Hoi An ancient town in central Quang Nam province is the best place in Vietnam for foreigners who want to settle down in the country, according to the Canada-based travel site, The Travel.

Rankings were based on data garnered from Live and Invest Overseas, which calls itself the world’s “most trusted, most experienced, and savviest source for information on international living, retiring abroad, and investing”, and Numbeo, the world’s largest database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide.

The website mentions the ancient town’s “cheap cost of living” as making it an ideal place for expats to live. An apartment close to the river costs just $458 a month while monthly food expenditure is about $450.

Other cities in the list include Cuenca in Ecuador, the Tagaytay in Philippines, Bali in Indonesia, and Penang in Malaysia.

Hoi An has been praised by many prestigious international sites recently.

It was listed by CNN as one of the 16 most relaxing places in the world. “When the sun is out on the riverside, it’s hard to find anywhere more serene in this wonderful country. The cafés that line the water all serve bia hoi - a fresh, light local beer that’s brewed daily. Sitting in the shade, glass in hand, watching the world go by, is every bit as relaxing as an afternoon on the town’s long stretch of sand,” it wrote.

It was also named among the top 13 best destinations for solo travelers by Momondo, a UK-based travel site, and made a list the ten most-intriguing travel destinations in Southeast Asia in 2018, as voted by readers of Rough Guide, another UK-based travel site.

Hoi An was a leading trading port in Southeast Asia in the 17th and 18th centuries. Cultural exchanges took place, influencing the town in ways that remain visible today. Its architecture is a combination of Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese, with a little Western as well. It became a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site in 1999.

Hoi An welcomed 2.68 million visitors, including 2 million international tourists, in the first half of this year, increases of 70 per cent and 230 per cent year-on-year, according to its people’s committee.

SGGP