The stark difference between Hoi An and Da Nang

There are a lot of reasons why Da Nang is one of the most popular places for expats to locate in once they decide to live in Vietnam. It's near the beach, it's big but not "too big" and it's got basically everything you could need or want in it without coming along with the rather insane levels of people and traffic that exists in Hanoi and Saigon.

Most people who move here end up being glad they did so but there are to major areas that people live in and even though they are a bicycle-ride away from each other, they are extremely different places.

Da Nang is far more populated and this means there are a ton of more option as far as anything is concerned.

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What this means is that no matter what it is that you are looking for, unless you are looking for shoes that are over a size 10 in men's, you can probably find it here. There are a wide array of restaurants, shopping, entertainment venues (there's even an amusement park with roller-coasters), and basically anything else you could think of. This comes at a cost though and this is one very major downside of choosing to live in this area: The noise is relentless because of the massive amount of expansion and construction that is constantly going on.

Especially in the area near the beach which only became popular in the past 20 years or so, Da Nang has cranes, round-the-clock cement delivery trucks, demolition teams tearing down old buildings, and construction teams putting up new buildings. It really doesn't matter what part of the city that you choose to live in, it seems as though basically everywhere has development going on. Many places will advertise that they don't have any construction noise near them as a way of luring in potential lodgers but they are almost always lying.

I sit in my apartment every day and have the constant sound of grinding and trucks and banging and power-tools and this is true just about anywhere else in the city. Even the beaches can be noisy to the point where it is not a relaxing environment unless you go to specific places or in the middle of the day when the locals avoid it because they seem to really not like to be in the sun.

Hoi An on the other hand is a completely different story.

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This smallish town has a quaint and quiet appeal to it. There are no high rise buildings and this might be by design since it appears as though it is not allowed to have buildings over a certain number of floors. Even the resorts at the beach are only a few stories tall and there are tons of quiet and quite awesome places all over the place if you are looking for a more laid back vibe. It is also a cultural and artistic city where just some random restaurant will have amazing original artwork in it such as this one that I discovered at a coffeeshop a few days ago.

Whenever I am visiting friends in Hoi An I always come to the conclusion of wow, the peace and quiet here is just outstanding! But there is a flip side to this coin and that is that the options of things to do and places to go are quite limited. This isn't a problem for a lot of people who don't mind going to the same places over and over again but a lot of the people that I know from there frequently travel into Da Nang city because they are bored.

It's all a tradeoff. In Da Nang you have literally all options as far as stuff to do is concerned but it comes with the price of noise and something like 20 times the population. If Hoi An you will get quiet little streets as well as neighborhoods that are divided up by rice paddies.

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A friend of mine owns a small hotel that honestly, unless you are making the noise, there isn't any. It's a completely different world there. This same friend is frequently in Da Nang because again, he is bored as there isn't a great deal to do there.

So I suppose you need to pick your poison. I live in Da Nang city because I like having a wide array of things to do and type of food to choose from but every time I am in Hoi An I am just delighted at how peaceful it is. As much as I like quiet since it is so rare where I live, I couldn't trade that for having nothing to do even if it is dead quiet.

Both have their upsides and are two of my favorite places in the world. If you are simply visiting here one day, I would recommend Hoi An over Da Nang but as far as living here is concerned I think that most people agree that Da Nang is the correct choice. If you need quiet then Hoi An is only a 20 minute motorbike ride away after all.