My wife and I visited HoiAn in 2008. We stayed at a hotel right on the river. Wonderful, even convinced the waitress' and waiters to jitterbug with us on the balcony overlooking the river that evening. Truly a great time to remember. Nice folks, great shops, prices are very reasonable. We enjoyed cooking classes at the hotel in the morning, enjoyed cooking our own brunch. But only after the head chef took us across the river personally to the open air vegetable and seafood market to buy our ingredients for our lessons. Lots of fun. The market on the river is amazing. So much seafood, and so fresh. We were surprised, not one trace of a "fishy" smell. How do they do it? So clean and neat. Can't remember the name of a particular noodle that is said to be made only there, because of the water used. Very tasty, sorry I can't recall, but seems to be popular there, probably ask any local and they would know. Had a terrific hand tailored suit made in less than four hours, for way less than a hundred dollars. They even delivered it to the hotel that evening, what a deal. Beautiful material, price included a new shirt and a custom handsewn tie that I got to pick out the material also. If you can, see HoiAn, nice place, I will go back. Beautiful architecture, especially along some of the river, very interesting. Boat rides available, but we preferred to walk. Take in more of the scenery,slowly that way, it seemed to us. As you can tell, we liked HoiAn.

You should also consider DaLat in the mountains. Beautiful French colonial, high in the mountains, cool mountain air, lakes, even has it's own miniature eiffel tower. It's here that they commercially grow flowers for a lot of that part of the world, we were told. The flowers in the market and street vendors are spectacular. Nice photo ops there. Stayed at a hotel across the street from the lake, what a sunrise. Watched folks doing their tai chi exercises all up and down the sidewalk on the lake at sunup. Wife found it magical, I enjoyed the coffee and early morning fare, al fresco on the hotel patio. Very nice hotel, "Emerald Palace?", "Emerald Hotel?", something like that. Great rooms, stunning views of the lake and mountains in you get a room on the lake side.