Is The Voco Ma Belle Da Nang Worth It? A First-Hand Look at IHG’s Trendy Vietnam Hotel

Rating: 4/5 (nice new property but jammed with tour groups, slow elevators. Also Da Nang is a boring city)

Price Paid: $86 USD per night (booked with my IHG platinum card, which earns 26x on qualifying IHG property stays. This stay earned me ~4,400 points, which at my valuation of $0.5 cents per point nets me back around $22, or 13% off the total stay)

Introduction

After a great stay just 15 minutes to the south at the Hyatt Resort Da Nang, it was time to head closer to the city center for my last few days in Da Nang. This would be my launching pad for exploring more of Da Nang City, as well as the Marble Mountains and Hoi An (the latter of which is around a ~1 hour drive away).

This was a generally very nice, new hotel that’s well located to explore Da Nang. There were a few drawbacks, but for less than $100 per night for a brand new IHG hotel, it’s hard to complain.

Vietnam truly offers some of the best prices in the world for tourism. The only difficult part is … getting there. At least from the US. But if you’re able to fly comfortably in with points, you’ll probably spend less money for a much more luxurious experience than a domestic US trip. Da Nang isn’t the greatest tourist city itself though for exploring, but more on that later…

In this post, you’ll find:

Check In & The Room

I arrived to the hotel in the late morning after checking out from my stay at the nearby Hyatt Resort. The hotel exterior looks new but bland, and is on the waterfront in a row of other hotels.

I have IHG Platinum status via my Chase IHG Premier Card, which was immediately recognized upon check-in. Key benefits I value are:

• Early check-in (I arrived at 11am, standard check in is at 3pm)
• Free wifi
• Welcome amenity (600 IHG points or a drink voucher…I opted for the latter given 600 IHG points are worth around ~$3)
• Complimentary upgrades when available (no luck for me this time)

The lobby was very nicely designed:

After grabbing my key, I headed straight to my room to dump my bags:

I was given a Ocean View room, which was super modern and new. Upon arrival, there was also a welcome amenity of chocolate and some local fruit waiting for me which I thought was a nice touch. I didn’t try the fruit (questionably washed fruit in Vietnam can cause… stomach issues), but the chocolate was great.

The room was stunning and offered great views of the Ocean:

Property Review

The property is located right on the beachfront of downtown Hanoi. Unfortunately, there’s a big boulevard right on the beach front of all of Hanoi (who designed that?), so you’ll have to cross that to access the beach.

The main downsides I experienced at the hotel were:

1. Very slow elevators, and too much traffic for them to handle. Sometimes I’d have to wait a few minutes in the busy morning periods for them to arrive, which is not ideal
2. There were a ton of massive tour groups when I stayed, which was kind of chaotic for check in / out, the breakfast buffet, etc (YMMV here, though)

Other than the well-designed rooms themselves, my favorite feature of the hotel was Ciela, the rooftop bar and restaurant. Prices here are steep by Vietnam standards but fairly cheap by western ($3 beers, $10 dinner entrees). The views are beautiful of the city here, and there’s a nice pool to cool off in:

And here’s a better view of Da Nang from the roof:

It’s also nice at night. I went up on a Friday night expecting there to be people hanging out, but surprisingly…completely empty? I thought February was supposed to be a busy time for tourism here…

Amenities and Food

The hotel features a daily breakfast buffet spread at their restaurant, Lyla. I went once – this is probably because the Hyatt set the bar too high in this regard, but I wasn’t too impressed. It was still an insane spread that sets any US hotel buffets to shame. However, it was insanely packed with tour groups and definitely wasn’t the most ~relaxing dining exeprience.

In terms of other amenities, the hotel also features a spa on the top floor:

There’s also a nice gym where I did a half-assed workout. I’m not sure what it is about traveling but I can never motivate myself / feel energized enough to have a proper workout. Jetlag? It was a very nice gym (and empty), but that also meant the AC wasn’t turned on an the floor was getting quite warm.

Things to Do Nearby

In my opinion, Da Nang itself doesn’t have a lot going on for it in terms of being a worthy tourist destination – at least for a time-constrained traveler. The city itself is fairly spread out and there’s no metro. It’s not a pretty city, despite being in a beautiful place. Honolulu vibes (I do love Honolulu though so…). Its biggest draw is it’s dirt cheap for a beach destination, but that’s about it. So if you have a month around Vietnam, it’s worth swinging by for a few nights. Otherwise, to be honest, I’d skip it.

However, nearby are some pretty cool things. The Marble mountains are just a ~20 minute drive away, and were definitely worth going for a quick day tour to. You can also easily take a rideshare (Grab) here, but I went with a tour group I found on Viator.

Hoi An gets mixed reviews from tourists. It does feel a bit like Vietnam Disneyland, but honestly, I thought the vibes here were extremely good and much more relaxed than in Da Nang. Honestly, I wish I had stayed here and will definitely opt to staying here if I’m ever back (there’s also a cool IHG Vignette Collection property I’d want to try out if here).

Da Nang itself though isn’t a total snooze. I visited Han Market, which was an bustling market jammed pack with clothing, shoes, and tourists from Europe, Australia, and America. I bought the classic tourist item (Grab driver jacket, yes cringe I know), which set me back the equivalent of $6USD. Pretty insane. Although to be fair, Vietnam is where a lot of clothing for low to mid range (i.e North Face, Patagonia) clothing is made. You just don’t have to pay the 10x markup for sales and marketing anymore if buying direct from the source.

Conclusion

All in all, the Voco Da Nang is a very nice property for a short stay. The rooms are great and it serves as a cost-effective base to explore the city, or to make a longer daytrip out to the Marble Mountains or Hoi An. However, the hotel did feel a bit “cheaper” in the sense that it was packed with tour groups and had long elevator waits. Although to be honest, for 86 bucks a night, how much more can I ask for? Next time though, I’d opt to stay down in Hoi An and skip Da Nang.