Exploring Da Nang for the first time, 48 hours in September 2023.

As previously mentioned in my introdution to this holiday here, this was my 4th visit to Vietnam, a place I come to love more each time I go there. I won’t bore you with the details from the past, and just pick at at leaving the airport, I got a taxi from the airport to my hotel, the 4 Points by Shearton, for a fixed price of 300.000 VND. I was a little confused when I sat down in the taxi and was told I had to pay 300, I was affraid I was being scammed and quoted in USD, but it turns out that they often leave out the ‘thousand’ part in Vietnam.

The airport is located basically in the city, and it was a quick 15 minutes or so ride to my hotel. It seems like the part of the city that is on the west side of the river is more traditional Vietnamese style, and the part to the east (towards My Khe Beach) is more zoned and developed, with wide roads, quite a few high-rise buildings and lots of restaurants and cafes. In general though, the city does not feel crowded, traffic is manageable, the highrises are spread out, roads are wide and lots of greenery around.

Unfortunately it was already dark by the time I had checked in at my hotel and explored my room, and as I was getting hungry I decided it was time to find somewhere to have dinner. From my balcony I could see what looked like a nice area on the beach not too far away, so I decided to head down there to have a loook.

My instinct served me right, and it turned out to be an area with 5-6 restaurants and a couple of beach bars. There was a good mix of different cuicines to choose from, so should be something for everyone. Seafood is big in Da Nang, but not for me. However, you can choose your own fresh seafood from the aquariums, and the chefs will prepare it for you.

One of the options I concidered for dinner was a Korean BBQ place, but there were no people there, so I decided to skip this one also. Prices were reasonable though:

I ended up at Esco Beach Bar and Restaurant, as they had a good selection on the menu, good prices, quite a few other people there, and beachfron table available.

The beachfront seating offered nice views over the ocean, and the calming sounds of waves breaking on the beach.

I had, of course, to start with a cocktail to celebrate my successful arrival in Vietnam, followed by some stir-fried beef and vegtables. Both the food and cocktail was delicous, and even with a beer and a coffee after the total bill was less than 500.000 VND.

Across the street from the restaurant area there were a few hotels or apartment complexes, but other than that it was fairly quiet in the area, so after walking around for 45 minutes or so I found myself back at the same complex, and decided to head to East West Brewery to sample their beers.

This is East West 2nd location, after Hanoi I believe. They are a craft brewery and taproom, and make their own beers. Which I had to sample, of course. It was a little bit pricy, but well worth it in my opinion. My only complaint was that they played very loud music, so I am not sure how people were able to talk together. Not my problem, as I was traveling alone 😀

I ordered a fight of beers, where I got to sample everything they were brewing, and it all tasted nice.

There was also a couple of other beach bars along the beach, which offered seating in beanbags and with live entertainment, so I also stopped by here for a drink. It looked a little bit eerie with a lot of empty high-rise buildings under construction as the backdrop.

After this it was time to call it a night, as I had a lot of exploring to do the next day – I have many years ago, on the cover of Rough Guide to Vietnam, seen the picture of the concrete hand holding up a walkingbridge, and decided that would be my target for the next day.

After finishing my breakfast, I got my phone out and booked a Grab to go to Ba Na Hills, which is the name of a french style village built in the mountains west of Da Nang in the early 1900s I belive, for Frenchmen living in Vietnam to have as a vacation destination when they felt home sick. The price of the Grab was 340.000 VND.

There was a 6 lane hightway leading to the foot of Ba Na Hills, and the drive took around 40 minutes. My driver offered to wait for me to come back down again (there is a cable cart going up to the village), at no extra cost, as long as I would pay him 340.000 going back home. I warned him that I might be gone for quite a few hours, but he was happy to wait as long as it took, as long as texted him when I fell in lane for coming back down again (I assume he went back to Da Nang and worked there until I texted him, but not sure.)

Ba Na Hills was such an amazing and impressive location that I have decided to dedicate a whole entry to my experience there, in order to make this post not too long, so you can read it all here.

