Dong Hoi is the capital of Quang Binh Province in the North Central Coast region of Vietnam. The city aspires to be a major tourism destination, but many high-profile construction projects remain unfinished. This construction report is from my visit in August 2024.
I previously visited Dong Hoi in August 2019, so it was good to come back 5 years later to see what had changed. On the 2019 trip, I rode around with a local guide to have a look at some of the major developments. Dong Hoi felt like a city that wanted to be the next coastal success story of Vietnam. I remarked on that visit that Dong Hoi was like Da Nang 10 years ago. The two cities have similar geographic features, with the city by the river and a coastal area for tourism.
An Aerial view of Dong Hoi from my visit in 2019.
The late 2010s were a heady time in Vietnam, with big provincial coastal cities looking to become the next Da Nang or Nha Trang. Dong Hoi has a long beach in the city area, and international hotel chains are planned or under construction.
When I go on these research trips, I usually rent a motorbike and drive around to see what is happening. Sometimes I will look at the satellite view of Google Maps to see if there are any telltale signs of construction.
I started a Dong Hoi fact sheet on my last visit, and it has been updated for 2024 (Future Dong Hoi/Quang Binh – Vietnam). For this 2024 trip, I focused on the construction sites in the main beach area.
Dong Hoi coastal construction
Pullman Quang Binh
Dong Hoi looked like it was on the tourism map when it landed a Pullman hotel for its beachfront.
Pullman Hotel and Resort Quang Binh is on the main entrance to Bao Ninh Beach. The project had stalled in 2019, and 5 years later, the project remains unfinished.
Melia Park Hotel and Resort Quảng Bình
Melia Park Hotel and Resort Quảng Bình is on Bao Ninh Beach. It is at the entrance to the beach opposite the Pullman project. These two flagship brand names might have kick-started the Dong Hoi beach area development if they had been completed, but they both remain unfinished.
Regal Legend
It was obvious in 2019 that Dong Hoi had planned for more hotels than could be filled. I thought that the pandemic would have tempered the appetite for more construction projects, so I was surprised when I turned up to see Regal Legend.
Regal Legend Dong Hoi.
Regal Legend is a new urban area on Bao Ninh Beach. The design is typical of single-developer new cities in Vietnam, with rows of identical shophouses that are supposed to look like a European city.
Regal Legend under construction.
These sorts of developments are all over Vietnam, and I haven’t seen any that have become a vibrant urban area.
Regal Legend shophouses.
A feature of the project is a lake and a walking area.
Regal Lake Walk.
Regal Legend includes some apartment towers, and one of the towers was under construction at the time of my visit.
Regal Residences Luxury under construction.
Novotel is the biggest name to sign up for this project.
Novotel Hotel and Residences at Regal Legend.
La Celia City
Next to Regal Legend is La Celia City. This is on the same street grid, so you can just walk from one city area to the other.
A view of La Celia City from the streets of Regal Legend.
La Celia City is being developed by Mekong Group, and to make things confusing, there is a shopping mall here named Mekong Grand Plaza. Nothing wrong with a Southern company building here, but they should pick a name that reflects the North Central Coast region.
Mekong Grand Plaza at La Celia City.
La Celia City has more rows of colourful shophouses that give me uneasy flashbacks to the thousands of empty shophouses that litter the island of Phu Quoc.
Shophouses of La Celia City.
One thing that infuriates me about these modern shophouses in Vietnam is the lack of thought for mobility access. Small hotels in Vietnam often have steep stairs at the entrance, but some have a ground-level garage with a lift. The garage in these shophouses is in a basement. Even if you didn’t care about mobility, these stairs do not make the entrance look inviting.
La Celia City shophouses on Vo Nguyen Giap Road.
La Celia City wasn’t open to the public when I visited, so I couldn’t walk around the interior streets.
La Celia City – closed to the public.
La Celia City will feature a signature apartment tower complex that will break up the monotony of the rows of shophouses.
Advertising for La Celia City.
The three towers will be connected by a skybridge. These actually look good, so it is too bad that the rest of the “city” is all cookie-cutter sameness.
Three towers of La Celia City.
There are more shophouses at the southern end of Dien Bien Phu Street.
Shophouses on Dien Bien Phu.
Dolce Penisola Quang Binh
Dolce Penisola Quang Binh is next to La Celia City, forming the southern end of this major development area along the beachfront road.
Dolce Penisola Quang Binh.
The building has topped out, but there was no construction activity at the time of my visit.
Dolce Penisola Quang Binh construction site.
The two towers are a new landmark on the beachfront skyline, offering a hint of what the future Dong Hoi beachfront might look like.
Dolce Penisola Quang Binh, next to La Celia City.
These are the main projects along the Dong Hoi beachfront. I wasn’t surprised to see that the Pullman remains unfinished, but I was surprised to see the two new urban areas under construction.
Dong Hoi was talked about as the next Da Nang, but in Da Nang, they haven’t let developers build entirely new cities on the beachfront. There are numerous failed projects in Da Nang, but if one fails, it doesn’t take out the entire area. If these hundreds of new shophouses fail, then it will be a massive blight on the Dong Hoi beachfront.
I have written about not letting developers build entire neighbourhoods in my article about building better new cities in Southeast Asia.
I will come back to Dong Hoi when some of the apartment towers have finished and do another construction report.
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