Da Nang in Vietnam Travel Guide by Japanese

Update 20/01/2020

Da Nang is one of my favourite countries stunning landscapes, cultural highlights and amazing food. It’s one of the most exciting destinations in South East Asia. I visited the place in Jan. It must say that visiting Danang in Jan is the good choice because it is not cold and not hot. I could swim on the beach and get relaxed. Never rained during my stay. I had the luxury of time and 5days to really get to know Da Nang, Vietnam and share it with you.

Highlights of Da Nang

Da Nang is a coastal city with a 60km long shoreline. Da Nang beach is voted by Forbes to be 1 of 6 most beautiful beaches in the world. Actually, the water is not clear but a selection of beach games are available on your demand: canoing, parasailing, jet-skiing, banana boats, scuba-diving, … I did parasailing.

Parasailing


Parasailing is one of the most thrilling water sports in the world. You will be towed behind a speedboat while attached to a parachute. You can have a panoramic view of the vast blue sea below while flying above the sea at a height of about 100 meters. Feel the strong breeze and scream as loud as possible. This is a fantastic experience for me.

The time for one round is between 15 and 20 minutes. It costs 500,000VND( About 25 dollars for one person and 800,000VND ( About 40dollars ) for two person. I think this is quite cheap because when I did it in Japan, it cost 150 dollars more. Additionally, When the back to the beach from landing the sea, you can ride on jet skiing.

Hotel and Bar

We chose to stay a hotel in front of the My Khe Beach which is alacarte hotel in danang

This is a 4 star hotel. This hotel is famous for its rooftop infinity view pool. It’s also attractive that the rooftop bar is open until 1 am. If you are not this hotel’s guest, you can enter this rooftop(24F) bar but you can’t enter rooftop pool. In this bar, My recommendation is strawberry shake. I drinked every morning.

The price is about 60dollas per night. If you visited with friends, you can separate that because it counted per 1 room.

How to use taxis in Danang

This is most important point of your trip. With a lack of a good public transportation network in Vietnam, you probably cannot escape the use of taxis. Grab taxis is a great and safe alternative to regular taxis. We explain why you should use it and how you should use it.

Grab is a mobile app like uber that allows you to book cheap and safe taxi service. The app matches passengers with taxi drivers for transport with cars and motorbikes. Grab drivers are often not official taxi drivers. They use their own car or motorcycle to take passengers from a to b. You set your location and destination in the app and a car or motorcycle comes directly to you. You get in and the driver knows exactly where to go.

There are several reasons to use this app to explore the city. Especially, it is for fraud-proof. Before you book a Grab taxi, you already see the estimated price that you have to pay for your trip. You don’t have to worry that a taxi driver will charge you extra. I was helped by this app. When I came back to Da Nang from Hoi An, the meter of taxi was 800,000VND but I showed to driver my smartphone’s screen that estimated price in this app. Finally I paid 400,000VND.

Food in Da Nang

Da Nang is a food lovers dream. I have never eaten such a delicious sea food ever!! I recommend a seafood restaurant called Be Man.Be Man provides fresh and clean ingredients. It will give you the best experience of having seafood ever. I ate Steamed clam with lemongrass and Char-grilled shrimp eaten with salted lemon. So So good….You must try it. I want to eat as soon as possible.

You can choose anyone and how to cook.

Hoi An

Vietnam has at least 8 UNESCO listed sites, including Ha Long Bay, Hue’s historic sites, the old town of Hoi An and the Champa complex at My Son sanctuary. Actually, Hoi An is accessible by taxis from Danang.

If you visited Hoi An. You can see capital cities, the entire ancient town characterized by its unique blend of Chinese,Vietnamese, and French architecture, a throwback to the city’s past as an important commercial trading port from the 15th to 18th centuries. This is like a well-preserved time capsule to an influential period in Vietnam’s past.

Multi-colored lanterns sway in the breeze over every shopfront, the river surface, and every street. So you must go Hoi An after the sun sets. Not surprisingly, we left wishing we could have stayed longer.

 I feel the Vietnamese are some of the nicest, kindest people we’ve ever met in spite of I’m Japanese. I’m going to go there again soon!! soonnnnn!!

photo, written by 潔拓実