As discussed in our last post, we elected to head north from Ho Chi Minh City and fly directly to DaNang in central Vietnam. We took a Grab to the airport and were mistakenly dropped at the international terminal instead of the domestic terminal. Not a big deal, as it was a short walk between the two. There was a small hiccup at check-in when Patrick forgot that he had his external charger in his checked bag. Fortunately, the check-in attendant caught us on the way to security so that he could take it out – not sure what would have happened otherwise (maybe the bag would not have made it on the flight?)! It was a short one-hour flight and we were in DaNang.
DaNang sits between the city of Hoi An (to the south) and Hue (to the north). We wanted to see all three towns, and since they are all very close together, transport between them was easy. Since we were already in DaNang, we decided to explore this city first for a few days, including New Years Eve because we had read that there would be fireworks! On New Years Day, we headed south to Hoi An (a quick 40-minute Grab ride) for a couple days and then back north to Hue to finish off our time in central Vietnam. There are a few options to get from Hoi An to Hue:
- Bus or private car back to DaNang (1 hour) and take the train to Hue (2-3 hours) to enjoy apparently great views along the coast.
- Bus directly to Hue (2-3 hours), drive goes through the tunnel, so there are no scenic views.
- Motorbike over the Hai Van Pass (apparently an incredible drive) and have our bags shipped to Hue (motorbike rental company will handle this for a fee).
Since the weather wasn’t great the day we traveled (raining), we ended up taking the direct bus (option #2). We booked about 2 hours before the bus left, so were lucky to get tickets on the Camel Tour bus (sleeper seats, more expensive than the normal bus at 220k VND each). Camel picked us up at the hotel and dropped us at their office where the bus picked us up. The bus is set up in three rows of top and bottom sleeper beds. Beds were clean enough, the bus was on time, and the ride was uneventful – exactly what you want from a bus ride.
DaNang, Vietnam – 3 Days, 4 Nights
During our four nights in DaNang, we ended up staying at three different hotels – The Meliora Hotel & Apartments, Nagila Hotel, and Sea Sand Apartments and Hotel. The Meliora was nice and in a good area (near My An) but was unfortunately only available the first night we were there. Since we only booked one night initially to give ourselves flexibility, we didn’t realize this at the time. So, for the second night, we tried out the Nagila Hotel, which won Patrick over with its new, modern rooms, rooftop pool, and free steam shower use. It was a very nice hotel, but we didn’t love the area (further north than the Meliora) and it was expensive (close to $40/night). Thus, for nights three and four, we moved back south to the Sea Sand Apartments and Hotel (only $15/night), which was great! This location was even better than Meliora’s. And free washer/dryer use (washer in the apartment, shared dryer on the roof).
DaNang is a beach resort town along the South China Sea. We weren’t sure what to expect with the beaches in Southeast Asia in general. This was our first sight of a beach in Southeast Asia and it was surprisingly clean. We were there a little early, as peak season is from February to May, so it wasn’t quite warm enough to enjoy the beach. In addition, the ocean was rough, but it might be better during the peak summer season. Regardless, we did enjoy walking along the beach and taking in the scent of the ocean. As mentioned above, our second hotel had a rooftop pool, which we took advantage of one afternoon – didn’t spend too much time in the water but laid out with a drink.
One of the bridges in DaNang that runs across the Han River is built in the shape of a dragon. Very neat to see and if you happen to be here on the weekends (which we were!), there is a fire/water “show” at 9 pm. We couldn’t miss this, so we hunkered down at a rooftop bar (Bar Coffee) along the east side of the river. There are several other rooftop options as well, but this had a happy hour going, so it suited us. Just before 9 pm, they shut the traffic down across the bridge and the dragon shoots fire and water for about 5-10 minutes.
Another interesting activity to check out is the Cham Museum. It was only 60k VND/person entry fee and worth that in our opinion. The museum displays many sculptures, all in good condition, from the Cham Kingdom. A majority were excavated in the 1900s by a Frenchman and are well preserved. There were plenty of English signs and even a free audiotour on your phone. We spent about an hour walking through the entire museum.
For us, the food alone in DaNang was worth the visit. We found a blog that made several good suggestions. A few of our favorite dishes included the following:
- Banh Canh at a restaurant called Bich Banh Canh – a bowl of delicious soup with spaghetti-like noodles (chewier) and meat. Each bowl was served with fried donuts that you dip into the broth. Only 50k VND each ($2)! When ordering we just smiled and indicated that we wanted “two” since we couldn’t communicate well. We ate here multiple times.
