography under one roof. It sits at 125 Phan Chu Trinh, a green-shuttered shopfront with mannequins on the pavement, five minutes’ walk from the Japanese Bridge. Stock runs from plain white student ao dai to heavy brocade, and because the same team shoots as well as dresses you, they will tell you which colour works against the ochre walls and which disappears. If you want the whole morning handled — dressed, made up, photographed, changed — this is the simplest yes.

2. HoiAn Outfit — the biggest rail

Two minutes east on Nguyen Dinh Chieu, outside the ticketed streets, which is why the prices sit at the bottom of the range and the doors open at half past six. The selection is the broadest in town — modern cuts, traditional cuts, men’s sets, a decent children’s rail — and the turnaround is quick because they are set up for volume. Come here if you are up for sunrise light or if you want to try five things on without anyone sighing.

3. Viet Phuc Hoi An — the ancient dress specialist

At 112C Phan Chu Trinh, this is the one to know if you do not want an ao dai at all. Viet phuc means historical Vietnamese dress, and the rail here runs to the layered court styles: ngu than five-panel robes, the ao tac with its wide sleeves, and Nhat Binh sets with the embroidered collar and the headpiece. They are heavier, hotter and slower to put on than a modern ao dai, and they photograph like nothing else against an old timber house.

4. MAYA Hoi An — designer fabric

On Tran Phu in the middle of the heritage streets. MAYA’s stock is a level up in fabric and tailoring, which shows in close-ups and in how the skirt panels move when you walk; it is the choice for an engagement shoot or anything you will print. Prices start where the classic shops stop, around 180.000₫, and run to 400.000₫ for the best pieces.

5. Hoai Phuong Ao Dai — classic and quick

At 109 Phan Chu Trinh, a few doors from Sweet Hoi An, doing exactly what the name says: a long rail of classic ao dai in every colour, honest prices, fast fitting. If your plan is “put one on, walk to the bridge, take photographs for an hour”, this is enough shop.

6. HoiAn AoDai Rental — the Cam Chau option

Out on Tran Quoc Toan in Cam Chau, east of the centre towards the beach road. It matters if you are staying on that side: you can dress where you sleep, ride in, and skip the walk back at the end of the day. Long opening hours, wide choice, same price band as the Old Town shops.

Ao dai, viet phuc, and the 1744 decree that started here

Worth knowing before you pick, because the shops use the words as though everyone does.

The ao dai you will be handed is the modern one: a fitted long tunic split to the waist over wide trousers, a shape settled in the 1930s when Hanoi designers cut the old five-panel robe closer to the body. The ngu than is that older five-panel robe, loose and layered, the everyday dress of the nineteenth century. Nhat Binh is a court coat with a wide square-fronted collar, worn by noblewomen of the Nguyen dynasty; it is the one with the embroidered birds and the headpiece, and it is the reason half the rails in Hoi An now carry a “royal” section.

Here is the local part. The long-robe tradition is usually traced to 1744, when Nguyen Phuc Khoat, ruling Dang Trong — the southern realm whose great port was Hoi An — ordered a break with northern dress and prescribed a new form of clothing for his subjects.

Vietnamese historians argue about what he actually decreed: Le Quy Don’s account describes short, narrow-sleeved garments rather than a long robe, and researchers such as Trinh Bach point out that the five-panel ao dai is not named in the sources at all. What is not in dispute is that the dress evolved in this half of the country, in the century when the ships were tied up at Hoi An, which is a better reason to put one on here than at any other Vietnamese address.

The ao dai you rent on Phan Chu Trinh is a 1930s cut of a garment that took its shape a few streets from where you are standing.

Renting versus having one made

Hoi An is a tailoring town, so the obvious question is whether to skip the costume rentals in Hoi An altogether and have an ao dai made. Both are reasonable; they answer different questions.

Rent if the outfit is for the photographs. You are in it for four hours, you want three colours to choose from, and you do not want to carry silk home. Have one made if you will wear it again — a wedding, Tet, a graduation. The town’s tailors turn an ao dai around in roughly a day, and the fast shops advertise a few hours for a simple cut; the fitting matters more than the speed, so allow an evening for one adjustment. Fabric drives the price far more than labour does, which is why quotes vary so widely between shops on the same street: choose the cloth first, then negotiate.

One honest warning about both. An ao dai cut to your measurements in Hoi An fits you in Hoi An. It is a close garment, and a few kilos either way is the difference between elegant and uncomfortable — which is another argument for renting the first time and commissioning the second.

Where to shoot, and the ticket question

Nearly every shoot that starts at one of the costume rentals in Hoi An ends up at the same four places, and they are worth it: the ochre walls along Phan Chu Trinh and Nguyen Thai Hoc, the Japanese Covered Bridge, the lantern-hung lanes off Tran Phu, and the An Hoi footbridge at dusk with the boats below. The trick is the hour, not the spot. Between 06:30 and 08:30 the streets are nearly empty, the light is low and warm and the walls glow; by ten it is flat, hot and full of people, and you are queuing for the bridge.

