Da Nang

Da Nang in 2026 is bigger on paper than ever, now that Hoi An sits inside its city limits, and it's the most practical base in central Vietnam. Come for the noodle shops, the 5am beach and the train to Hue, and plan around an October that can drop two feet of rain.

Updated October 2026

BootsnAll Scorecard

6.9 / 10

Da Nang wins on everyday value and noodle-shop eating and loses points on timing, because the autumn rains and the summer domestic rush shape a trip more than any sight does, and on getting around, where Grab does the work the buses can't.

Value
8
Near the 8 anchor, with Hostelworld dorms from about US$4 to $12 and a Michelin Bib Gourmand bowl of bún chả cá in the lowest price band, though the 1,000,000-dong Ba Na Hills ticket is a real hole in a budget day.
Getting around
6
Just above the 5 anchor, since 8,000-dong city buses cover a few useful lines and the airport is 10 minutes from town, but Hoi An, Son Tra and Ba Na mostly mean a Grab, a driver or a scooter.
Crowds and timing
5
Right on the 5 anchor, with October averaging 24.7 inches of rain, typhoon risk from June to December, and summer weekends packed with domestic travelers and fireworks-festival crowds.
Safety and hassle
7.5
Closer to 8 than 5, since violent crime against foreigners is rare and the documented scams are small, though motorbike crashes, methanol-tainted drinks and padded live-seafood bills are real risks.
Food and drink
8.5
Between the 8 and 10 anchors, with mì Quảng, bún chả cá, bún mắm and bánh xèo cheap and everywhere, and more than 20 Michelin Bib Gourmand picks, most of them cheap Vietnamese counters.
Indie fit
6.5
Above the 5 anchor because the train, the local food and the Hoi An and Hue day trips are easy to do alone, but the beach strip is a wall of high-rise hotels and the headline sight, Ba Na Hills, is a theme park run by one company.

Editorial scores, 1 to 10, against the same written anchors for every city. Half points allowed. The overall is the plain average of the six.

Overview and Things to Consider

Da Nang is the working city of central Vietnam, and the one most visitors pass through on the way somewhere older. It sits on the coast midway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, split by the Han River. The commercial center, Hai Chau, is on the west bank. The beach, My Khe, runs down the east side toward Hoi An. The Son Tra peninsula closes off the bay to the north, and the Hai Van Pass climbs over the mountains toward Hue. Traffic is light by Vietnamese standards, the roads are wide, and the coast road is four lanes most of the way.

You'll like it if you want a beach and a real city in the same week, if you eat by the bowl, or if you need one base for Hoi An, Hue, the Cham towers at My Son and the Marble Mountains. You'll dislike it if you came to Vietnam for old streets. Tourism took off in the mid-2010s and the beachfront became a line of glassy towers that Wikivoyage compares to the Gold Coast or Miami.

The 2026 moment is scale. On July 1, 2025 the city absorbed Quang Nam province, so Hoi An, My Son and Ba Na now sit inside a single Da Nang of 3.86 million people. Hotels served about 14.25 million visitors in the first eight months of 2026, up 24.9% on 2025, and Lonely Planet put Da Nang on its Best in Travel 2027 list in September 2026. The crowds are real, but they bunch at the same handful of places.

Overrated, in my view, is the Golden Bridge on Ba Na Hills. It's a 150-meter walkway held up by two giant stone hands, inside a ticketed park with a fake French village, and it costs more than three nights in a dorm.

How Da Nang Got Here

The coast here belonged to Champa, the kingdom whose history runs back to 192 AD and whose capital from about 875 to 1000, Indrapura, stood about 50 kilometers from today's city, until centuries of war with the Vietnamese pushed the Cham south. The Vietnamese called the river mouth Cửa Hàn, and the French turned that into Tourane. French warships shelled the harbor in 1847, and in August 1858 French and Spanish troops landed here to start the campaign that ended in colonial rule. The city stayed under French rule as Tourane from the 1880s until 1945, and the best Cham sculpture found in the region ended up in a museum the French founded beside the river in 1915.

