DA NANG · VIETNAM
Golden hands, marble caves, the open coast.
The Golden Bridge at Ba Na Hills, the cave pagodas of the Marble Mountains, the Hai Van Pass and the lantern lanes of Hoi An. Every good day in Da Nang, and every road up and down the coast.
Only here
Three sights you’ll see nowhere else.
Beaches and boat trips turn up in every coastal city. A bridge held up by two giant hands, a mountain full of cave shrines, and a town lit entirely by lanterns do not.
Hands in the clouds
The Golden Bridge
A cable car climbs into the mountains west of the city, and out of the trees a golden walkway curls into the air, held up by two giant weathered stone hands. At 1,400 metres the cloud drifts through the gardens of the French village behind it. There is nothing else like it anywhere.
- 1 Full Day Golden Bridge and Ba Na Hills Small Group Tour
- 2 From Da Nang/Hoi An: Golden Bridge Ba Na Hills Full-Day Tour
- 3 Da Nang: Golden Bridge, Lady Buddha, Marble Mt & Am Phu Cave
Caves and cliff pagodas
The Marble Mountains
Five marble-and-limestone hills rise straight off the coastal plain on the city’s south edge. You climb stone stairways past clifftop pagodas into caves where shafts of daylight fall on hidden Buddhist shrines, then come out at a lookout over the whole sweep of My Khe beach.
- 1 Da Nang: Lady Buddha, Marble Mountains, and Am Phu Cave Tour
- 2 Da Nang: Golden Bridge, Lady Buddha, Marble Mt & Am Phu Cave
- 3 Morning Small group to Marble Mountains – Am Phu Cave – Monkey Mountain
A town lit by lanterns
Hoi An Ancient Town
Half an hour down the coast, a UNESCO trading port frozen in the 1700s: mustard-yellow shophouses, a Japanese covered bridge, tailors working past midnight and a river that fills with floating candles after dark. Most days out from Da Nang end here.
- 1 Marble Mountains – Hoi An Ancient Town Sunset Daily Ingroup Tour
- 2 Lady Buddha, Marble Mountains, Coconut Jungle & Hoian City Tour
- 3 Linh Ung Pagoda – Marble Mountains – Hoi An Ancient Town Daily Ingroup Tour
Start here
The one almost everyone books first.
More Da Nang trips are built around this day than anything else on the list.
Where most people start
Da Nang's Most Popular Tours
Ba Na Hills, the Marble Mountains, Hoi An by lantern light and the Hai Van Pass. The days most travellers come to Da Nang for.
Where to begin
The days a Da Nang trip is built around.
The Golden Bridge, the Marble Mountains, Hoi An and Hue, the Hai Van Pass and the food by the sea. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big day up the mountain
How to do the Golden Bridge.
Ba Na Hills is an hour west of the coast, and the Golden Bridge fills with coaches by mid-morning. Three ways up, depending on how early you want to beat them to the hands.
Da Nang on a plate
A bowl this city kept for itself.
Da Nang doesn’t eat like Hanoi or Saigon. It has its own bowl, mi quang: turmeric rice noodles under crushed peanuts with a single grilled prawn. Then banh xeo crackling off the pan, bun cha ca fish-cake soup, and whole grills of fresh seafood along the My Khe sand after dark.
Read the guide: the best food tours in Da Nang →After the heat drops
The river is the place to be at night.
Da Nang lights up after dark. A dinner cruise drifting under the glowing bridges, the riverside night market along Bach Dang, rooftop bars over the Han, and a late seafood grill out on My Khe beach with your feet in the sand.
See the evening experiences →The coast
Thirty kilometres of open white sand.
The reason the city sits where it does: My Khe runs unbroken below the high-rises, the surf rolls in warm, and the headland of Son Tra closes off the north end. Out past the swimmers the Cham Islands sit in clear water an hour offshore, reef and quiet beaches the day boats run out to.
The coast, the islands & the water →The coast road north
Said to be the finest road in Vietnam.
The Hai Van Pass climbs out of the city into the clouds that named it, the road switchbacking up a headland with the whole coast falling away below. Old French bunkers and a stone gate sit on top; the Lang Co lagoon glitters on the far side. Most tours run it by jeep or by the back of a motorbike on the way to Hue.
- 1 Da Nang: Hue Imperial Day Trip, Hai Van Pass Train, & Lunch
- 2 Hue City and The Citadel via Hai Van Pass Daily Small Group Tour
- 3 Hue Citadel tour by authentic Train via Hai Van Pass from Da Nang
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Da Nang is a base. Stay by the beach for an afternoon, head a morning out to the Golden Bridge or the pass, or give a full day to Hoi An and Hue down the coast.
Around the city
Stay by the beach.The cave pagodas of the Marble Mountains on the south edge, the Lady Buddha out on the Son Tra headland, the Cham Museum and a long afternoon on My Khe sand. Days you barely leave town.
A morning out
Up to the Golden Bridge.The cable car up Ba Na Hills to the giant hands and the French village in the clouds, or the Hai Van Pass run north over the coast. The big half-days.
A full day there and back
Down to Hoi An and Hue.The lantern lanes of Hoi An and the Cham temples at My Son to the south, or the imperial citadel up at Hue. The long days that start at dawn.
On two wheels
The coast is built for a motorbike.
The best of Da Nang is strung along one coast road, and the easiest way to ride it is on the back of a local’s bike. Up over the Hai Van Pass, out around the Son Tra headland to the Lady Buddha, down to the Marble Mountains, stopping for mi quang at pavement stalls a coach would sail straight past.
See all 17 motorbike tours →Saturdays & Sundays, 9pm
A bridge shaped like a dragon, and it breathes fire.
The Dragon Bridge arcs gold across the Han River, and every Saturday and Sunday night at nine its head rears up and spits real fire, then sprays water over the crowd below. Watch from Bach Dang street with the city, or take a Han River cruise that times the loop to put you right under it.
Han River & Dragon Bridge cruises →By place
The icons, and the roads up and down the coast.
Ba Na Hills for the Golden Bridge. The Marble Mountains for the cave pagodas. Hoi An for the lanterns. Hue for the citadel. My Son for the Cham temples. Son Tra for the Lady Buddha and the headland.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
A food tour if you want to eat the city. A motorbike if you want to ride the coast. A cooking class if you want to take it home. A boat if you want the water and the islands.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Da Nang? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
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