Sea and Sand Hotel

This place is very dated, apparently one of the first hotels in Cua Dai. The staff are lovely and helpful, but the room itself was a letdown. There was no shower curtain or bathroom fan, so the bathroom stayed wet day and night, and although towels were changed daily, both the towels and sheets had heavy stains. There’s a cellphone tower about 30ft away if you need a good signal. Noise is another issue: the hotel next door is undergoing major renovations, so you hear work all day. At 3:30am, the butcher at the local market starts chopping meat for the restaurants and is meant to supply them by 5am, so that carries on too.

The beachside location in Hội An was nice, but the owner’s behavior made the stay awful. From the moment we arrived, we felt unwelcome and judged. He kept rolling his eyes at guests, shouted at older customers, and was generally rude and disrespectful. That unpleasant atmosphere outweighed the good location for us.

The room we were moved into was dirty, with lots of stains, and even the replacement towels from reception had similar brown marks. Staff were friendly, though, and gave us a free upgrade because some work was going on. I do wonder what the first room would have been like. As for the location, check it suits your plans: it worked well for us when we wanted a couple of beach days after staying near the old town. But if you’ll spend most of your time in the old town, it’s a taxi ride away, so I wouldn’t recommend staying here for that.

We meant to stay a couple of days, then ended up extending twice because we loved it here. The staff were a huge part of that. They looked after us like family, and we felt welcome and comfortable. The hotel itself was comfortable, and the AC was excellent, especially the dry setting that takes the humidity out of the air. We enjoyed the breakfast, with local fruit and dishes on the menu. The staff also helped us rent bikes at a really good rate, and riding motorbikes around was so much fun. We’re sad to leave.