If you fancy upgrading your wardrobe with shiny new threads, Hoi An is the place. Every other shop in the small, perfectly formed central Vietnamese town belongs to a tailor who will happily whip up a pair of slinky pyjamas or a silk kimono (“made-to-measure, Visa or Mastercard”). With luck, it will fit perfectly, carry no size tag and be made from the fruit of locally bred silkworms.

The fashion hub and Unesco World Heritage Site has long been a class act. In the 16th and 17th centuries, it was an international port called Faifo swarming with Chinese and Japanese merchants.

Today, the exotic trader influence shines through the shrines, silk shops, bridges and tile-roofed wooden houses.

Because many of the downtown streets are closed to cars and even motorcycles on some days, they are great for a wander. Although most shops target tourists, unusual for Vietnam, much of the town has been conserved. Indeed, it resembles a living museum or heritage time capsule.

What is more, the limited renovation has unfolded tactfully, resulting in the minimum of tower blocks and karaoke parlours and a general lack of tat and tack. It feels "boutiquey" rather than "souveninery", to echo one observer.

When you tire of the lanterns, kites and looms, there is no need to give up and go home. Just beyond the fringes of the picturesque town, you will find plenty of momentous attractions, if little in the way of golf although the town has five world-class courses in the pipeline.

Tempted? Hoi An is just down the road from the airport town of Danang but far quieter than Hanoi. Instead of honking horns, the moan of motorbikes, the whirring of sewing machines, the clink of chisels, the hum of voices, and the shuffling of flipflops prevail.

Try not to fall into a trance. If you take a taxi, confirm the cost and destination. Otherwise, expect to arrive at the wrong hotel, paying more than arranged due to upholstery wear-and-tear or whatever reason the driver concocts.

If you hire a pushbike, hold onto it because even monks pinch them, it is said. If on foot, watch out for nocturnal alleyway motorbike kamikazes.

Finally, ensure you have plenty of traveller’s cheques or stacks of cash. The reason: as in much of Vietnam, the ATMs have the distressing casino caprice habit of dispensing cash at random intervals. Tip: the ATM in Le Loi Street, which is grafted onto the front of a money exchange, works better than others.

For wireless internet access on what some Vietnamese call your "toplap", try the Hai Scout cafe (111 Tran Phu Street; tel: 84 510 863210 or 84 091 3457029), which occupies an elegant French-colonial building rather than a hut. Alternatively, try another old quarter stalwart, the chic and bare-bones Art Cafe (30 Thai Hoc Street; tel: 84 510 910 311) -- a good place to relax and soak up Hoi An's ample atmosphere. “It nice,” as the Vietnamese says.

1. Japanese Covered Bridge
Surprisingly short and stocky, Hoi An's most famous landmark has a tall story behind it. The story begins with a monster called Cu, which was so big it had its head in India, its tail in Japan and its body in Vietnam. Whenever the monster moved, floods or earthquakes struck.

In the 1590s a covered bridge was built in Hoi An to link the Japanese side of town with the Chinese quarter. According to the story, because the bridge spanned the weakest part of the monster, the pressure killed it. Hence the shrine of atonement halfway across.

As if that legend were not odd enough, one entrance is guarded by a pair of monkeys and the other by a pair of dogs. But the bridge, which is earthquake-proof, has long served a practical purpose, sheltering people from sun and rain for centuries.

2. Hoi An Harbour
Anybody who yearns to see the harbour at its most magical should ideally rise at daybreak. Go to the bridge and ask for Em.

She and other guides will take you out on their wood-boards-and-peeling paint ferries for a fresh, laid-back take on the town. As you bob around, you may feel that you have stepped back in time into the age of Marco Polo.

3. Tran Family Worship House
Ringed by a garden and high fences, the Old Town house could more accurately be described by a bourgeois word you are still not meant to use. Infused by Chinese and Japanese influences, the temple, sorry house, was constructed by a mandarin named Tran Tu Nhac.

Intriguingly designed, it splits into the main worship part and an annex for family and guests. The worship hall has three doors, each for a different type of visitor.

The left door is for men, the right for women. The middle door, for the grandparents, is opened during the Tetnew year festival and other celebratory days. If the place nonetheless feels too rigid for you, try Phuc Kien Pagoda – the assembly hall-cum-temple for Chinese from the Fujian province who worship the Fujian god Tien Hau.

4. Cargo Club Restaurant and Patisserie
One of the joys of Hoi An is the eccentric English displayed on menus. Think "grilled tofu with grass" and "banana pancake with bile honey".

Set in an ancient, two-storey chophouse on one of Hoi An's liveliest streets, the Cargo Club (107-109 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, tel: 84 510 910 489) serves up a few linguistic oddities of its own, advertising "alsatian baguette" and stating that all its prices are in "Vietnamese dongs".

Nonetheless, the food is reliably delicious and diverse. The repertoire includes everything from spicy seafood noodle soup to roasted fennel and goat cheese salad.

Adding to the attraction, the club has chic dark wood decor and a balcony that commands sweeping views of the harbour.

To get so close to the water that you could drink it, try Citronella Cafe (5 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai; tel: 84 510 241491). For the purest water you can drink, visit any of the stalls and cafes that sell green coconuts. The vendor will hack one open with a machete for you, so that you can suck out the juice with a straw.

5. Zen Spa
Founded to promote traditional Vietnamese therapy, Zen Spa (zenspa.com.vn) has two local branches. One, Hoi An Hotel, is right in the heart of town. The other, Hoi An Beach Resort is further out, by the seaside.

