Hoi An, Riverside

The Riverside is a few kilometres outside the popular tourist spot of Hoi An. It is a beautifully-set series of villas in a lush garden along the river. The rooms are spacious, cool and classy, with a great wet room type bathroom and a lovely balcony overlooking the river (some rooms only). Unfortunately the main bar area, which offers relaxing views over the river and paddy fields opposite, candle-lit for the benefit of guests, backs onto a main road so is quite noisy.

Unfortunately, nobody rides for free at this top-end hotel. Our room rate of around us$80 included bed and breakfast and nothing else at all. Internet access, far from being free, was supplied at us$6 per hour. The standard cost in an internet cafe is between 30 and 50 cents per hour... A hamburger costs us$8 in a country where you can get a three course meal in most restaurants for us$6... the list goes on. They can organise trips and transport to local attractions, but the mark-up is well over 100% compared to doing it yourself.

Hoi An is a lovely place, with easy access to the long sandy beach which runs past China Beach to Danang. It is a great place to visit, but unless you have money to burn, I would recommend staying at one of the numerous other luxury places, whcih start from as little as us$40.