The first page of this query is spa lists. This one answers what was asked: what a foot massage here involves, how it differs from reflexology, what the evidence honestly says, who should not book one, and what ours costs — 450,000₫ for 60 minutes.
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Search `foot massage hoi an` and the first page is almost entirely lists of spas, plus a forum thread asking what a fair price is. The query names one treatment; the results answer a different question. This page answers the one that was asked: what a foot massage here actually involves, how it differs from foot reflexology, what the evidence honestly says about the second, who should not book either, and what ours costs — 450,000₫ for 60 minutes, read from our live menu on 7 September 2026.
Our menu has a whole section for the feet, and the three items in it are different things. The plain foot massage (mát xa chân) is an hour of unhurried pressure work from the toes up to the calves, for feet that have carried you around the Old Town and along An Bàng. Foot reflexology (bấm huyệt bàn chân) is point work: the therapist presses mapped points on the soles rather than kneading the whole foot, and it is the one to choose if you want the traditional practice rather than the general relaxation. The special foot treatment is a grooming treatment more than a massage: 20 minutes of massage and a herbal foot soak, a nail and cuticle trim, a heel scrape and moisturising, in 90 minutes.
| Foot treatment (per person) | 60 min | 90 min |
|---|---|---|
| Foot massage (mát xa chân) | 450,000₫ | 600,000₫ |
| Foot reflexology (bấm huyệt bàn chân) | 520,000₫ | 700,000₫ |
| Special foot treatment (soak, trim, heel scrape, moisturising) | — | 650,000₫ |
In Vietnamese the two are different words. Xoa bóp is massage — rubbing, kneading, working the tissue. Bấm huyệt is pressing points, and in the foot version the points on the sole are held to correspond to organs elsewhere in the body: the traditional map that reflexology charts in every language show. The 70,000₫ difference between the two on our menu is paying for that practice and the training behind it, not for more time or more foot.
Here is the part most spa pages leave out. The best clinical review of reflexology, 23 randomised trials assessed by Ernst, Posadzki and Lee in Maturitas (2011, vol. 68, pp. 116–120), concluded that "the best clinical evidence does not demonstrate convincingly reflexology to be an effective treatment for any medical condition." A 2024 evidence evaluation commissioned by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council, endorsed on 20 November 2024, included 174 studies and rated the certainty of evidence low for four outcomes and very low for all the rest. We sell reflexology, and we are telling you this anyway. What the evidence does not touch is what you feel for the hour: firm pressure on tired soles, and someone's full attention on your feet. If you want the traditional practice, take the reflexology. If you want your feet worked and nothing more, take the foot massage and keep the 70,000₫.
Sức khỏe & Đời sống, the Ministry of Health's newspaper, has run the practice from two angles. BS.CKII Huỳnh Tấn Vũ (16 August 2018) describes foot massage and point-pressing as activating circulation, easing muscle tension and joint stiffness, and, in the traditional reading, addressing back pain, tinnitus and constipation; his modern reading is endorphin release and lower stress. BS Nguyễn Đức Lê (21 September 2019) gives the home routine: rub the whole sole firmly with the palm, find the tender points with the thumb, hold each for 15 to 30 seconds, ten circles one way and ten the other, five to ten minutes, once or twice a day. The first article makes claims the trials above do not support, and we are giving you both so you can weigh them yourself. Our own claim is smaller: after a day on your feet in this heat, sixty minutes of pressure work is the thing that fixes the day.
Pressure on the feet and lower legs is not for everyone, and the Vietnamese public-health guidance is specific. The An Lạc ward health station (Trạm Y tế Phường An Lạc, under the Ho Chi Minh City health department, 5 December 2023, citing Sức khỏe & Đời sống) lists: open wounds or significant blood loss; inflamed joints; fractures, dislocations, sprains or severe osteoporosis; deep-vein thrombosis in the legs; rashes or ulcerated skin; having just drunk alcohol; and, as groups to be cautious with, pregnant women and the elderly. Vinmec's guidance on when to avoid point-pressing (updated 22 July 2024) adds gout, a foot still recovering from injury, and arthritis of the foot or ankle, with the advice to ask a doctor first because the pressure affects blood flow.
Our reading of that, in order of firmness. Deep-vein thrombosis or a suspected clot: no foot treatment at all, and please tell us at the consultation, because the two lists agree on this one. Alcohol: come tomorrow instead; the hour is better sober anyway. Pregnancy: we would rather not give point-pressure reflexology to a pregnant guest, and we say so here rather than at the door. We have a pregnancy full-body treatment on the menu, 520,000₫ for 60 minutes and 700,000₫ for 90, that is built for exactly this. Gout, a healing foot, or arthritis: tell us and we will keep to the calves and go lightly, or suggest something else on the menu.
