Hội An is one of the few places in Vietnam — or anywhere in Southeast Asia — that feels genuinely preserved rather than rebuilt for tourists. The Ancient Town's wooden shopfronts and lantern-lit streets along the Thu Bồn River look much as they did centuries ago, when this was one of the region's busiest trading ports. By day it's slow and golden-lit; on the night of the full moon lantern festival, the whole town goes dark except for thousands of paper lanterns floating on the river.