@thewinevagabond

This is going to be a long review but hopefully it will be helpful. I understand this is my subjective experience after only a limited amount of time (1 week) in Da Nang and your mileage may vary. I could imagine some people really enjoying living here but for me it is not a great place to live and I decided to shorten my stay as a result. To start, some good things about Da Nang: It is a very cheap place to live and I think you get decent value too. There are many coffeeshops to work out of and if you search you can find some nice spots to eat, drink, and hang out. There are things to visit in the surrounding area. The city itself has an interesting vibe, like the rest of Vietnam it is very vibrant, but also is in an extreme period of transition and it shows. I have been living in the My An area of Da Nang (by the beach). I could imagine some people really enjoying living here but I personally do not like it here for a few reasons. To start, some good things about Da Nang: — It is a very cheap place to live and I think you get decent value too. — There are many coffee shops to work out of and if you search you can find some nice spots to eat, drink, and hang out. — There are things to visit in the surrounding area. — The city itself has an interesting vibe, like the rest of Vietnam it is very vibrant, but also is in an extreme period of transition and it shows. — The traffic isn’t so bad and roads are decent for the region. — There is a decent expat scene and some nice people to hang out with, although this seems in isolation to the rest of the city. However, there are many negatives, I’ll just list the two main ones for brevity: — You will feel like a walking wallet and people will try to rip you off everywhere. We had some majorly inconvenient and expensive issues with the visa process, experienced blatant lying and short changing by taxi drivers, ridiculously priced items at shops. In our neighborhood, tons of the restaurants have fake reviews and terrible food. Basically, you feel like you need to be on your guard or you will be taken advantage of, which makes it not very enjoyable to stay here. — Rapid Development Pains. Because Da Nang is developing so fast, there are a lot of rough edges, as one could expect. Construction is everywhere and makes it hard to walk around. To add to this, crossing the street in any city of Vietnam is quite a stressful experience. Most of the ATMs in the city seem to not work. There are random power outages in our neighborhood. The area we live feels like a depressing mix of construction lots and tourist traps. To summarize: We had a very negative introduction to Da Nang, but after several days here, things did get a bit better. Compared to a place like Chiang Mai, it is a much harder place to live as a DN, but you also may be rewarded with a bit more authenticity. There is something fun about living in a place that is changing at such a rapid place, but many downsides as well. Personally, I would probably advise waiting several years before coming to Da Nang. Or if you do stay, trying to stay in neighborhoods by the main city rather than near the beach, which feels more like a tourist trap under construction.