Backpacking Da Nang
For years Da Nang was the place you changed buses between Hue and Hoi An. Then it built ten kilometres of beach promenade, a bridge shaped like a dragon that actually breathes fire at the weekend, and about four hundred cafes, and now people stay.
It is the most liveable city in Vietnam and it feels nothing like the other two big ones. Wide, clean, modern, with mountains on one side and the sea on the other, and none of the pressure of Hanoi or Saigon. Half the digital nomads in Southeast Asia live here and you can see why within an hour.
For a backpacker it is two days, and it earns them: a beach that is genuinely good, caves and pagodas in a marble hill nine kilometres south, a peninsula road with monkeys on it, and the Golden Bridge an hour inland.
Why Da Nang is popular with backpackers
- Ten kilometres of clean city beach, free, with surf lessons on it
- The Dragon Bridge, which breathes fire on Saturday and Sunday nights
- The Marble Mountains: caves, pagodas and viewpoints for €1.50
- The best base in Vietnam for day trips in three directions
- Cheaper than Hoi An, thirty minutes away
- Cafes everywhere, and the fastest wifi in the country
Best time to visit Da Nang
A beach city, so what matters is the sea. In autumn it comes in hard, the loungers disappear and the red flags go up.
The Dragon Bridge breathes fire and sprays water on Saturday and Sunday at nine in the evening. If you want to see it, put a weekend night in Da Nang.
Backpacker budget: around €20 a day
- €6hostel bed
- €1.80local meal
- €0.60beer
- €4scooter per day
Guide prices from our own days in Da Nang. Add a tour or a night out and it climbs fast.
Best hostels in Da Nang
Stay near My Khe Beach. The old centre across the river is cheaper and further from everything you came for.
Rom Casa Hostel Da Nang
Built partly out of shipping containers, with a garden, a pool and a bar, and a short walk from the beach. The best-known backpacker address in the city and the easiest place to fall in with people.
Seahorse Tropical Natalie Da Nang Hotel
A perfect ten from four hundred and forty-nine reviews, which almost never happens. Hotel comfort at hostel money, with a pool, and the one to book if you have been on night buses for a week.
Lighthouse Danang Hostel
Cheap, central and friendly, sitting between the beach and the river so you can walk to both. A lower score than the other two and a lower price to match.
Best things to do in Da Nang
The Marble Mountains
Five limestone and marble hills rising straight out of the flat ground on the way to Hoi An, hollowed out with caves that have Buddhist shrines inside them. Climb through the tunnels, come out at a viewpoint over the coast, and go down into Am Phu cave, which is laid out as a walk-through hell. One and a half euros.
The Golden Bridge at Ba Na Hills
The one you have seen: a walkway held up by two enormous stone hands, fifteen hundred metres up in the cloud. Getting there is a cable car that used to hold the world record, and at the top is a French-themed resort complex with a fun fair in it. Go for the bridge and the ride up, know that the rest is a theme park, and you will have a good day.
Hue and the Hai Van Pass in a day
The best day trip in central Vietnam. You go one way on the train, which runs along the cliff edge over the Hai Van Pass with the sea a hundred metres below the window, and spend the middle of the day in the old imperial capital at Hue. If Hue is not getting its own stop on your route, do it like this.
The Dragon Bridge
Six hundred metres of steel dragon over the Han river, lit up every night, and on Saturday and Sunday at nine it breathes actual fire down the road, then sprays water over the crowd. Free, ridiculous, and packed. Get there half an hour early for a spot on the east side.
The river by night
An hour on the water with the whole skyline lit up and all four bridges from underneath. It is a cheap, low-key way to end a day, and the view of the Dragon Bridge from the river is better than the one from the pavement.
My Khe Beach
Ten kilometres of white sand in the middle of a city of 1.2 million, and clean enough that it turns up on lists of the best city beaches in Asia. Loungers are about €1.50, there are surf schools along it, and it is at its best before eight or after four.
The Son Tra peninsula
Also called Monkey Mountain: a jungle headland at the north end of the beach with a road spiralling up it, viewpoints over the whole bay, a sixty-seven-metre Lady Buddha looking out to sea, and red-shanked doucs in the trees if you are early and quiet.
Best area for backpackers
My Khe Beach and An Thuong
The beach side of the river, and specifically the An Thuong grid a couple of streets back from the sand. Hostels, cafes, cheap restaurants and bars, all within walking distance of ten kilometres of beach.
The old centre on the other side of the river is cheaper and closer to the station, but it puts a bridge between you and everything you actually came here for.
