Da Nang
Vietnam · Asia · 1,250,000 people · Asia/Ho_Chi_Minh · VND
Da Nang scores 56/100 for digital nomads under balanced weights, ranking 999 of 1501 cities. Expect about $589 per month, no dedicated nomad visa, and a measured median download speed of 23.1 Mbps.
Da Nang is Vietnam's most livable city for foreigners: a wide beach, new infrastructure, low prices and fewer crowds than Ho Chi Minh City. Visa rules are still fiddly for some passports.
- Long sandy beach
- Hoi An nearby
- Fast growth
- Low cost
Eating out
OpenStreetMap, 2026-1116272restaurants within 3 km
Mapped around the centre of Da Nang: plenty of choice within walking distance. A count of what is on the map, not a rating, and it does not affect the score.
Living in Da Nang, in plain words
Written by the Navoy team. The numbers that back it up follow below.
Da Nang is Vietnam's easiest city to live in: a long beach, a compact centre on the river, a modern airport, and prices that make it one of the best-value bases in the world. It lacks the chaos of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and the tourist crush of Hoi An, which is close enough for a weekend. The nomad community is concentrated around My Khe beach and An Thuong, with cafés and coworking spaces that have grown with it.
The weather splits the year. Spring and early summer are hot and dry, the summer is very hot, and from October to December the rains come, sometimes hard. Vietnam's e-visa gives most passports three months and there is no dedicated nomad visa, so long stays mean border runs or business visas. Internet is fast and cheap. Vietnamese is difficult and English is thinner than in Thailand or Malaysia.
Da Nang suits people who want a beach city with low costs, good food and a calm routine, and who can plan around the rainy season. It is less of a city than Saigon and less charming than Hoi An, and that middle ground is exactly why so many people settle there.
How Da Nang scores, factor by factor
Superscripts link to the source list at the bottom. Country-level figures apply to all of Vietnam.
Cost of living
Monthly cost for one person (log-scaled, cheaper is better).Safety
Homicide rate and political stability (country-level).Healthcare
WHO universal-health-coverage index and life expectancy (country-level).Internet
Median measured download and upload speed (M-Lab, city-level; the province or country aggregate where the city has too few tests).Visa ease
How easily your passport gets in and stays: visa-free days, eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa or consular visa, plus a nomad visa and how affordable its income threshold is. Averages US, EU and UK passports until you pick yours.Getting there & around
Non-stop airport destinations (hub size) plus editorial walkability and transit ratings.Climate
Share of months that are comfortable: 59–82°F (15–28 °C) mean, at most 5.9 in (150 mm) rain, at most 85% humidity.- Comfortable months: 2 of 1214 · city-level, 2001–2020 normals
Air quality
Annual mean PM2.5 on a fixed scale: 5 µg/m³ (WHO guideline) scores 100, 50 µg/m³ or worse scores 0.- Annual mean PM2.5: 13.9 µg/m³15 · city-level, 2023
Quality of life
Human Development Index and English proficiency (country-level).What does Da Nang cost per month?
| Total, one person | $589 | city, outskirts one-bedroom |
|---|---|---|
| Total with a central one-bedroom | $773 | derived |
| One-bedroom rent, centre | $508 | city |
| One-bedroom rent, outskirts | $324 | city |
| Country cost index (US = 100) | 24 | country |
Can you stay legally?
| Nomad visa | none listed | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum income | — | |
| US passport | e-visa required | |
| EU passport | 45 days | |
| UK passport | 45 days | |
Visa rules change often. Verify with the issuing government before you book.
Do you pay tax here on income from abroad?
Airports and nonstop flights
Da Nang is served by one airport.
| Airport | Nonstop destinations | International | From US airports |
|---|---|---|---|
| DADDa Nang International Airport | 39 | 26 | 0 |
Wikipedia airport pages as of 2026-10: seasonal routes included, charters and announced-but-not-started routes excluded.
What is the weather like through the year?
Comfortable months by our rule: Apr–May. Rank cities for Mar–May →
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean °F | 70 | 71 | 75 | 79 | 82 | 83 | 83 | 83 | 81 | 78 | 76 | 71 |
| Rain in | 3.1 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 3.2 | 2.8 | 4 | 6.6 | 14.6 | 22.1 | 16.2 | 9.8 |
| Humidity % | 87 | 86 | 86 | 84 | 82 | 79 | 78 | 79 | 83 | 85 | 87 | 87 |
Green temperatures mark months that meet the comfort rule (59–82°F, ≤5.9 in rain, ≤85% humidity). NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology at the city coordinates.
