Crowne Plaza Hotel in Da Nang, Vietnam, is a pretty swanky new hotel. I think we all pretty much agreed that it’s among the nicest hotels we’ve ever stayed in.
The hotel has a travel desk of sorts, where staff will provide recommendations and assist in calling for taxis – it’s all rather convenient. That said, the travel desk is quite essential, as English proficiency in Vietnam is very low – much lower than I’d thought, especially given how touristy Da Nang and Hoi An are – and taxi drivers could never bring us to Hoi An Old Town where the sights are, but would always take us to the ‘modern’ part of town (where there’s nothing of interest to the typical tourist) first. Even communicating with the hotel staff in English or Mandarin (70% of Crowne Plaza’s guests are from mainland China) was quite a pain as I struggled to communicate, although the staff are patient.
The rooms are pretty, with a nice balcony. My side of the hotel wasn’t facing the sea though:
Unfortunately, the hotel still has some areas for improvement – the bathtub did not drain well, the weighing scale did not work, there were some faulty electrical sockets, the rooms were very dark (even with all the lights on) and there was no master switch – i had to turn off about 10 switches each night before bed.
On our last day, the hotel’s power was shut down due to some construction works, and it was promised that backup generators would kick-in to provide electricity. However, electricity only came on for about 20min at a time, following which there would be another 20min block of no electricity - what I presume was recharging of the generators. During the blackouts, the lifts could not work, hotel doors could not be opened using the guest key cards, and there was no water supply either – not exactly the best state of affairs.
Nonetheless, Da Nang has a nice beach with soft sand and few people:
It has a pretty darn nice pool area too – pity though, about the construction on the spa facilities right behind where I stood to take this picture:
Gamblers would also appreciate the adjoining casino (which was very quiet and empty) with its nightly musical fountain display. We passed by at least 4 other casinos on the way in from the airport:
All in all, Crowne Plaza Da Nang is a very nice resort, and I didn’t quite want to leave:
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