Quick Summary

Hoi An is not a normal digital nomad location. Still it is worth considering if you like to eat well, relatively laid back atmosphere (small village versus city) and trips to the beach (5 minute bike ride away). De nang is just 15 minutes by taxi with about a 300,000 population.

See larger view of Hoi An map

The old town center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

20,000 dong ~ US $1 (April 2015)

Hoi An Travel Guide by Nomadic Matt

Festivities and holidays

Full moon festival every month (14th day of a lunar month).

February: Boat Racing Festival

Lodging
There are not a large number of monthly rentals available for short stays. Many hotels are available though. I found a house to rent through Nha Toi real estate. Nha Toi was absolutely fantastic, I highly recommend them. There are limited houses available for short term lease but they had a couple when I looked, they have many more for 1 year leases. They were wonderful in communication before, during and after finding a place. They have the kind I service I would hope to find from everyone, but I haven’t found any other real estate folks nearly as good as this in all my travels. They do only have motorbikes to view houses so if you want a car, arrange for a driver (that is what I did).

Hoi An is nearly a suburn of Da Nang (15 minutes away). Here is a place I ran across online that has a decent showing of apartments in Da Nang: Central Vietnam Realty.

Transport:

Walking and riding your bike is fine to get around. Many digital nomads would probably get a motorbike though I wouldn’t. Taxis are available.

Weather
Hoi An’s dry season from February to May. September to January is the rainy season. The rest of the year is a mix. It is pretty much always hot though the rainy season is less hot.

Working Space
I don’t know of any co-working spaces. You can work in Dingo Deli (which has great food). Mobile data plans are fairly limited (3-5Gb for something like US$12 a month). I haven’t tested the data plans enough to be sure (my house has decent access – though very low upload capacity) but it may well be fine for low demand use (writing, reading etc. online – in my experience it was fine for that, I had to use it as a backup at home as there were problems sometimes with the main internet). The beach wasn’t busy when I was there and camping out on a beach chair under an umbrella would be fine all day – with the ability to order food and drinks from your chair. I my experience you need to use Mobifone (Viettel blocks tethering).