Traveling to Vietnam? 41 Nights in the Country and What I’ve Learned
On my way to Vietnam with VietJet, the airline you end up flying with around here
This guide wasn’t put together from a travel agency brochure.
I’ve been to Vietnam three times: in 2024, in spring 2026 and again now, in August 2026. That’s 41 nights spread across six places to stay between Da Nang and Hoi An, and I’m writing this from Da Nang.
Below you’ll find every guide that came out of those trips, and under them, what I wish someone had told me before I got on the plane. Starting with a change that has left almost every guide out there using outdated terms.
⚠️ Vietnam’s districts no longer exist: since July 1, 2025, the country has had just two administrative levels, city and ward.
Da Nang ended up with 106 wards and communes, and several of them share their names with the old districts: Hải Châu, Sơn Trà, Ngũ Hành Sơn, Thanh Khê.
If a guide talks about “Sơn Trà district”, it was written before the reform or copied from one that was.
And be careful with that name in particular, because Sơn Trà is two different places: the part of the city along the beach, and the mountain peninsula with the monkeys and the InterContinental, cut off and twenty minutes from everything.
Booking a place from photos of the second while thinking you’re getting the first is the most expensive mistake you can make in Da Nang.
My Vietnam guides
Where to stayAll seven areas of the city, which one suits the trip you have in mind, and the side of the river you’re better off avoiding.
Read the guide
SafetyA 10 out of 10 review posted from my account that I never wrote, two days in bed after a dinner aimed at tourists, and the legal mess around scooters.
Read the guide
ReviewFive nights on half board along the southern resort strip, with what I really paid and where that price came from.
Read the review
PracticalWhether the unlimited plan really holds up with Grab, maps and the translator running all day, and where I lost signal.
See the test
ComparisonI paid for both and tested them at the same time, in the same spot. With the cell tower overloaded, only one of them let me open the map.
See the comparisonWhat I wish I’d known before I went
The beach is for late afternoon, not midday
In Da Nang people go in the water from four or five in the afternoon until it gets dark. During the day they’re at work, and it’s too hot to be out in the sun anyway.
Head down at noon and you’ll have it to yourself and think you’ve found the secret. What you’ve actually found is the worst time of day to go.
And when it does get busy, everyone bunches up for a reason: there are markers on the sand showing the safe swimming area, and that’s where the whole beach goes. On either side you get hundreds of meters of empty sand under a red flag.
Don’t read too much into that, though, because a marker won’t pull you out of the water: there isn’t a lifeguard every five meters. It tells you the sea is calmer there, not that somebody is keeping an eye on you.
You can ride without a license, but only one kind of scooter
Vietnam’s 2024 traffic law lets anyone aged 16 or over ride a moped with no license at all, and that category includes electric scooters of up to 4 kW and 50 km/h, the ones you can rent for 120,000 dong (about $4.60) a day.
What almost nobody tells you is the other half: Vietnam only recognizes international driving permits issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention, and Spain, where my license is from, issues them in the 1949 Geneva format. Check which one your country issues before you count on it.
The food is great, just not where you’d expect
It’s one of the countries where I’ve eaten best, and yet it’s hard to find places that are good, nice to sit in and cheap all at once, much harder than in Thailand. The cafes are expensive because they’re built for tourists.
And my only stomach scare in three trips didn’t come from a street stall. It came from a Western restaurant with an English menu.
Real prices, August 2026
These figures come from my receipts, not from memory. Go by the dong figure: the dollar amounts are worked out at about 26,000 dong to the dollar, and the rate fluctuates.
Eating and drinking
- Coffee at a tourist spot 25,000-45,000 VND (~$1-1.70)
- Beer 45,000-60,000 VND (~$1.70-2.30)
- Bánh mì 20,000-40,000 VND (~$0.80-1.50)
- Local chicken rice 45,000-80,000 VND (~$1.70-3.10)
- “Tourist” restaurant, per person 200,000 VND (~$7.70)
- Massage 200,000 VND (~$7.70)
Getting around and paying
- Grab car, airport to the city 111,280 VND (~$4.30)
- Grab motorbike, 7 or 8 minutes 17,000 VND (~$0.65)
- Electric scooter, full day 120,000 VND (~$4.60)
- Surcharge for paying by card at reception 3.85%
That 3.85% surcharge for paying by card at reception was at one of my hotels in Da Nang. It isn’t a scam (they told me upfront), but it’s what decides whether or not you take dong out of an ATM the moment you land.
Da Nang or Hoi An?
They’re two different trips forty minutes apart, so it’s easy to do both.
Da Nang is an easy city to be in, with thirty kilometers of beach, gyms, coworking spaces and normal day-to-day life. It isn’t pretty, it’s practical, and that’s exactly why the weeks slip by without you noticing.
Hoi An is the old town strung with lanterns, beautiful and a lot more touristy. I spent six nights looking out over a rice field in Cẩm Châu, and it’s one of the places I’ve liked most in the whole country.
If you can only pick one and you’re coming to see Vietnam, go with Hoi An. If you’re coming to stay a while, Da Nang.
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