Where can you stay in Da Nang?
Three ways to live here, and what each does to the monthly budget. Rents are the one-bedroom figures from the cost table; hotels and short lets are priced per night and cost more, most of all in high season.
| Option | Rent per month | Monthly total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom outside the centre | $324 | $589 | The basis of the monthly cost and the cost score. |
| One-bedroom in the centre | $508 | $773 | The monthly total with the central rent swapped in. |
| Hotel or short let | — | — | For the first weeks or a stay under a month. Compare hotels on Navoy → |
Monthly rents assume an unfurnished lease of six months or more; furnished monthly lets usually cost 20 to 50 percent more.
Cities with a similar profile
- Hue Vietnam · 54.2
- Can Tho Vietnam · 53.9
- Hoi An Vietnam · 54.7
- Shillong India · 50.5
- Phu Quoc Vietnam · 55.7
Also in Asia: Abbottabad, Agra, Ahmedabad, Ahvaz, Akita, Almaty
Where Da Nang ranks
The vibe
What people post about living in Da Nang, read for its mood. It is a reading of opinions, not a fact, and it is not part of the score.
Liked · 74Expats and nomads mostly love Da Nang for cheap living, friendly locals, beaches and easy pace, though several warn that budget claims are overstated and rip currents need respect.
- low cost of living
- friendly locals
- beaches
- affordable food
- safety
- good value for money
- relaxed pace
- overstated budget claims
- rip currents at beaches
- hectic traffic
- tourist-focused videos skipping details
- limited English for some
- internet speed uncertainty
- Living cheaply is doable but $1000 monthly claims oversell the reality.
- Locals are notably kind and welcoming to foreigners and solo travelers.
- Beaches are beautiful but swim only where lifeguards designate safe areas.
- Many expats stay months and still enjoy it after the honeymoon phase.
- Feels less like Hawaii to some, but it has a distinct charm.
Read from 8 videos, 40 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-07; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.
Frequently asked
- How much does it cost to live in Da Nang as a digital nomad?
- A single person typically spends about $589 per month in Da Nang, renting a one-bedroom outside the centre (about $324). A central one-bedroom costs about $508, which brings the total to roughly $773. That is a 100/100 cost score, where 100 is the cheapest city in the dataset.
- Is Da Nang safe for digital nomads?
- Da Nang scores 68/100 on safety. Vietnam records 1.9 homicides per 100,000 people per year (WHO, 2021) and a political-stability score of 67.7/100 (World Bank WGI). Both figures are national, so neighbourhood-level risk can differ.
- Does Vietnam have a digital nomad visa?
- No dedicated digital nomad visa was listed for Vietnam as of 2026-07. Visitors from the US need an e-visa, applied for online.
- How fast is the internet in Da Nang?
- Measured median download speed in Da Nang was 23.1 Mbps (upload 21.5 Mbps) across 4,879 M-Lab tests in 2024. Measured speeds run below advertised plan speeds everywhere, so compare cities rather than reading the number as a plan.
- Is Starlink available in Da Nang?
- Yes. Starlink's availability map lists residential service as available in Vietnam (checked 2026-10), so a dish can serve as a backup line in Da Nang. Check the exact address on starlink.com before ordering, since capacity varies by area.
- Which airports serve Da Nang and how many nonstop flights are there?
- Da Nang is served by Da Nang International Airport (DAD) with 39 nonstop destinations, of which 26 are international. 0 US airports have a nonstop link. Source: Wikipedia, 2026-10.
- When is the best time of year to be in Da Nang?
- The most comfortable months are Apr, May. Mean temperatures range from 70°F (21°C) in Jan to 83°F (29°C) in Jun (NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology).
- Da Nang or Hue: which is better for digital nomads?
- Hue is the city with the closest factor profile to Da Nang in this dataset. Which one wins depends on your weights; the comparison page puts every factor side by side with the numbers behind them.
Sources
Dataset 2026.11.3, published 2026-11-10. Download the full dataset or read the methodology.
- 1.City population (latest census or official estimate), Wikipedia (citing national statistics offices). CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. City-proper figures; the per-city source URL is stored with the seed row.
