1. Start by sorting Da Nang into two piles

🧍 Da Nang solo: bike taxi fares, meals for one and a three-day timetable →

The things you have to reserve in advance in Da Nang are Ba Na Hills, My Son, Cu Lao Cham, the dolphin show, and a river boat timed to the fire show. Everything else you can decide on over breakfast. The Dragon Bridge, My Khe beach and the Marble Mountains either have no advance sale at all, or one you can safely skip and buy at the gate.

If this is your first visit, that split is the most useful thing to know. Five items need locking down; put those on specific dates and the rest of your week can follow the weather. The table below is everything worth going to see, with what it costs.

Six city sights sit ten minutes apart

Take the middle of My Khe beach as your starting point and drive to each of them: the Dragon Bridge is 3 minutes, the Cham Museum 5, Han Market 5, the Sun Wheel 7, the Marble Mountains 10, Linh Ung Pagoda 11. Three or four of those fit into a half day without any of it feeling rushed. Marble Mountains, lunch, the Cham Museum, then the riverside in the evening works exactly as it reads.

What comes after that is suddenly much further out. Ban Co Peak is 39 minutes, the Hai Van Pass 37, Hoi An 32, Ba Na Hills 32. Between 15 and 30 minutes there is almost nothing to go and see. That is why a Da Nang week ends up as some days spent inside the city and other days spent going one direction and coming back. Mixing the two in a single day adds a lot of time in the car.

Ba Na Hills is 34.8 km away and Hoi An is 26.8 km, yet both take 32 minutes. The Ba Na road is expressway and the Hoi An road runs through coastal traffic. Order your week by distance and you will get it wrong.

Out of town splits three ways

Once you leave the city, everything sits north, west or south. Group by direction and the day gets easier.

Put north and south on the same day and you cross the city twice. Catch rush hour and that alone runs over an hour. One direction per day is the simple rule.

The money is concentrated in one place

Only Ba Na Hills is genuinely expensive at 1,000,000 VND for an adult. The Marble Mountains at 40,000, the Cham Museum at 60,000 and the Sun Wheel at 140,000 come to 240,000 VND together. The Dragon Bridge, My Khe, Linh Ung Pagoda, Han Market and the night markets are all free. Your daily spend in Da Nang is set by transport and food far more than by admission.

2. Hoi An and My Son are inside Da Nang city now

On 1 July 2025 Quang Nam province was merged into Da Nang city. Hoi An and My Son used to sit in the neighbouring province and are now inside the same municipality. It is an administrative change and there is nothing a visitor has to do differently because of it.

What you will notice is inconsistent addresses. Some Hoi An hotels still list Quang Nam, others have switched to Da Nang. They mean the same place.

It widens what “things to do in Da Nang” covers

Hoi An and My Son used to be written up as day trips out of the city. Now that they share a municipality, more people put them into the Da Nang itinerary from the start. The drive is unchanged: 32 minutes to Hoi An, 46 to My Son.

If you search for accommodation by area name, Hoi An properties can appear in Da Nang results. Booking one when you meant to sleep near the beach puts you 32 minutes away from it, so check the pin on the map before you confirm.

3. What to reserve, and how far ahead

The reasons for booking early are not the same in each case. Sometimes tickets run out, sometimes there are only two performances a day, and sometimes there is simply no way of getting there without arranging one. Knowing which applies tells you how early to act.

For some places the car matters more than the ticket

My Son and Hue are not ticket problems. You can buy entry at the gate; the difficulty is getting there. My Son is 46 km out with no city bus service. Hue is 98 km away over or under the Hai Van Pass. For both, arrange a private car or a tour first and let the date follow.

Hoi An is the opposite. Grab goes there, and so does the yellow public bus. Fares and journey times are compared in getting from Da Nang to Hoi An.

Grab and Green SM are easy to find in the city and much harder to find when you are trying to leave Ba Na Hills or My Son. People book a one-way ride out, assume they will sort the return on the spot, and lose an hour waiting. Fix the return leg at the same time as the outbound.

Where booking online actually saves money

The dolphin show is 350,000 VND at the box office and 315,000 VND online. Nui Than Tai is 490,000 at the gate and 450,000 to 475,000 online. Ba Na Hills is also lower online. The Marble Mountains, the Cham Museum and the Hoi An Ancient Town ticket are sold at their own booths only, so there is nothing to look for in advance.

Using a booked ticket when you get there

Most places scan the QR code straight off your phone. Where a paper ticket is required there is an exchange window beside the box office. At busy sites such as Ba Na Hills the exchange queue and the entry queue are different lines, so check which one you are in before you join it.

Screenshot your confirmation. Signal is slow on the mountain and out at the ruins, and an email that will not load is no use at a turnstile. If you want data from the moment you land, see the eSIM guide.

4. Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge

An adult ticket to Ba Na Hills is 1,000,000 VND in 2026. Children and anyone over 70 pay 800,000 VND. Da Nang residents pay 650,000 and 550,000, which does not apply to visitors. The return cable car and almost everything on the mountain are covered by that single ticket.

Since 1 January 2026 one ticket has been valid for three consecutive days. It gives you unlimited cable car rides for 72 hours from first use, which makes staying a night at the top and going back up the next morning practical. The site is too large for one day, so the change is genuinely useful.

