Where Are the Hoi An Lanterns Released? The Exact Stretch of River, and Why 'River View' Is Not 'Lantern View'

We are writing this because guests booked with us expecting to watch the lantern boats from their room, and they could not: the lanterns are not in front of our hotel. Some had asked an AI assistant, which had read our own old pages. We corrected those pages on 24 September 2026. This is the reference we should have published first: where the lanterns actually are, a landmark-by-landmark map, times and boat prices with their sources, and a way to check any room before you book. It draws on Hội An's heritage centre (Trung tâm Bảo tồn Di sản văn hóa thế giới Hội An), Báo Đà Nẵng, Dân Trí and Dân Việt, and on our own measurements.

Where exactly are the Hội An lanterns released?

South of the Old Town the Thu Bồn divides around two low islands: the small An Hội islet to the west and Cẩm Nam island to the east. The narrow arm that runs along the Old Town's Bạch Đằng quay is the water Hội An calls sông Hoài, the Hoài River, and that is where the floating candle-lanterns, hoa đăng, go on the water. The heritage centre says it plainly: "Đêm 14 âm lịch, du khách thường đến Hội An để thả hoa đăng trên sông Hoài cầu bình an, may mắn" ("On the night of the 14th lunar day, visitors come to Hội An to release lanterns on the Hoài River, praying for peace and good luck").

The stretch has two ends you can stand on. At the west is the An Hội footbridge, which links the Old Town to the An Hội islet and its night market. At the east is the Cẩm Nam bridge, at the foot of Hoàng Diệu street, the road bridge between the Old Town and Cẩm Nam island. The rowing boats board along Bạch Đằng between the two and work that water in a closed loop, from pick-up point back to drop-off.

How long is it? We measured it on 25 September 2026 from OpenStreetMap road geometry: the centre of the An Hội bridge (15.8763, 108.3264) to the centre of the Cẩm Nam bridge (15.8756, 108.3331) is about 720 m in a straight line, and the Bạch Đằng quay runs for about 620 m of it. The arm is narrow: on the same map data the An Hội bridge spans roughly 70 m and the Cẩm Nam bridge roughly 160 m. Earlier pages on our site called it a 400-metre stretch. That figure had no method behind it, and we have replaced it with this one.

Which spots in Hội An look onto the lantern water?

Walk it from west to east. Yes means the spot looks straight onto the water where the boats work and the candle-lanterns are released; no means it does not.

• Chùa Cầu, the Japanese Covered Bridge: at the edge. It stands a few steps west of the An Hội bridge over a small creek that runs into the river, so it is the gateway to the stretch rather than a view over it.
• An Hội footbridge: yes. The western end of the stretch, and one of its most crowded points on a lantern night.
• Bạch Đằng quay: yes. The Old Town's riverside street on the north bank. The boats board here, and the stone steps down to the water are where most people set their hoa đăng afloat.
• The An Hội islet promenade: yes. The south bank directly opposite the Old Town, beside the night market, looking north across the water.
• Cẩm Nam's west tip and north shore, up to the Cẩm Nam bridge: yes. The riverside lane on this side looks across the narrow arm at Bạch Đằng, and it is usually calmer than the Old Town bank.
• Cẩm Nam bridge: yes, looking west. The eastern end of the stretch. From the deck you look back along the whole lit water towards the An Hội bridge.
• East of the Cẩm Nam bridge: no. You are past the water the boats work.
• Cẩm Nam's south shore, on the main channel: no. It faces south across the much wider main channel of the Thu Bồn, and the island itself stands between it and the Old Town. Nghê Prana is here.
• Downstream towards Cẩm Thanh and Cửa Đại: no. Wide river, lift nets, and dark water on lantern nights.

When are the lanterns released, and what does a boat cost?

Candle-lanterns are sold and floated on the Hoài every evening from about 17:00. The monthly lantern night, Đêm Phố Cổ, is a different scale of evening: since 1998, on the 14th of each lunar month, Hội An switches off electric lighting in the Old Town centre and lets the silk lanterns and the river carry the light, as both the heritage centre and Dân Trí record. On those nights the lights are off from about 18:00 to 22:00, and the water is busiest roughly 19:00 to 21:00. That last window is what we tell guests from our own experience, not a published schedule.

