Hội An on a Singapore Long Weekend: All Five of 2027, Ranked — and How It Really Compares to Bali, Bangkok, Batam and Bintan

Singapore does not take two-week holidays. It takes long weekends — and in 2027 there are five of them that cost you no annual leave at all. The question is never really "where should I go", it is "which of these five weekends is worth a flight, and is Hội An actually better than the Bintan resort I always default to". This page answers both, honestly, including the parts where the answer is no. We have written it from the hotel, on the Thu Bồn river in Hội An, with Singapore's holiday calendar and Vietnam's lunar one side by side — because whether a weekend is good here depends on both.

TL;DR — Singapore has 11 public holidays and 5 long weekends in 2027, none requiring leave. Ranked for Hội An: Good Friday (26–28 March) is the best by a distance, because it lands inside the driest, emptiest stretch of the Vietnamese year. Hari Raya Haji (15–17 May) is second, and two days of leave turns it into the best trip on this page, because the 19 May lantern night falls just after it. Chinese New Year (6–8 February) is the most interesting and the most complicated — those are exactly the first three days of Tết. Da Nang is 2h50 from Changi, 32 flights a week, visa-free for 30 days, and the airport is 45 minutes from here — which is the number that actually decides a three-day trip.

The five long weekends of 2027

Confirmed by Singapore's Ministry of Manpower. None of these needs annual leave.

Chinese New Year is the one to read carefully: 6 and 7 February are the Saturday and Sunday, with Monday 8 February observed. That is not a coincidence of calendars — Tết and Chinese New Year are the same lunar new year, so Singapore's long weekend and Vietnam's biggest holiday are the same three days.

Ranked, best to worst

1. Good Friday, 26–28 March. The best long weekend of the year to be in Hội An, and it is not close. It sits inside a seven-week window — roughly 21 February to 14 April — in which Vietnam has no public holiday at all. The Tết crowds have gone, the rains are months away, and the weather is dry and mild rather than hot. You can walk the Old Town in the middle of the day, which is not true in June. The Quán Thế Âm festival at the Marble Mountains is also expected around 27 March, on the road between the airport and here, though the programme is usually only confirmed a month or two ahead.

2. Hari Raya Haji, 15–17 May — and this one has a trick. Mid-May is hot, bright and genuinely empty: Vietnam's own big travel block ends on 3 May, and the domestic school holidays do not start until late June. It is the cheapest of the good weekends. The trick is that Hội An's lantern night falls on Tuesday 19 May — two days after the long weekend ends. Take Tuesday and Wednesday off and you get the empty shoulder season and the night the Old Town switches off its electric lights. Of the five weekends, none lands on a lantern night by itself; this is the only one where two days of leave fixes that.

3. New Year's Day, 1–3 January. Underrated. January is the cheapest month here and one of the emptiest, and by the first week the wet season has largely finished. It is cool — genuinely cool, bring a light jacket, which surprises people expecting tropical heat. Nothing much is happening, which is the appeal. Vietnam also takes 1 January off, but it is a single day and the domestic wave is small.

4. National Day, 7–9 August. Fine, not special. Hot, and it falls inside Vietnam's domestic school holidays, so the beaches are busy while the Old Town is merely warm. Early mornings and late evenings are the play. Still dry — the rains do not arrive properly until September.

5. Chinese New Year, 6–8 February. The most fascinating weekend on this list and the one most likely to disappoint if you arrive unprepared. You would land on mùng 1, the first day of Tết. The Old Town is in full ceremonial dress — kumquat trees on every doorstep, red couplets on the old houses, pagodas full from before dawn. But a large share of the family-run kitchens, the tailors and parts of the markets close for roughly three days, and from about the third day Vietnamese domestic tourism arrives in force. Hotels, tourist-facing restaurants and transport run normally throughout. It is a bad weekend to improvise and a wonderful one to have planned. Our Tết in Hội An 2027 guide sets out exactly what closes and when it reopens.

The comparison you are actually making

Be honest about the shortlist. For a Singapore long weekend it is usually some combination of Batam, Bintan, Bangkok, Bali and — increasingly — Da Nang and Hội An. But those five are not one category, and pretending they are is how people end up disappointed.

