Getting Around Da Nang and On to Hoi An

Da Nang and Hoi An are forty-five minutes apart and most visitors use one as a base and day-trip to the other. Which way round is worth thinking about.

Da Nang is a modern coastal city: a long beach, big hotels, bridges lit at night, and an international airport inside the city. It is easy and it is not especially characterful.

Hoi An is the old town, smaller, prettier and busier in the evenings, with its own beaches a short ride away.

Most people who have done both say stay in Hoi An and day-trip to Da Nang, unless you want a resort beach holiday, in which case reverse it.

The pass climbs over the mountains between Da Nang and Hue and is one of the great coastal roads anywhere. There is now a tunnel underneath it, which is what buses and most traffic use, so the pass itself is quieter than it used to be.

That means a transfer to Hue can go either way, and the fast way misses the entire point. If you are moving between the two cities, pay for the route over the top.

The train takes a lower line along the coast and is a genuinely spectacular ride in its own right, arguably better than the road for scenery and much better for not watching the road.

Cloud sits on the pass often. A clear day is luck rather than planning.

Ride-hailing apps work throughout Da Nang and are inexpensive, which makes them the default for most visitors. Car and motorbike options both appear in the same apps.

The beach strip is long and the distances along it are further than they look on a map, so walking from one end to the other is not the plan it appears to be.

The Dragon Bridge breathes fire and water on weekend evenings. It is a short show, it draws a crowd, and the bridge closes to traffic around it, which is worth knowing if you are trying to cross the river at that hour.