Exploring Ba Na Hills, Da Nang, Vietnam, September 2023

My visit to Ba Na Hills was a part of my first time exploring Da Nang in September 2023. I didn’t know much about the place, other than the hand holding the bridge, and was not quite sure what to expect. And boy did I get surprised, so that is why I decided to dedicate a whole post to this amazing place.

Ba Na Hills is located 25 km west of Da Nang at a 1,487m altitude in the Truong Son Mountains, accessible by a record-breaking cable car. Originally established as a French colonial hill station in 1919, it was revitalized by Sun Group in 2007, becoming a major tourist destination with the iconic Golden Bridge and themed attractions. Its cool climate and scenic views have made it a popular retreat since its colonial beginnings.

I was dropped off just outside the ticket office, and bough a standard ticket for 950.000 VND. From there it was a few minutes walk to the cable cart itself – it was all prepared for lots of people to fall in line, but thankfully there were no lines at all when I was there, and I was quickly onboard the cable cart and heading up to almost 1500 meters altitude (I had no idea I was going that high up when I got on, I thought it was going to be a short ride only). 😀

We were soon in clouds, so there was no more views to watch until suddenly the golde bridge appeared as by magic.

After quickly exiting the cable cart, I of course had to explore the bridge, but since it was still foggy the view was not very impressive…..

I spent some time walking around the area, but decided not to go go the famous wine cellar there, as I am not much into wines (unless they have bubbles in them).

I then realized there was a 2nd cable cart connetiing this stop to somewhere else. I had no idea (I guess I should get better at doing some research before heading out?). This cable cart ride headed more sideway than up, and surprised me by taking me to what can only be describes as a French Apls Village. Seeing the buildings coming out of the fig was really cool, and made the experience much better as well.

I was now getting confused – what is this place? I had no idea, but was eager to go exploring, it looked very exciting.

Getting off the cable cart, it turned out that there were a whole village here on top of the mountain, build in the style of a french village in the Apls back in Europe, with hotels, pubs, restaurants, fountains and archictecture that reminded me of the Louvre. I will let the pictures speak for themselves for a while.

Unfortenately, at the beer tent they had decided to play very loud Vietnamese music, so I didn’t feel like sitting down there for a beer – better to keep exploring.

At the back of the village, here was a lush green garden, leading up to the Linh Ung Pagoda, which I of course had to climb to look at the view.

Although most of the village was very French looking, there were always some signs telling me that we were in fact in Vietnam still…

The clouds had lifted a bit, so I could see some of the view to the west. Makes me just imagine how the soldieres managed to transverse this terrain during the Vietnam war…. no wonder lots of movies has been made about it.

Then it was fime for lunch, and I did something as boing as a pizza and a beer. Prices were reasonable, and the food was ok, not great, but fine 🙂

The other part of the village consisted of a few large buildings looking like old castles, but they were fairly empty inside, I guess they were still partly under construction. Some of the stone work was really amazing though, a lot of effort has been put into building this.

As I was starting to head back down, the fog had lifted somewheat, but there was still not a great view from the Golden Bridge.

As I got below the cloud cover on the way down, I could see all the way to Da Nang in the horizon. Unfortunately the cable cart stops operating before it gets dark, but I would have loved to be up here during night-time on a clear night, I am sure the views would be great. Guess I have to come back and stay overnight one time, as Sunworld does have a few hotels in the village.

As I arrived back at the start of the cable cart, my driver was waiting for me to bring me back to my hotel. Ba Na Hills was the biggest surprise of this trip, and I promised myself to come back in the future to explore it more, when I was mentally prepared for what it actually is. Definitely worth staying overnight here if you have time for that, I know that I will do that one day!

Click here to see more of my exploration of Da Nang on this quick holiday.