What the ticket covers and what it does not

The Golden Bridge, the French village streets, the flower gardens, Moon Castle, the Sun God waterfall, the indoor Fantasy Park and the mountain railway are all included. The alpine coaster, the wax museum and food are extra. Ticket holders also get a voucher for a draught beer or a snack at designated outlets.

What is actually up there

The Golden Bridge is one attraction among many. Plenty of people photograph the bridge and go straight back down, which leaves most of what they paid for unused.

The French Village is a square, a church and cobbled lanes, and it is where the restaurants are; mains run 150,000 to 400,000 VND. Fantasy Park is indoors, so it works in rain and it is where children stay longest. Moon Castle is a newer indoor section, and the Sun God waterfall and Eclipse Square are photograph stops. The flower gardens are replanted through the year, so there is always something in bloom.

The alpine coaster is a single-seat sled that runs down the hillside with a hand brake you control yourself. It is 100,000 VND at peak times and 70,000 VND early and late; three-ride bundles sell on site for around 180,000 VND.

The cable car has several lines

Seven cable car routes run up and down the mountain, and where you come out depends on which station you board at. The Toc Tien Waterfall to Indochine line covers 5,771 m without stopping. The system holds four Guinness records, two of which are the longest non-stop single-rope cable car at 5,801 m and the greatest height difference between stations at 1,368 m.

To reach the Golden Bridge directly, board at Hoi An station towards Marseille and walk two to five minutes at the top. Take a summit line first and you have to come back down to the bridge, and the quiet early hour is gone.

What time to go up

Opening hours are broadly 08:00 to 22:00, with a 07:00 start in peak season, and the last cable car down is around 22:00. The highlights take six to eight hours; seeing everything takes two days.

The Golden Bridge sits at 1,414 m and the summit at 1,487 m, 7 to 8 degrees cooler than the coast, so mornings are chilly even in summer. Bring a light layer. Cloud tends to sit on the peak in the morning and lift during the afternoon. If photographs are the point, take the first cable car, cross the bridge while it is quiet, and spend the wait for the cloud to clear in the village section.

Getting up there

Three ways run from the city to the cable car station. Grab or Green SM is 300,000 to 400,000 VND one way. A private car with the driver waiting is 700,000 to 900,000 VND for a four-seater. A shuttle with hotel pickup is 200,000 to 300,000 VND per person, collecting at 07:00 to 08:00 and returning between 15:30 and 17:00.

With three or four people the private car works out below the shuttle and leaves your timing open. Alone or as a pair, the shuttle wins. Between 16:00 and 18:00 app cars are hard to get on the mountain road, so settle the return before you go up.

Everything on the mountain is covered in the full Ba Na Hills guide, the photograph positions on the bridge in the Golden Bridge guide, and staying the night in Ba Na Hills overnight.

Ba Na Hills cable car station📍Map

5. My Son and the Cham towers

Entry to My Son is 150,000 VND and the site opens 06:30 to 17:30. That price includes the electric buggy from the ticket office into the valley and the Cham dance performance. It is 46 km from My Khe beach, a 46-minute drive.

The Champa kingdom built Hindu temples in this valley from the 4th century to the 13th. Because they kept building in the same place for the better part of a thousand years, styles from very different periods stand side by side. It became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999.

Nobody knows how the bricks hold together

The Cham laid their bricks without mortar between them, and a thousand years later the joints have not opened. What they bonded them with has never been established. Where modern restorers filled gaps with cement the colour is different, so you can pick out original brickwork by eye as you walk.

Bombing in the war destroyed a lot of it

Group A, the largest, was almost entirely lost to bombing in 1969. What survives well is groups B, C and D. Bullet damage is still visible on the standing towers. A few information boards carry photographs from before the bombing, which are worth stopping at.

Why people go early

My Son is brick and open sky with very little shade, and by midday the ground is hot. Arriving between 07:00 and 09:00 gets you thinner crowds and a bearable temperature. The Cham dance runs several times a day and the morning performance is the easier one to catch. Two hours is enough to walk the site.

If the carvings are what interest you, see the Cham Museum in the city first. The site has the foundations and the towers; a great many of the sculptures were moved into that museum. Doing it in that order means you recognise more when you get here.

Pairing it with Hoi An

My Son to Hoi An is a little over 40 km. Ruins in the morning, across to Hoi An around lunch, the Ancient Town until evening, then back to Da Nang makes a complete day. A private car for the day handles that route best, and the combination is common in tour listings too.

Group by group, the site is covered in the My Son guide.

My Son Sanctuary📍Map

6. Cu Lao Cham only works when the boats run

Speedboats to Cu Lao Cham run from March to September. From October through February the swell stops them regularly. Sailings get cancelled on the morning even when you have paid, so if you are travelling in that window keep a fallback plan for the day.

Boats leave from Cua Dai pier at Hoi An, 25 km and 31 minutes from My Khe beach, and the crossing takes 20 to 30 minutes. The group is eight islands scattered 15 km off Hoi An, and only one of them, Hon Lao, is inhabited.

What the day looks like

Most trips are a single day: snorkelling, a walk through the fishing village and Hai Tang Pagoda, a seafood lunch, and back. The water is shallower and calmer than at Nha Trang or Phu Quoc, which makes it easier going with children.

