Where to Buy Lanterns in Hoi An: Streets, Markets & Real Prices
✅ Last verified on-the-ground: July 2026: shop visits across Bach Dang, Nguyen Thai Hoc, and Cam Kim workshops; prices cross-checked against traveller reports on Reddit and the Hoi An Facebook group.
Hoi An’s main lantern-buying areas are the ancient-town centre (Bach Dang, Nguyen Thai Hoc, the night market by the river) and the family-run workshops on Cam Kim island. Both sell silk lanterns in a fair price band of roughly ₹295-₹1,105 (~80,000-300,000 VND or ~$3.06-$11.46) for standard sizes; the centre costs more, the workshops less.
Subodh’s Pro Tip: The single biggest mistake Indian travellers make in Hoi An is buying the first lantern they see. Every shop in the centre stocks the same factory-made designs. Walk past the first six stalls before you stop.
Quick Answers
| What | Answer | Price (INR) |
|---|---|---|
| Where is the lantern zone? | Bach Dang, Nguyen Thai Hoc, Tran Phu, and the night market along the river between the Japanese Bridge and the bridge to Cam Nam island | Free to walk |
| Best street for variety | Nguyen Thai Hoc (cheaper than Bach Dang, similar range of designs) | ₹295-₹1,105 |
| Fair price for a small silk lantern (20–25 cm) | ₹295-₹552 (~80,000-150,000 VND or ~$3.06-$5.73) | ₹295-₹552 |
| Fair price for a medium lantern (30–40 cm) | ₹552-₹1,105 (~150,000-300,000 VND or ~$5.73-$11.46) | ₹552-₹1,105 |
| Fair price for a large lantern (50 cm+, special shape) | ₹1,105-₹2,946 (~300,000-800,000 VND or ~$11.46-$30.56) | ₹1,105-₹2,946 |
| Best place to watch them being made | Cam Kim island workshops and small teaching studios just south of the ancient town | Free |
| Worst spot to overpay | Bach Dang riverside stalls right across from the night market (tour-bus drop-off zone) | ₹1,289+ |
| Do they pack well for the flight home? | Yes, in a flat box; most shops ship for ₹110-₹221 (~30,000-60,000 VND or ~$1.15-$2.29) to a hotel or to your next city | ₹110-₹221 |
Safety Alert: Never buy a lantern from anyone walking up to you on the street waving one. The “friendly local who just wants to show you his cousin’s workshop” routine is a commission scam that ends in a ₹1,842 (~500,000 VND or ~$19.10) bill for a ₹552 (~150,000 VND or ~$5.73) lantern. Walk in on your own terms.
Quick Comparison: Ancient-Town Shops vs Cam Kim Workshops
| Factor | Ancient-Town Shops | Cam Kim Workshops |
|---|---|---|
| Price (medium silk lantern) | ₹552-₹1,105 (~150,000-300,000 VND or ~$5.73-$11.46) | ₹552-₹921 (~150,000-250,000 VND or ~$5.73-$9.55) |
| Selection | wide (50+ designs on display) | Narrower (10–15 designs, mostly traditional round/oval) |
| Can you watch it being made? | No (they’re display-only) | Yes, often |
| How pushy are the sellers? | Medium to high near the night market; low on Nguyen Thai Hoc | Low; you walk in, they explain, you buy or you don’t |
| English spoken | Good | Patchy to decent, depending on the family |
| Packing / shipping | Free flat-pack, paid shipping | Free flat-pack, paid shipping |
| Best for | First-time visitor who wants the photos AND the souvenir | Traveller who wants the full story and a fairer price |
| Catch | Higher mark-up near the river; lower the further you walk from it | You need a 10-minute motorbike or Grab ride across the bridge to Cam Kim |
Choose the Ancient-Town Shops If…
- You only have one evening in Hoi An and your lantern photos need to come from the riverside.
- You want a specific design (a peacock, a dragon, a custom shape, a wedding-style double lantern) that the big shops stock.
- You’d rather spend 10 minutes walking than 30 minutes getting to Cam Kim and back.
- You want to combine the lantern buy with dinner on the river, a cooking class, or a night walk across the lantern-lit bridges.
Choose the Cam Kim Workshops If…
- You care more about how the lantern is made than how it photographs at the shop.
- You want a fair, walk-in, no-haggle price with a family you can talk to (use Google Translate if needed; most of the artisan families are okay with this).
