A Day Trip to Cham Island - A Hidden Gem along Viet Nam's Central Coast

Hello everyone, welcome back to Central Viet Nam. Today I will take you on a trip to Cham Island (Cù Lao Chàm), just off the coast of Hoi An. Taking a boat to Cham Island is a popular day trip for people visiting Hoi An. It is only about 20 minutes away by speedboat, and many hotels will offer to arrange guided tours for you through local agencies. For the sake of convenience, I took one of these tours.

The tour will begin with a 16-seat van coming to pick you up from your hotel to take you to the boat dock. There were about 8 other people in the van with me, and another two tourists met us at the boat dock. The boat dock is small, and only a few other boats were parked when we arrived. The boat itself was a typical speedboat you would find across Southeast Asia, with plastic seats and a few broken fans spread throughout. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long before our boat took off, so we didn’t have to suffer long in the hot boat. The ride over to the island was pleasant enough, and with the open windows, we had plenty of airflow and some water spray to keep us cool.

It is a sunny day, which can be a killer in Viet Nam, but luckily our guide was good about keeping the group moving and properly shaded. After landing on the island, we are taken on a short tour around Bãi Làng, the main village and port area. Here we got to take a look at the local market, which was full of fishermen and sellers, preparing fish for sale. If you have been in Viet Nam for any extended amount of time, then this market will likely not impress you, as it is just the standard wet market that you will find all over Viet Nam …just with more seafood. If you like seafood, this would be a great place to visit, as there were tons of freshly caught squid, clams, oysters, shrimp, crab, sea snails, and a variety of other fish. I didn’t buy any fish, but asked the guide about some of the prices, and everything was very affordable and priced for local consumption.

After visiting the market, we made our way over to the Ancient Cham Well, which was built by the Cham people over 200 years ago, and is still a frequently used source of fresh water for locals. I guess I should have mentioned sooner, but this island is named after the Cham people, who were a part of the Champa Kingdom, which was a powerful maritime and trading civilization that controlled most of central and south Viet Nam from the 2nd century until 1832. The Champa were frequently at war with the Khmer Empire to the south and the Kingdom of Dai Viet to the north. Now, most of the remaining Cham people live in the south of Viet Nam, and are one of the many small ethnic minority groups in the country.

After our little wander around the market, we were taken to Hai Tạng Pagoda. It was a nice little pagoda, but not really that impressive compared to some of the others you can find around Viet Nam.

After visiting the pagoda, we jumped back onto the boat, which took us a few minutes up the coast to a beautiful stretch of beach. We had a nice seafood lunch with the group, then spent the next few hours snorkeling and relaxing on the beach.

Not far from the beach was another nice little pagoda, but it didn’t seem to be open, so I didn’t go inside.

Overall, Cham Island is a relaxing and pristine little escape from Hoi An that is great to visit for the day with a group of friends or family. I was mostly visiting with strangers, but I think it would have been much more fun if I had gone with a group of people I knew.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip to Cham Island.

All photos were taken by me. Have a great day!