The usual shape is an 08:00 departure from the pier, on the island within half an hour, one or two snorkelling stops through the morning, lunch in the village, the village and pagoda in the afternoon, and a return around 14:00 or 15:00. You are back at your Da Nang hotel by late afternoon.

Snorkelling gear is normally included. The water is shallow enough that floating in a life jacket is enough to see coral. Do not stand on it, though; this is a protected area and the guides will stop you.

It became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve on 26 May 2009 and covers 33,475 hectares. The islands hold events on that anniversary each year.

Single-use plastic bags are banned and screened at the pier, so do not pack any. There is no ATM on the island, so bring small notes.

Sleeping on the island and the boat timetable are in the Cu Lao Cham day trip guide.

7. A day in Hoi An

Hoi An Ancient Town is 26.8 km from My Khe beach, a 32-minute drive. The 120,000 VND Ancient Town ticket admits you to five of twenty-two heritage buildings. Walking the streets, crossing the bridges and looking at the lanterns in the evening are all free.

The ticket is for the old merchant houses, the Chinese assembly halls, the museums and the inside of the Japanese Covered Bridge. You do not have to use all five, and you buy it at a booth at the edge of the old town.

Day and night are different visits

Daylight is for going inside the houses and halls; after sunset the lanterns come on and the streets change completely. Most people therefore arrive in the afternoon and stay through the evening. That is where the My Son morning plus Hoi An afternoon route comes from.

Cars cannot enter the old town. Grab drops you at the edge and you walk in from there, over flat and short distances.

Choosing your five

The busiest is the Japanese Covered Bridge, a roofed bridge said to have been built by Japanese merchants in the 16th century. Crossing it is free; the ticket is for the shrine inside.

For the rest, pick among the old houses and assembly halls. Tan Ky House and Phung Hung House show the merchant layout clearly, and the Fujian Assembly Hall is the largest of them. Trying to use all five in one visit is tiring, so two or three and more time in the streets is the better day.

Tailoring takes longer than a day trip allows

Hoi An has a great many tailors. Measuring, a fitting and collection takes one to two days, which does not fit a single day trip. If you are in Da Nang for several nights you can go over once to be measured and again to collect. How to pick a shop is in things to do in Hoi An.

The lanterns peak on the 14th lunar night

Lanterns are lit every evening. On the 14th night of each lunar month the shops switch off their electric lights and leave only lanterns burning, and that is also when most of the paper lanterns are floated on the river. Dates for each month are listed in the Hoi An lantern festival guide.

The town floods in the wet months

In many years the old town goes under water in October and November. The riverside shops close first and it takes days to drain. If you are travelling then, read Da Nang when it rains and have an alternative ready.

What to do there is in things to do in Hoi An and the town as a whole in the Hoi An travel guide. Cooking classes and basket boats have their own pages at Hoi An cooking class and basket boat rides.

Hoi An Ancient Town📍Map

8. Going as far as Hue

Hue is 98.6 km from My Khe beach, one hour and 28 minutes by car. It is the longest day trip out of Da Nang and takes close to three hours of driving in total. People still go because the Nguyen dynasty citadel and the imperial tombs are there.

Under-sevens are free. The citadel and two tombs is a comfortable day. Add a third and you spend the day travelling between them.

Inside the citadel

The citadel is a large walled complex. You enter through Ngo Mon gate, pass the Thai Hoa palace, cross the ground where the Forbidden Purple City stood and continue to the gardens at the back. Much of it was destroyed during the war and a good deal is open ground with restoration work continuing. A circuit takes about two hours.

The tombs are spread 10 to 20 minutes apart by car outside the city. Khai Dinh is small but faced in concrete and broken porcelain, so it looks nothing like the others. Tu Duc has wide gardens and a lake and is the pleasant one to walk. Minh Mang is laid out symmetrically. With time for only one, Khai Dinh is the quickest.

Over the pass or through the tunnel

The Hai Van Pass is on the way, its summit 32.9 km and 37 minutes from My Khe. Going over it you can stop where Lang Co bay opens up below; the tunnel saves about 20 minutes. Say which you want when you book a private car, because a driver given no instruction will take the tunnel.

Over the pass on the way out and through the tunnel coming back gets you the view without the time penalty twice. Most drivers will do this if you ask in advance.

The train

Da Nang to Hue takes about two and a half hours by rail, and the line runs along the coastal cliffs, which is a stretch you never see if you drive through the tunnel. Timetables and seat classes are in the Da Nang to Hue train.

Lap An Lagoon is on the far side

Over the pass, 51 km out, is Lap An Lagoon, a shallow stretch lined with the poles of oyster farms and a common photograph stop on the way to Hue. Go at low water and more of the poles are exposed. See Lap An Lagoon and the Hai Van Pass.

What to see once you are there is in the Hue day trip guide.

9. The Han River boats and the 21:00 problem

To watch the fire show from the water your boat has to be out at 21:00. Sailings leave the quay from 18:00 through the 21:00 hour, and the early ones are back before the show starts. When you buy, check the sailing against the show time rather than the departure time.