- You’re staying 2+ nights and have a half-day to spare.
- You want larger or shaped lanterns (silk stretched over bamboo frames in custom patterns), where the workshop price advantage over the centre is widest.
Ancient-Town Shops. Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Selection and convenience: any design you can picture is within a 5-minute walk.
- Photos work in your favour: the same lantern looks better lit under the silk lanterns already hanging from the shop front than it does in a workshop.
- Open late: most riverside shops stay open until 22:00 to catch the night-market crowd, so you can shop after dinner.
Cons:
- Mark-up near the river: across from the night market, prices often start at ₹1,289 (~350,000 VND or ~$13.37) for a medium lantern that sells for ₹737 (~200,000 VND or ~$7.64) on Nguyen Thai Hoc, two streets back.
- Pressure selling: shop staff in Bach Dang will sometimes follow you onto the bridge offering “special price, only for you.” The price is not special.
- No production to see: the lanterns come from off-site factories. You’re buying a finished product, not the experience.
Cam Kim Workshops. Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Watch the bamboo frame being shaped, the silk stretched, the glue applied, and the candle fitting set. The full process takes 1–3 hours depending on size.
- Same silk, same frames, lower overhead: prices typically sit at the low end of the Hoi An range.
- A genuine story to tell when you get home. Several of the family-run workshops have been doing this for two to three generations, depending on the branch you visit.
Cons:
- Far from the centre (you’ll need a Grab bike or the free shuttle boats from Bach Dang to Cam Kim when they run).
- Smaller selection; if you want a dragon or a phoenix, you usually need to order ahead (1–2 days).
- Sometimes closed during Vietnamese holidays (Tết, 30 April, 1 May, Hung Kings’ Day), which collide with peak Hoi An travel windows.
Cost Comparison: Fair Lantern Prices in VND
This table is what a fair, non-tour-trap shop charges across Hoi An right now. Prices came from four shop visits and traveller reports cross-checked on 2026-07-17 against the official State Bank rate (1 INR = 270 VND, or equivalently 1 VND = 0.0037 INR).
| Size & Type | Fair Price (VND) | When to Pay This |
|---|---|---|
| Mini pom-pom keychain lantern | 20,000–40,000 | Anywhere, anytime |
| Small round silk lantern (20–25 cm) | 80,000–150,000 | Nguyen Thai Hoc; Cam Kim workshops |
| Small accordion lantern (Hoi An signature style) | 100,000–160,000 | Anywhere except the Bach Dang river stretch |
| Medium round silk lantern (30–40 cm) | 150,000–300,000 | Walk 2 streets back from the river; ask in Cam Kim |
| Medium shaped lantern (umbrella, fish, lotus) | 250,000–450,000 | Workshop-direct; order ahead on Bach Dang |
| Large round lantern (50–70 cm) | 400,000–700,000 | Workshop-direct only |
| Custom wedding or wedding-couple lantern | 600,000–1,200,000 | Workshop only, 2-day lead time |
| Lantern flat-pack shipping box (per piece) | 30,000–60,000 | Across most shops in town |
| Hoi An lantern painting class (3 hours, take yours home) | 350,000–600,000 | Ask at any workshop; availability and booking vary |
Subodh’s Pro Tip: Don’t pay more than ₹1,105 (~300,000 VND or ~$11.46) for a standard 30–40 cm round silk lantern anywhere in the centre, and don’t pay more than ₹921 (~250,000 VND or ~$9.55) in a workshop. If a shop quotes you higher, walk. They’ll usually meet you at the lower end of fair before you cross the bridge.
The Streets, Shop by Shop
Bach Dang Street (Riverside Strip)
This is the famous row you see in every Hoi An photo: 60+ shops facing the river, all lit at night. It’s beautiful but it’s also where tour groups do their 30-minute shop sprint, which means prices start higher and haggle less.
Shops along the northern third of Bach Dang (closer to the Japanese Bridge) tend to charge at the top of the range because foot traffic is heaviest there. Shops along the southern third (toward Cam Nam bridge) are slightly friendlier and 10–15% cheaper. There is no individual shop name that outshines the others here; they all source from the same factories, and the staff rotate between shops during the season.
What to do: Walk Bach Dang twice, once in daylight to compare prices, and once after dark to pick the stall where the same design looks best under the lights. Buy from the second walk, not the first.
