Da Nang and Hoi An are about 45 minutes apart by road, which makes where you sleep less a logistics question and more a choice between two different trips: a beach city with a growing nomad scene, or a UNESCO lantern town you can walk end to end. Most people do both — the only real question is which one gets your nights.
Six areas, two cities
| Area | City | Best for | Heads-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Khe Beach | Da Nang | Beach-first stays, resort towers, water sports | The busiest, most built-up strip |
| An Thuong | Da Nang | Cafés, bars, coworking, the nomad crowd | A short walk inland — not beachfront itself |
| City center / Han River | Da Nang | Food-focused stays near Dragon Bridge & the markets | Less beachy, more urban |
| Ancient Town | Hoi An | Walkable, lantern-lit, everything on foot | Touristy, and the first area to flood Oct–Nov |
| An Bang Beach | Hoi An | A quieter beach base, café strip on the sand | 4–5km from the Ancient Town — taxi or cycle in |
| Cam Thanh | Hoi An | Rural, coconut-village, basket boats on your doorstep | Best with your own scooter or bike |
First trip and want both cities easy to reach? Base in Da Nang. Want the Ancient Town at your doorstep after dark — worth it for the lantern hours alone? Base in Hoi An itself.
Da Nang: budget to splurge
Our own picks are both here — a hostel and a homestay in An Hai, the residential pocket between the Han River and My Khe beach — plus two long-established beach resorts if you'd rather spend more.
Kon-Tiki Hostel
The sociable budget pick: a 4.4★ hostel an easy walk from both the river and the beach. Dorms, a bar, and the easiest way to meet other travelers doing the same Da Nang–Hoi An loop.
Nhà Bơ Homestay
Quieter and more personal than a hostel — a 4.9★ homestay in the same pocket of An Hai, for a warm welcome over a party atmosphere, still a short walk to the sand.
Furama Resort Danang
One of Vietnam's original beachfront five-stars, open on the main My Khe strip since the late 1990s — a long operating history if you want a proper resort without the top-end price.
InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort
Bill Bensley's flagship: a private-beach resort on its own peninsula, grand enough to have hosted the APEC 2017 leaders' summit. The splurge pick, and it looks the part.
Agoda and Booking both have deep coverage of the My Khe and An Thuong strips — worth checking the same room on both before you commit.
Hoi An: the one we can vouch for, and how to pick the rest
Our own network doesn't reach into Hoi An town yet, so we're not going to invent names just to fill a list — the advice below is what we'd actually tell a friend.
Anantara Hoi An Resort
A French-colonial-style riverside resort that's genuinely walkable to the Ancient Town — rare for something this size. The easy, reliable Hoi An choice if you'd rather not gamble on a small guesthouse.
The Ancient Town has a real cluster of small courtyard boutique hotels, An Bang has beachfront guesthouses, and Cam Thanh has a handful of homestays among the rice paddies — all of them turn over too fast for us to hard-code a single 'best' pick here. Search Agoda or Booking directly for your dates, sort by rating, and skim recent reviews for any mention of flooding if you're traveling Oct–Nov.
Hoi An's Ancient Town floods most years in that window — river water has reached several blocks up from the riverside in recent seasons, and ground-floor rooms are the first affected. If your dates fall here, favor upper floors or a stay just outside the immediate riverside, and keep your booking's cancellation policy flexible.
Once you've picked a base, see our things to do guide for what to fill your days with, or jump straight to our 4-day itinerary if you'd rather it was mapped out already.
Check Da Nang on Agoda →Check Hoi An on Booking →
Frequently asked questions
Should I stay in Da Nang or Hoi An?
Da Nang if you want the beach, a bigger food scene, and an easy airport run — every flight into the region lands here. Hoi An if the lantern-lit Ancient Town is the whole point and you don't mind a taxi or scooter for everything else. Splitting your nights, two or three in each, is genuinely the best answer if you have the time.
Is Kon-Tiki Hostel or Nhà Bơ Homestay the better pick?
Depends what you want from a stay. Kon-Tiki (4.4★) is the sociable budget option — dorms, a bar, an easy way to meet other travelers. Nhà Bơ (4.9★) is quieter and more personal, a proper homestay rather than a hostel, for a similar walk to My Khe beach. Both sit in An Hai, between the river and the sand.
Where should I stay to be close to Hoi An's Ancient Town at night?
Book inside or immediately next to the Ancient Town itself — that's what buys you the motorbike-free, lantern-lit streets after dark without a taxi home. An Bang Beach is the trade-off pick: quieter and right on the sand, but 4–5km out, so you'll cycle or taxi in for the evening lantern walk.
Land already connected with an eSIM instead of hunting for a SIM at the airport, and don't travel uninsured — one medical bill abroad costs many times the premium.