Hoi An Ancient Town itself is a living museum, preserving all the best of its cultural heritage through cuisine, architecture, craft villages, annual festivals, and religious constructions. But the only place where tourists can see things in black and white is the Hoi An Museums.
Among many museums in Hoi An, both modern and traditional, we have filtered out the 5 biggest museums safeguarding the largest selection of Hoi An historical evidence.
Number 1 on the list is the Hoi An Museum of Sa Huynh or Sa Huynh Cultural Museum. This museum was established in 1994 and keeps the evidence of the first people who settled on the land of Hoi An - the Sa Huynh. Archaeological discoveries in Hoi An and Cu Lao Cham revealed that the Sa Huynh people traded jewelry and ceramics with other Asian countries 3000 years ago.
The Sa Huynh culture is part of the triangle of Vietnamese culture in the Iron Age, besides Dong Son Culture and Dong Nai Culture. Sa Huynh Cultural Museum is the out-of-the-way Hoi An museum displaying artifacts found in areas occupied by the Sa Huynh such as iron tools, pottery, jewelry, and the system of jar tombs. Since 1989, archaeologists have unearthed more than 950 artifacts.
Address: No. 149 Tran Phu St., Hoi An.
Opening hours: from 7:00 - 21:00 every day.
Side Note: The museum is closed on the 10th of every month for repair.
Ticket price:
Domestic tourists: 80,000 VND (3.26USD)/person
Foreign tourists: 150,000 VND(6.00USD)/person
The Museum of Trade Ceramics is a museum in Hoi An showcasing the items of historic trade and relationships with foreign nations such as China, India, Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand. The house was built in 1920 and transformed into a Hoi An pottery museum in 1995 with the help of Japanese experts.
The Hoi An Museum of Trade Ceramics currently has about 368 ceramic artifacts dating from the 9th - 10th centuries to the 19th century, including ceramics with Chinese and Japanese designs, or samples of dishes and flower vases produced from pottery kilns in northern Vietnam since the 15th century. The oldest artifacts even date back to 2,000 years ago.
Address: No. 80 Tran Phu St., Hoi An.
Opening hours: 7:00 - 21:00 on weekdays.
Side Note: The museum is closed on the 15th of every month for repair.
Ticket price:
Domestic visitors: 80,000 VND(3.26 USD)/person.
Foreign visitors: 120,000 VND(5.00 USD)/person.
Once a bustling trading port, Hoi An was also a famous place for medicines, especially Vietnamese herbs and traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, the Hoi An Museum of Traditional Medicine was opened in 2019 in order to preserve the traditional medical profession that was once famous in Hoi An.
The museum displays nearly 200 original artifacts and a number of restored artifacts, as well as documents related to general traditional medicine and the medical profession in Hoi An.
Address: No. 80 Tran Phu St., Hoi An.
Opening hours: 7:00 - 21:00 on weekdays.
Ticket price:
Domestic visitors: 80,000 VND(3.26 USD)/person.
Foreign visitors: 120,000 VND(5.00 USD)/person.
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Hoi An Folklore Museum is a Hoi An museum that you should drop by if you are planning to visit Hoi An craft villages. This museum displays many traditional handicrafts of Hoi An such as lantern making, carpentry, silkworm farming, embroidery, and life-sized models of boats, looms, and working tools.
Opened in 2005, this museum is the biggest museum in Hoi An; the 2nd floor also exhibits items about local theater arts, costumes, and festivals. The museum has a total of 483 artifacts with 4 main themes: folk visual arts, folk performing arts, traditional craft villages, and folk activities.
Address: 33 Nguyen Thai Hoc St./62 Bach Dang St., Hoi An
Opening hours: from 7:00 - 21:00 every day.
Ticket price:
Domestic visitors: 80,000 VND(3.26 USD)/person.
Foreign visitors: 120,000 VND(5.00 USD)/person.
Hoi An Museum of Precious Heritage, also known as Precious Heritage by Réhahn, is an art gallery and a museum founded by Réhahn - a French photographer who fell in love with the beauty of Hoi An.
This special Hoi An museum has 2 floors: The first floor displays 200 unique photos of Vietnamese women - mothers and children of ethnic minorities. The second one is a collection of Precious Heritage images displaying 35 traditional costumes, stories, and artifacts related to the life and culture of Vietnamese ethnic groups along the North-Central-South regions.
Réhahn provides stories and information about each ethnic group written in three languages: Vietnamese, English, and French.
Since its opening day on January 17, 2017, the museum has become the symbol of not only Vietnamese culture but also of successful cultural interaction between France and Vietnam. Réhahn is working on his new projects; this means that this museum will still be updated with new documents about the 54 ethnic groups of Vietnam.
Address: 26 Phan Boi Chau St., Hoi An
Opening hours: from 8:00 to 20:00, every day.
Ticket price: Free.
Overall, Hoi An museums are open on every occasion, so in order to include more activities besides visiting the museum, we suggest you take a look at the best things to do in Hoi An and the best time to visit Hoi An here.
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>> The Hoi An Complete Travel Guide