150,000 VND is the commonest price. Children are charged by height rather than age, and up to 1.3 m pay about 70 to 75 per cent of the adult fare.

What changes from the water

The boats run up and down past the Dragon Bridge, the Han River Bridge and the Tran Thi Ly Bridge in turn. Each is lit a different colour, so from the river you see the sequence. From under the bridge you are looking straight into the dragon’s head; from the boat you get the whole span and the lit riverfront together.

The fire show itself is free from the bridge and from either bank. What the ticket pays for is the angle and a seat. On a first visit it is reasonable to watch from the bank once and decide about the boat afterwards.

The pontoons are spread along Bach Dang street on the west bank rather than gathered in one place. Check the address on your ticket. Knowing only the boat’s name gets you to the wrong quay.

How to pick a boat and where each pontoon is: the Han River night cruise guide.

10. The dolphin show

Performances run twice a day, at 10:00 and 15:00, and the theatre is closed on Tuesdays. A show lasts 40 minutes. Tickets are 350,000 VND at the door and 315,000 VND booked online, and children under 1 m go free.

The theatre is indoors, so rain makes no difference to it, which is why it appears on every list of what to do in Da Nang in bad weather. It is 20 to 30 minutes from My Khe beach and a fare of 150,000 to 250,000 VND. From Hoi An Ancient Town it is closer, 8 to 10 km.

Sea lions appear as well as dolphins. Part of the show involves calling children up to the stage, so sitting near the front raises your chances of being picked. Photographs with the dolphins afterwards are charged separately.

What to pair it with

The theatre sits between Da Nang and Hoi An. Take the 10:00 show on a Hoi An day and carry straight on to the old town afterwards. Take the 15:00 show and you are back in Da Nang for dinner. Either way you avoid doubling back.

Nothing runs on Tuesdays. If your trip has only one Tuesday in it and you had put the dolphin show on that day, move it.

Seating and what the show contains: the dolphin show guide.

11. Hot springs and the indoor water park

Two places in Da Nang give you a whole day in water. One is up in the hills and one is by the sea, and they are not interchangeable.

Nui Than Tai hot springs

It sits in the hills on the road to Ba Na Hills, 31 km from My Khe beach, a 47-minute drive. A full-day ticket is 490,000 VND at the gate and 450,000 to 475,000 VND online. Entry after 14:00 is 390,000 VND. Doors open at 08:30.

Inside there are open-air stone baths, a water park and a dinosaur-themed section. A natural spring lets you boil eggs in it, which is particular to this park. Speciality baths cost extra: tea and lemongrass 150,000 VND, coffee or milk 250,000 VND, wine 300,000 to 400,000 VND. A locker is 30,000 VND.

Because it is in the same direction as Ba Na Hills, people often pair them, doing the mountain in the morning and stopping at the springs on the way down. Both take half a day each, though, so combining them makes for a late evening.

Mikazuki water park

This one is on the coast, 12 km and 15 minutes from My Khe beach. Water park entry is 325,000 VND on weekdays and 375,000 VND at weekends; children 1.0 to 1.39 m pay 175,000 and 200,000 VND, and under 1 m is free. Indoors runs to 19:00 and outdoors to 18:00.

Combined tickets add the onsen and meals: water park with onsen and lunch from 475,000 VND, with a dinner buffet from 825,000 VND.

There are slides, a wave pool and a lazy river, plus a separate indoor water area. The onsen is built in Japanese style with separate men’s and women’s sides. Some onsen areas do not admit visible tattoos, so check first if that applies to you.

The indoor sections mean it opens in the rain. In October and November that matters a great deal.

Choosing between them: with young children Mikazuki is the better call, closer to the city and less exposed to weather. On a Ba Na Hills day, Nui Than Tai is already on your route.

Both have their own pages: Nui Than Tai hot springs and Mikazuki water park.

12. Golf, cooking classes and massage

These fill up rather than sell out. They are listed here in order of how far ahead you need to claim a slot.

Golf

Several courses run along the Da Nang coast, many of them with sea holes, and the season is year-round. You are booking a tee time, and in peak months a week is not always enough. Green fees and caddie costs by course are in the Da Nang golf guide.

Cooking classes

There are classes in Da Nang, but Hoi An has more of them. The standard format is a half day: a market walk to choose ingredients, then banh xeo and white rose dumplings. Groups run eight to twelve, so same-day places are rare. Some classes start with farm work at Tra Que before the cooking. See Hoi An cooking class and Tra Que herb village.

Massage and spas

A massage in Da Nang runs 200,000 to 400,000 VND an hour. City shops can usually take you the same day; resort spas fill their evening slots first. If you plan to walk all day and finish with a massage, phone in the morning. Prices by shop are in the Da Nang massage and spa guide.

An hour is enough for a foot massage; full body is usually sold in 90-minute slots. Booked between a day on the beach and dinner, it makes the next day easier.

A low price does not mean the same thing

Some city shops advertise an hour in the low 100,000s. Those tend to be small rooms with several people treated in the same space. For quiet, go to a shop charging 200,000 VND or more. Resort spas are several times that again.

Tipping is not required, though 50,000 to 100,000 VND is common. Some shops do not take cards, so carry cash.