- Bo Ne, which is fried eggs and beef served alongside a baguette. We tried this at two different places – Bo Ne Phuong Anh and Chao Trang. Both were delicious, but we preferred the Bo Ne at Chao Trang; the beef tasted more like a Philadelphia Cheesesteak and it was served with sausage and cheese as well!
- Bahn Mi from the Bahn Mi Guy
- Beef and Chicken Pho from a cart across from the Royal Lotus Hotel.
- Com Ga Xe (rice with shredded chicken) and Com Ga Quoy (rice with a whole roasted chicken leg) from a random cart near the Royal Lotus Hotel. The rice was more like couscous – I enjoyed this, but this wasn’t Patrick’s favorite.
- Coffee spots:
- Maison Alnam: Located in Hai Chau (west side of the river). Fancy coffee shop with several fun coffee options. We ordered an egg coffee (famous Vietnamese coffee order) and a coconut iced coffee (more like an eggnog, but better). Very decadent! Unfortunately, this coffee shop appears to be permanently closed now!
- Thanh Tam Bakery & Coffee: Located in My An. Good prices for coffee and cakes with a nice garden atmosphere.
- 43 Factory: Located in My An. Fishponds are located around the outside of this coffee shop, with seating built into the ground around the ponds. The beans used in these coffees are not local (we had one coffee with beans from Brazil and one with beans from Kenya). We also tried a brownie. In our opinion the shop is very overpriced (215k VND total), so we wouldn’t go back.
Coconut Iced Coffee 
Egg Coffee
One night, we stumbled on a bar a block or so from the Sea Sand Apartment and Hotels that had live music (3-person band) and a pool table (seems to be common at Vietnamese bars). We had several drinks here and watched the many good games of pool. At one point, we were almost run over by a drunk expat who recklessly drove his motorbike up onto the curve, narrowly missing a couple tables (including ours). One of the bartenders had to move his bike to the parking area and hand him his keys back. Crazy that they gave him his keys back and continued giving him drinks! Hopefully he made it home later that night!
We had decided to stay in DaNang over New Years Eve to see the fireworks over the river! Unfortunately, this is when the weather gods decided to give us our first rain day, cancelling the fireworks. So, we spent the evening indoors, watching a movie and popping a very cheap bottle of sparkling red wine (Chateau Dalat) at midnight. Hello 2020!
Night Market 
Fun snacks! 
A couple other activities people do from DaNang (or Hoi An) include:
- Visiting the Marble Mountains – reading reviews, this appeared to be very touristy so we skipped it. We drove by this on the way to Hoi An, so can be included if transferring between the two cities. There were a lot of shops selling marble (real?) statues along the way.
- Motorbiking through the Son Tra Peninsula – we were going to do this on New Years Eve but decided against it due to the rain since we are not completely comfortable on motorbikes to begin with. See this blog for more information.
- Ba Na Hills – located about 2 hours from DaNang. This is a fake French village built in the mountains, including the famous “hands” bridge. There are many day trip opportunities through tourist companies, which is the cheapest way to get there (can also hire a private car).
Hoi An, Vietnam – 2 Days and 2 Nights
In Hoi An, we stayed at the Hoa Vang Riverside Hotel, which is only a 5-10-minute walk to the historic town area, a perfect distance as it was very quiet at night. They served breakfast every morning and offered free bicycles for daily use. Plus, the staff was very friendly and gave us many suggestions for what to see and eat! We arrived in the early afternoon from DaNang and immediately set off to explore the old town. When we crossed over the bridge to the south part of old town, there is a tourist booth set up where they tell you a 120k VND ticket is required to walk around in old town. This may be technically true (after doing some of our own research), but it is not enforced. So instead, we just headed to the north side of old town instead without buying the ticket (there are other places to cross into old town away from this tourist booth).
There are a lot of tourists crammed into the small area of old town – it’s a very cute town, so the number of tourists is understandable, but the small streets can be a little crowded at times. We walked around for a while before finding a coffee shop (Mia Coffee) for a short afternoon break. Hoi An has become famous for getting custom suits made, and Patrick was intrigued. So, we spent a couple hours walking around the different tailor shops (so many choices), before Patrick decided on A Dong Silk (good online reviews and not the most expensive shop in town). He picked out a wool material (different material for jacket and pants) and was measured accordingly. Its astonishing how quickly they can make these suits – I have to believe that the working conditions are probably not the best, so we didn’t feel great about that. But it is a nice souvenir and a cheap custom suit (only $200). He had one additional fitting the next day and then it was finished up by the following evening.