Good to know about this area
- Walking distance to the beach, from almost any bed
- Cafes, western food and cheap Vietnamese places in the same grid
- Scooter rental everywhere, from about €4 a day
- The Dragon Bridge is fifteen minutes away on foot
- Surf schools and board hire right on the sand
- Eat a street or two back. The promenade charges beach prices
How to plan your days in Da Nang
Two days does it, and most people use one of them for a trip out of the city. Pick how long you have.
Beach and marble. Morning on My Khe, ten kilometres of white sand in the middle of a city. Afternoon at the Marble Mountains, climbing through caves with shrines in them and out onto a viewpoint over the coast.
Tonight: the Dragon Bridge. At the weekend it breathes fire at nine.
Son Tra, or the Golden Bridge. Ride the loop around the Son Tra peninsula to the Lady Buddha and the viewpoints over the bay. Or go inland to Ba Na Hills for the Golden Bridge and the cable car.
Tonight: seafood on the An Thuong side, or move on to Hoi An.
Food and drink in Da Nang
Da Nang eats like a port: fish, shellfish, and a lot of dishes you assemble yourself at the table. The local one is mi quang, yellow noodles with barely any broth, peanuts, herbs and a piece of rice cracker on top, and it is the city’s whole personality in a bowl.
The good eating is away from the promenade, in the streets behind the river. Same food, half the price, and the plastic stools are a reliable sign you have found it.
Getting there and onward
Da Nang is the hub of central Vietnam: the airport, the railway station and the bus station are all inside the city, and Hoi An and Hue are both close.
From the airport. The airport is two kilometres from the centre, which is unusual and very convenient. Grab to the beach takes ten minutes and costs a couple of euros.
Around town. The city is big and spread out. A scooter at about €4 a day is the sensible way to combine beach, mountains and centre.
Onward. Hoi An is forty-five minutes, Hue two and a half hours by bus, or three by train over the Hai Van Pass. Night trains to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City leave from the city centre.
- PlaneHanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in about an hour
- TrainHue 3 hrs over the Hai Van Pass · Hanoi 16 hrs
- GrabHoi An in 45 minutes, about €10
- ScooterFrom about €4 a day
- Night busNha Trang 11 hrs · Phong Nha 6 hrs
Staying safe in Da Nang
One of the safest and cleanest cities in Vietnam. The two things that need attention are the sea and the traffic on the wide roads.
- Watch the flags at My Khe. The rip current in autumn is real
- Use Grab rather than flagging a taxi off the street
- Wear shoes with grip at the Marble Mountains. The steps are worn smooth
- Get on the beach early. Between eleven and three the sun here is punishing
- Swim after dark. There are no lifeguards once the sun goes down
- Open the throttle on the coast road. They check speed along there
- Leave your bag on the sand while you go in the water
- Expect a mountain village at Ba Na Hills. It is a theme park with a spectacular bridge on it
Rebels on the Road tip
Everyone does the beach and the Golden Bridge. Take a scooter up Son Tra just after sunrise instead, and follow the coast road round towards the top of Monkey Mountain. You will pass almost nobody, the bays below you are empty, the fishing boats are still coming in, and the city sits across the water in the haze. Go slowly and look up: this is the easiest place in Vietnam to see a red-shanked douc, which is one of the most striking primates on earth and lives about four kilometres from a Starbucks.
Frequently asked questions
How many days do you need in Da Nang?
Two. One for the beach and the Marble Mountains, one for Son Tra or Ba Na Hills. Longer if you are working, which a lot of people here are.
Da Nang or Hoi An?
Hoi An is prettier, older and more atmospheric, and it is where you go for the lanterns and the tailors. Da Nang has the beach, the mountains, the transport and the lower prices. They are thirty kilometres apart, so most people stay in one and day trip to the other.
Where should I stay in Da Nang?
The An Thuong area behind My Khe Beach. Hostels, cafes and cheap food in a walkable grid, with the sand at the end of the street.
Is Da Nang expensive?
No, and it is generally cheaper than Hoi An. Around €20 a day, with the beach and the Dragon Bridge both free.
Is the Golden Bridge worth it?
The bridge itself is spectacular and the cable car ride up is genuinely good. Just go in knowing that what surrounds it is a French-themed resort with a fun fair, not a mountain village, and go early before the cloud and the crowds arrive.
Do I need a scooter in Da Nang?
Not strictly, because Grab is cheap and everywhere. But the Son Tra loop is the best thing here and a scooter is the only sensible way to ride it.
When does the Dragon Bridge breathe fire?
Saturday and Sunday evenings at nine. Fire first, then water over the crowd on the east side. It is free and it is the busiest half hour of the week.
Can you surf in Da Nang?
Yes, around My Khe, and it is a good place to learn. Board hire and lessons are on the beach itself. The waves are biggest from September to March, which is also when the swimming is worst.