13. Everything you can simply turn up to

From here on, these are decisions you can make at breakfast. Either there is no advance sale or there is a box office you buy at on arrival. Most are free, and the ones that are not cost a few tens of thousands of dong.

Only three of these charge admission

The Marble Mountains at 40,000 VND, the Cham Museum at 60,000 and the Sun Wheel at 140,000. All three together come to 240,000 VND, a quarter of one Ba Na Hills ticket. How a daily budget adds up is set out in Da Nang travel costs.

Three of them are tied to a clock

The fire show is at 21:00, the Sun Wheel opens after 15:00, and the night markets are an evening thing. The rest can happen at any hour, so place those three first and fill in around them.

A day here can be free

It is entirely possible to spend a day in Da Nang without paying a single admission. In practice the day looks like this.

Take away the food and the whole day comes to the fares. Slotting one of these into a longer stay takes a lot of pressure off the budget.

14. The Dragon Bridge breathes fire Friday to Sunday

The fire show runs on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Vietnamese public holidays at 21:00. Nothing happens Monday to Thursday. It lasts about 30 minutes and costs nothing. The dragon’s head breathes fire several times over and then sprays water.

The bridge is 2.6 km from My Khe beach, three minutes by car, and it crosses the Han River in the middle of the city, so it is close to wherever you are staying. It is 666 m long and opened on 29 March 2013, the anniversary of the liberation of Da Nang. The dragon runs the length of the span in Ly dynasty style.

Where to stand

1. Be there by 20:30As 21:00 approaches the walkway fills up. Half an hour earlier and you can still choose a spot.
2. Take the head endThe dragon’s head is at the eastern end, the My Khe side. That is where the fire comes out.
3. Stay out of the sprayWater follows the fire, and the front few metres get thoroughly wet. If you are holding a camera, step back.
4. Leave towards Bach DangEveryone moves at once when it ends. Walking out to Bach Dang street on the west bank makes it easier to get a car.

Fares rise and waits get long in the minutes right after the show. Walk ten minutes along the river before you open the app and the price comes back down.

When the bridge closes to traffic

Vehicles are stopped 20 to 30 minutes before the show, so a Grab asked to cross at that time goes the long way round. If you are staying on the far bank, walk over beforehand. Standing on the bridge itself is the closest view. Once traffic stops, people spill off the pavement into the carriageway.

For photographs, 20 to 30 m back from the head works better than right underneath, where the flame overruns the frame and smoke drifts across it. There is nowhere to set up a tripod.

The bridge is lit on the other nights too

The lighting runs every evening; only the fire and water are limited to the three nights. If you land on a Monday you can still walk the river. South of the bridge there is a love-lock bridge and a carp-turning-into-a-dragon sculpture, both busy in the evenings.

What else to do around the river at night is in Da Nang nightlife, and the bridge itself in the Dragon Bridge guide.

Dragon Bridge📍Map

15. Fireworks on summer Saturdays

The biggest event in the Da Nang calendar is the international fireworks festival. Teams from several countries compete over the Han River across a series of Saturday nights each summer. The display starts at 21:00 and the evening runs about two hours.

If you are in the city on one of those Saturdays, leave the evening clear. The riverside roads close and the bridges shut, and if your hotel is on the far bank you may end up walking back.

Ticket or riverbank

Graded seating is built along the water, and the closer to head-on you sit, the more it costs. Plenty of people watch for nothing from the riverside instead. The free positions are at an angle and get crowded, so you need to be there a couple of hours early to claim a spot.

Everyone leaves at once and cars become both scarce and expensive. Check whether your hotel is within walking distance before you choose where to watch from.

This year’s dates, the seating grades and the workable free spots are in the Da Nang international fireworks festival guide.

16. My Khe beach and the early morning

My Khe charges nothing. A sun lounger and parasol is 40,000 VND for the day and motorbike parking is 5,000 to 10,000 VND. Vendors walk the sand selling coconuts, fresh juice and beer. The sand runs a long way, so there is room wherever you come in.

Sunrise moves by an hour across the year

My Khe faces east and the sun comes up out of the sea. In June that is 05:16 and in January 06:19, so a summer sunrise means being on the sand by 05:00.

Early on, local residents swim and the round basket boats come in with the night’s nets. It is also the emptiest hour on the beach. From 09:00 the sand gets too hot to cross barefoot, which is why people swim once in the morning and again in the late afternoon.

Swimming months and surfing months

Swimming is good from February to September and calmest between May and August. The swell builds from September through March, with October the most consistent. Lessons and board hire cluster in those months, and boards start at 100,000 to 200,000 VND.

Things sold on the sand

Surfboard and SUP hire starts at 100,000 to 200,000 VND, with lessons charged separately. Jet skis and parasailing are priced per run, so agree the amount before you start.

Behind the beach, Vo Nguyen Giap and Hoang Sa streets are lined with seafood restaurants. Pick from the tanks and it is weighed and charged by the kilo, so ask for the per-kilo price before you choose. Walking straight in from an evening swim is the normal way to do it. How to order without getting stung is set out in the Da Nang seafood guide.

Rip currents form between October and December. If a red flag is up, stay out. Lifeguards mark the safe area with flags and a line, so go by the flags on the day rather than by the month.

