Tommy gave us a great tour of Hoi An and the surrounding villages. Hoi An was our third city in Vietnam on this trip, having come from Hanoi and Hue. Both these cities have numerous major attractions. By comparison Hoi An is a smaller town, where you get a better chance to see and understand life in Vietnam.
Tommy was a great guide for this type of tour. His family has lived here for many generations and he is clearly very proud of his city and its heritage.
We used a private boat for the morning portion of the tour and visited a boat building and fine carpentry workshops in one village, then had a chance to visit two families in another village where we made rice paper and helped build cane sleeping mats. Tommy had developed relationships with these families while doing community outreach when he was in school and it shows – they treat him like a true friend of the family and that enthusiasm shows in how they welcomed us as guests.
Later, after a great lunch in an off the beaten path restaurant, we toured the town of Hoi An, visited temples, the Japanese covered bridge, and some older homes in the town. Tommy knows his history and brought some of the places to life by using some very creative exhibits on his smartphone.
We cannot recommend Tommy and Xuantu highly enough. They did a great job for us and we thoroughly enjoyed our day in Hoi An.
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Traveller: 416_to_the_world from Tripadvisor 