Coconut forest tour

Bay Mau Coconut Forest Tourist Area – one of the famous tourist destinations in Hoi An (Photo: Collected)

Bay Mau Coconut Forest is a destination visited by many tourists during their trip to Hoi An . This place promises to bring you many new and interesting experiences. To make your trip complete, keep in mind the following 5 important things before exploring this lush green coconut forest!

1. Where is Bay Mau Coconut Forest? How far is Bay Mau Coconut Forest from Hoi An?

• Address: Group 2, Can Nhan village, Cam Thanh commune, Hoi An city, Quang Nam province
• Reference opening hours: 7:00 – 17:00 daily

Reference tickets to visit Bay Mau coconut forest: 

• Entrance fee: 30,000 VND/person 
• Boat rental fee: 100,000 VND/boat

Bay Mau Coconut Forest is also known by locals as Cam Thanh Coconut Forest, about 3km from Hoi An city . This is a famous eco-tourism area that offers visitors many experiences of river nature, immense coconut forests and rustic basket boats. 

Vast coconut forests and rustic basket boats seen from above (Photo: Collected)

2. History of Bay Mau coconut forest

According to local people, Cam Thanh coconut forest has existed for about 200 years. At that time, migrants from the Southwest brought water coconut trees and planted them in this area. Thanks to the favorable water and soil conditions, the trees gradually grew and developed into a large forest of about 7 acres (7 hectares). The name Bay Mau coconut forest also came from that time (although the coconut forest now covers an area of ​​up to 100 hectares). 

Cam Thanh coconut forest has a history of formation about 200 years ago (Photo: Collected)

During the resistance war, the coconut forest was an important revolutionary base that helped our people win many battles against the enemy. Nowadays, taking advantage of the natural beauty of the vast coconut forest, this place has been exploited to become a well-known eco-tourism area and one of the famous  tourist destinations in Hoi An .

3. What to do in Bay Mau Coconut Forest?

Bay Mau Coconut Forest Ecotourism Area provides many services to bring visitors unexpected and interesting experiences. These are the memorable feelings that many people have had when coming here: 

• Sightseeing by basket boat: Sitting in a basket boat weaving through the green coconut groves and enjoying the fresh air is a unique experience, loved by many people. Bay Mau Coconut Forest tourist area has two types of basket boats, the small one can carry 2 guests and the large one can carry 4 guests. During the journey to walk around and sightsee, you will hear interesting stories about the coconut forest and in the distance is the familiar melody of a Quang folk song.

Sitting in a basket boat to visit the coconut forest is an interesting and memorable experience (Photo: @hoa.ng11)

• Watching basket boat dance and boat racing: In addition to walking around and sightseeing, you can also enjoy interesting basket boat performances and boat racing. Surely, you will be amazed by the “artist’s” ability to balance on the swaying basket boat with graceful, extremely fast and impressive movements. Next is the boat racing which is equally exciting, don’t forget to shout and cheer to motivate the racers.

A very special basket dance performance in the Bay Mau coconut forest tour in Hoi An (Photo: @_tr.hnib)

• Fishing nets: Fishing nets is a lively performance that many people look forward to when coming to Hoi An coconut forest. You will be able to witness with your own eyes the rustic and skillful image of fishermen setting nets to catch fish here. 

Visitors will be able to see with their own eyes the image of local people casting fishing nets (Photo: Collected)

• Making souvenirs from coconut leaves: During the Bay Mau coconut forest tour, the boatmen will give you souvenirs from coconut leaves such as: watches, rings, grasshoppers, tribal hats… Although they are just small gifts, they show the cuteness, enthusiasm and simplicity of the people of Quang. The boatmen will also guide you so that you can make your favorite items yourself. 

Check in at Bay Mau coconut forest with cute little souvenirs (Photo: @huyen.oc)

• Cycling to Cam Thanh village: After admiring the green coconut forest, rent a bicycle and ride around Cam Thanh village. The journey will help you immerse yourself in the beautiful, peaceful space of the vast rice fields and take a deep breath of the countryside air filled with the scent of ripe rice. 

Cycling to admire the simple, rustic beauty of Cam Thanh village (Photo: Collected)

• Enjoy Hoi An specialties at local people’s homes: During your journey to explore Hoi An coconut forest, do not hesitate to accept the invitation to eat with local people to have the most authentic experience of the rustic life here. You will be treated to delicious specialties such as spring rolls, sweet and sour shrimp salad, banana flower salad, Central Vietnamese pancakes… In addition, you can also enjoy these delicious dishes at Bay Mau coconut forest restaurant.

Enjoy Central Vietnamese pancakes at a local’s house during a trip to Hoi An coconut forest (Photo: Collected)

4. Experience of going to Bay Mau coconut forest in Hoi An

The following experience of going to Bay Mau coconut forest will help you best prepare for your tour:

4.1. When to visit Bay Mau coconut forest in Hoi An?

The best time to visit the coconut forest is during the dry season from January to September. At this time, Hoi An enters summer, the weather is sunny but the climate in the coconut forest is extremely cool, fresh and pleasant. 

From January to September is the ideal time to travel to Bay Mau coconut forest (Photo: @slai05)

If you come to Bay Mau coconut forest around August and September, you will be able to see the most beautiful scenery of the coconut forest and enjoy delicious coconut rice with sesame salt. The rest of the year, you can still go to the coconut forest but need to pay attention to the weather to avoid storms, especially around October and November.  

4.2. Road to Bay Mau coconut forest in Hoi An

In recent years, Bay Mau coconut forest has become a famous destination chosen by many people in their Da Nang – Hue – Hoi An travel itinerary . Therefore, the road system is quite developed and you can easily get here by boat or car, taxi, motorbike in 2 ways:

• River route: You will board a boat at Bach Dang wharf (in Hoi An ancient town ), the boat will take you downstream along the Thu Bon river to reach the coconut forest. 
• Đường bộ: Xuất phát từ trung tâm thành phố Hội An, bạn đi theo đường Trần Nhân Tông, qua cầu Cửa Đại và đi thêm 500m nữa là đến nơi.

You can go to Cam Thanh coconut forest by sailing down the Thu Bon River (Photo: Collectibles)