Pampering services that come under the Zen Spa brand include facials, foot treatment, body scrub, Pearl of Asia (incorporating exotic Thanh Long or "dragon fruit"), Heaven and Earth (gentle body scrub with a great coconut aroma), The Five Elements ("fresh herbals and sliver coins with ginger wine") and Forever Together (fresh leaves and herbs). Different.

6. Cua Dai Beach
So much appears in print about Hoi An's old quarter that the visitor my forget that the town lies beside the South China Sea. Fringed with palm trees, Hoi An's beach, Cua Dai, boasts clean white sand that stretches all the way to Danang and short on hawkers: a blessing because the standard pitch is: “You, buy my things.”

Cua Dai’s waters are often choppy though. The same applies to Cua Dai's neighbour, China Beach, which people like to believe was the setting for a surfing scene in the cult movie, Apocalypse Now. The association has some historic grounding. China Beach once hosted a US army rest-and-relaxation base.

7. Marble Mountains
While you are at China Beach, consider visiting the neighbouring mountains named after the crystalline metamorphic limestone from which they are made. Blessed with soaring, incense-filled caves and pagodas, Marble Mountains have seen it all, acting as a temple complex, battleground and hospital.

Better yet, the mountains supposedly owe their existence to the emergence of a dragon from the sea below. The dragon laid an egg that hatched into a beautiful girl with a walk-on part who was thoroughly upstaged by the shell fragments,which grew into the five mountains.

The king of the Nguyen Dynasty, Vietnam's last ruling family, named them after the five elements that make up the universe: (Kim Son - metal, Moc Son - wood, Thuy Son - water, Hoa Son - fire, Tho Son - earth). If you want to become at one with the universe, in characteristically business-like Vietnam fashion you will be charged a small entry fee for each.

8. My Son Sanctuary
The Unesco-listed My Son Sanctuary often described as a Hindu “holyland” rests in a remote jungle valley ringed by two mountain ranges. My Sononce hosted the religious ceremonies of kings of the Champa dynasty, which ruled modern southern and central Vietnam from around the 7th century to the 19th. My Son also served as a burial ground forChampa royals and national heroes.

The sanctuary consists of a string of semi-ruined but imposing tower-temples built by means that modern architecture does not understand. Often likened to the Cambodian temple complex Angkor, which the Champa sacked, My Son is a spooky place awash with butterflies like spirits of the dead.

The strangest sight you will see in its grounds is the two American bomb casings dating back to a 1963 raid. The casings’ shape echoes the deliberately phallic stone columns scattered around the sanctuary.

9. Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park
Thekarst(limestone crag) configuration at Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park stems from 400 million years of geological upheaval and growth. To get a sense of how slowly Phong Nha-Ke Bang evolved, consider that it takes a century for any of the stalactites or stalagmites to grow another millimetre.

However you look at it, the Unesco site ranks as the oldest major "karst" area in Asia. It is big, too.

Radiating from the border of Lao, PhongNha-Ke Bang entails 65 kilometres of caves and underground rivers.

10. Hué
Unless you come from Australia, you might think that Hué is a bit of a stretch from Hoi An to include in the itinerary. That said, locals rope them together, with reason. The 100-mile drive flies by because the coast road that takes you there is calm and picturesque.“It not so hard,” as the Vietnamese say.

Dubbed "the heartbeat of Vietnam" by Lonely Planet, the destination has a population of about 340,000 and almost as many temples tombs, not to mention Ho Chi Minh’s high school, the car that belonged to Thich Quang Duc, the historic monk who set fire to himself and, above all, the Unesco-listed citadel on the river's north side.

Between 1802 and 1945, Hué was the imperial capital of the Nguyen Dynasty responsible for the citadel, which housed a forbidden “purple” city. There,in the company of his concubines, the resident emperor would sip green tea perfumed through insertion in the mouths of lotus flowers. The penalty for trespassing on the emperor’s paradise was death. Actually, even if you had a pass, you could be beheaded just for speaking.

During the Vietnam War, because Huéwas just south of the border, the citadel held a strategic place. As a result, it took many hits from both sides in the war and was the scene of a notorious ethnic massacre committed by Communist forces.

After the war, many of Hué's historic features fell into neglect because the victorious regime and its supporters viewed it as a feudal relic. Now, policy has softened, resulting in the restoration of many parts of the city, which feels like the country's cultural heart. In April this year [2008], one of the imperial city's classic structures, An Dinh Palace, reopened after the completion of restoration on its wall paintings and decorations.

The writer was on tour with HuongGiang Travel
17 Le LoiStreet, Hué City, Vietnam
Tel: (84-54) 83 84 85 / 82 01 88 / Fax: (84-54) 82 14 26 / 83 29 76
E-mail: hgtravel@dng.vnn.vn or sales@charmingvietnam.com
Website: www.charmingvietnam.com or www.huonggiangtravel.com


Michael Di Giovine, the author of The Heritage-scape: Unesco, World Heritage and Tourism, gives his take on what makes Hoi An special.

Hoi An has been my favourite spot in Vietnam since the first time I set foot in the town. A strong and powerful sense of heritage permeates the port in ways that are more intense than many other World Heritage sites. Maybe it’s because the “heritage” of Hoi An cannot be neatly traced to one people’s, but to the intermingling of communities, religions and aesthetics, which produced a unique atmosphere that hearkens back evocatively to a slower and simpler time... The town greets the visitor with the cacophonous bustle of life that stands in stark contrast to its advertisement as quaint, picturesque and enchanting, although all three adjectives are equally valid.