- 2.WhereNext city cost estimates 2026 (city pages), WhereNext. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. The '~$X/mo' single-person estimate published on each city page (the API only exposes countries). Scaled to the WhereToEmigrate basket by the median ratio observed on cities both sources cover, so figures are comparable across the dataset; the scaling factor is recorded in the value's note on /methodology. Where the headline estimate is below the city's own outskirts one-bedroom rent divided by 0.55 (rent at most 55% of a single person's spending), the total is raised to that floor; the page's figure is implausibly low there.
- 3.2026 Cost of Living Index (country level), WhereNext. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Country-level monthly estimate used only where no city-level figure exists; cost_index kept for every city.
- 4.Estimates of rates of homicides per 100 000 population, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22. WHO GHO modelled estimate, used only where UNODC has no national figure from 2018 or later (seven countries in this dataset). May be reused with attribution under WHO's data policy.
- 5.Worldwide Governance Indicators — Political Stability and Absence of Violence (score 0–100), World Bank. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 6.UHC service coverage index, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 7.Life expectancy at birth (years), both sexes, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 8.M-Lab NDT statistics (city aggregates, 2024), Measurement Lab. CC0 1.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Median of daily median download/upload throughput over 2024 for the city aggregate; sample count is the number of tests. Speeds reflect user-initiated tests, not advertised plans.
- 9.Starlink availability map, SpaceX (Starlink). Factual status cited from starlink.com. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Residential service status per country from the file Starlink's map loads. Grouped as on the map: launched or available = available; coming soon, pending regulatory approval or test = coming soon; blacklisted = not offered; unknown or excluded = unknown. Shown on city pages and as a ranker filter; not part of any score. Roaming and maritime plans can work in more places.
- 10.Digital Nomad Visas 2026, WhereToEmigrate. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Programme name, minimum monthly income (EUR, converted to USD) and whether it leads to permanent residence. Values are directional; verify with the issuing government.
- 11.Passport Index dataset (visa requirements, 199 passports × 199 destinations), Ilya Ilyankou (compiled from passportindex.org). MIT. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Days per visit where stated; 'visa free' without a limit is credited as unlimited; eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa and visa required are credited 0 days for scoring but shown by kind. The default US/EU/UK figures use the US, German and British passports.
- 12.Airport destinations (Wikipedia airline and destination tables), Wikipedia contributors; countries via Wikidata. CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-24. Distinct destination airports listed in each airport article's passenger table, resolved through Wikidata. Seasonal routes count; charters and routes announced but not yet flying are excluded. The as-of date is the newest article revision among the city's airports. Falls back to the OpenFlights snapshot when an airport has no article or table.
- 13.Walkability and transit ratings (editorial), Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Judgment ratings, not measurements. Explained on /methodology.
- 14.NASA POWER climatology (2001–2020 monthly means), NASA Langley Research Center. Public domain (US Government). Retrieved 2026-09-22. T2M, PRECTOTCORR and RH2M at the city coordinates (0.5° grid). Monthly precipitation = mm/day × days in month.
- 15.SatPM2.5 satellite-derived annual PM2.5 (V6.GL.02.04), Atmospheric Composition Analysis Group, Washington University in St. Louis. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Annual 2023 PM2.5 for the 0.1° grid cell at the city centre, from satellite aerosol retrievals combined with a chemical transport model and ground monitors. Used only for cities with no WHO database row. Where the same country has WHO-measured cities, values are scaled by the median measured/satellite ratio there (corrects desert-dust overestimates in the Gulf). Across 811 cities with both, log-correlation with WHO values is 0.89 and the median difference 2 µg/m³.
- 16.OpenStreetMap restaurants (Overpass API), OpenStreetMap contributors. ODbL 1.0. Retrieved 2026-10-02. Count of OpenStreetMap elements tagged amenity=restaurant within 3 km of the city centre coordinate. Measures how many restaurants are mapped, which tracks real density well where OpenStreetMap is well maintained (Europe, the Americas, East and Southeast Asia) and under-counts where it is not (parts of Africa and Central Asia).
- 17.Human Development Index (HDR 2025, HDI 2023), United Nations Development Programme. CC BY 3.0 IGO. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 18.EF English Proficiency Index 2024 (band), EF Education First. Proprietary; band cited as a fact with attribution. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Only the proficiency band is stored, transcribed by hand from the public ranking.