The American war made the city famous. On March 8, 1965, the 9th Marines came ashore at Red Beach, north of town, the first US combat troops sent to Vietnam, and Da Nang Air Base became one of the busiest airfields on earth. The beach the GIs called China Beach is today's My Khe. The city fell at the end of March 1975, as the southern army collapsed and over a million refugees jammed the streets and the airport. The air base is now Da Nang International Airport, and you'll still see old concrete hangars from the runway.

Modern Da Nang is a planned project. It split from Quang Nam to become a centrally run city on January 1, 1997, built bridges and beach roads, hosted APEC in 2017 and sold itself as Vietnam's easy, orderly city. The 2025 merger reversed the 1997 split, folding Quang Nam back in, which is why your Hoi An hotel now has a Da Nang address.

Getting There and Around

Da Nang International Airport (DAD) sits about 3 kilometers from the center, close enough that people walk it. Terminal 1 handles domestic flights and Terminal 2 handles international ones. There are frequent flights to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and direct international service from Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei and Hong Kong. The airport's own transport page lists three buses. Danabus Route 12 runs 5:30am to 7pm into Hai Chau for 8,000 dong, Route 06 crosses the Dragon Bridge to the beach for 15,000 to 22,000 dong, and the Hai Van bus to Hoi An's Cua Dai parking lot runs 7:30am to 4pm for 120,000 dong.

Most people take a car. In 2026 a GrabCar from DAD runs about 80,000 to 130,000 dong (US$3 to $5) to the riverfront and 90,000 to 140,000 dong to My Khe, 10 to 20 minutes either way, and 250,000 to 350,000 dong to Hoi An. Fixed-price taxi counters in arrivals charge about 150,000 to 180,000 dong for the city. Mai Linh and Vinasun cabs use meters. The Grab pickup zone is marked across the taxi lanes, and if you book, match the plate in the app before you get in.

Entry depends on your passport. UK citizens can enter visa-free for 45 days, as can citizens of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, among others. Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and nine other countries added since March 2025 are on a temporary scheme that runs to August 14, 2028. Americans, Canadians and Australians need a visa, as do citizens of EU states not on the list, such as Ireland, Portugal, Austria and Greece. The easy route is the e-visa, open to every nationality since August 15, 2023 and now filed at evisa.gov.vn. It's valid up to 90 days, single or multiple entry, for US$25 or $50, and it ties you to the entry and exit points you pick, so list Da Nang and any land crossing you plan to use. British travelers are told their passport needs six months' validity and two blank pages, a safe rule for everyone.

In town, Grab is how most visitors move. A GrabBike hop costs about 15,000 to 30,000 dong and a GrabCar 50,000 to 100,000 dong. Xanh SM is the main alternative app, and the UK government names both as licensed options. In September 2026 Vietnam's competition regulator began reviewing Grab's fares after drivers threatened a strike over pay, so keep a second app on your phone. The city buses are new and air-conditioned, but the network is thin, and the DanaBus app beats the look-alike websites for routes.

What's Changed Since 2016

August 2023 rewrote the visa picture. From August 15 that year Vietnam opened its e-visa to all nationalities and stretched it from 30 days single-entry to 90 days with multiple entries allowed, and it raised the visa-free stay for 13 countries, including the UK, Germany and France, from 15 to 45 days. Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland joined the visa-free list on March 1, 2025, and nine more EU states followed on August 15, 2025.

Two restorations reopened in August 2024. The Hai Van Gate, the old fort at the top of the pass, reopened for free on August 1 after three years of work, and Hoi An's Japanese Covered Bridge reopened in early August after a restoration that began in December 2022. Both enforce dress codes. In August 2026 a guide turned back a tourist in a sheer, high-slit dress at the bridge, and Hoi An now plans multilingual clothing signs at religious sites.

Michelin arrived in mid-2024, when La Maison 1888 at the InterContinental on Son Tra became the only starred restaurant in central Vietnam. The city's Bib Gourmand list now runs to more than 20 places, from fishcake noodle shops to a duck-porridge counter.

On July 1, 2025 Da Nang merged with Quang Nam province. Hoi An, My Son and the old Quang Nam countryside are now inside one city, which is why addresses and ward names in older guides and on Google Maps don't always match.

The Son Tra peninsula's tourist roads, closed after landslides in October 2022, reopened on September 16, 2025, but only three routes, during set hours, with day passes for independent visitors and a ban on drones. By early 2025 erosion had collapsed embankments along My Khe and closed some seaside eateries, and the city laid sandbags and put up no-swimming signs where the shore gave way.