My Khe is not the only beach

The coast runs south to Non Nuoc and Bac My An and north to Nam O. Non Nuoc sits below the Marble Mountains, 15 minutes from My Khe, with fine sand and far fewer people. My An, in front of An Thuong, has the cafes and the surfers, and Nam O is a rocky local beach.

Beach by beach: the Da Nang beaches guide, and My Khe on its own in the My Khe beach guide. Which month the sea does what is in the best time to visit Da Nang.

My Khe beach📍Map

17. The Marble Mountains

Entry to the Marble Mountains is 40,000 VND. The lift is charged separately at 15,000 VND one way and 30,000 return, and Am Phu cave has its own box office and its own 20,000 VND ticket. Open 07:00 to 17:00. It is 8.1 km from My Khe beach, ten minutes by car.

The five peaks stand for wood, fire, earth, metal and water, a naming given by the Minh Mang emperor in 1825. Only one of them, Thuy Son, is developed for visitors, so there is no need to set aside a whole day. Two to three hours covers it.

The temples are inside the caves

Several caves run into the hill with Buddha figures and altars inside them. The largest, Huyen Khong, has an opening in its roof, so around midday the light reaches the floor. Tam Thai pagoda and the viewpoints look out over the coast and the city.

Huyen Khong and Am Phu are both said to have served as a Viet Cong field hospital and hiding place during the war. The American air base and China Beach were on the other side of the hill.

Am Phu is a different kind of visit

Am Phu is themed on the Buddhist hells. Going down, the scenes are built as sculpture along narrow, dark stairs; the route upwards represents heaven. Children can find it frightening, so it is worth explaining before you go in.

The floor is wet and the steps are tight, which makes flip-flops a poor choice. Some stretches need a phone torch.

The lift or the steps

From the main gate you either take the lift or walk 156 steps. The steps are shaded and manageable even in the middle of the day. If your knees would rather not, taking the lift up and walking down is a common compromise. The ground on top is uneven stone, so wear something with grip.

The Am Phu ticket is not part of main admission and it is sold at a different booth. Realising that after you are up the hill means walking back down, so decide before you start.

The stone workshops at the bottom

Marble carving shops line the road by the entrance and the calls to come in are constant. It is fine to keep walking. Unless you intend to buy, not making eye contact is the easier route. Larger pieces have to be shipped and are quoted separately.

Which caves in which order: the Marble Mountains guide.

Marble Mountains📍Map

18. Linh Ung Pagoda and the Son Tra peninsula

Linh Ung Pagoda and the Lady Buddha are free to visit, 8.7 km and eleven minutes from My Khe beach. The white statue stands 67 m tall, and the courtyard in front of it looks out over the bay and the city. Mornings avoid shooting into the sun.

The pagoda is partway up the peninsula and the peninsula itself is a great deal bigger. Enough monkeys live here that it is also called Monkey Mountain. The red-shanked douc langur lives in these trees and stays high in them, so binoculars help.

Going up to Ban Co Peak

The summit at Ban Co is 21 km and 39 minutes from My Khe. It takes that long for the distance because the road is narrow and turns constantly. There is a stone chess board and a sage figure at the top, which is where the name comes from, and the whole city is laid out below.

Automatic scooters are not allowed on this road. Brake failure on the descent has caused accidents and the peninsula management board enforces it. Manual motorbikes, jeeps and cars are fine. In some seasons you are asked to collect an access card at the checkpoint. Most scooters rented in the city are automatics, so check before you hire.

There are trees and beaches up here too

A banyan close to 800 years old stands beside the road, its aerial roots down all around it so that one tree reads as a small wood. There is parking beside it, and most people stop on the way up to Ban Co.

Small, quiet beaches are scattered around the peninsula, Tien Sa and Bac Bay among the better known. There are essentially no facilities, so bring water and shade. As above, the summit road has vehicle restrictions.

Half a day goes round the whole peninsula

Linh Ung in the morning, the banyan on the way, up to Ban Co and back down runs to about four hours. The road does not let you hurry. Cloud settles on the summit some afternoons, so if the view is the point, go in the morning.

The pagoda asks that shoulders and knees are covered. Wraps are sometimes lent at the entrance, but not reliably.

The pagoda and statue are in the Linh Ung Pagoda guide and the peninsula in the Son Tra guide. If you are thinking about a scooter, read Da Nang scooter rental first.

Linh Ung Pagoda📍Map Ban Co Peak📍Map

19. The Museum of Cham Sculpture

Admission to the Museum of Cham Sculpture is 60,000 VND, or 10,000 VND for students. Open 07:00 to 17:00. It is 3.7 km from My Khe beach, five minutes by car, and it stands right beside the Dragon Bridge.

The building went up between 1915 and 1919, put there by the French School of the Far East, the institution that pioneered the study and conservation of Cham material, with the archaeologist Henri Parmentier involved in the design. The building itself mixes French colonial style with Cham architectural motifs.

The carvings from My Son are in here

The collection holds roughly 2,000 sandstone deities, dancers and mythical creatures from the vanished kingdom of Champa, brought in from My Son and the other central Vietnamese sites. What remains at the sites is foundations and brick towers, so if My Son is on your list, come here first.

