We went to the Thanh Ha Terracotta Park as a morning activity with the kids (age 8 and 10) before heading to the beach in the afternoon. I had no idea what to expect and was bowled over to find a truly exceptional art gallery full of both traditional and contemporary art.
The museum buildings are thoughtfully designed inspired by clay kilns, with a toy-town all around the grounds made out of terra cotta. The kids loved the tiny scale models outside of famous buildings like the Arc du Triomphe, the US Capitol, Big Ben etc and ran around spotting their favourites, and then were given the chance to actually try making a pot on a wheel with an expert potter giving them a hand.
The galleries had some exceptional pieces of art, not just pottery but paintings and mixed media installations as well as historical examples of pottery from the various regions of the country. The piece de resistance are the unbelievably detailed wall sculptures telling the story of Hoi An and Vietnamese culture, made of the local clay with fascinating tiny details, the kids loved finding little fish or dogs or spotting places they'd been in Vietnam rendered in clay on the walls.
This is the kind of museum we would go out of our way to find in London or Paris, and to find it in Hoi An was just fantastic. Highly, highly recommended!