Batam and Bintan: a different product entirely

These are one-hour ferry weekends, and on price and convenience nothing beats them — 60-plus daily sailings to Batam, and Bintan's resort terminal is about an hour from Tanah Merah. If what you want is to check into a resort on Friday night, not think, have a massage, eat, sleep and be back Sunday, they are the right answer and Hội An is not.

The difference is what happens if you want to leave the resort. Batam and Bintan are places you stay at. Hội An is a place you stay in — a 400-year-old trading port you can walk end to end, with a working river, a night market, tailors, and villages you can cycle to in twenty minutes. If "leave the resort" is not part of your weekend, save the airfare.

Bangkok: the opposite of this

Bangkok wins on flights, price and range, and it is rain-proof in a way we are not — the malls are a genuine feature in a downpour. If your weekend is about eating widely, shopping and being out late, Bangkok is simply better at it.

But most people we host who have done both describe the same thing: they come back from Bangkok needing a rest. Hội An has almost no traffic in the old quarter, and the loudest thing at night is the river. If the point of the long weekend is to decompress rather than to consume, these two destinations are not competing — they are opposites, and you should pick by what you need that month.

Bali: the real comparison

This is the honest rival. Bali and Hội An sell the same promise — slow days, good food, spa treatments, scenery, a bit of culture — at almost the same flight time. Bali wins on range: better surf, dramatically better beaches, more villas, more restaurants, and enough variety to fill a week rather than a weekend.

Where Hội An wins a three-day weekend specifically is arrival friction. Denpasar to where you actually want to be — Seminyak, Canggu, Ubud — is anywhere from forty-five minutes to two hours depending on traffic, and on a Friday evening it is the wrong end of that range. Da Nang to Hội An is a flat forty-five minutes with no traffic to speak of. On a two-night trip that difference is not a detail; it is most of an evening in each direction, which is a meaningful share of the whole holiday.

The second difference is scale. Bali asks you to choose a region and commit; get it wrong and the weekend is spent in a car. Hội An is one small town where everything — Old Town, river, beach, villages — is inside a twenty-minute radius. For three days, small is an advantage.

Where Hội An loses

Four things, stated plainly, because you will find them out anyway.

The beach is good, not spectacular. An Bàng is soft sand, palms and relaxed cafés fifteen minutes from the river. It is lovely. It is not Bintan's resort beach and it is not the south of Bali. If the beach is the entire point of the trip, book elsewhere.

October and November flood. Hội An sits on a river in a delta, and parts of the Old Town go under most years between October and mid-November. The town is built for it and life carries on upstairs, but it is a real consideration — and it is why none of the five 2027 long weekends falls in those months, which is lucky.

Fewer flights than Bangkok or Bali. 32 a week to Da Nang is plenty, but the schedule is thinner and a cancellation has fewer alternatives on a three-day trip.

No real nightlife. There are riverside bars and a night market and that is largely it. For some guests that is the single best thing about the place. Know which of those you are.

Planning a trip around this? See dates at our quiet riverside hotel on the Thu Bồn. Check availability →

The maths of a three-day weekend

The reason Hội An works on a long weekend at all is the arithmetic at both ends. The last flight out of Changi lands in Da Nang at about 21:15; you can be here, showered, on a balcony over the river before eleven. Sunday or Monday evening you reverse it. That gives you two genuinely full days rather than one and a half.

Two full days is enough for this town in a way it is not for Bali or Bangkok. A realistic version: the Old Town at first light before the day-trippers arrive, the middle of the day at the pool because it is hot, an afternoon spa, sunset on the river, and one day given to the beach or a cycle through the villages across the water. That is not a compressed itinerary. That is the normal pace here.

Practicalities for a Singapore passport

No visa. Singapore passports enter Vietnam visa-free for up to 30 days as an ASEAN member — no e-visa, no fee, no paperwork. Your passport needs six months' validity and two blank pages. Multiple entries a year are fine.

Flights. Scoot, Singapore Airlines and VietJet fly SIN–DAD non-stop, about 2h50, 32 times a week, from roughly S$221 return on the budget carriers at the time of writing.

