The twenty miles or so between Da Nang and Hoi An are almost all beaches with numerous luxury resorts and hotels.

Absolutely they do, but coming from Australia where using an overseas ATM attracts a $20 fee per transaction plus 3% currency exchange fee we bring cash and change at gold stores.
If the banks are offering 16k vnd per Australian dollar we would often get 16.5k from the gold shops.
​​​​​​Makes a huge difference.

I see. Wow!! I didn't know that.

Coming from the U.S., a number of banks refund any ATM fees, and there's no currency surcharge (at least not that I'm aware of).

Nice beaches in Central and Southern Vietnam!
If staying in Danang/ Hoian (Central VN), you can check out My Khe beach (Danang) and An Bang beach (Hoian).

If you bring new and big USD bills ($100), you absolutely will get the best exchange rate at gold shops; tygiadola dot net site for USD to VND.

I had asked this in the forum with no response and just saw this thread which I assume is monitored.

We're traveling from SGN to the Hue/Da Nang/Hoi An area for the last few days of our trip in mid-April. My current plan is to fly directly into Hue, get picked up privately by a well-reviewed transport company, visit Hue (Citadel, a tomb or two, pagoda, maybe a market area for lunch) then drive via Hai Van Pass to our hotel (Hyatt Regency Da Nang) where we will base ourselves to visit Da Nang and (mostly) Hoi An the next few days. I figured this cuts out one way of driving.

However, VN just changed our flight time to 5:50am (the midmorning flight I had booked has been canceled). I'm not thrilled about a 3am wake up time on vacation. So, the other option is fly to Da Nang and take a day trip to Hue. I suppose we could include a side trip to Ba Na Hills for the sunset on the same day trip (assuming we do a private tour) which will eliminate the need for a separate visit on one of the other days.

Not worried about tour costs as they are relatively cheap. Just wondering if the early wake up in SGN is worth saving a couple of hours drive to Hue? I also am not really interested in flying VietJet on the SGN-HUI route (unless you can convince me otherwise) as I've read too many horror stories. Thoughts on the options?

Thanks.

IIRC, our drive from Hue to Da Nang took approximately two and a half hours (we had a private guide and a driver). That's going to be an awfully long day if you are planning on visiting the Hue Citadel, a couple of emperors' tombs, the Thien Mu Pagoda and have lunch at one of Hue's food markets. A detour to visit the Ba Na Hills is going to make the day even longer.

Thanks - it's a long day getting up at 3am in HCM as well though. We could always do the Hills another day as we have basically 4 days in the area total.
What company did you use for your tour?

Hue is far more interesting than Da Nang and Hoi An. I'd spend at least one night there. Azerai is an excellent hotel. We booked our pick up from the airport with Azerai. They offer a wide range of tours and will customize to what you want. We thoroughly enjoyed our evening food tour that we booked via the hotel. We then used their car to go to Da Nang.

Our arrangements were booked through AsiaDesk, a boutique US travel agency specializing in Southeast Asia. I'll PM you the contact information for our local guide in central Vietnam.

I'll echo SanDiego1K's sentiments that Hue is far more interesting than Hoi An and Da Nang. We also found Azerai La Residence to be superb.

I hear you. I just hate switching hotels so much. I'll look into it though.

Thanks for the info and PM. Leaning toward the night in Hue so we'll probably fly in there after all.

Stay one night there is the right decision, pjs!

Also look at the Melia Vinpearl Hue, it is by far the tallest building there and the views from higher floors are stunning.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2f76cf08ad.png

Hi. How long is the immigration process at SGN with a ABTC card?