City Hostel Da Nang

Don’t stay here unless you hate yourself. A lot happened while I was there, and I first thought I was the only one, but the same things were happening to other people too. I took laundry in and they didn’t record my payment. I’d told them in advance that my linen and cotton clothes needed a cold wash on delicate, but they didn’t care. Clothes I’d got from the tailor the day before shrank, and they mixed whites with colors, so everything went bland. Breakfast was shit. I said I’m vegetarian, but they put meat in the pho. On the second day there was a dead rat in the common ground. There are 3 bathrooms and 3 showers for 2 floors, and one stall had no toilet paper for 4 days. The service is okay until you have a problem. The bikes are expensive compared with elsewhere, and honestly most of the staff are young and unprepared for the job. That’s the managers’ fault, of course.

The dorms and shared room were decent compared with other hostels, and the bathrooms were okay. My main suggestion is to put hooks on the inside of the bathroom doors. The service was the real standout. Ms. Ying was especially warm and helped me with a lot. As a Westerner, I’m often struck by how welcoming Vietnamese people are to strangers, and I enjoyed her curiosity about my Canadian-Chinese background.

The staff were wonderful, and they pointed me toward what’s still my favourite café in Vietnam, Cà Phê Muối Huế 3. The drinks were tasty and affordable, especially the coconut and salt chocolate ones. The dorm beds are arranged like a library, with tall shelves and each bed tucked into its own little space. Breakfast was basic: instant noodles with an egg one morning, tinned spaghetti with an egg another. There’s a simple rooftop, plus a tiny, gritty balcony off the dorm if you want to smoke without filling the room with fumes. Cleanliness was passable, though not great. Rain came through the window one day and blew onto my face, enough to be uncomfortable. The bathrooms felt cramped, with metal fixtures that were a bit rusty, and some grime wouldn’t wipe away. They provide cotton buds, but someone kept putting used ones back in the supply. There was also a persistent sewage smell despite the air freshener. The toilets weren’t somewhere I’d want to sit around on my phone, though maybe that’s how it should be.

The staff were nice, and the place should be fine for a couple of nights if you’re not fussy. The hostel itself is pretty run down, with mold in a lot of spots. Breakfast was instant noodles, a sunny-side-up egg, and instant coffee.