3.5 Weeks in Đà Nẵng — Vietnam

I’ll start by saying Da Nang is a city I never imagined myself returning to, let alone pondering as a place to call home. But in late 2025 as my desire to leave America increased, I set my sights on this coastal city. In the last few years Da Nang has begun a transformation into one of the region’s rising digital nomad and expat bases (it has also gained prominence on the Vietnam tourist trail). Vloggers, influencers, and everyday people from all over the world have boasted of their moves to this city—the same sleepy, uneventful city that I’d visited for just a single day on my 2022 tour of South East Asia. I knew I had to come back and see what all the hype was about!

Wanting to spend around a month in Da Nang, I chose to hop between hotels and hostels to get a feel for different neighborhoods. My first hotel was on Loseby Street, north of the tourist-heavy area of My Anh. Later, as I moved to other areas, I would continue to spend time on or around this street. It had the perfect mix of things for me: an adorable family-friendly park where I did my calisthenics workouts, endless street-side coffee carts, a few go-to restaurants, a ridiculous amount of convenience stores, and as an added bonus: some of the better people-watching I’d have around town (one morning a friend and I watched in stunned amusement as a possibly drunk foreigner hurled plastic, and later glass bottles down to the street from one of the upper floors of a hotel). My favorite coffee shop, called Phin Cu Coffee, was just nearby to Loseby—it stood hidden like a treehouse on an unsuspecting backstreet.

Loseby Street, like streets all over Da Nang, was bustling with construction work. To the side of my hotel an entire single floor convenience store went up in just a week. It was compelling how quickly the Vietnamese worked! Just a short walk from here were the in-progress skeletons of Da Nang’s new twin towers—to be known as Times Square Da Nang. These towers, with their height of 190 meters (623 feet) and odd mesh-green covering became my visual reference point wherever I was in the city.

I remembered Da Nang as being of a moderate size, but on my second go I found it to be massive (it is Vietnam’s third largest city, after-all). Perpetuating a common comparison to Miami, Da Nang is separated between the touristy beach peninsula and the mainland (or “river side”). The city airport is centrally located on the mainland. Having come to Da Nang directly from Nha Trang, with its well-defined and concise skyline, I was initially a bit disappointed by how disjointed and spread out the beach high-rises were. So much of Da Nang had an “in-progress” appearance, and every empty plot of land along the promenade advertised a future tower. Aesthetically the city didn’t have a definite visual identity. I didn’t love that at first, but I came around, thinking of it in relation to my own fluctuating identity as a traveler.

On my second day I rented a bicycle to use for the month. This was my primary way of getting around, and it was also my favorite activity to do. In Vietnam I like to think of myself as a bicyclist who acts like a motorcyclist. For me it’s an adrenaline rush to be amongst the thick of motorbikes in the busy streets and through roundabouts. I always managed to find confidence within the chaos. In the mornings I would often wake up early and cycle to the far north of the beach to sit on a ledge where, underneath there was a stream that opens to the bay. In the late afternoons I would sometimes cycle south from the iconic fire-breathing Dragon Bridge and along the river for an even more peaceful ride.

The most important thing to me staying in Da Nang was acquainting myself with its expat scene. Vung Tau and Nha Trang had both been socially underwhelming for me, but Da Nang felt like it was the place to be for those seeking sun, beach, clean air, a relatively affordable cost of living, and a lot of different people to mingle with. To help things along I joined expat Facebook pages. Through this I got connected to a weekly Vietnamese language class at a cafe space called The Workshop. This led me to other activities—I played pickleball for the very first time, and I went to board game nights. The people I met were almost exclusively digital nomads—some were here for the long term while others moved with the weather. In a way I almost felt that I was back in college—attending random meet-up events, not all of which I had a direct interest in—but which allowed me to meet a variety of people. I had never exclusively hung out with the digital nomad crowd while traveling, and I was a bit surprised how few artistic-minded individuals I encountered. Da Nang itself didn’t have a very apparent artistic/musical community, and this was a bit of a concern to me.

One of the joys of being in Vietnam in February was the lead up to Tet, or as it’s more commonly known: the Lunar New Year. A regular sight were trailer deliveries via motorcycle or truck of Kumquat trees to local homes and business (these were bushes with small orange fruit—always potted). Locals made table offerings of other fruit and food items beside vehicles or outside their homes. Installations of golden horse statues representing the year of the horse were found in spaces along the city promenades. The actual period of Tet was more or less nine days of business closures throughout the whole of Vietnam. During this period only hotels, certain western-catering restaurants, convenience stores, and occasional street food stalls were open. I like to enjoy more local-type restaurants, so it was a little difficult for me to eat as I normally would during Tet. I resorted to eating more Bahn Mi than I normally would, and otherwise had my dinners at a solid pho spot on Loseby Street.

Something I missed most during my stay was access to a kitchen. I think it would have been nice to have a short-term rental so that I could have cooked and felt what it’s like to grocery shop and live here in that way. On another note, the overall vibe of the city still felt sleepy, as it was on my first visit in 2022, but this actually matched my overall mellow personality. I didn’t feel a pressure to go out and party, there weren’t many spaces for that to begin with. As a morning person I found myself in good company enjoying the promenade for a morning walk or ride. There was a visible fitness culture along the beach, and while I’m not very intense about exercise, it still felt good to be somewhere that’s so health and fitness minded.

As a single gay man, I found Da Nang was a decent place to mingle and go on dates. The local expat scene was a bit of a miss, but with a constant revolving door of tourists coming in from around the world there were often interesting people to meet. Being on a long-term, budget-minded trip, I sometimes had to sift through people on short holidays with bigger budgets. South East Asia, and especially Vietnam are known for their affordability against western currencies, but I could easily blow money going out if I wasn’t careful. Sometimes I rolled with it, and other times I found similarly budget-minded people.

Staying in Da Nang for just shy of a month I realized this is absolutely a place I could enjoy staying longer term, and it’s only going to be become bigger and more beautiful with new construction projects. My stay coincided with some of the best weather of the year, and so I may have seen Da Nang through rose-colored lenses. Also, being here without my musical instrument made it difficult to gage how it would feel to work and have gig opportunities (there was a teaching opportunity that came up, but I ultimately declined it for timing constraints). These things aside, the busy tourist and expat scene was a big perk for me—it was refreshing to be somewhere where I could meet so many people. I departed feeling satisfied with my stay, but still with a big question mark—unsure if Da nang is the best city for me in Asia.