Hoi An Afternoon Food Tour: the Banh Mi Queen, Cao Lau and the Old Town at Dusk

It runs About 4 hours door to door, with a 2:30 pm pickup from your hotel and drop-off at the same hotel. The stops are walked, with seats at every food stop.

At your own hotel anywhere in Hoi An, An Bang and Cua Dai beaches included, at no extra cost and with no meeting point to reach on your own. We also collect from Da Nang, with a transfer surcharge shown at checkout; the drive takes 40 to 60 minutes, so pickup is earlier. Your guide waits in the lobby for 20 minutes.

Family-run shops close now and then, and some sell out on busy days. If Madam Khanh – The Banh Mi Queen is closed or has run out that day, your guide switches to another famous shop on our list, such as La Banh Mi Sai Gon or Banh Mi Lanh, and tells you before the stop. Queues are usually 5 to 15 minutes, longer at peak times; your guide waits in line with you and orders in Vietnamese, but we do not jump queues or promise to skip them. The tour reaches it before 15:30 for this reason.

Not on the same tour: one banh mi each is plenty alongside everything else on the menu. Each of our four tours stops at a different famous shop with its own taste: Banh Mi Phuong on the morning market tour (char siu and a house sauce, not spicy), Phi Banh Mi on the countryside lunch tour (roast pork belly from a former resort chef) and All Day Banh Mi on the river evening tour (two fried eggs, pâté and cheese by the river). The four menus share no other dish, so you can join one a day and never eat the same thing twice.

Yes. This is a sample menu and every part of it can be adjusted: add a dish, skip one, or spend longer at the assembly hall. Tell us before you book and we confirm the plan and an all-inclusive price in writing.

Yes. Your guide is a licensed Hoi An local who speaks fluent English, orders every dish in Vietnamese and explains the merchant history behind each dish and building as you go.

For the whole group, from one to four guests: the figure shown for two people is the total for both, so the cost per head falls as the group grows. Each guest gets one banh mi for the tour, and a group can share if appetites are small. Children under 5 travel free and do not count towards the group size; from 5 a child counts as one guest. For five or more, message us for a quote.

Two ways: pay the full price online by card, or pay a 30% deposit online and the rest in cash on the day of the tour, in US dollars or Vietnamese dong. We can also send a secure payment link on WhatsApp. The booking is confirmed once the online payment goes through, and your pickup time and guide’s name arrive in writing.

Yes — free cancellation up to 3 days before departure for a full refund, and free rescheduling subject to availability. Within 3 days of departure, 30% of the tour price is charged because the car and guide are already committed.

Vegetarian: partly. Madam Khanh makes a vegetarian loaf and the guide orders meat-free versions where the kitchen will cook them, but cao lau is a pork dish and the white rose dumplings hold shrimp, so those two are swapped for other dishes. Muslim-friendly: the guide orders chicken, egg or vegetarian versions and asks about lard and pork stock; we cannot promise a certified halal kitchen. Allergies: shrimp in the dumplings, sesame in the dessert. Kitchens share surfaces, so we cannot guarantee a dish free of every trace.

Comfortable shoes, a hat, and something covering shoulders and knees for the assembly hall. You need no cash at any gate or stall on the menu, since every dish and ticket is already paid; anything you order beyond the menu is paid at the stall, and if you chose to pay the balance in cash, bring it for your guide.

Rain alone does not stop the tour: every food stop has covered seating. If the Old Town floods, a storm is forecast or there is an official warning, you move the date free of charge; we only switch you to another of our tours if the guide confirms that route is dry, and if no date works we refund 100%.