Places to See in Da Nang, Hoi An and Hue

What each place actually is, what it costs, when to go, and whether it is worth the trip.

This page is translated from Vietnamese. Prices and opening hours are checked against Vietnamese sources — see the Vietnamese version for the most recent update.

Nam O Fishing Village — Where Da Nang's Fish Sauce Comes From At the foot of the Hai Van Pass is a village that ferments anchovies in wooden vats for twelve months to draw off the first few drops.
Han Market — Where People in Da Nang Send You for Souvenirs Ask anyone in Da Nang where to buy food to take home and nine will say Han Market. The tenth will say Con Market.
Con Market — Da Nang's Street Food Headquarters People in Da Nang do not go to Con Market to shop. They go to eat.
Son Tra Peninsula — Da Nang's Green Lung and Its Empty Beaches Twenty minutes from the city centre: old-growth forest, monkeys crossing the road, and beaches with almost nobody on them.
The Marble Mountains — Five Limestone Hills and a Stone Carving Village Five limestone hills rising out of flat ground, named after the five elements. Inside them is a system of caves and temples.
The Dragon Bridge and the Han River — Da Nang After Dark At nine on a weekend night, a steel dragon nearly 700 metres long breathes fire over the Han River. Half the city comes out to watch.
The Imperial City of Hue — How to See It Properly Plenty of visitors walk the Imperial City for forty minutes and leave thinking they have seen it. In fact they have covered less than a third.
Hoi An Ancient Town — a Trading Port That Survived Four Centuries From the sixteenth century, Japanese, Chinese and Western merchants all traded here. The architecture of the old town still carries traces of all three.
My Son Sanctuary — Ten Centuries of Cham Temples Built continuously for almost ten centuries, then largely lost in a single bombing in 1969. What is left is still enough to show the scale.
Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge — the Mountain That Was a French Town Two stone hands holding up a golden ribbon of bridge — the image travelled the world. Few people know the mountain beneath it once held more than 200 French villas before the forest swallowed them.
Thien Mu Pagoda — the Oldest Temple in Hue Four hundred years on the bank of the Perfume River. In its courtyard stands the car that carried Thích Quảng Đức to Saigon in 1963.
The Tomb of Khai Dinh — the Smallest and the Most Expensive Eleven years to build, paid for by a 30% rise in land tax across the country. The most divisive of the Nguyen royal tombs — and the most sumptuous.
The Tomb of Tu Duc — Where the Emperor Lived Before He Lay Down Tu Duc used his own tomb as a retreat while he was alive. But building it caused an uprising, and to this day nobody is sure where he is buried.
The Tomb of Minh Mang — the Most Symmetrical of the Nguyen Tombs The emperor died before his tomb was finished. Emperor Thieu Tri put ten thousand people to work on it — and left behind the most balanced of the seven Nguyen royal tombs.
Bay Mau Coconut Forest — Nipa Palms, Basket Boats and a Wartime Base These are water coconuts, not the kind that bears drinking nuts. The canopy is dense enough that a whole resistance base once sat underneath it.
Hai Van Pass — the Weather Border Between Two Halves of Vietnam Sun on one side, rain on the other — an ordinary day here. This ridge blocks the northeast monsoon and splits Vietnam's weather in two.
My Khe Beach — a City Beach You Can Walk to From Your Hotel My Khe's real strength is not the sand or the water — it is that the beach sits inside the city and you can walk to it from your hotel.
Cu Lao Cham — the Island That Banned Plastic Bags First In 2009 this island dropped plastic bags entirely — before anywhere else in the country. Carry one to the pier and you will be asked to leave it behind.
Truong Tien Bridge — Six Steel Arches and a Misunderstanding About Eiffel Everyone says Eiffel built Truong Tien Bridge. The records name a different contractor — Eiffel came later, to repair it.
Lang Co and the Lap An Lagoon — a World-Class Bay at the Foot of Hai Van Sea on one side, lagoon on the other, a narrow spit of sand between. Everyone crossing the Hai Van Pass goes through, and most only stop for a photograph.
Dong Ba Market — 125 Years, and the Fullest Place to Buy Hue Specialities There is only one place to buy the full range of Hue specialities in a single trip. Go at the wrong hour without knowing how to haggle and you will be both tired and overcharged.
Bach Ma National Park — an Abandoned French Hill Station at 1,450m The French built an entire hill station on this summit. War erased almost all of it, leaving stone foundations and a few standing walls in the forest.