Da Nang is the new digital nomad hub of Southeast Asia

How Da Nang has overtaken Chiang Mai and Canggu to become the digital nomad capital of Southeast Asia.

Da Nang is a city on the central coast of Vietnam. The city is between the coast and the mountains, with a river running through the middle. There is also a bay where the main port is, separated from the tourist coast by a spectacular peninsula. Its geographic variety is ridiculous.

[The ridiculous geographical variety of Danang (view the map).]

As a frequent visitor to Da Nang over the last decade, I have been observing the city grow in stature as an important regional hub and tourism destination. I remarked on my visit in 2017 that Da Nang was a city on the rise.

Da Nang has also been growing in popularity as a digital nomad destination. I would say that as of 2025, Da Nang is now the digital nomad hub of Southeast Asia.

This article explains the rise of Da Nang as a digital nomad destination.

Digital nomad hubs in Southeast Asia

I compiled a digital nomad history which tracks the rise of digital nomadism. Chiang Mai emerged as a digital nomad hub in 2010, and the Nimman area in Chiang Mai became the world’s first digital nomad neighbourhood.

During the 2010s Bali emerged as the next digital nomad hotspot in Southeast Asia. While Bali has been popular with expats for years, online expat entrepreneurs started working remotely on the island long before Work From Anywhere went mainstream. In the latter half of the 2010s, Canggu emerged as the favoured area of digital nomads in Bali.

I wrote about my visit to Canggu in 2017, which had already become a neighbourhood that was distinct from the short-term holiday makers of the Kuta-Legian-Seminyak area. In my subsequent visits to Canggu it was apparent that Canggu had become the digital nomad hotspot of Southeast Asia.

I have now seen a similar trajectory of digital nomadism in Da Nang that Canggu experienced. Every time I return to Da Nang I notice more nomads there. I returned to Da Nang in March and April of 2025, and something had changed since my visit in 2024. There had been a distinct vibe shift, and something felt different. Cafes that were usually empty were now full, international restaurants were booming, and there were more foreigners than ever walking around the streets.

Part of this was due to a tourism boom. Vietnam had just broken a record for the highest international visitor arrivals for a single quarter. I was travelling along the coast of Vietnam during this quarter – stopping at Vung Tau, Phan Thiet, and Nha Trang – and I saw more tourists than perhaps any time in my Vietnam travels.

I hardly saw any nomads in the other coastal cities, so the amount of nomads in Da Nang was noticeable. By coincidence, I happened to arrive in Da Nang during the Vietnam Nomad Fest.

I usually spend about 1 month a year in Da Nang. Having also been to Chiang Mai and Canggu in the last year, I would say that Da Nang is now the digital nomad capital of Southeast Asia.

The rise of Da Nang

Da Nang has emerged as an important financial and transport hub for the country. Situated halfway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the city is ideally situated for companies that who want to be in the middle of Vietnam.

The government is planning to establish Da Nang as an international financial centre (along with HCMC), which will help elevate Da Nang as a global city.

The city has also become a tourism powerhouse in the last decade. On my first visit in 2005, I got the bus from Hoi An to Hue. The bus stopped in Da Nang, but it wasn’t a major stop on the north-south route at that point. Now people stay in Da Nang and take day trips to Hoi An instead.

Da Nang has become a popular tourist destination for East Asia tourists (especially South Koreans). Da Nang is one of the closest tropical beaches to China and South Korea, so it has that geographical advantage going for it. The viral sensation of the Golden Bridge (the bridge held by giant hands in the mountains) also put Da Nang on the tourist map.

While I have noticed the rise of South Korean and Chinese tourists, I thought it was only a matter of time until Da Nang became known as a digital nomad destination.

My An – the nomad neighbourhood of Da Nang

The digital nomad area in Da Nang is in My An Ward on the Da Nang beach front. This is home to the famous My Khe Beach, which is part of the 27 km coastline that goes all the way to Hoi An. The long and sandy beach reminds me of the Gold Coast in Australia, though on social media it has been dubbed as The Miami of Vietnam.

Vietnam is an affordable travel destination, and the cost of living in Da Nang is considerably less than in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City.

[15,000 VND (0.58 USD) beer is somehow cheaper than a coconut.]

The appeal of Da Nang is that it is a city with a proper beach. Even though the beachfront is lined with towers, there are still beach bars on the beach.

My An is now filled with restaurants and bars.

A sure sign that digital nomads have arrived is when there is more than one Mexican restaurant in the neighbourhood.

