Vietnam: Da Nang and Hoi An - pristine beaches and colorful lanterns

Where To Go Next By I&P
Feb 3, 2023
3 min read

After spending almost a full day at the Ho Chi Minh city airport, we were very happy to have finally arrived in Da Nang.

Da Nang is one of the main beach resort cities in Central Vietnam and is close to Hue, the old Imperial city, and Hoi An, a small town that kept the traditional Vietnamese style and town decorations.

As we went out for a walk on this gorgeous beach in Da Nang, we could admire the tall buildings in the reflection of the water and we could see the mountain skyline at a distance with a big white statue from the Chua Linh Ung temple overlooking the water.

We spent quite some time resting on the beach, walking along the shore, watching fishermen and soccer players, and building a temple dedicated to St Myself. 😀

At night, while walking down the streets next to the shoreline, we found some seafood restaurants. They are hard to miss because of the countless aquariums containing those poor fish, supposedly to guarantee freshness.

We had to wander a little bit before finding a street with other types of restaurants (a lot of Korean ones for some reason 🇰🇷), including karaoke restaurants. We could still hear the singers out of tune from 50m away. 😖

As we were in low season, it was easy to find a restaurant but you could imagine that in high season, this area would be packed.

The following day, we went to Da Nang's crowded city center where locals and tourists were bargaining in the traditional markets trying to get the most from each other. Compared to the beach area which was pretty empty, this part of the city was buzzing like in Ho Chi Minh city.

To get there, we had to cross through the Dragon bridge under the rain, and we almost flew away like Mary Poppins because of the strong winds ☔.

As it was cloudy and rainy, we decided not to visit the Ba Na highlands and the Marble mountains, but it will be a good reason to come back.

We spent the following days in Hoi An, 45 min south of Da Nang by car (300k VND with a driver hired through the hotel in Hoi An).

Hoi An is a lovely town filled with traditional Vietnamese houses illuminated by hundreds of Chinese lanterns of all colors, giving it a very charming atmosphere.

This romantic town is crossed by a river where, every night, tourists can rent a small boat with Chinese lanterns or light up a small paper boat that will float on the river in order to be granted a wish.

After sunrise, the town switched from romantic to business mode with hundreds of tailors trying to sell their abilities and fabric to create tailored clothes in one day for much less than what you would pay in western countries. The one we used was Ba Ri.

But you could still enjoy the city's landmarks, like the Japanese Bridge, which leads to a street where you can visit wooden traditional Vietnamese houses.

And there are dozens of temples scattered all around town as well, each one as lovely as the next.

There were booths to buy tickets to enter the town and visit some museums and temples (120k VND for 5 places). We never bought them and were still free to roam around town without any issues, but we just could not enter those museums and temples, of course.

After enjoying a walk around town and a boat ride, don't miss the local specialities like the White Rose at the Com Linh restaurant or banh mi at the Banh Mi Queen

Don't miss the night market as well (on the days it does not rain) where you can take a picture with dozens of chinese lanterns and eat yummy banana nutella crepes 😋. It's located on the other side of the river and easily accessible by crossing a very photogenic (and, therefore, crowded) bridge.