Sixty is a full pass over both feet and both calves, and it is enough for most days. Ninety does not add new territory; it adds a second pass on the soles and more time on the calves, which is where a long walk in the heat actually ends up. If you have done the Old Town, the Cẩm Nam bridge and the beach in the same day, take the ninety.
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Google's own related searches for this query include `couples foot massage hoi an`, and it is a good instinct. A foot treatment is the least exposed thing on the menu: you stay in your clothes, trousers rolled to the knee, feet on a towel, and it is the easiest first spa visit for a partner who is not sure about the whole idea. We run it side by side in the private couple's room — two therapists, two beds, one closed door — and each of you can pick a different foot treatment, or one of you can take a full-body massage while the other has the feet done. The treatment is priced per person, so two foot massages cost twice one. Two things on the menu are genuinely priced for two, and both pair well with feet: the jacuzzi and the xông hơi herbal steam.
| Shared, priced for two | 1 person | 2+ per person |
|---|---|---|
| Jacuzzi, 30 min | 400,000₫ | 300,000₫ |
| Jacuzzi, 45 min | 540,000₫ | 400,000₫ |
| Xông hơi herbal steam, 20 min | 300,000₫ | 250,000₫ |
| Xông hơi herbal steam, 30 min | 350,000₫ | 300,000₫ |
Two afternoons, costed at our published rate of 26,000₫ to the US dollar. The simple one: a 60-minute foot massage each, 450,000₫ times two, so 900,000₫ for two, about $35. The long one: 30 minutes in the jacuzzi at 300,000₫ each, then a 90-minute foot massage at 600,000₫ each — 600,000₫ plus 1,200,000₫, so 1,800,000₫ for two, about $69. If you want the feet and a full-body massage in one sitting, Package 3 on our menu is a 45-minute foot massage followed by a 60-minute Vietnamese herbal or hot stone massage, 820,000₫ per person for one hour forty-five, and it is the best-value line on the menu.
You stay dressed. For a foot treatment nothing comes off except your shoes and socks, and trousers are rolled or pushed up to the knee. You lie back on the bed or sit up, whichever you prefer, with your feet on a towel. If you want your feet soaked before the massage, book the special foot treatment; the herbal soak is part of that item and not of the plain massage. Nghê Prana is a licensed hotel spa and every treatment on the menu is therapeutic: there are no sexual services of any kind, none will be offered, and none will be implied. We say that openly because people arriving in a town they do not know deserve to hear it before they walk in, not after.
If the day was long on your feet and your back is fine, the foot massage is the right hour and the cheapest on the menu. If the whole body is tired, the Vietnamese herbal massage or the hot stone massage, both 520,000₫ for 60 minutes, do more for you than ninety minutes on the feet would. If you cannot decide, Package 3 exists so you do not have to.
Nghê Prana Riverside Hotel & Spa, Hẻm 384 Nguyễn Tri Phương, Cẩm Nam, Hội An, Đà Nẵng 51312 — on the Thu Bồn, a few minutes from the Old Town. Phone or WhatsApp +84 896 687 961, or email sales.nghehotel@gmail.com. The spa asks for 60 minutes' notice on a treatment; the jacuzzi needs a day.
*Prices and menu wording read from our live spa menu on 7 September 2026. Evidence on reflexology: E. Ernst, P. Posadzki, M. S. Lee, "Reflexology: an update of a systematic review of randomised clinical trials", Maturitas 68(2), 2011, pp. 116–120 — doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2010.10.011; Natural Therapies Review 2024, reflexology evidence evaluation, commissioned by the NHMRC for the Australian Department of Health, endorsed 20 November 2024 — health.gov.au. Vietnamese tradition: BS.CKII Huỳnh Tấn Vũ, Sức khỏe & Đời sống, 16 August 2018 — suckhoedoisong.vn; BS Nguyễn Đức Lê, Sức khỏe & Đời sống, 21 September 2019 — suckhoedoisong.vn. Contraindications: Trạm Y tế Phường An Lạc, 5 December 2023 — medinet.gov.vn; Vinmec, updated 22 July 2024 — vinmec.com. All read 7 September 2026. USD figures converted at our published rate of 26,000₫ to the dollar.*
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