After finding the suit, we enjoyed dinner (see below) and then stumbled into a bar that was showing the English Premier League games. It had been a while since we watched sports, so we settled in for the two games. There was also a pool table in the back that was vacant. We ended up spending the rest of the night here, closing down the bar at midnight. A great evening of sports, beer, and pool!
On our full day in Hoi An, we rented bicycles (free from the hotel) and started with a ride to the Cam An Beach. The ride was about 45 minutes and was along the main road so there were a lot of cars and motorbikes passing us by. Rice paddies sit between Hoi An and the beach area, which offered nice views. There were workers in the fields; some were leveling the paddies with the use of water buffaloes, and others appeared to be “planting” or rather throwing rice grains into the paddy areas. All were having to wade through the muddy fields – it was very interesting to watch. Bicycle parking at the beach was 20k VND/bicycle – not great, but at least they watch the bicycles so no one steals them. The weather wasn’t exactly beach weather (spitting rain at times), but we still enjoyed our walk down the beach. Restaurants line the beachfront, offering chairs/umbrellas for those who purchase drinks/food from them.
Dilapidated restaurant lounge area
Like DaNang, there were a few specialty food items that we had to try in Hoi An:
- Cau Lao – chewier noodles with slices of pork, greens, and sauce. The noodles are apparently made from the famous well water only found in Hoi An. We tried this at a hole in the wall shop, which wasn’t our favorite – we felt that it was lacking some sauce.
- Rice Paper with seafood, chicken, beef, sauce mix toasted and crunchy. We ordered from a cart along the south side of the river in old town.
- Banh Dap – rice noodle surrounded by rice cracker, smooshed with dipping sauce. Ordered this at “Thu”, which is on Cam Nam, just across the bridge from old town.
- Hen Tron – a mussel/clam mixture with greens and rice crackers to eat with. Ordered this at “Thu”, which is on Cam Nam, just across the bridge from old town.
- White Rose – shrimp dumplings, the pasta being some sort of thin rice noodle made from the same well water as Cau Lao. We purchased these from a woman with a large bowl of white rose dumplings sitting along the north side of the river in old town. We ate them next to her on plastic stools and with a dipping sauce.
- Mi Quang – rice noodle soup with pork, quail egg, pork liver, and lettuce. We purchased this from Ms. Hat in old town located on Hoang Dieu a block or two north of the river. The place appeared to be a local spot – it was tasty, but she gave us fewer eggs and pork than the locals and then charged us 10k VND extra for each bowl.
Overall, we enjoyed Hoi An and felt that our two days there was enough to see the historic town!
Hue, Vietnam – 3 Days and 3 Nights
In Hue we stayed at The G Hotel, which is near the walking streets, south of the Perfume River (in the tourist area). Breakfast was included with our stay on the roof – you could pick two main meals and a dessert each morning. The rooms were also nice and clean; we would definitely recommend this place.
One of the main “attractions” in Hue is the Imperial City (Citadel), the former capital of Vietnam. It was about a 25-minute walk from our hotel and the fee was 200k VND each, plus 100k VND for one audioguide (there are two headphone jacks, so easy to share!). We really enjoyed our visit here! The audioguide was a bit repetitive at times, but overall provided good information. The audioguide comes with a few route suggestions, so you can enjoy the complex at your own pace and tailor to your own time frame. The complex was the imperial capital city for the Nguyen dynasty. Construction started in 1804 and remained until the dynasty was ousted in 1945. The complex was bombed during the Vietnam War by the U.S./South Vietnamese when the north took over Hue. Most of the temples/buildings have been restored, so they look like they did during the 1800s/early 1900s. The architecture within the Citadel is very cool – the colors of the temples (reds, yellows, oranges, and blues) were beautiful. The grounds are very peaceful and do not feel overcrowded. We spent close to three hours there and could have spent longer, but our stomachs wouldn’t allow us, and we left to find some lunch.
Like DaNang and Hoi An, we found some delicious food spots in Hue as well. We find that the best places are the hole-in-the-wall shops or the street carts that are serving locals (always a good sign!).
