You can bring photoshoot lighting equipment, they only forbid taking pictures in a few spots.

August is the rainy season, and much of the old town may experience some flooding as the river that runs through it rises well above street level, making biking or walking around difficult. Try to find a place on the small island over the bridge called An Hoi. There are many little homestays with different offerings on the island. It’s not as busy as the center of the old town, yet only 2 minutes away.

Sorry for the delay - I returned to Montréal as fast as I could! Therefore, I have no idea if it is closed, but I did hear through the grapevines that it was

Get your money changed at the airport or at your hotel - the only vendors that will take USD are the major tailors (1 or 2 of them). You can use your Visa/MC at most places also but the smaller street vendors need you to pay in Dong

I'm sorry we stayed just outside the ancient town at the Sunshine hotel.you can walk into town from here or the receptionist will gladly order a taxi for you..I can highly recommend it.

Better than a taxi, just download the GRAB app on your phone. You can either use a grab motorbike (cheap for one person but can be olé! olé!), a grab taxi (you pay according to meter) or a grab car (driven by an individual with his own car - this is the option we ALWAYS used and we had amazing service and amazing cleanliness all around)

I guess no, we haven’t seen any foreign exchange shop. Unless restaurant or souvenir shop accept foreign currency otherwise it’s better to hold local currency.

Just came back from Danang. Weather was Super hot! Average 36-37 degrees

I see some conflicting replies. Basically it is quite OK to walk into the town any time. See my post. There is no ticket for anything, unless you want to try the odd privately run home place where they are trying to milk the tourists. For me that was ok, everyone does what they need to make money. In summary old Hoian town is basically free. There are many cafes and restaurants and its all very competitive. That said its a great place to visit once, if you can handle the millions of tourists after 5.00. To be honest the best time to go is 6.30am for a few hours in the quietness of early morning and then 5.00pm onwards to see the craziness. 3 or 4 days and you are pretty much over it.