[Possibly the best name for a Mexican restaurant in Vietnam (Crazy Westerner).]

Coworking cafes have also proliferated in the area.

A few blocks inland of the beach you will find regular Vietnamese restaurants with local food prices.

There is of course more to Da nang than My An, and I break down the areas in my guide on where to stay in Da Nang.

How gridded streets created a vibrant beach neighbourhood

One of the amazing things about Da Nang is that the beach side of the city was relatively undeveloped 25 years ago. The beach area was military land, which was a legacy from the war.

One of the areas in My An is the An Thuong Tourist Streets. It’s not a great name, but it’s a good case study for how to develop a neighbourhood.

In 2000 this area was mostly undeveloped. The streets were gridded out, and then houses, hotels, and businesses filled in the blocks. I wrote an article about how the An Thuong streets became a vibrant beach neighbourhood. I looked at the old Google satellite view of this area, which goes back to 2000. I made a timelapse showing how the gridded-out streets went from nothing to almost built out

[Timelapse of the An Thuong area from 2002 to 2024.]

Gridding out an area and letting people build whatever they want (apart from noisy heavy industry etc) is a great way to build a neighbourhood.

[A bar in the An Thuong area.]

A walkable beachfront

Another advantage that Da Nang has is that it has a walkable beachfront that goes uninterrupted for miles. The more I travel around Southeast Asia, the more I come back to appreciate that Da Nang has a beachfront promenade. This is the biggest advantage that Da Nang has over Canggu.

I love walking on the beach and feeling the water lapping on my feet, but sometimes I just want a long walk next to the beach with my shoes on.

A central airport

[City of Da Nang viewed from the international terminal of Da Nang International Airport.]

One of the great features of Da Nang is that the airport is in the city centre. The airport is 3.8 km from Han Market (the central point of the city area) and takes about 13 minutes by taxi. The My An beach area is 6.3 km from the airport and takes about 15 minutes.

Da Nang Airport compares favourably with Chiang Mai Airport, which is also close to the city centre. The distance from Chiang Mai Airport to Tha Phae Gate (the arbitrary central point of the Old City) is 5.5 km and takes about 12 minutes by taxi.

There used to be an AirAsia flight from Da Nang to Chiang Mai, and getting to and from these airports was less complicated than flying from SGN to BKK. Unfortunately, this flight is not operating at the moment.

By comparison, it takes about 1 hr 15 min to travel the 21.3 km from the Central Parking area in Canggu to Denpasar International Airport.

Da Nang Airport isn’t as international as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, but the amount of international options has improved greatly over the last decade. Emirates has finally arrived, and my prediction is that there will eventually be direct flights from Australia.

Future high-speed railway

Da Nang is currently served by the old North-South railway. It’s a great railway experience as a visitor, but it’s not useful for frequent travel. This will change if the proposed high-speed railway goes ahead. The new railway is proposed to have a top speed of 350 km/h, and the journey from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City will take about 5 and a half hours. That means that Da Nang will be within 2 and a half hours by train to anywhere in coastal Vietnam. If it goes ahead, it will make Da Nang even more appealing as a base.

The downsides of Da Nang

It’s not all sipping coconuts on a sunny day on the beach in Da Nang. One of the peculiar things about the central coast region of Vietnam is that it gets cold (by Vietnam standards at least). The Da Nang rainy season is around October to February, and in the last few years the typhoon season has become more intense.

[A rainy windswept January day in Da Nang.]

Another problem is that the Da Nang beachfront is still a work in progress, so there is always a construction site somewhere.

I like that the beach area is gridded out and walkable, but there is an oversupply of small hotels and condotels. There is not enough stock of normal apartment towers.

One of the abandoned projects in Da Nang is the Times Square twin towers. This was built as condotels, but now the developer is looking to turn the project into apartments. The problem is that the structure is built with smaller rooms, so I am not sure how they will go about converting this.

There are some new apartment projects along the riverside that are under construction, so these projects may herald a new era of accommodation stock for Da Nang. I think that more nomads will move elsewhere in Da Nang when the My An area becomes too nomaddy.

I have a list of Da Nang construction projects at Future Southeast Asia. If you like reading about transport and urban development issues, you should also subscribe to the Future Southeast Asia newsletter.

Future Da Nang

I’m a regular visitor to Da Nang, and I still think about basing myself there (if I wasn’t such a nomad). I said in my 2018 post that Da Nang would be a good place to retire, and that still holds true.

I will report back on Da Nang in the future, and I will also be covering the prospects of Nha Trang compared to Da Nang.