Cam Thanh Coconut Forest Basket Boats in Hoi An
A visual guide from the Hoi An travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
Twenty minutes from the Old Town, the Bay Mau coconut forest floods a maze of nipa-palm channels — and the way through it is the thung chai, the round woven basket boat that looks like it shouldn't work and absolutely does. Paddlers spin you down green corridors, weave rings and grasshoppers from palm fronds, and show off crab-catching tricks. It is pure, silly, grin-inducing fun with real village life all around.
The Ride
Tours put two passengers and a paddler in each basket for roughly forty-five minutes to an hour on the water. Some channels turn into floating parties — speakers, karaoke and spinning-boat shows where paddlers whirl the baskets like teacup rides; others stay all birdsong and dripping palms. If you want calm, say so when booking or choose an ecotour that skips the show zones, and go early morning when the light is soft and the water glassy.
More Than a Photo Op
The palm channels have history: during the war the flooded forest hid resistance fighters, and villagers still cut nipa fronds here for roofing and weave the boats by hand. Rides support a whole commune of paddling families — tip yours if they've earned a grin. Combine the forest with a fishing demonstration or a Cam Thanh cooking class, and check the day's weather: the baskets stay ashore in heavy rain or wind.