From October 25, 2025 central Vietnam had a week of record rain. A 15-meter section of the Hue citadel wall collapsed on November 2, the Imperial City sat under up to a meter of water, and by November 4 the regional death toll had reached 40, 14 of them in Hue and most of the rest in Da Nang.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"Skip Da Nang and base yourself in Hoi An." That works for a slow Hoi An trip, but Hoi An has no train station, Grab supply there is thinner, and its riverside floods most Novembers. Da Nang has the airport 10 minutes away, the railway to Hue, and a GrabCar to the old town for 200,000 to 350,000 dong in 40 to 55 minutes, so go to Hoi An in the late afternoon for the lanterns and sleep where the transport is.

"Ba Na Hills is the one thing you can't miss in Da Nang." It's a Sun World theme park on a 1,487-meter mountain, with a replica French village, an indoor amusement park, an alpine coaster and the Golden Bridge, and the standard ticket is 1,000,000 dong (about $38) before the 380,000-dong buffet. Go if you want a cool, cloudy day out. Skip it if you want something local.

"Take the bus to Hue and you'll see the Hai Van Pass." Buses and most cars use the Hai Van Tunnel and see nothing. The train hugs the coast from cliff to cliff instead, about two and a half hours and around 106,000 dong in a soft seat. To see the top of the pass and the reopened Hai Van Gate, hire a driver or an Easy Rider and go over the old road.

"Rent a scooter, it's the best way to see Son Tra and the pass." Only if you already ride well. A 28-year-old American died coming down Hoang Sa Street on Son Tra in July 2025, the UK government warns that motorbike crashes have killed British visitors, and you need a 1968-format international driving permit plus your home license to ride legally. Since September 2025 the peninsula's roads also open only at set times.

"Autumn in Vietnam just means an afternoon shower." Not here. Da Nang's wet season peaks in October at 24.7 inches of rain, with 17.7 inches in November, and typhoons can hit from June to December. The October 2022 rains shut Son Tra's roads for nearly three years, and the late-2025 floods had killed at least 40 people across the region by November 4. Book flexible.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about eating Da Nang by dish instead of by restaurant? Start with bún chả cá, fishcake noodle soup with a broth soured by pineapple and tomato, at Bún Chả Cá 109 on Nguyen Chi Thanh, run by the same family for over 50 years and open 6am to 10pm. Do bún mắm, cold vermicelli in a pungent fermented-fish dressing, at Bà Đông on Huynh Thuc Khang, cash only. Get Binh Dinh-style bánh xèo topped with fresh shrimp at Bánh Xèo Tôm Nhảy Cô Ba on Trung Nu Vuong, and the Cam Nam duck porridge at Quán Nhân on Phan Tu. Mì Quảng, the Quang Nam-style noodle, comes with shrimp, quail eggs, peanuts and a turmeric-spiced broth, and you eat it with a rice cracker on the side. All of these sit in Michelin's cheapest price band.

For seafood, skip the riverfront tanks and go to Bé Ni 2 on Vo Nguyen Giap, a round-the-clock place that does rice by day and live seafood by night. You pick from the tanks and say how you want it cooked. Ask the price by weight before they net anything.

The Marble Mountains, 9 kilometers south of the center, are five limestone hills full of cave shrines. Thuy Son, the one people climb, costs 40,000 dong, the elevator 15,000 dong, and the Am Phu cave, a Buddhist underworld of sinners being punished in painted concrete, is a separate 20,000 dong. Go at opening, before the tour buses, and you'll have the Huyen Khong cave's shaft of light mostly to yourself.

Go to Hue by rail and sleep there. The best daytime northbound trains, SE4 at 12:38pm and SE2 at 1:33pm in the 2026 timetable, take about two and a half hours along the cliffs and through the Hai Van Pass. Sit on the sea side. Book on the Vietnam Railways site, which The Man in Seat 61 says now accepts overseas cards. In Hue, the Imperial City charges 200,000 dong. A same-day return is possible on SE7, leaving Hue at 7:58pm and reaching Da Nang at 10:43pm, but a night lets you eat bún bò Huế, the city's spicy beef noodle soup, where it comes from.

