Two cities, thirty-five minutes apart, very different stays
Da Nang is the working modern city of central Vietnam — a million-plus residents, a long beach, an international airport, and a confident skyline of new towers behind Mỹ Khê. Hoi An, thirty-five minutes south, is what the region looked like before the towers: a UNESCO trading port turned lantern-lit walking town of low yellow buildings, river boats, and small kitchens. Both are worth experiencing. Whether you stay in one or the other comes down to what kind of week you came here for.
Choose Hoi An if culture is the centre
If you booked this trip because of the lanterns, the Ancient Town, the silk tailoring, the food, the riverside, or wellness — Hoi An is the better base. Everything you came for is within ten minutes by bicycle. The texture of a day matches the imagination: morning coffee on the river, lunch at a Vietnamese kitchen, an afternoon at the spa or in the Old Town, dinner on a riverside deck. Day-tripping to Da Nang for Marble Mountains or the Dragon Bridge is straightforward from this base.
Choose Da Nang if scale is the centre
If you want a high-rise beachfront resort with a kids' club, you want walking access to international restaurants and clubs, you have meetings in the city, or you are passing through for one night with an early flight — stay in Da Nang. Mỹ Khê has a continuous wall of high-end resorts (Hyatt, Sheraton, InterContinental further north) with the infrastructure those names imply. The city itself is younger and more polished than Hoi An; it is also less quiet.
The split-trip option
Many travellers do both. A common split is four to seven nights in Hoi An (culture, wellness, food, beach by bicycle), then one or two nights in Da Nang at a beach resort before flying out. The other order works too — recover from the long-haul flight in Da Nang, then move to Hoi An for the slower part of the trip. Bag transfer between properties is straightforward; both cities have reliable private drivers and Grab.
Where in Hoi An to stay if you do choose it
Hoi An is small but the neighbourhoods feel different. The Old Town itself is atmospheric but noisy and busy through the evening. An Bàng Beach is laid-back but far from the lanterns. The south bank at Cẩm Nam — a small residential island across a footbridge from the Old Town — gives you the lanterns at ten minutes by bicycle and a riverside silence at night. This is where our hotel is.