The ticket. Walking the streets of the Old Town in a rented ao dai costs nothing. The Hoi An Old Town ticket — 120.000₫ for foreign visitors, good for five of twenty-two heritage sites — is only needed to go inside the assembly halls, old houses and museums.

If your shot list is walls, lanes and the riverfront, you do not need one; if you want the courtyard of a Chinese assembly hall behind you, you do. Inside those sites, keep it to a couple of people and a phone or a small camera: they are working temples and family houses, staff will move on anyone setting up a production, and a tripod in a doorway on a busy morning is not welcome anywhere.

If you want a photographer rather than a friend with a phone, the shops in section three that include one are the simplest route; photoshoot packages in Hoi An are also sold online if you would rather have the price fixed before you arrive.

Fit, sizes and the things that go wrong

Rented ao dai run small by European and North American sizing, and the cut is unforgiving across the shoulders and the bust rather than the waist.

Shops stock roughly the equivalent of UK 6 to UK 14 as standard; above that the choice narrows fast and it is worth walking in the day before to ask rather than arriving with a plan. Tall visitors have the opposite problem — plenty of width, not enough length — and the fix is the longer rail, not a bigger size.

Four practical things, learned from guests coming back to the shop:

• Wear or bring nude underwear. Ao dai silk is thin and often pale, and the trousers are cut wide and light.
• Shoes are yours. Most rentals do not include footwear. Plain sandals or white trainers both work; the hem hides most of it.
• The hat is a prop, not a hat. A conical hat sits on the crown and blows off; the chin ribbon is what keeps it on, and it is what you will forget.
• Rain and dust cost money. Every shop has a damage line in its terms. Mud on a white hem from a scooter wheel is the classic charge, and it is avoidable — see the next section.

Riding a motorbike in an ao dai

Half the people who use the costume rentals in Hoi An then want to ride between spots, and it is a fair plan — the shops, the bridge and the beach walls are spread out and the sun is hot. It is also the one part of the day that goes wrong.

The problem is the panels. An ao dai has two long tails, front and back, and on a scooter the back tail wants to go under the rear wheel and the front tail wants to wrap the brake lever. Vietnamese women have solved this for a century: gather both tails and sit on them, or knot them loosely at the hip, and tuck the trouser hems in before you put a foot down. Ride as a passenger if you can. Whoever is riding wears the helmet, ao dai or not — it is the law and it is sensible, and no photograph is worth the alternative.

We do not rent costumes, so there is nothing in this for us either way: we rent the scooters and e-bikes people use to get around between the shops, the walls and the beach. If that is your day, an automatic scooter or e-bike from us gets delivered free to your hotel with two helmets, and the Old Town’s walking streets mean you will be parking at the edge and going in on foot anyway — which is the right way to see it in a long dress.

Timing the day at the costume rentals in Hoi An

The good hours are 06:30–08:30 and 16:30–18:00. In between, the Old Town is hot, crowded and lit from directly overhead, which flatters nobody. Most costume rentals in Hoi An open at seven and one opens at half past six, so an early start is genuinely possible; take the outfit at opening, shoot the empty streets, have breakfast in it, and return it in the afternoon.

By season. February to May is the best of it — dry, mild, walls at their brightest. June to August is very hot; shoot at dawn and accept that heavy brocade is a twenty-minute costume, not a four-hour one. October to December brings the rain and, most years, a few days when the Old Town floods and the lanes are crossed by boat; rentals carry on regardless, but white hems and standing water do not mix.

The full-moon lantern nights, when the electric lights along the river go off, are the one time an ao dai photographs well after dark — bring a fast lens and low expectations of a clear frame, because everyone else has the same idea.

If you are reading this in Vietnamese, our sister guide thuê áo dài Hội An covers the same shops with prices and tips written for Vietnamese visitors.

For an evening version of the same subject, the finale of the Hoi An Memories Show across the river is a full parade of ao dai down a kilometre of stage.

FAQ

Addresses, opening hours and price ranges follow the shops’ own listings and a January 2026 local round-up, cross-checked against Sweet Hoi An’s own site for the 125 Phan Chu Trinh address; phone numbers and hours change often, so call ahead for anything that matters. Old Town ticket prices are the published 2026 rates. The account of the 1744 Dang Trong dress decree and the debate around it follows Tuoi Tre’s reporting of historians Nguyen Huu Chau Phan and Trinh Bach. Anh Khoa Hoi An does not rent costumes and has no commercial relationship with any shop named here; we rent motorbikes, e-bikes and bicycles. Links to booking platforms in this article are affiliate links: if you book through one we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change which shops we list, the order they appear in, or what we say about them.