Hoi An is best after 4pm, when the day-trippers thin out and the lanterns go on. A GrabCar is 200,000 to 350,000 dong, the public LK-02 bus about 30,000 to 35,000 dong if you have 60 to 90 minutes to spare. The 120,000-dong old-town ticket covers five of 23 heritage buildings, and walking the lanes is free. Cover your shoulders and knees for the Japanese Bridge and the assembly halls.

On the Son Tra peninsula, Linh Ung Pagoda's 67-meter Guanyin faces the bay, and the forest above it holds red-shanked douc langurs, the monkeys with the painted faces. Since September 2025 the upper roads open only during set hours, independent visitors get a green day card, and drones need permission. Go early, and don't feed the monkeys.

The Museum of Cham Sculpture by the Dragon Bridge holds the world's largest collection of Cham carving, over 300 sandstone pieces from the 4th to 14th centuries, for 60,000 dong. An hour there makes My Son make sense.

The Part Most Guides Miss

Most guides sell My Khe as a beach for lying on. The better reason to stay near it is the city's beach routine. Locals are in the surf by 5am as the sun comes up over the sea. By 9 or 10 the sand is close to empty, and by late afternoon the crowds are back, wading and picnicking into the night. Set an alarm once, walk down with a coffee from a street stall, and you'll see more of Da Nang in an hour than the Golden Bridge shows you all day. Come back at 5pm, when a free dance class of 30-plus locals and visitors works through aerobics-style routines on the sand, and nobody minds if you join in.

Where to Base Yourself

An Thuong (My An). The grid of streets a few minutes back from My Khe is where most independent travelers and digital nomads end up, with serviced apartments, fast internet, cafes like Six on Six for a working morning, and guesthouse rooms from about 375,000 dong. It's the easiest place to stay a week. The catch is the bubble, since menus here are in English and priced for visitors, and you'll need a Grab for the old center.

Hai Chau riverside. The west bank around Han Market and Bach Dang Street puts you near the Cham Museum, the cathedral, the morning markets, the bus lines and the noodle shops locals use, with the Dragon Bridge show on weekend nights at 9pm. It suits short stays and people who care more about food than sand. The catch is the riverfront restaurant row, where the same pho costs more than twice what it does three streets back, and the beach is a 10-minute ride away.

Non Nuoc and Ngu Hanh Son. The southern beach near the Marble Mountains is resort country, quieter and greener, with long stretches of sand and the road to Hoi An at your door. It suits couples and families who want a pool and plan to day-trip south. The catch is that almost everything else, including dinner, means a car, and some resorts sit behind walls that cut you off from the street.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Budget is the city's strongest card. A bare-bones day of dorm bed, street food and GrabBikes runs about 340,000 dong (about $13), and a comfortable day with a private room, a sit-down meal and a car or two lands around 600,000 to 800,000 dong ($23 to $31). A mid-range day with a 500,000-dong room and restaurant dinners is about 1,000,000 dong ($39). A 3-star hotel with a pool costs about 875,000 to 1,750,000 dong a night. Ba Na Hills is the one ticket that blows a budget, at about $38 before lunch.

Safety is mostly about roads and drinks. Petty theft, including bag snatching from passing motorbikes, happens across Vietnam, more around Tet. The UK and Canadian governments both warn about methanol in drinks, including in licensed bars in tourist areas, so stick to sealed, known brands and skip cheap spirits and street rice wine. Book taxis through an app, since unlicensed drivers are linked to assaults reported in tourist areas. On the beach, obey the warning flags, since tides and wind can whip up riptides, and the eroded stretches of My Khe have no-swimming signs.

The scams here are small. Taxi drivers sometimes park at bus stops and tell you the bus isn't running. Seafood places priced by weight, the ones with market price on the menu, can surprise you at the bill, so agree the price per kilo before they cook. At karaoke-style clubs, staff who join you for a drink may run up the tab. Haggle at Han Market, where foreigners get quoted more.

Cultural norms are easy to follow. Cover shoulders and knees at pagodas, Hoi An's assembly halls and the Japanese Bridge. Vietnam is a tolerant place for LGBTQ+ travelers, with no criminal penalties for same-sex activity, but same-sex marriage isn't recognized. Vapes are banned, and you can't buy them or bring them in. Carry cash for street food and the bus, and get your passport stamped and check the date on it before you leave the airport.

