DA NANG
12/29/2025 - 01/10/2026
We left northern Vietnam and flew from Hanoi to Da Nang in central Vietnam on a short easy non stop flight. Dan and Emma were with us in Da Nang until January 3rd when we had to say our sad goodbyes.
Da Nang was a welcome surprise after Hanoi! Cleaner air and cleaner everything! No animals being gutted on the sidewalks by local vendors, and no smog! Our hotel had a gorgeous view of the ocean and there were so many great restaurants within walking distance, including a huge modern brewery with really good food and beer right on the ocean across the street from our hotel… which was our first stop on our Da Nang adventure! Followed by a walking tour that was mediocre at best.
A couple km’s inland is a river with some great restaurants, bars, markets and the Dragon Bridge which is a 666-meter-long steel bridge shaped like a dragon that changes color every few minutes. It symbolizing prosperity. On the weekends the dragon spews fire and then water. Everyone gathers to see it and it lasts about 10 minutes… so kind of a let down for all the hype! But still a must see if visiting Da Nang.
New Years Eve was pretty wild. The area by our hotel was quite the celebration!! Live music, fire works and SO MANY people! It was fun to watch from above on our balcony!
We visited Marble Mountains just outside of town which are a cluster of five limestone hills named after the elements (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth). There are a lot of stairs (600ish if my count was at all accurate!) and some absolutely incredible caves and Buddhist/Hindu shrines along the route. The largest cave/temple was jaw dropping! Every one of us gasped when we reached the entrance! The pictures don’t do it justice.
The caves were used as hideouts and hospitals by the Viet Cong during the Resistance war (aka Vietnam War). And the views from the top were fantastic.
From our hotel, we could see Da Nang's Lady Buddha in the distance. It is part of the Linh Ung Pagoda complex on the Son Tra Peninsula, and is Vietnam's tallest Buddhist statue (67m). She represents the Goddess of Mercy who watches over the city and sea and bringing peace. Once we got close, it was pretty extraordinary!
We did a coffee making and cooking class while in Da Nang. It was so awesome! The different kinds of coffee in Vietnam are seriously delicious. The main ones are egg coffee (made with a frothy concoction of whipped egg yolk and condensed milk on top of coffee), coconut coffee (made with condensed milk and coconut milk on top of iced coffee) and salted coffee (made with – you guessed it – condensed milk and a pinch of salt and some other stuff on top of iced coffee).
The meal consisted of Goi du du or papaya salad, banh xeo - Vietnamese pancake (a bit like a little omelet you then use to roll into a spring roll), pho (a traditional soup with rice noodles), and ca tim kho to (eggplant in a clay pot). And we learned how to make pretty little rose garnishes out of a tomato! Ours didn’t turn out quite like the instructors, but they weren’t terrible!
It was just us and other couple from South Africa, so it was fun getting to talk to them and hear about South Africa while cooking and eating. Now we have another destination we need to see!
Just outside of Da Nang is Ba Na Hills which was founded by French colonists in 1919 as a cool retreat. And it is definitely much cooler up there than in town! Most of the original structures decayed, and a modern theme park was recreated on the original site. To get to the park you have to take a cable car up the mountain (4900 feet elevation) and additional cable cars to get around to the various mountains and sections of the park. The views from the cable cars are amazing. And the ride is pretty long (about 15-20 minutes!) Sticking with the original French theme, there is a French village which was kind of cool, and some original wine caves which were actually built by the French in 1923. The coolest thing up there was the Golden Bridge held by giant stone hands. Definitely not from the French colonization era, but so incredible!!
To be honest, the whole thing was pretty touristy, overpriced, and a bit hokey, but we seriously loved that giant hand bridge!
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