5 Days in Da Nang: Plus My Son Ruins
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Five days is enough to add My Son’s Cham ruins to the 4-day plan without dropping anything, city sights, Hoi An, Ba Na Hills, My Son, and Son Tra each get their own day. See the full Da Nang guide for the wider context, or the 6-day itinerary if you want Hue added too.
Book these before you go
- Vietnam’s e-visa , $25-50, apply 3-5 business days ahead
- Ba Na Hills cable car tickets, roughly 1,000,000 VND/adult
- A My Khe/An Thuong beach-strip hotel, $30-70/night in shoulder season
Day 1: My Khe Beach and the Marble Mountains
Check in on the beach strip, spend the morning at My Khe Beach, then Grab to the Marble Mountains (about 15-20 minutes, entrance roughly 40,000 VND) for Huyen Khong Cave. If it’s Friday through Sunday, catch the Dragon Bridge’s fire show around 9-9:30pm. Have Mi Quang for dinner.
Day 2: Hoi An Ancient Town
Grab or private car (roughly 250,000-350,000 VND, $10-$13.50 one-way, 45-60 minutes) to Hoi An Ancient Town, UNESCO-listed since 1999. Spend the day in the lantern-lit streets, and consider staying for an evening lantern walk before the drive back.
Day 3: Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge
Grab to the cable car base station (roughly 350,000-380,000 VND, 45 minutes), ride the record-setting cable car up to SunWorld Ba Na Hills, and cross the viral Golden Bridge. It’s a built 2018 theme park, not a historic site, budget the whole day for the crowds and queues.
Day 4: My Son Sanctuary
About 1-1.5 hours southwest, My Son Sanctuary holds roughly 71 standing Cham Hindu temple structures built over the 4th to 14th centuries, UNESCO-listed since 1999, the same year as Hoi An. Book a combined tour with transport included, since a self-drive round trip eats most of the day otherwise. Pair the visit mentally with the Museum of Cham Sculpture back in Da Nang, many of its artifacts came from this exact site.
Day 5: Son Tra Peninsula and departure
Grab up to Son Tra Peninsula (about 20-30 minutes) for Linh Ung Pagoda’s 67m Lady Buddha statue and the coastline views. Have a final seafood lunch near the beach before heading to the airport, about 10-20 minutes from the beach strip.
Should My Son come before or after Hoi An in the schedule?
Either order works, but visiting the Cham Museum in Da Nang before My Son (fit it into day 1 or day 5’s spare time) adds useful context to the ruins themselves. See our day trips guide for the full comparison between the two UNESCO sites.
One concrete tip: book My Son as a combined tour with Hoi An or the Thu Bon River boat return if your operator offers it, splitting them into two separate trips wastes a half-day of driving you don’t need to repeat.