Hoi An

Hoi An is for remote workers who prefer bicycles to scooters and rice paddies to tower blocks. The UNESCO-listed Ancient Town is busy with day-trippers, but step a kilometre outside and life slows to a gentle pace of morning markets, tailors and riverside cafés. It attracts writers, designers and couples on long stays rather than hustle-minded founders.

Most long-stayers rent houses or apartments in Cam Thanh, Cam Chau and Tan An, which offer much better value than the old town itself, or out towards An Bang Beach for sea air. Hub Hoi An, set among the paddies between the town and the beach, is the main dedicated coworking space and runs a friendly community programme; a monthly pass is about four million dong. Outsite Hoi An offers coliving with round-the-clock workspace, and plenty of cafés along the river are happy to host a laptop for a few hours.

The town is flat and easy to cycle, Grab works for longer hops, and Da Nang airport is about 45 minutes away by car. Fibre is generally reliable and quick enough for video calls, though the sharp storms of the wet season can knock out power or connectivity for a few hours, so keep a charged power bank and a mobile data plan. A furnished one-bed outside the old town runs about US$350 to US$450 a month, and a comfortable lifestyle comes to roughly US$1,150. February to April is the sweet spot; October and November bring heavy rain and the old town regularly floods.

The drawbacks are mainly about scale. The nomad scene is smaller than in Da Nang, coworking choice is thin, and the old town can feel like a theme park when tour groups arrive. The flood season is genuinely disruptive, summer heat is intense, and anyone needing a hospital, a big gym or late nightlife will be heading into Da Nang.