Nguyen Thai Hoc Street
The “second-best” lantern street and the right answer for most travellers. Selection is 80% of what Bach Dang offers at 60–70% of the price. Sellers here are noticeably less aggressive. It’s also where several family shops sit above a working ground-floor workshop, so even on this street you can sometimes see a lantern being framed while you browse.
Tran Phu and Le Loi (Cross Streets)
These are the back lanes. If you’re willing to give up convenience, Tran Phu has the genuine wholesale feel: less display dressing, lower prices, and the same silk. Le Loi is mostly tailor shops but a few lantern studios sit between them.
Hoi An Night Market (the riverside one, near the Japanese Bridge)
Open nightly from around 18:30 to 22:30, this is mostly a food and souvenir market with 8–10 lantern stalls as a side offering. Prices here are for tourists by definition, since the location exists to catch the river-walk crowd. Buy food here, take photos of the lanterns, but don’t buy the lanterns. The same design costs 20–30% less one street back.
Cam Kim Island Workshops
Across the bridge from Cam Nam, a short Grab or boat ride. This is where most of Hoi An’s lanterns are made. A few of the family-run workshops here let you stand at the workbench and watch every stage for free; you only pay if you take a lantern home. One popular workshop in particular is set up for visitors with clear signage, posted price sheets (no haggling), and a small display of every design they make. If your Vietnamese isn’t strong and you want certainty on price, this kind of well-organised workshop is the easiest to walk into.
Food on the Same Route
You’re going to walk a lot, so the food stops matter. Nhan’s Kitchen is where Hoi An regulars eat; the cao lầu (the local noodle dish) and white-rose dumplings are the right picks, and the price sits in the ₹129-₹221 (~35,000-60,000 VND or ~$1.34-$2.29) range. The Soul Restaurant is the date-night option if you want something a notch up. MẸT Hội An (the MET 9 branch) is the right call for vegetarians, with a full vegetarian cao lầu menu in a quiet colonial building.
How Lanterns Are Made (so You Don’t Overpay for One)
A traditional Hoi An lantern is a bamboo frame cut into the desired shape (round, oval, pear, fish, dragon), covered in stretched silk, glued at the seams, fitted with a candle holder or LED insert, and finished with cotton trim at the top and tassels at the bottom. The whole process is hand-done, takes about 45–90 minutes for a medium lantern, and the skills pass within families.
This matters for pricing because the only meaningful cost difference between a ₹552 (~150,000 VND or ~$5.73) and a ₹1,289 (~350,000 VND or ~$13.37) lantern is location and seller overhead, not materials. Materials for a medium lantern cost the maker maybe ₹110 (~30,000 VND or ~$1.15) of silk and bamboo. When you pay ₹1,289 (~350,000 VND or ~$13.37) on Bach Dang, you’re paying ₹1,179 (~320,000 VND or ~$12.23) for the river view. When you pay ₹737 (~200,000 VND or ~$7.64) in a workshop, you’re paying ₹626 (~170,000 VND or ~$6.49) for the same silk, same craft, and a brief conversation with the person who made it.
Most factory-quality control is fine across both ends of the price range; cheap lanterns look good for a year and then the silk loosens or yellows if left near a window.
Pricing Logic for Indian Buyers
Two Indian-specific gotchas are worth flagging.
First, currency math. With the current exchange rate (1 INR = 270 VND, verified 2026-07-17), a 250,000 VND medium lantern costs you roughly ₹925 (~$9.60). Most Hoi An sellers quote in USD or “your home currency” if they sense you’re from a higher-spending country, so if you don’t keep your own conversion straight, you’ll accept a “discounted” 25 USD quote that is ₹295 (~80,000 VND or ~$3.06) more than the VND price after the dollar-to-dong mark-up they built in. Always ask the VND number, always do the math in your head, and ask for a written quote on paper before you agree to anything.
Second, what’s a “fair” price. Travellers on the Hoi An Facebook group and r/Vietnam generally agree on the ranges in the table above. The clearest consensus I found: anything above ₹1,105 (~300,000 VND or ~$11.46) for a standard 30–40 cm round silk lantern is overpaying, no matter what the seller says about “real silk” or “hand-painted frame.” Those claims are true of nearly every lantern in town and don’t justify a 200% mark-up.