As I came down from Ba Na Hills, my driver texted me that he would let his friend bring me home instead, and sent me a picture of his car. I located him quickly, and was back at my hotel in no time. As I was paying him what I thought was 350.000 I was met by a very embarrased smile, and he picked up his phone and started calling his friend who I had agreed the price with originally. I though (again) that I was getting scammed (I had a bad experience in Ho Chi Minh in 2004), but after some frantic talking in Vietnamese he gave the phone to me to speak to the original driver. He explained that I had given him 800.000 Dong instead of 350.000 (I thought the 500.000 note was a 50.000 note), and he was very confused. I changed the 500k note to a 100k, and thanked the driver so much for his honesty. He even insisted on trying to give me change, but I refused – honesty should be rewarded.

After a quick shower it was time to set out and find somewhere to explore and have dinner that night. One of the famous attractions in Da Nang is the flame-blowing dragon bridge, so I decided the night-market next to it would be a good place to look for some souvenirs and then catch the fire show after. A quick Grab ride and I had arrived at Son Tra nightmarket

The night market was quite small, but I was able to find some souvenirs to bring home for the kids, so that was successful. There were also a lot of food stalls selling all kinds of BBQ, so I settled for that for dinner.

There were some chairs spread around, so I could take a seat while eating. I believe most of the bbq were 30 or 50.000 Dong each, so very affordable.

I then walked down to the river close by, to watch the dragon fire show, but I found it quite underwhelming, and not something I would come back for. The bridge looked pretty though…

After this I was just hanging out at the riverfront for a while, had 3 or 4 cups of coffee at different coffee places (Vietnamese coffee is the best!), before I tried to walk back to my hotel. However, the roads got very quiet (this was close to midnight) and lack of lighting in some places, so I decided to take a grab instead 😀

At my hotel there was a mexican bar and restaurant at the rooftop by the pool, so I stopped by there for a drink and to see if anything was happening, but it was fairly deserted, so I headed off to sleep after a drink.

The next morning I had breakfast in the hotel, before heading upstairs to try out the pool and enjoy the view from up there.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do the rest of the morning, I only had a couple of hours as I needed to check out by to 4 pm for my flight back to Hong Kong (I was offered late check-out as a Bonvoy Titanium member). It was a choice of either a long walk along the beach, or heading out to the Lady Buddha (Tượng Quan Thế Âm Bồ Tát). I was already sure that I would have to come back to Da Nang to explore more another time, so I opted for the walk on the beach this morning.

There were quite a few higi-rise condos or hotels under construction along the beach, but for now the beach was fairly deserted, and the walk very pleasant.

It was possible to rent a sunlounge and umbrellas at several locations along the beach, but I didn’t have time for that this time. I was also surprised to see a few traditional Vietnamese fishing boats on the beach in the middle of a big city like Da Nang, and there were even a group of fishermen pulling in a net with todays catch that I walked past.

After heading back to my hotel, I had a nice shower and relaxed a little bit, before checking out and going to the airport. Again i booked a Grab, and they had a promotion on for 86.000 VND to the airport, so a lot cheaper than the Airport Taxis.

Overall I was very surprised and impressed with Da Nang, as mentioned before, this was my 4th visit to Vietnam, and each time kep getting better. I went to Ho Chi Minh in 2005, Hanooi in 2009, Phu Quoc in 2019, and now Da Nang in 2023. As it would turn out, I would, as predicted, come back to Da Nang just a few months later to visit my parents while they were holidaying there, so a report from that experience will come some day in the future.

Arriving at the airport, check-in was slightly chaotic, as you would expect in Vietnam, but thankfully HK Express had 4 counters open, so it was quickly done when I found the right queue to fall in, and immigration took about 20 minutes to clear, which I guess was ok too.

After immigration was completed I was looking for something to eat, and was surprised to see that there was a Priority-pass lounge there, and it was very good, so a full review of that can be found here.