- Banh Mi sandwiches – ordered from a cart at the corner of Le Loi and Chu Van An (walking street). The woman who runs this cart is not always there, as we sadly found out when we tried to return the next day. She fried the eggs up fresh for the sandwiches – very delicious and only 20k VND each.
- Banh Bot Loc and Ban Out with sausage and Nuoc Cham (dipping sauce) (at least I think that’s how it’s spelled) – next to the Banh Mi cart above, there was a lady set up with a mobile food containers that she carries from location to location. She was serving local women who worked at the massage parlor a couple doors down. We liked the looks of their food, so we sat down on the plastic stools to join (eating our Banh Mi sandwiches there as well). We ordered Banh Bot Loc (shrimp rice dumplings) which are drizzled in spicy sauce of some sort and crunchy garlic toppings. Another woman ordered a different type of dumpling that looked tasty, so we ordered that as well! There was no common language, but we tried to ask what we were eating using our google translate app (hence the questionable names and spelling above). Lots of shared smiles and pointing though! And I’m sure Patrick looked right at home sitting on the tiny plastic stools with a circle of women on the sidewalk.
- Cart located on Ben Nghe near the Scarlet Boutique Hotel – lots of locals eating here, which convinced us to sit down. I ordered a beef fried rice (cooked up fresh in the wok) and Patrick ordered pork noodle soup. Both very tasty! We may have been overcharged, but it was still very cheap (40k VND each).
- Seafood hot pot at Quan Nhau Huong Xuan. We happened upon this restaurant for lunch one day. Along with the seafood hotpot, we also ordered tom hoc toi (garlic shrimp), pork spring rolls, and some beers to wash it all down with. This was an expensive meal for us at 378k VND total, but we spent about 2 hours here enjoying everything, so it was worth it.
- Kore Café for coffee located down an alley along the river (follow signs to the Riverside Villas). Very little English spoken here, but the menu is limited so it’s easy to order coffee. We got two café sua das (iced coffee with milk) and hot tea comes with it for free (the hot tea would be worth ordering on its own!). Definitely worth a visit!
- Bahn Mi sandwiches from a cart of Le Loi Road near the walking street. The women making sandwiches at this cart cooked all the ingredients in the skillet together before plopping it all onto the baguette, creating a nice, warm sandwich. Very tasty!
I would be remiss if I didn’t include a few of our less enjoyable food experiences as well.
- Patrick was craving pizza one night, so we found a restaurant called Risotto just down the street from our hotel. There was a special deal where ordering a large pizza included a free bruschetta, glass of wine (healthy pour), and a fruit plate. The pizza crust was more cracker than bread, but it did curb Patrick’s craving!
- Upon a recommendation from Travelfish, we went to Ba Tung to try to get Bun Bo Hue (which turned out to be a breakfast meal, so wasn’t available for dinner). Instead, I ordered Banh Khoai – a rice cake with pork and shrimp, served with rice paper, greens, and peanut dipping sauce. You then make your own spring rolls with the ingredients. It was actually very tasty and only 25k VND! All would have been well, except when I had about a third of my meal left, we saw a rat scurrying around the “restaurant” (covered eating area). We have seen many rats in the streets throughout our time in Southeast Asia, but mostly only when walking by trash bags or sewers, etc. VERY gross. We have actually both been surprised that it took this long to see a rat while eating. Nevertheless, no one wants to see that, so I stuffed the rest of my food down, we paid and hurried out of there. A shame, because the food was actually tasty, but I can’t go back.
- Our third and worst experience, was at another place recommended by Travelfish, this time at a bar, Phuong Myen, at the southeast corner of Perfume River and Cau Dap Da bridge. We ordered two beers here one night. At first, all was well; we had a table on the river, the place was not very crowded, and it was a nice night. That is until I saw a rat running down the railing right at Patrick! He had his back to the rat, so didn’t see it coming, but I obviously jumped up. This caused Patrick to look back just in time to see the rat about two feet from his arm, at which time he jumped up! This caused the rat to turn back along the railing. DISGUSTING. We were both obviously freaked and then, to make matters worse, huge cockroaches starting come up from the river and crawling around our feet. NO. We chugged our beers, paid, and got out of there. Chills just thinking about it.
Even with those rat/roach experiences, we enjoyed Hue and central Vietnam! Phong Nha, Vietnam is up next!
Beautiful pictures. what an experience