How Much Does a Private Tour in Hoi An Cost? (2026 Transparent Pricing)

Quick answer

A private tour in Hoi An typically costs between $22 and $40 per person when you book directly with a local guide. The exact figure depends on the tour type, your group size, and whether you book direct on WhatsApp or through a platform like Viator or GetYourGuide (which usually adds 20–30% on top).

Here is the at-a-glance range, based on what local Hoi An operators charge for the most-asked private tours:

• Hoi An private walking tour (3–4 hours): $30–$40 per person
• Hoi An evening food tour (~4 hours): $22–$34 per person
• Hoi An countryside / Tra Que half-day: $22–$34 per person
• Hue or Hai Van Pass private car (full day): from $42 per person
• My Son sunrise tour (private): from $44 per person
• Marble Mountain + combo day trip: from $52 per person

Smaller groups pay more per person; larger groups (4–8 people) pay less per person but more in total.

What you actually pay for in a private tour

The price of a private tour is not just the guide's time. It usually covers:

• The guide — their hours, expertise, and the planning before the day
• Tour-specific costs — Ancient Town entrance tickets when required, tastings on a food tour, boat fees on a basket-boat tour, transport on a day trip
• Logistics — pickup coordination, route planning, WhatsApp support before and during the tour
• For day trips — private car or van, driver, fuel, parking

What is usually not included unless agreed: lunch on day trips (often $5–$10 extra per person at local restaurants), extra entrance fees beyond the agreed itinerary, and tips (welcome but not expected).

Fingo Private Tours pricing (transparent rates, 2026)

Here is exactly what we charge at Fingo. Our prices are around 20% lower than comparable Hoi An operators like Hoi An Day Trip Company and the major street-food operators, because we keep everything direct and founder-led — no platform commission to pay, no resellers in the middle.

Hoi An Private Walking Tour (Ancient Town)

3–4 hours, Old Town walking with local stories and a tasting pause.

See the full walking tour page.

Hoi An Food Tour (evening)

Around 4 hours, private evening route through local food alleys and atmosphere.

Comparable operator (Hoi An Day Trip Company): $35 per person flat. See the food tour page.

Hoi An Countryside and Local Life Tour

Flexible half-day, Tra Que herb village, rice fields, and softer local-life pacing beyond the Old Town.

Comparable operator: $35 per person bicycle countryside tour. See the countryside tour page.

Central Vietnam day trips and custom routes

Flexible day-trip support across Hoi An, Da Nang, My Son, Hue, and the Hai Van Pass. Starting day rates per person, with the final figure depending on guest count, route, and transport:

Plan a custom day trip.

Direct booking vs Viator / GetYourGuide: what the markup looks like

One of the most common questions we get is whether platform booking is safer or cheaper. In practice, for small private tours in Vietnam, booking through Viator or GetYourGuide usually means:

• 20–30% higher price than booking directly with the same operator, to cover the platform's commission
• Less flexibility — changes, pickup adjustments, and last-minute requests go through the platform's customer-service queue, not directly to your guide
• The same local operators — most platform-listed tours in Hoi An are resold from the same small founder-led operators you can message directly

Booking direct on WhatsApp lets us keep prices around 20% lower, gives you a real person to message before, during, and after the trip, and means changes (delayed flight, kids needing a slower pace, sudden appetite for a different dish) can be handled in one message.

Read more: Why book direct with a local Hoi An guide.

How payment works

Most private tours in Hoi An — including ours — are paid at the end of the tour in cash, in either US dollars or the equivalent in Vietnamese dong. For higher-value or more customized routes (multi-day, multi-stop, larger groups), a small advance deposit is sometimes requested. We accept PayPal for advance payments when needed (under 20% of the total is fee-free; above that includes a 4.4% PayPal surcharge).

Full payment terms: booking and payment policy.

How to tell when a price is too low

You will find "private tours" in Hoi An advertised for $10 or $12 a person. They exist, and they are rarely what they look like. A guide cannot cover their time, a tasting stop and a boat fee at that price, so the difference is usually made up somewhere else.

• Commission stops. A tailor, a lantern shop, a "family" ceramics workshop — each one pays the guide a percentage of what you spend. Half the morning goes to shops you did not ask to see.
• No guide licence. Vietnamese guides carry a national guide card. A guide who cannot show one is working informally, and there is no one to complain to if the day goes wrong.
• "Private" that is not. A low-priced tour that picks up two more couples on the way is a small-group tour with a private-tour price label.

None of this makes cheap tours bad for everyone. It makes the question worth asking before you pay: are there any shop stops, and will anyone else join us? The tour comparison checklist has the full list of questions.

Tipping a guide in Hoi An

Tipping is not built into Vietnamese culture the way it is in the United States, and no guide worth booking will expect it. It is appreciated when a day has gone well. As a rough guide, travellers who tip usually leave something like $5–$10 per person for a half-day guide, and 100,000–200,000 VND for a driver on a full day. Cash, in either dollars or đồng, handed over at the end, is the normal way.

What matters more than the amount is not tipping as a substitute for a review. For a small, direct-booking guide, a few honest sentences on Google or Tripadvisor are worth more over a year than any tip — it is how the next traveller finds them without a platform in between. See why booking direct matters for the longer version.

What the price does not include

Read the inclusions before comparing two quotes, because the headline number hides the differences. Things that are commonly not included and are worth asking about:

• The 120,000 VND Ancient Town ticket, if the route enters the heritage houses.
• Lunch on a full-day trip — usually $5–$10 per person at a local restaurant.
• Pickup from outside the Old Town, An Bang, or Đà Nẵng.
• Drinks on a food tour beyond water, and entry to a performance.

Two quotes $5 apart can easily be $15 apart once these are added. The only way to know is to ask the same four questions of both.

When to book to get the best price

Private tour prices in Hoi An do not swing with demand the way hotel rates do — a direct guide charges the same in March as in June. What changes is availability. February to April and the lantern-festival nights fill first, so book a week or two ahead for those. In the October–November rain, book late and you lose nothing: you can check the forecast first, and guides are flexible about moving a day.

Ready to plan your tour?

The fastest way to get a final price is a one-line WhatsApp message with your dates, group size, and which tour interests you. We reply within a few hours, usually faster.

Browse the full tour list: private tours in Hoi An & Central Vietnam. Or read related planning notes: how to compare private tours in Hoi An, Hoi An itinerary for first-timers, and why book direct, not Viator.