Grand Mercure Danang

Set on Green Island, a wetland spit ringed by the Han River, Grand Mercure Danang rises 22 floors above mangroves and migrating birds, a strip of quiet cutting through central Da Nang. The airport lies ten minutes away by road, and My Khe Beach the same distance in the other direction, which makes the hotel a fixed point between runway and shoreline rather than a destination in itself. Rooms number 272 in total, most cut with wide windows toward the Han River, the Dragon and Tran Thi Ly bridges, or the hills beyond. Superior rooms run 26 square metres between the sixth and 16th floors. Suites, set higher between the 19th and 21st, open onto 52 square metres with a separate living room and a freestanding tub. Deluxe and suite guests get the Privilege Lounge on the 21st floor, where breakfast, drinks and evening canapés come with a view over Da Nang Bay. Downstairs, an outdoor pool sits under palm trees with the Tran Thi Ly Bridge on the skyline. It is a compact patch of calm inside a busy waterfront city. Dining runs from Cantonese dim sum at Golden Dragon to Vietnamese regional cooking at Veranda, with a Friday seafood buffet by the pool at La Rive Gauche. The hotel also holds a pillarless ballroom for events of up to 520 guests.