What things cost in Da Nang

Prices checked October 2026. Each links to where we read it.

ItemPriceSource
Hostel dorm bedUS$4-12 (about 100,000-310,000 dong) a night, a few higherHostelworld Da Nang listings, Oct 2026
City bus, flat fare inside the city8,000 dong (about $0.30)Wikivoyage Da Nang, Oct 2026
GrabCar, airport to city center80,000-130,000 dong (about $3-5)Da Nang Pointer, 2026
GrabCar, Da Nang to Hoi An old town200,000-350,000 dong (about $8-13)Da Nang Pointer, 2026
Train, Da Nang to Hue, soft seatAbout 106,000 dong (about $4)The Man in Seat 61, 2026 fares
Ba Na Hills cable car and park, adult1,000,000 dong (about $38); 500,000 dong for ages 18-25 through Dec 31, 2026VnExpress International, Sep 2026
Hoi An old-town ticket and Marble Mountains entry120,000 dong (about $4.60) and 40,000 dong (about $1.50)Minh Vu Travel fee list, verified May 2026
Street-food meal, such as a bowl of bún chả cá25,000-50,000 dong (about $1-2)Da Nang Pointer budget guide, 2026
Vietnam e-visa, up to 90 daysUS$25 single entry, US$50 multiple entryWikipedia, Visa policy of Vietnam, Oct 2026

Dollar figures use about 26,000 dong to US$1, Vietcombank's selling rate published October 4, 2026 (Hanoi time).

If Da Nang Is Part of a Longer Trip

Da Nang is the hinge of the north-south line, so it works as a stop on almost any Vietnam route. The Reunification Express trains stop here. Southbound from Hanoi, SE3 leaves at 7:20pm and reaches Hue at about 8am and Da Nang at 10:36am the next morning, and a soft-sleeper berth from Hanoi costs about 1,211,000 to 1,294,000 dong. Southbound trains continue to Quang Ngai, Quy Nhon and Nha Trang, and Saigon is a night and most of a day away. The usual sequence is Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An, then a flight south, which saves you the 18-hour ride.

For a regional loop, DAD has direct flights to Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei and Hong Kong, which makes it an easy entry or exit for a bigger trip that skips the Hanoi and Saigon airports. Overland, long-distance buses have linked Da Nang with Savannakhet, Pakse and Vientiane in Laos, so check the current schedule locally, and the e-visa accepts the Lao Bao and Cau Treo land borders as long as you list the one you use. If you're stitching Vietnam into a longer multi-stop trip with Siem Reap or Chiang Mai, AirTreks can route an open jaw into Hanoi and out of Da Nang so you don't backtrack.

Yearly Things to Consider

Foreign visitors come in the dry spell from February to April, when the rain drops to about an inch a month and highs run from the upper 70s to the upper 80s. Domestic travelers come in summer, when schools are out and the Da Nang International Fireworks Festival runs from June into July. In 2026 more than 100,000 visitors stayed over on each qualifying night, and Portugal won the final on July 11. Then the rains arrive. September through December carries most of the year's 87 inches, and October alone averages close to 25.

The timing advice that goes against instinct is to come in late January or May. January is cool, around 77°F (25°C), and the rain is tapering off. May is hot but before the summer rush and the typhoon window. Avoid planning a tight Hue and Hoi An itinerary for October or November, when floods can close roads and the Hue citadel.

Da Nang month by month

MonthTempRainfallSeasonNotes
January77°F (25°C)3.2 inShoulderCoolest month, rain tapering off. Quiet unless Tet falls late January.
February79°F (26°C)0.9 inHighDriest month. Tet often falls in February.
March83°F (28°C)1.0 inHighDry, warm and the best month for Hue and Hoi An.
April88°F (31°C)1.4 inHighStill dry and getting hot.
May92°F (33°C)3.2 inShoulderHot, before the summer rush and the storm window.
June94°F (35°C)3.3 inHighHottest month. Fireworks festival starts, domestic crowds.
July94°F (34°C)3.6 inHighFireworks final in early to mid-July. Beaches packed on weekends.
August93°F (34°C)5.6 inShoulderStill hot. Summer holidays wind down late in the month.
September89°F (32°C)13.8 inShoulderRains start in earnest. Typhoon risk rising.
October85°F (30°C)24.7 inLowWettest month. Floods, landslides and road closures possible.
November81°F (27°C)17.7 inLowHoi An's usual flood month. Cheap rooms, flexible plans needed.
December77°F (25°C)8.6 inLowRain easing, cool and grey. Few crowds.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in Da Nang