Getting a Lantern Home
Most shops will fold a silk lantern flat and box it for you, free. International shipping is rare and slow; don’t bother unless you’re buying a set. For the flight home, the lanterns pack down to about 5 cm flat and weigh 200–400 g each; pack them in the centre of your bag with clothes on both sides. Don’t roll them: the silk creases along the bamboo folds.
If you’re moving on to Da Nang, Hue, or HCMC by sleeper bus or train, the shop can usually courier a flat-packed lantern to your next hotel for ₹110-₹221 (~30,000-60,000 VND or ~$1.15-$2.29) within central Vietnam, which beats trying to protect one across an overnight bus. Check our Hoi An city guide for more on getting around, and if you’re still figuring out the INR-to-VND exchange rate, the section above on currency math covers the basics.
What to Do With Your Evening After You Buy
If you bought from a Bach Dang riverside shop, step out, walk five minutes to Nguyen Thai Hoc, and look at the same lantern at 60% of the price. If you bought from a Cam Kim workshop, walk to Tran Phu for dinner at one of the local spots (Nhan’s Kitchen or The Soul Restaurant), then back into the ancient town for the lantern-lit river walk. Heading to Da Nang next? The photowalk map of Hoi An’s lantern spots helps you plan the best evening route.
The Bananarchy Take
Buy a lantern in Hoi An, but don’t make the lantern the whole trip. The two best buys are a small accordion lantern from Nguyen Thai Hoc (the signature shape, the right size for a wall or doorway at home, the right price) and a custom-shaped one from a Cam Kim workshop (order 24 hours ahead; the shop will message you when it’s done). For everything else, the price-spread between shop zones is the real story, and an evening walking it is more useful than reading a “top 10 lanterns” list.
Getting Connected
Hoi An doesn’t have a local SIM market the way Hanoi or HCMC do. Most travellers sort SIMs in HCMC or Hanoi and bring the SIM to Hoi An, where it works fine. For anyone wanting a single line from arrival, the Get Nomad eSIM option on a tourist data plan covers you before you fly and across Vietnam without a second trip to a Viettel store. Planning the full Southeast Asia route? Our SEA backpacking hub covers logistics, visa rules, and budget breakdowns for every country on the loop.
FAQ
How much should I pay for a lantern in Hoi An?
For a standard medium (30–40 cm) silk lantern: ₹552-₹1,105 (~150,000-300,000 VND or ~$5.73-$11.46). Below ₹552 (~150,000 VND or ~$5.73) means factory seconds or polyester instead of silk; above ₹1,105 (~300,000 VND or ~$11.46) means you’re paying for the riverside photo opportunity. The fair middle band lives on Nguyen Thai Hoc and in the Cam Kim workshops.
Is Hoi An night market good for lanterns?
For photos, yes; for buying, no. It’s a tourist-stop market with mark-up layered on top of mark-up. Walk one street back to Nguyen Thai Hoc for the same lantern at 20–30% less, with the same packaging service.
Where do locals buy their lanterns?
A mix of direct family workshops on Cam Kim island (where they’re made) and the slightly-cheaper shops on Tran Phu and the back end of Nguyen Thai Hoc. The shops on Bach Dang mostly serve tourists, which is why the prices there are higher.
Can I ship a lantern internationally?
Yes but slowly. Most Hoi An shops offer courier within Vietnam cheaply, and a few offer international shipping via EMS (5–14 days, ₹737-₹1,473 (~200,000-400,000 VND or ~$7.64-$15.28) per box). For a single lantern, it’s cheaper to bring it in your luggage than to ship it.
Do I need a Vietnamese visa to visit Hoi An?
Yes, Indians need a visa. Apply through the official Vietnam e-Visa portal at least 3 days before travel; 90-day multiple-entry costs ₹2,410 (~25 USD). See our full Vietnam 90-day e-visa guide for the step-by-step.
What’s the best month for lanterns in Hoi An?
Lanterns are part of the town every night of the year. The most atmospheric month is the lantern festival, held on the 14th day of each lunar month (the night before the full moon), when all electric lights in the ancient town are switched off and replaced with candle-and-lantern light. The festival falls on different Gregorian dates each year; check the Hoi An Centre for Cultural Heritage Management site before booking.
Are the lanterns on the river authentic?
The lanterns floating on the river at night are rented, not bought. You pay a small fee (₹37-₹74 (~10,000-20,000 VND or ~$0.38-$0.76)), write a wish, light a tea candle inside, and let it drift. Don’t confuse these with the lanterns you buy to take home.
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