5 Best Day Trips from Da Nang, Vietnam
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Da Nang’s real value is as a base, the city itself has no UNESCO World Heritage site, but three sit within a half-day’s drive: Hoi An, My Son, and Hue. These 5 day trips cover that gateway role plus the two built attractions everyone photographs, Ba Na Hills and the Hai Van Pass. Pick two or three depending on how many days you have, and see the full Da Nang guide for how they fit around the city’s own sights.
5 day trips, at a glance
| Trip | Distance/time | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| Hoi An Ancient Town | 30-45 min | UNESCO 1999 lantern old town |
| My Son Sanctuary | 1-1.5h | Cham Hindu ruins, UNESCO 1999 |
| Hue Imperial City | 2-2.5h | Vietnam’s first UNESCO site, 1993 |
| Ba Na Hills/Golden Bridge | 40 min | Built 2018 theme park, record cable car |
| Hai Van Pass | 20km of pass road | Coastal mountain drive to Hue |
Hoi An Ancient Town, the one everyone does
About 30-45 minutes south by car, Hoi An’s Ancient Town was inscribed by UNESCO in 1999 for its well-preserved former trading port, lantern-lit streets, the Japanese Covered Bridge, and old merchant houses turned tailor shops. It’s the single most popular Da Nang-area day trip, and plenty of travelers end up basing there instead of in Da Nang itself for a night or two. Book a Hoi An day tour if you’d rather have transport sorted.
My Son Sanctuary, the Cham ruins
About 1-1.5 hours southwest, My Son is a cluster of roughly 71 standing Cham Hindu temple structures built over ten centuries, 4th to 14th, dedicated mainly to Shiva. UNESCO inscribed it in 1999, the same year as Hoi An, and it pairs naturally with a stop at Da Nang’s Cham Museum beforehand, since many of the museum’s artifacts were recovered from this exact site. Some tours combine the visit with a return boat ride down the Thu Bon River.
Hue Imperial City, Vietnam’s first UNESCO site
About 2-2.5 hours north over the Hai Van Pass, Hue was Vietnam’s imperial capital under the Nguyen Dynasty from 1802 to 1945, and its Complex of Hue Monuments, the Imperial City, Forbidden Purple City, and royal tombs, became Vietnam’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993, ahead of both Hoi An and My Son. The scenic Da Nang-Hue coastal train is a genuine alternative to driving, roughly 3 hours over roughly 103km, and it’s worth timing northbound for daylight over the pass.
Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge, honestly
A 40-minute drive west, Ba Na Hills is a built hilltop theme park (SunWorld Ba Na Hills) on the site of a 1919 French hill station, reached by a record-setting cable car opened in 2013. The Golden Bridge, the “hands” bridge, opened in June 2018, it’s spectacular and genuinely touristy, not an ancient or historic site, so go in expecting crowds and theme-park pricing rather than heritage sightseeing. As of January 2026, a single ticket runs 3 consecutive days with unlimited cable car rides (verify current pricing before you book).
The Hai Van Pass, the drive itself
The “Ocean Cloud Pass” runs about 20km between Da Nang and Hue, famous internationally after a Top Gear feature calling it one of the world’s great coastal drives, with views down roughly 500m to Da Nang Bay. Most travelers do it by motorbike or car en route to or from Hue rather than as a standalone trip, since the newer Hai Van Tunnel lets buses and most traffic skip it entirely, leaving the old pass road quieter for anyone doing it for the view.
Can you do Hoi An, My Son, and Hue all in one day?
Not comfortably. Hoi An alone deserves a half-day minimum, and combining it with My Son the same day is tight but doable with an early start. Hue is genuinely a separate day given the 2-2.5 hour drive each way, most itineraries give it an overnight instead. See our 7-day itinerary for how to sequence all three without rushing.
Is Ba Na Hills worth a full day?
Yes, if the Golden Bridge photo and the cable car ride matter to you, but budget the whole day, queues for both the cable car and the bridge itself add up fast on weekends.
One concrete tip: book Hoi An and My Son as a single combined tour if your time is tight, most Da Nang operators run this pairing daily, and it saves a second round of pickup and drop-off compared to booking them separately.