Nails in Hoi An: Manicure, Pedicure and Gel, With the Prices

Two questions sit behind almost every search for nails in Hoi An: where can I get them done, and what will it cost. Most of the answers online are a profile photo and a phone number. This page answers with our own menu, price by price, read on the date printed at the bottom. Nghê Prana is a riverside hotel spa in Cẩm Nam, a few minutes from the Old Town across the Thu Bồn, and the nail table is open to anyone, staying with us or not.

What we offer, and what each costs

Read from our live spa menu on 17 September 2026. Every price is per person, in Vietnamese đồng, and O.P.I is the polish we use rather than a treatment of its own. "Or" means hands or feet; "and" means both.

The combined rows are priced slightly under two singles: hands and feet in O.P.I is 550,000₫ against 600,000₫ for two separate bookings, and hands and feet in gel is 850,000₫ against 900,000₫. At our published rate of 26,000₫ to the US dollar, the plain manicure is about US$12, a gel manicure about US$17, and the Luxury Gel about US$37. The rate is stated once so the đồng figures stay the ones that count.

Cut and polish: the plain manicure or pedicure

The menu names it exactly: cut and polish. The nail is trimmed and shaped, and an O.P.I colour goes on in the ordinary way, dried in the air rather than under a lamp. It is the right choice for a week's holiday, for anyone who changes colour often, and for anyone who would rather not sit under a lamp at all. It comes off at home with ordinary remover. Two things you can decide for yourself before we start: how short you want the nail, and whether you want your cuticles left alone. The American Academy of Dermatology's line is "never cut or forcefully push back your cuticles"; if that is your preference, say so and the therapist will leave them.

Gel: what the lamp does, and what the dermatologists say

Gel polish does not dry. It cures: each coat is hardened under a lamp emitting ultraviolet A, which is why a gel manicure survives sea water, sunscreen and a fortnight of luggage handles where an air-dried colour chips in days. The trade is on the way out. Gel is removed by soaking in acetone, not by peeling, and a gel set that is picked off takes the top layer of the nail with it.

The lamp is also the one thing about gel worth reading a study on, so here is the study. Zhivagui and colleagues at the University of California San Diego published in Nature Communications (vol. 14, article 276, 17 January 2023) the first experimental test of what a nail dryer does to cells. Their abstract reports that irradiation by a UV nail polish dryer "causes high levels of reactive oxygen species" and that the radiation "can both damage DNA and permanently engrave mutations on the genomes" of mouse and human cells, with a dose-dependent rise in one class of mutation. Two limits the paper itself states: the cells were in a dish, not on a hand, and the human risk it points at is from "long-term use", suggested by earlier case reports rather than measured in people. It is not a reason to refuse a gel manicure on holiday. It is a reason to take the small precautions below, which cost nothing.

The American Academy of Dermatology's gel manicure guidance, read 17 September 2026, is short enough to follow in full: before the appointment, "apply a broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher" to the hands, or wear "dark, opaque gloves with the fingertips snipped off"; at removal, "only soak your fingertips in acetone instead of your whole hands" and "don't pick at the polish"; between sets, "try not to wear nail polish for one to two weeks or longer" and moisturise the nails and cuticles. The Vietnamese health press carried the same study the fortnight it came out. Ngọc Nguyễn in Sức khỏe & Đời sống (1 February 2023) adds the advice to "giảm tần suất làm móng bằng gel", to reduce how often you have gel done, and quotes SPF 15 or higher where the Academy's current page says 30. The two numbers do not conflict in practice: bring the 30. We sell gel and we would rather you had it with your sunscreen on than not at all.

The Luxury Gel polish: fifty minutes of foot care before the colour

The Luxury Gel is a foot treatment that ends in gel, and the menu prints its own timings: a herbal foot soak of 10 minutes, a scrub of 20 minutes, a scraping massage of 20 minutes, then the gel polish. Those three add to fifty minutes of work on the feet before a brush is opened, which is the difference between it and a gel pedicure at 450,000₫. The soak and the heel scrape are the same steps that make up our special foot treatment (650,000₫ for 90 minutes, described on the foot massage page); here they finish in colour rather than in moisturiser, and a fortnight in sandals on Old Town flagstones is exactly what the scrape is for. If your feet are the reason you came, this is the row to book. If you only want colour that lasts, the gel pedicure is the same finish for 500,000₫ less.

Planning a trip around this? See dates at our quiet riverside hotel on the Thu Bồn. Check availability →

Nail design

Design is on the menu without a price because the price depends on the design: a single accent nail is not a full set of hand-painted work. Show the therapist a photo of what you want when you sit down and agree the figure before the first coat goes on. The base you choose, O.P.I or gel, is priced from the table above and the design is added to it. One thing we do not do, so nobody books for it: acrylic nails or extensions. Every row above works on your own nail.

Nails alongside a massage, or as a couple

Nails fit naturally beside the rest of the spa menu, and the totals are simple because every price is per person. A 60-minute foot massage at 450,000₫ followed by a gel pedicure at 450,000₫ is 900,000₫. A 60-minute relaxing oil massage at 450,000₫ with an O.P.I manicure at 300,000₫ is 750,000₫. For two people booking the spa together, the couple spa page shows how an afternoon in the private couples room fits together and what it totals; a manicure or pedicure for one or both of you slots in before or after it, and we will tell you the order that works on the day.

What to check at any salon, and what to ask us

The Academy's manicure and pedicure safety page is written for readers walking into a salon they do not know, and it applies to us as much as to anyone. It tells you to check "that the pedicure foot-baths and filters are thoroughly disinfected before you use them", to "not hesitate to ask how they clean their tools", to ask whether the technician has "the necessary experience and/or license", and to "shave your lower legs after getting a pedicure, not before", leaving at least 24 hours. We would rather you asked those questions at our desk than wondered about them on the table. Nghê Prana is a licensed hotel spa; a question about how the tools are cleaned deserves a short, specific answer, and if you do not get one, from us or anywhere, that is your answer.

How to book

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. An hour's notice is enough, and walk-ins are welcome when the table is free. For gel, arrive with sunscreen on your hands; for a pedicure, come with legs unshaven for a day. You do not need to be staying with us.

Prices read from our live spa menu on 17 September 2026. UV lamp findings from Zhivagui M et al., "DNA damage and somatic mutations in mammalian cells after irradiation with a nail polish dryer", Nature Communications 14, 276 (2023); gel and salon-safety guidance from the American Academy of Dermatology, read 17 September 2026; Vietnamese coverage from Ngọc Nguyễn, Sức khỏe & Đời sống, 1 February 2023. We are a hotel spa, not a clinic; nothing here is medical advice. We re-check this page every six months; if a price is wrong, the menu in the spa is what stands.