Da Nang or Hoi An, where should I stay?

A very popular question when you are making your travel plan to Vietnam. Where should you book your accomodation, Da Nang or Hoi An.

This artical is about what to do in Hoi An and  Da Nang based on local experience. Then to book your accomodation in Hoi An or Da Nang, it is your decision!

Hoi An

A small city on the coast of Vietnam, used to be mid-stop of silk road between 15th – 18th century. Hoi An is famous for its charm, old houses built by late 17th century with great combination of architecture of Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese (sometime French).

What to do in Hoi An.

1 – Pleasant walk around Hoi An and explore the town of Hoi An

Main streets in Hoi An old town are great to walking around without being worried about motorbike. Streets are no motorbike for curtain time of the day to let you enjoy the walk to discover. Buy a ticket of Hoi An 120,000vnd (Unesco protected city) then you can enjoy taking to visit some of the old houses, some temples and Assembly halls  which built in late 18th century.

Recommended route: Begining of Tran Phu st, walk around Hoi An Central Market, visiting Phuc Kien assembly hall, strolling to Hoang Dieu st where they sell beautiful lantern, Stop at number 9th Nguyen Thai Hoc st for traditional dance show, walk along Bach Dang st and visit the Japanese bridge which known as iconic building of Hoi An. Visit Tan Ky old house then end up by a break at Phin Coffee for the best coconut coffee in town. 

2 – Join local craft classes in Hoi An

One of the best things to do in Hoi An during your holiday is joining classes and get to know the hidden charm of the destination. Hoi An has offer quite few of classes for your interest.

Hoi An Cooking Class: It can be the most popular choice for classes in Hoi An. It is offered almost every restaurants and even some local families. It is about 15usd up to 60usd per person.

Recommended: Green Mango restaurant at 54 Nguyễn Thai Hoc st is offering daily cooking class including market visit, hand-on class and great recipes. You also can choose different dishes you like to cook!

Leather workshop: Blue Lotus Leather offers great class for someone want to make your own leather stuffs, From beginner to advanced. More information at https://bluelotusleather.com/

Lantern Making Class: Hoi An is known as town of Lanterns, every evening, Hoi An streets are so pretty with lantern decoration. You can learn basic skill for making lantern mostly every lantern shop along Tran Phu st.

3 – Join a cycling tours in Hoi An:

Hoi An Cycling offers great cycling tours around Hoi An, it can be easy cycling half day tours or more challenging to conquer the Hai Van pass or Cycling to My Son holyland. 

4 – Beaches

Hoi An Beach is part of long coastal beach from Da Nang to Cua Dai area. It is stunning, white sand and very calm. In a good weather day, it is great to spend sometime to swim at the beach of An Bang or Hidden Beach (between An Bang beach and Cua Dai). An Bang beach has more beach facilities such as bars, restaurants,…

Da Nang

A beach holiday city, Da Nang recently get more and more people staying there rather than just come by the plane to get to Hoi An or Hue. So these are what to do in Da Nang that we recommended.

What to do in Da Nang

1 – Bridges and market:

Great city of Da Nang has 7 bridges connecting 2 sides of the city, specially Dragon bridge is in the center and being famous for its design. It is great to spend time to walk around the bridges and markets.

Recommended for late afternoon walk and visiting Han market.

2 – Bana hill and golden hand bridge

Bana hill was a French station built in 1919, as a resort to be used as a leisure destination for French Tourists. Being located above 1500 metres above sea level, it has a tremendous view of the East Sea, and the surrounding mountains.

Golden Bridge is recently built and quickly turn to be known as one of the most best bridge’s design in the world. Everyday is thousand of people coming, check-in and taking photos of the bridge. It has very positive review about taking a trip up there.

Entrance fee for the longest cable car crossing mountains, golden hand bridge, parks is 700,000vnd per person. Food is also served up there for pretty reasonable price. 

3 – Beach

Known as China beach during Vietnam war, Vietnamese people named it as Mỹ Khê beach, the sea is the East Sea. it has stunning white sand, very calm and full of beach facilities for a great beach holiday.

4 – Marble moutain and monkey island

Great destination for spending time. Best way to get around by motorbike and spend few hours in each place. Marble mountain is very religious place with temples, pagodas in the caves. Mokey mountain has the biggest pagoda named Linh Ung pagoda. A great view of the city and the see. If you are lucky one, you may meet lots of monkeys living in the forest around.