We rocked into Da Nang at 5am, hours before we expected to on our overnight bus. Similar to our experience in Nha Trang, we were rushed by drivers, all very pushy, trying to get our business. It’s one part of Vietnam we will not miss at all!
We stayed at the same hotel as them, Yến Vy Hotel & Apartment, and they’d arrived days before us, so we were able to chill in their hotel room for a little bit before checking into our room.
Since we arrived so incredibly early, though, we first took a walk down to the beach to kill some time. It’s very similar to Nha Trang, with a nice wide boardwalk on the beach side, and big crashing waves. There were a ton of people exercising on the beach already. Absolutely insane behaviour!
That first day we joined Jules and Del at the beach after checking in. They’re seasoned surf pros after spending the last year living in Australia, and they had rented two boards. They let us take them out for a spin, and we both got up! Not gracefully or for long, but we did it! We had a fun afternoon splashing around in the waves.
We ate a yummy and fresh lunch at a poke restaurant called Rainbowl.
That evening we went for drinks near our hotel, then to a very expensive and underwhelming dinner at a seafood restaurant (we don’t recommend Seafood Đế Vương, even if Google reviews does). We capped off our night with some bevs in our hotel room, chatting with Jules and Del until the wee hours (10pm lol).
Our second day in Da Nang, we hit the beach again. This time it was Wini and I that rented the board. We just rented one and took the morning sharing it between the 4 of us. It’s amazing how exhausting fifteen minutes of paddling around with a surfboard can be!
It happened to be St. Patricks Day, so after an afternoon siesta we met back up for some drinks at Shamrock Pub. We enjoyed some green beers and listened to the live band.
Later, we went to a bar, Funky Donkey, that was having a Trivia Night offering free shots if you placed. We all joined in and very accidentally crushed it! We played 5 rounds and Wini won the film buff quiz (she had seen literally zero of the twenty movies referenced), Del got third for that one too. I somehow won the history quiz (I know nothing about history and dates), and both Wini and Jules got on the board for another random quiz. It was a very funny night!
The next day we made the journey to Hoi An, only a half-hour drive away from Da Nang. Our hotel, An Bang Beach Hai An Villa, had a pool so we grabbed some bevs and spent the afternoon chatting around the pool.
That night, we went to Hoi An Ancient Town, a traditional trading port that is now a UNESCO Heritage Site. It was so cute, with so many decorative lanterns and Japanese-influenced architecture. We were feeling really tired, so we didn’t stay long but we knew we’d be back!
On our second day in Hoi An, we had a beach day near our hotel. It was pretty overcast, so neither of us swam, but we spent the entire day reading our books and relaxing by the water. We also began our obsession with The Tamarinde Tree Restaurant. We had every meal we could there!
Our third day we decided to relax until going back to Ancient Town around 4pm. Hoi An is known for its textile industry and tailoring. Wini, Jules, and Del are all participating in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Boracay, Philippines in a few weeks. We stopped at a clothing store and they decided to buy 14 banana shirts and dresses for the team to wear during the tourney because their jerseys had fallen through. We had to place our order and wait until later to pick them up as she didn’t have enough in store.
We strolled around the old town and took in the sights, and ate dinner on a balcony overlooking the river. As the sun went down the lanterns on the street and on the boats lit up. It was quite a beautiful thing to see!
We enjoyed the views at another balcony bar, and then went back to the clothing store to pick up our banana apparel.
The lady was fully making fun of us to her friend in Vietnamese, and was amused to see Del try on the dresses, and Wini leave the store with her new shorts over her leggings.
Confident in our new banana clothes, we went back to the water and picked a bar that was playing live music and had a happy hour deal. We were sitting front row for the music. They were amazing singers, but it was kind of funny because one of the ladies sang Stand By Me but pronounced it “Stand Banh Mi”. And then the other girl sang her favorite song All About That Bass while being the tiniest person we’ve ever seen. Iconic!
After, we went one bar down and danced the night away. It was a super fun night, and we were still home just after midnight! We’re old and responsible now.
Our next day we were woken up by the atrocious sounds of our neighbour playing karaoke music and singing at full volume (a trend from the past couple days). We had a very chill recovery day while being serenaded by the worst singer we’ve ever heard.
The only interesting thing that happened that day, was while eating at The Tamarinde Tree Restaurant a man came to the front of the store and was yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs at the owner of the restaurant for at least 10 minutes. He was smacking his hands on a scooter for attention and pacing back and forth. It was all in Vietnamese so we honestly have no clue what the issue was, but it made for an interesting meal.
Jules and Del invited us over to their room to watch Fast and Furious — we’d never seen it before! It was quite the watch!! “I smell skanks” is one of the best cinematic lines I’ve ever heard so I’m very thankful for the education.
The next morning was our last one with Jules and Del (until the Philippines). We took a taxi with them back to Da Nang and dropped them at the airport and went to our new hotel, Dam Tien.
It was about a 30-minute walk up the beach from where we stayed last time, but honestly, I wish we had stayed closer as the restaurants in our new area were not as good and much pricier. We usually just ended up walking back to our original area to get food.
We also had some room issues at our hotel. Our first night we were just settling in to watch a movie when the neighbors started blaring karaoke music and yelling outside. We asked to change rooms, and they had some empty rooms, so we moved all our stuff into a new room before discovering that the AC was broken. They relocated us to a third room, and the third time was the charm!
The next few days we had beach days and spent some time at different coffee shops, researching our future travels! We also rented a surfboard and practiced our incredible skills! It was really fun but extremely tiring.
We found some amazing restaurants, including Singapura, a delicious Singapore-style restaurant, and Roadhouse American Diner, truly one of the best burgers we’ve ever eaten anywhere!! It’s co-run by an Italian man in the front of house, and a Vietnamese man in the kitchen. I don’t know how they make such incredible burgers and only charge 60-80k VND ($2.56-3.41 USD)?! INCLUDING bacon, caramelized onions, sauce, etc, etc!? We’re both still dreaming about them. If you’re ever in Da Nang, I’d highly recommend. If we didn’t discover it our last night we would’ve definitely been repeat customers.
After 2 days in Da Nang with Jules and Del, 4 days in Hoi An with them, and another 5 in Da Nang by ourselves, we were ready for a change of scenery. We took a flight from the Da Nang airport back up to Hanoi, to start our travels with one of our best friends, Michele! We were excited to see her after so long, but it didn’t exactly go as planned… to read about our harrowing trip click here!