Da Nang: 6-Day Itinerary
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Six days gives you Da Nang’s own sights, all three of the region’s UNESCO day trips (Hoi An, My Son, and Hue), and enough slack not to feel rushed on any single day. Da Nang itself has no UNESCO site, its real value is exactly this: a comfortable base for reaching all three.
Day 1: Arrival, the beach, and the Dragon Bridge
Check into the My Khe/An Thuong beach strip (mid-range rooms roughly $30-70 a night, verify) and spend the afternoon at My Khe Beach, roughly 9km of sand. In the evening, browse Han Market and walk to the Dragon Bridge; on Saturday or Sunday nights it breathes fire and then water around 9pm (verify current schedule). Dinner: Mi Quang, Da Nang’s own turmeric noodle dish, from a stall for a small sum in VND.
Tip: Grab from the airport into the beach strip runs roughly 40,000-130,000 VND ($1.50-$5, verify), quoted upfront in the app before you get in.
Day 2: Marble Mountains and Son Tra Peninsula
The Marble Mountains, about 8-10km south, cost roughly 40,000 VND entry, with an elevator up Thuy Son for around 15,000-30,000 VND if you’d rather skip the 156-step staircase. Huyen Khong Cave’s natural skylight is worth timing for late morning. In the afternoon, Grab to Son Tra Peninsula for the 67m Lady Buddha at Linh Ung Pagoda, free to enter, and watch for the red-shanked douc langur, a critically endangered primate found in real numbers almost nowhere else.
Tip: the langurs are most active at dawn and dusk, so a late-afternoon visit beats a midday drive-through for actually spotting them.
Day 3: Ba Na Hills
Ba Na Hills, about 40 minutes west, is a SunWorld theme park and cable car resort on the site of a 1919 French hill station, spectacular but honestly not an ancient or UNESCO site. Tickets run around 1,000,000 VND for adults, covering the record-setting cable car and the Golden Bridge. Grab to the base station costs roughly 350,000-380,000 VND ($13-$15, verify) each way. Book tickets online in advance to skip the gate queue.
Tip: bring a light layer, the altitude here, around 1,500m, runs noticeably cooler than the coast below.
Day 4: Hoi An Ancient Town
Hoi An, UNESCO-listed since 1999, sits about 28-30km south, 25-45 minutes by Grab, roughly 250,000-350,000 VND ($10-$13.50) one way. The Japanese Covered Bridge and the old merchant houses are the highlights; have cao lau for lunch, a noodle dish locals attribute to the town’s own well water. Stay past sunset if you can, the lantern-lit streets after dark are worth the later Grab back.
Tip: the old town core goes pedestrian-only in the evening, so agree on a Grab pickup point outside that zone before dark.
Day 5: My Son Sanctuary
My Son Sanctuary, also UNESCO-listed since 1999, sits about 69km from Da Nang, roughly 1.5-2 hours by road, often combined with a Thu Bon river-boat return leg. This cluster of Cham Hindu temple ruins, built across roughly ten centuries and dedicated mainly to Shiva, pairs naturally with the Cham Museum back in Da Nang, since many of its artifacts came from this exact site. A combined day-tour with transport and a guide typically runs $25-45 per person (verify current pricing), more efficient here than arranging a private Grab both ways given the site’s distance.
Tip: My Son gets hot and crowded once tour buses arrive mid-morning, an early departure from Da Nang makes a real difference to how much of the site you see comfortably.
Day 6: Hue, over the Hai Van Pass, then departure
Hue sits roughly 100km north, about 2-2.5 hours by road over the dramatic Hai Van Pass, or a scenic train ride along the coast. It was Vietnam’s first UNESCO site, inscribed in 1993, and the former imperial capital under the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945, with the Imperial City and a string of royal tombs. A single-day round trip from Da Nang is a long day, roughly 4-5 hours of driving alone, so this only works if your flight isn’t until late evening or the next morning; if you’d rather not rush it, our 7-day itinerary builds in an overnight in Hue instead. A private car for the round trip runs a few hundred thousand VND more than a standard Grab fare given the distance.
Tip: if you do the round trip, book your driver the night before rather than trying to arrange it same-day, Hue day-trip cars fill up early during peak season.
Read more: for a version of this trip with an easier final day, see our 7-day itinerary , which spreads Hue over an overnight instead of a single long day.