""In this video I will show you why I think Da Nang, Vietnam, is clearly the best city for digital nomads," Joose the Nomad says, his baby-blue eyes sparkling as he addresses his 80,000 YouTube subscribers. The video cuts to a sweeping aerial of Da Nang's skyscraper-studded coastline before lingering in slow motion on Joose running shirtless on the beach."
"Not everyone is impressed. "He shows the beach, the fitness studio, and some boring Westerner-focused food that doesn't really represent the city," Ngô Xuân Thảo tells me over a bubbling hotpot after I show her the video. Ngô, 38, is from Hue, 62 miles northeast of Da Nang. She works online as a translator and speaks near-perfect English. Her experience of this city, she tells me, is vastly different than his: It's a city with rapidly rising rents and a cost of living that's outpacing wages."
"Da Nang - described by The New York Times as "the Miami of Vietnam" in its "52 Places to Go in 2019" list - has become the digital nomad community's latest outpost in Southeast Asia. Vietnam was included again in the Times' 2026 list, as international attention grows alongside high-end developments, includingSoutheast Asia's first Nobu Hotel scheduled to open later this year."
Da Nang has become a popular destination for digital nomads, promoted with images of beaches, fitness culture, and Western-focused dining. International attention and high-end developments, including Southeast Asia's first Nobu Hotel, are accelerating investment. Local workers and translators report sharply rising rents and a cost of living that outpaces wages. The city's growth echoes patterns seen in Chiang Mai and Bali, where influxes of remote workers raised living costs, increased congestion, and fueled gentrification. Vietnam lacks a long-stay visa specifically for digital nomads, but growing tourism and real-estate development are reshaping the urban landscape and economic opportunities.
Read at Business Insider
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