Money. Vietnamese đồng. Cards work in hotels and tourist-facing restaurants; the small kitchens, the markets and the boat operators are cash. ATMs are everywhere. Bring more cash than you think for the fun parts.

Getting around. Grab works in Da Nang and Hội An. Most of the Old Town is pedestrianised in the evenings, and a bicycle covers everything else — hotels usually lend them.

Time zone. Vietnam is one hour behind Singapore, which quietly gives you an extra hour on arrival evening and costs you nothing going back.

Where to stay for this kind of trip

On a two-night trip the single decision that changes the weekend most is which side of the river you are on. Deep inside the Old Town you are in the middle of the thing you came to look at, which is wonderful for an afternoon and less wonderful at eleven at night.

Nghê Prana is a riverside hotel on the Cẩm Nam side of the Thu Bồn, across the water from the Ancient Town — five minutes from the lanterns by bicycle, and out of the noise when you are done with them. Every room faces the river or the garden; none faces a road. For a long weekend built around decompressing rather than sightseeing, that is the whole argument. See our rooms, or read what riverside actually means here, since a lot of hotels use the word loosely.

Frequently Asked Questions

When are Singapore's long weekends in 2027? There are five, none requiring annual leave: New Year's Day (Friday 1 – Sunday 3 January), Chinese New Year (Saturday 6 – Monday 8 February, with 8 February observed), Good Friday (Friday 26 – Sunday 28 March), Hari Raya Haji (Saturday 15 – Monday 17 May) and National Day (Saturday 7 – Monday 9 August). Singapore has 11 public holidays in 2027 in total.

Which 2027 long weekend is best for Hội An? Good Friday, 26–28 March. It falls inside a seven-week stretch — roughly 21 February to 14 April — with no Vietnamese public holiday in it, and the weather is dry and mild rather than hot. Hari Raya Haji (15–17 May) is second, and adding Tuesday and Wednesday off extends it to the lantern night on 19 May.

How long is the flight from Singapore to Hội An? There is no airport at Hội An; you fly to Da Nang. Non-stop SIN–DAD is about 2 hours 50 minutes with Scoot, Singapore Airlines or VietJet, around 32 flights a week. Da Nang airport to Hội An is a further 45 minutes by car on a flat road.

Do Singaporeans need a visa for Vietnam? No. Singapore passport holders enter visa-free for stays of up to 30 days as ASEAN members, with multiple entries permitted through the year. Your passport must have at least six months' validity and two blank pages.

Is Hội An better than Bali or Bangkok for a long weekend? For three days specifically, Hội An has an advantage in arrival friction: the airport transfer is a flat 45 minutes, against 45 minutes to two hours in Bali's traffic. Bali wins on beaches and variety; Bangkok wins on food range, shopping and nightlife. Choose Hội An if the point of the weekend is to slow down rather than to do a lot.

Is Hội An worth it compared with Batam or Bintan? Only if you intend to leave the resort. Batam and Bintan are one-hour ferry trips and unbeatable on cost and convenience for a stay-put resort weekend. Hội An is a walkable 400-year-old town with a river, villages and a beach — a different product that costs a flight.

Can you see Hội An in three days? Yes, comfortably — better than most short-haul destinations. Everything is within a twenty-minute radius: Old Town, river, An Bàng beach, the craft villages across the water. Two full days is enough for the Old Town at dawn, a spa afternoon, a river sunset and a beach or cycling day, without rushing.

Singapore's 2027 public holidays and long weekends are as confirmed by the Ministry of Manpower and reported in June 2026. Flight times, frequencies and fares are as published at the time of writing and change with the season — check before booking. Vietnamese lunar dates are converted with mùng 1 tháng Giêng anchored to Saturday 6 February 2027, the same anchor used across our Tết, Kim Bồng, Trà Quế and 2027 lantern-calendar guides, which places the May lantern night on 19 May 2027. The Quán Thế Âm date is an estimate; its programme had not been published when this was written. Seasonal and crowd observations are reported from Hội An, from the Cẩm Nam riverside across the Thu Bồn from the Ancient Town.