Two days in Da Nang: pick one big outing

Ba Na ticket

1,000,000₫Adult from outside Da Nang

Hoi An drive

32.2 kmAbout 30 minutes with clear roads

Museums close

16:30–17:00Cham Museum last entry 17:00

Choose the big outing first

Everything else in a two-day trip arranges itself around this one decision, because both options take the whole morning and both punish a late start.

If you are here for two nights and one full day, Ba Na is the harder call: it is 31.8 km west, about 29 minutes, and the ticket is ten times the cost of a Hoi An entry. Take it only if the morning forecast is clear — cloud at 1,500 m hides the bridge you paid for.

Day 1 — beach, then the river

Land, drop the bags, and be on the beach road by 16:30 when the heat breaks. My Khe is 4.7 km from Han Market, six minutes by Grab; the airport is 6 km from the An Thuong strip, about ten minutes.

The bridge show is five minutes: fire for two, water for three. Do not build the evening around standing on the bank for an hour beforehand — eat first, walk over at 20:40, and be gone before the traffic on the east bank locks up.

Day 2 — the big outing

For Ba Na, leave at 07:00 and be at the cable car base before 08:00; the park opens at 08:00 and closes at 22:00, but the reason to go early is the queue and the cloud, not the closing time. An adult ticket bought by a visitor from outside Da Nang is 1,000,000₫, and children between 100 cm and 140 cm pay 800,000₫.

For Hoi An, the opposite rhythm works: leave at 15:00, arrive as the light softens, and walk the lanes after 18:00 when the day buses have gone. The old town stays open until 21:30 in summer and 21:00 in winter, and the entry ticket — 80,000₫ or 120,000₫ depending on how many houses you want to enter — is bought at the gate.

What does not fit in two days

• My Son Sanctuary. It is 06:00–18:00 and 100,000₫ for Vietnamese visitors, 150,000₫ for foreign visitors, but the drive eats half a day you do not have.
• The Marble Mountains and Hoi An on the same day. Two hours at the mountains (40,000₫ plus the lift) and then 32 km south leaves you in Hoi An at dusk with nothing left.
• Son Tra by motorbike at midday. The peninsula road is exposed and the heat between 11:00 and 15:00 is the part visitors underestimate.

Where to sleep for two nights

Two nights is not enough to justify moving hotels. An Thuong and the My Khe strip put you 6 km from the airport, walking distance from the beach, and one short ride from Han Market and the river. The trade-off is that everything on the river side — the museums, the market, the bridge — needs a Grab rather than a walk.

Staying on the river side instead reverses it: you can walk to the Cham Museum and the bridge, and you need a ride to the beach. If your two days include Ba Na, the river side saves you twenty minutes on the morning you leave at 07:00, because the road west starts there.

What two days costs, roughly

The single biggest swing is the big outing: Ba Na costs more than ten times a Hoi An ticket, and it is the only line item on a two-day trip where the choice is genuinely either-or.

A rest hour near the end of the day

LENA Nails & Beauty (our salon)

By late afternoon on a wet day your shoes are finished and the museums are closing. LENA is an indoor stop with fixed prices and no weather risk, and all three branches are a short Grab ride from My Khe and An Thuong.

The Deluxe Foot Spa is 300,000₫ (about 12 USD): shaping, cuticle work, heel scrub, dead skin removal, a hot towel and a cream massage, with no soak. The VIP 4-in-1 at 400,000₫ (about 16 USD) adds the soak in a single-use liner, a salt scrub, mud mask and lotion, with five scents. Staff speak English and Vietnamese; open 8:30–20:30.

Deluxe Foot Spa300,000₫

VIP 4-in-1 Foot Spa400,000₫

Manicure + gel polish230,000₫

• 89 Pham Tu, Son Tra
• 211/88 Nguyen Van Thoai, An Hai
• 34 An Thuong 3, An Thuong
• Open daily 8:30–20:30

Message LENA on WhatsApp

Prices from the salon's menu of 1 November 2026. USD figures use 25,000₫ = 1 USD.

Questions people ask