Masova Hotel Nha Trang

Masova stands at 100A Tran Phu in Loc Tho. On the seafront strip itself, the same road as the InterContinental and the Sheraton but at a different price altogether. It fills the gap in the middle: a clear step up from the backpacker-quarter guesthouses, without paying for a resort's infrastructure.

Its strengths are position and outlook. Step outside and you are on Tran Phu beach, and a high sea-facing room looks straight over the bay. The inland restaurants are a few hundred metres west. Close enough to walk out for fish noodle soup and back.

Know the trade every Tran Phu hotel makes: the beach out front is public, busy and worked by hawkers, quite unlike the private sand of a Bai Dai resort. You trade quiet for never needing a vehicle.

It suits a trip that moves: islands in the morning, the Ponagar towers in the afternoon, dinner out, where the room is somewhere to sleep and shower. If the point of the trip is a sun lounger, Bai Dai is the better spend.

Other places to stay in the Trần Phú strip: The Signature Hotel Nha Trang, XAVIA Hotel Nha Trang, Vinpearl Beachfront Nha Trang. Trần Phú beach is across the road, and the cafés around here are on the tourist-quarter page.