The rowing-boat price has a published standard. In June 2022 the Minh An ward rowing-boat guild (Nghiệp đoàn Ghe bơi du lịch phường Minh An) set it at 150,000₫ per boat for 1 to 3 passengers and 200,000₫ for 4 or 5, for a trip of 20 minutes and never less than 15 (Báo Đà Nẵng, 27 June 2022). Printed yellow and red tickets went on sale on 15 July 2022 (Dân Trí). Around 300 of these boats work the Hoài, and they made more than 145,800 trips in 2024 (Dân Việt, 16 January 2025).

Why do the prices you find online disagree? Three reasons. Per boat against per seat: the guild price is for the whole boat, while agencies sell shared-boat tickets per person, for example 50,000₫ a person for 30 minutes with a lantern included (danangtransfer.vn, updated 16 September 2026). Duration: the guild trip is 20 minutes and the agency products run 30; our own pages quoted 30 and even 45 minutes for the guild boats, and both were wrong. Age: the 2022 standard is the most recent published guild price we could find on 25 September 2026, so treat it as the reference and confirm the price at the ticket point on the night.

We verified these dates on 25 September 2026 two ways, with the Hồ Ngọc Đức algorithm for Vietnam's UTC+7 calendar and with an independent lunar-calendar library, and they match our full 2026 lantern calendar and the countdown on our Hội An Lantern Festival page.

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

Why doesn't 'river view' mean 'lantern view' in Hội An?

Because most of the river is not the lantern stretch. In Hội An the Thu Bồn braids into several arms around its islands, and the lanterns belong to about 700 m of one narrow arm. A hotel room can honestly face the Thu Bồn, whether the main channel, a side arm or the estuary, and still be kilometres from the lantern water with an island in between. 'River view' is a true description of the water outside; it does not tell you which water it is.

That is geography, not a trick. The river south of Cẩm Nam is wide, quiet and beautiful at dusk, with lift nets and small fishing boats, and on lantern nights it is simply dark. For many guests that is the point. It only becomes a problem when someone expects the other thing.

How can you check whether a hotel room sees the lanterns before you book?

• Which stretch of river does the room face? Ask whether it looks onto the water between the An Hội and Cẩm Nam bridges. It is a yes-or-no question, and the answer is the whole story.
• Which bank is the building on? Only the Bạch Đằng side of the Old Town, the An Hội islet and the western part of Cẩm Nam's north shore front the lantern stretch.
• Can you see a photo taken from the room at night? Ask for one taken from the room itself, not the rooftop, on a 14th-night evening. A river-view balcony that faces the main channel will not show a single lantern, and an honest photo settles it either way.
• Where is the map pin? Put it next to the two bridges. If the building is not beside the water between them, the room does not look onto the release.
• Which do you want to sleep beside? Rooms on the lantern stretch are in the middle of the evening, crowd and music included, until about 22:00. Rooms on the main channel are quiet and a short ride away. Both are good choices; they are different choices.

Can you see the lanterns from Nghê Prana?

No. Nghê Prana is on the south shore of Cẩm Nam island, at its east end (Google Maps pin 15.8704, 108.3454), and it faces the wide main channel of the Thu Bồn. The lantern stretch is on the other side of the island, about 2.2 km away in a straight line. You cannot see the lanterns from any of our rooms, balconies, the terrace or the pool, and our river-view rooms look over the main channel, not the lantern water.

Correction, 24 September 2026. Until that date, several pages on this site said or implied that the lanterns floated past our rooms, and an old map pin placed us at the west tip of Cẩm Nam, on the lantern water. Both were wrong. Guests booked on that basis, some after asking an AI assistant that had read our pages, and we are sorry. We corrected every page we found on 24 September and wrote this one so that the accurate answer is the easiest one to find.

How to be there on a lantern night from Nghê Prana. It is 3.2 km to the Old Town riverfront: about 10 minutes on the bicycles included with every room, about 40 minutes on foot, or about 6 minutes by car (5.5 minutes in free-flowing traffic, measured with OSRM on 25 September 2026). The route runs west along the island and over the Cẩm Nam bridge, which puts you at the eastern end of the lantern stretch. The hotel also runs a free guest shuttle; ask reception for the times on the day. Then come back to a quiet, dark stretch of river.

The short version

The lanterns are released on the Hoài, the narrow arm of the Thu Bồn between the An Hội and Cẩm Nam bridges, about 700 m long. Only rooms that face that water see them. The next lantern night is Friday 23 October 2026. If you stay with us you will not see it from your room: you will cycle ten minutes to stand beside it, and come home to the quiet side of the island. More on the river itself in our Thu Bồn River guide, and on our island in the Cẩm Nam guide.