The rooms are named after the sites

Galleries carry the names of the places the work was dug out of: Tra Kieu, My Son, Dong Duong, Thap Mam. Moving from one room to the next changes both region and period. The dancer frieze on the Tra Kieu pedestal and the altar in the My Son room are the pieces usually singled out.

Connect to the museum wifi and an audio guide plays free. Scanning the QR code beside an object brings up its commentary. It runs in Vietnamese, English and French. The labels are in Vietnamese and English only.

An hour or two is enough

The galleries are not large, so an unhurried visit still comes in at one to two hours. It is air conditioned, which makes it a useful place to be in the middle of the day. Admission is free on Da Nang Liberation Day, Hung Kings’ Commemoration Day and National Day on 2 September.

It is walking distance from the Dragon Bridge. The museum in the afternoon, dinner by the river and the 21:00 fire show is a sequence that needs no planning at all.

What is on display: the Cham Museum guide.

Museum of Cham Sculpture📍Map

20. Han Market and the night markets

Han Market is on the west bank, 4 km from My Khe beach. The ground floor is produce and dried seafood, the first floor clothing and fabric. Mornings are when the stalls are fullest; by the afternoon more of them are packing up. Visitors mostly come for dried fruit, coffee and souvenirs.

A little to the south is Con Market, where local residents do their shopping and where the street food is. Han Market for gifts, Con Market for eating.

Prices are asked for rather than displayed. Starting at half the opening figure and meeting in between is the normal exchange. There is a lot of room on clothing and souvenirs and very little on fruit.

The night markets close at different times

Helio night market opens at 17:30 and shuts at 22:30, the earliest of the four. Son Tra night market runs to 23:30, so that is the one for a late start. Helio has Korean and Japanese stalls mixed in, which makes it easier if a child wants something familiar.

Dinner at a night market with a couple of beers comes to 150,000 to 250,000 VND a head. Grilled seafood and skewers dominate, and there are plenty of stalls grilling rice paper.

What Da Nang cooks that other cities do not

A few dishes are worth going looking for. Mi Quang is a regional noodle dish: thick yellow noodles with only a little broth, served with peanuts and rice crackers. Bun cha ca is a noodle soup topped with fish cake, and banh xeo with nem lui is grilled meat and herbs that you roll into rice paper yourself.

Coffee comes as ca phe sua da, strong and served over condensed milk. In a market it is in the 20,000s; sitting down in a cafe takes it past 40,000 VND. Dish by dish, mi quang and banh mi each have their own page with the shops worth walking to, and the whole shelf is in the Da Nang food guide.

What to buy in the markets is in the Han Market shopping guide, and what to do after dark in Da Nang nightlife.

Han Market📍Map

21. Asia Park and the Sun Wheel

The Sun Wheel is a 115 m observation wheel inside Asia Park on the west bank of the Han River, 6.2 km and seven minutes from My Khe beach. The wheel alone is 140,000 to 150,000 VND; children 1.00 to 1.39 m pay 70,000 to 75,000 VND and under 1 m go free. An all-rides ticket is around 200,000 VND.

The park opens at 15:00. The wheel starts turning around 16:00. Arrive during the day and the gates are shut, so put it in an afternoon.

Ride it around sunset

A rotation takes about 15 minutes. Timed for dusk, you go up in daylight and come down to a lit city. Sunset is in the 18:20s in summer and the 17:20s in winter, so the right hour shifts through the year. Check the sunrise and sunset table above and join the queue about half an hour before.

The rest of the park

A monorail circles the grounds on an elevated track with a view over the whole park. Themed zones represent different Asian countries, each with its own buildings and sculpture; the gilded dragon in one of them is the most photographed thing in the park.

Rides range from a carousel for small children to faster things. With children the all-rides band is the better value; for the wheel alone the single ticket is cheaper. With children it fills a half day.

The park is on the west bank, five minutes by car from the Dragon Bridge. On a fire show night, the wheel at sunset, dinner, then the bridge at 21:00 runs on from itself.

Travelling with children, see Da Nang with kids. With parents in tow, Da Nang with elderly parents covers how to cut the walking down.

Asia Park and the Sun Wheel📍Map

22. The riverside walk and the coffee

The cheapest way to spend time in central Da Nang is along the river. A promenade runs the length of Bach Dang street and turns pedestrian in the evenings, and the Dragon Bridge, the Han River Bridge and the Tran Thi Ly Bridge light up one after another, so you see all three as you walk.

South of the Dragon Bridge is a short love-lock bridge with a sculpture of a carp turning into a dragon beside it, lit at night and busy with people photographing it.

Evenings are the walkable hours

Temperatures drop after sunset and a breeze comes off the river, so distances that are hard work at midday become straightforward. Bach Dang street to the Dragon Bridge is a little over a kilometre, and crossing the bridge towards My Khe adds about two more.

There are benches and food stalls along the water, and walking for an hour after dinner is what most people end up doing. On weekend evenings part of Bach Dang closes to traffic.

Coffee starts at 25,000 VND

A coffee in Da Nang runs 25,000 to 60,000 VND. Ca phe sua da with condensed milk is the default, and egg coffee with a whipped yolk on top and coconut coffee are widely sold. The same cup on the mountain at Ba Na Hills is 60,000 to 90,000 VND.