Day one, land at DAD, take a Grab to An Thuong, and spend the afternoon at the Cham Museum before a bún chả cá dinner and a walk over the Dragon Bridge, timed for the 9pm show if it's a weekend. Day two, get up for the 5am beach, then ride to the Marble Mountains at opening and continue south to Hoi An for the late afternoon and the lanterns, coming back by Grab after dinner. Day three, do Son Tra in the morning during the open hours, with Linh Ung Pagoda and the douc langurs, then lunch on bún mắm at Bà Đông and spend the afternoon in Han Market.

5 Days in Da Nang

Follow the three-day plan, then give day four to Hue. Take a morning train and sit on the sea side for the Hai Van stretch, spend the afternoon in the Imperial City and the evening on bún bò Huế, and sleep in Hue. On day five, hire a driver for the old road back over the Hai Van Pass, stop at the Hai Van Gate and Lang Co lagoon, and finish with seafood at Bé Ni 2 on the beach road. Swap in Ba Na Hills only if a theme park day is what you want.

1 Week in Da Nang

Split the week. Three nights in Da Nang for the beach, the food and Son Tra, two nights in Hue for the citadel and the tombs south of town, and two nights in Hoi An so you see the old town at dawn, before the crowds, and after dark. From Hoi An, take an early car to the My Son Cham towers, whose 150,000-dong ticket buys you the ruins in the cool of the morning. Fly out of DAD, 10 minutes from the beach, or carry on south by train.

2 Weeks or More in Da Nang

With two weeks, settle into An Thuong, where the serviced apartments, fast internet and laptop cafes make working mornings easy, and use it as a base. Mornings on the beach, afternoons on errands and noodle shops, and weekend trips out. Do Hue and the Hai Van Pass one weekend, Hoi An and the Cham Islands, by speedboat between May and August, another, and the train south to Quy Nhon a third. Take a basket-boat trip in the Bay Mau coconut forest and a pottery morning at Thanh Ha, then try learning a little of the local dialect, which even trained teachers default to here.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

Da Nang Travel FAQ

It's worth two or three nights on its own if food and beaches matter to you. Da Nang has the better everyday eating of the two, a city beach you can swim at, and the Marble Mountains and Son Tra within 20 minutes. If old architecture is your only interest, give Hoi An more nights and treat Da Nang as the airport.

Yes, but you have to name your entry and exit points when you apply, and you can only use the ones on your approval. Da Nang airport and Da Nang seaport both accept e-visas, and so do the Lao Bao and Cau Treo land borders with Laos. If you get an e-visa while already in Vietnam, you must leave and re-enter to start it.

Sun World runs a free shuttle with two morning departures from the Novotel on Bach Dang Street, at 8:30 and 9:30, with pickups at East Sea Park and the beach road, and one return at 4pm. Seats are limited, so register through Sun World's QR code a day ahead. The 8:30 bus gets you more time on the mountain.

The Da Nang International Fireworks Festival runs on weekend nights from June into July. In 2026 it had five qualifying nights and a final on July 11, which Portugal won. The city logged more than 557,000 tourist stays across the five qualifying nights, so book a room early.

It's one of the easier places in Vietnam to work from. An Thuong has serviced apartments with fast fiber, cafes set up for laptops, and enough restaurants that you won't repeat a dinner for two weeks. The trade-off is the expat bubble and the wet season, when October and November can mean days indoors.

Yes, more than 20 Bib Gourmand picks in the 2026 guide, most in Michelin's cheapest price band. They include Bún Chả Cá 109 for fishcake noodles, Bà Đông for bún mắm, Bánh Xèo Tôm Nhảy Cô Ba for crispy pancakes, Quán Nhân for duck porridge and two vegetarian places, Ngọc Chi and Shamballa. Many are cash only.