Post Covid Travel Guide to Da Nang, Vietnam

Should you move to Da Nang after covid-19?

Vietnam is one of the top destinations to visit post covid, once borders are open and international travel is permitted. While Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) are definitely more vibrant, interesting cities, with more to offer in terms of food, shopping, activities, culture and night life, Da Nang is your best choice if you’re looking for a relaxed beach holiday.

Hanoi and HCMC are intensely crowded, loud and unbearably polluted — with some of the worst air quality and traffic anywhere. Theft is also a serious issue — thieves on motorbikes will adroitly grab your phone right out of your hand as you stand on the sidewalk, consulting Google Maps.

While Da Nang is boring in comparison to its two larger sisters, it has some features that make it stand out.

First, what it has less of

Air pollution, population density, traffic, crime. The beach and riverfront area feel like a sleepy beach town and the city center is small, manageable, and not very crowded. There is some theft, but it’s not common and absolutely not on the scale of HCMC.

You’ll appreciate the relaxed and friendly vibe

There’s a noticeable lack of hawkers or touts, who relentlessly plague tourists in other South and SE Asian countries. Other than the occasional mild mannered sunglass hawker, you can pretty much walk around or hang out on the beach without being bothered at all.

Locals are exceptionally friendly and welcoming, and English is widely spoken, especially in the beach side.

Da Nang beaches

So that leads us to the most obvious reason to come to Da Nang: the beach. It’s a lovely, long stretch of white sand beach. This is nothing really unusual in SE Asia — lots of places have gorgeous beaches. But post covid, there are certain countries that are safer and more appealing, and Vietnam is definitely top of that list. So while I wouldn’t have put Da Nang on the top of my SE Asia beach holiday list before, when you throw covid into the mix, Da Nang gets top consideration.

You can swim, surf, jet ski and parasail. The heavily touristed beaches on the Strip (My Khe – My An beach area) are lined with restaurants, bars and massage parlors. If you’re looking for a quieter beach experience, head a few minutes north toward Son Tra, where there are hardly any tourists and the beach is mostly full of fishermen going in and out on their distinctive round basket boats.

The southern beaches are all private resorts. If I was coming to Da Nang on holiday, that’s where I would stay. They’re set on beautiful, quiet private beaches, have good, safe food and pretty much all the services you need for a perfect beach holiday.

Da Nang airport is convenient

The airport is just ten minutes from the city or fifteen minutes from the beach and is really easy to get in and out of. It’s never crowded or chaotic, just a nice, efficient, small airport. It doesn’t have a lot of services, but it gets the job done without much fuss.

Everything is nearby

Once you’re here, you can enjoy three main areas in Da Nang: the city, the riverfront and the beach. They each have a different feel and activities, and are just minutes apart.

When you get bored of Da Nang proper (and you will), there are plenty of interesting places to explore nearby. In fifteen minutes, you can drive north to Son Tra to the Lady Buddha gardens or further to the peninsula — full of birds, forests and monkeys. Driving 40 minutes in the other direction will land you in the picturesque World Heritage Site of Hoi An.

A great work base for nomads

If you’re not coming on holiday, but rather looking for a temporary base as a location independent nomad, Da Nang gets top marks for affordable, comfortable housing options, easy transportation, friendly English-speaking locals and fast, reliable internet (with the caveat that there are frequent scheduled and unscheduled blackouts). This is a very convenient place from which to run your location independent business for a while.

Is it safe?

And finally, let’s talk about safety. As a woman traveling alone, there are few places in the world I’ve felt as safe as Da Nang. Tourists consistently complain about being hassled, treated extremely rudely, being constantly ripped off, having to practically strap their belongings to their person, and foreign women traveling alone regularly report sexual harassment and assault…in other Vietnamese cities. I’ve never experienced any of these things in Da Nang.

Locals are friendly, relaxed and open. Everyone I’ve dealt with has been completely scrupulous, I’ve never once been ripped off or scammed. And I feel perfectly safe walking around at night alone, even conspicuously carrying all my camera gear. Feeling safe and welcomed and relaxed — I think these are essential quality of life issues that create a great environment for a productive work base or a pleasant holiday, especially for solo female travelers.