Cafes cluster along Bach Dang by the river and in the An Thuong lanes. An Thuong is walkable from the beach and stays open late. Two hours in the shade there is an easy way to bridge the hottest part of the afternoon.

Individual cafes are listed in the Da Nang cafe guide.

23. Where to go when it rains

The wet season runs September to December. How the dry and wet halves of the year divide up is set out month by month in the Da Nang weather guide. Whole days of rain are less common than an hour or two of downpour in the afternoon that then stops. Having somewhere to be for that hour keeps the day intact.

The Marble Mountains look like an outdoor site, but the interiors are caves and they keep the rain off. Wet stone underfoot is slippery, so mind your shoes.

Bridging an hour or two

You do not need to be indoors all day. Get through the two hours that fall in the afternoon and the evening is usually dry. An hour in a cafe or an hour of massage covers it. The larger malls, Vincom and Lotte Mart among them, are reasonable places to walk out of the weather.

There is a 3D art museum in the city, the kind where you stand in front of a painted wall to be photographed. With children that is a comfortable hour, and it asks less of you than the Cham Museum.

October and November also bring typhoons through. Boats stop and the cable car stops with them. If Cu Lao Cham or Ba Na Hills is on your itinerary in those months, hold a replacement plan ready.

More indoor options are in Da Nang when it rains, and rainfall month by month in the best time to visit Da Nang.

24. What to keep, depending on who you are with

Nothing above fits into one trip. Who you are travelling with changes what goes in first and what you can leave out without missing much.

Cutting down the walking

If anyone in the group would rather not walk far, take the return lift at the Marble Mountains and see only the caves near the top. Linh Ung is flat from the car park to the statue, so it asks very little. My Son is dirt paths with no shade, and in that case it is the one to leave out.

With children, see Da Nang with kids; with parents, Da Nang with elderly parents sets out how to build the day. As a couple, pick one of the day trips and keep the rest of the week light.

25. How many days it takes

Two days covers Da Nang itself and four covers it with the trips out. Here is what fits at each length.

Mixing full days with half days

The six city sights are ten minutes apart, so three or four fit in a half day. Ba Na Hills, once you count the cable car and moving around at the top, takes the whole of one. So does Hoi An if you stay for the lanterns. In practice a Da Nang day is one full-day item with two half-day items around it.

Over four days and three nights that works out like this.

Fitting both the Hoi An lanterns and the Da Nang fire show into that third evening means leaving Hoi An before 20:00. If that feels tight, take one of them. The fire show is fixed to certain days and the lanterns are lit every evening, so reorder the days around the fire show.

Where you sleep changes the routes

Stay in front of My Khe and the beach, Son Tra and the Marble Mountains are close, with the river three minutes away. Stay in Hai Chau on the west bank and the markets, the museum and the fire show are walkable, with the beach ten minutes off. If you want to swim before breakfast, take the beach; if you would rather walk everywhere in the centre, take the west bank.

Day-by-day routes with times attached are in the Da Nang 3 to 4 day itinerary, and the trips out on their own in day trips from Da Nang. Accommodation by area is in where to stay in Da Nang.

26. Getting between all of this

Five ways of moving around cover everything above, and which one is right depends on where you are going.

App cars are the default

Grab and Green SM both quote the fare before you accept and neither involves haggling. Green SM runs electric cars, which are quiet and usually newer. Install both and take whichever has a car nearby.

If you flag a taxi in the street, check the meter goes on. Fixed prices get quoted at the airport and outside attractions, and comparing against the app fare settles it.

How far a scooter goes

The coast road, the Marble Mountains and the city are all easy on a scooter, at about 150,000 VND a day plus fuel. The summit road on Son Tra is closed to automatic scooters, though, and the lower slopes of the Ba Na road get fog and rain.

Riding legally in Vietnam takes more than an international permit on its own; a Vietnamese licence or a formal conversion is required, and an accident becomes an insurance problem without it. The detail is in Da Nang scooter rental.

Fares and payment methods by mode are in getting around Da Nang, and hiring a car for the day in Da Nang private car charter.

27. The order to build a Da Nang day in

To finish, the sequence itself. Work through it in this order and you avoid the double-backs and the closed gates.

1. Check which day the fire show falls onFriday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays at 21:00. See which of those your trip covers and keep that evening free.
2. Place the full-day itemsBa Na Hills, Hoi An, My Son, Hue. Pick the ones you want and give each its own date. None of them can share.
3. Arrange the transportMy Son and Hue need a private car or a tour. For Ba Na Hills, settle the return leg at the same time.
4. Fill the half days with city sightsThe Marble Mountains, Linh Ung, the Cham Museum, Han Market, the Sun Wheel. They are ten minutes apart, so the order hardly matters.
5. Keep one wet-weather option in reserveMikazuki, the dolphin show and the Cham Museum all run in rain. In October and November, hold one back.
6. Go easy on arrival dayIf you land on a night flight, leave the next morning for the beach or a cafe. Starting with Ba Na Hills makes the rest of the week harder work.

How to move around the city is in getting around Da Nang and coming in from the airport in the Da Nang airport guide. For bookable experiences on their own, see Da Nang activities.

Frequently asked questions

Read the full Da Nang travel guide

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