there is, at my signature got my blog
got both HCM and hanoi blog
got tell places to visit and what to eat
HCM food to eat no yet but i do have a list in the HCM thread

Folks, am planning for a trip to Hoi an.

What hotel will you recommend budget in Rm200-250.

All those in booking.com or traveloka say almost the same thing (marketing thingy)

Cheers ...

Hi, is it worth to go to My son considering the travel time and entrance fee?

Bcuz it takes 2 hours there and 2 hours back, and you only spend 2 hours there

Any opinions?

Hi, is it worth to go to My son considering the travel time and entrance fee?

Bcuz it takes 2 hours there and 2 hours back, and you only spend 2 hours there

Any opinions?

If you have been to Angkor Wat, u would think My Son (pronounced "mee song") is a waste of time.
Danang also nothing much. Unless u like to walk along the Bach Dang promenade and people watch at sunset.

Spend more time at Hoian and Hue (pronounced "hoo-way").

This post has been edited by peet: Jun 15 2018, 12:41 AM

u got any itinerary for da nang, hoi and and hue?
i have a list of what places to visit in each place but no idea how to plan it
how do u travel from each place to each place?...say da nang to hoi an/hoi an to hue?...by bus?
what abt visiting those attraction in each place?...grab?

No itin required. If u wanna skip Danang entirely, when u land at the airport just take a taxi to Hoian (20-30mins). U can ask the taxi driver how much first. Around 350-400K vnd is fair price. If u need an MPV, ask for a 7-seater xe bay cho (pronounced: say bai chor). It VN, its always a std practice to tip... dun be so stingy to pay the exact amount. For eg if its 360... just pay 400.
At Hoian, relax, walk around and pop into those travel agencies to arrange your bus tours to Hue. Recommended ones are Sinh Tourist.
Maybe u can share your list here and I can offer my comment.

Do you think MySon will be worth it if they haven’t been to Angkor Wat or similar places?

This post has been edited by Y_vonne: Jun 15 2018, 10:25 PM

these are my list of places
Bà Nà Hills Fantasy Park
Marble Mountains - Ngũ Hành Sơn
Son Tra peninsula
Ban Co peak
Bach Dang street – night
Chùa Linh Ứng – Lady buddha

Hoi An ancient city
My Son Sanctuary
An Bang beach
Night market in ancient city

Imperial Citadel
Tu Duc Tomb
Tomb of Khai Dinh
Tomb of Ming Mang
Thien Mu Pagoda
Walking street plenty of food near Truong Tien bridge
On the way to hue, can stop by famous Hai Van pass

these are just rough list of places, not sorted yet

A bit hard to answer your question. But all the times I have visited the area, I skipped My Son because it is just a bunch of destroyed ruins and also I have visited Angkor. But that's just me.

Bà Nà Hills Fantasy Park - some ppl like it, some ppl hate it. I have always skipped.
Marble Mountains - Ngũ Hành Sơn - can visit at least once.
Son Tra peninsula - not sure what this is.
Ban Co peak - not heard of this.
Bach Dang street – night - Yes, can walk along the promenade at sunset. Great for ppl watching,
Chùa Linh Ứng – Lady buddha - Uhm not sure what's this.

Hoi An ancient city - A definite YES. I would stay at least 2-3 nights.
My Son Sanctuary - See my other answer to the lady.
An Bang beach - This is within cycling distance frm Hoi An.
Night market in ancient city - If u mean the stalls near the bridge, they are open every night but u can cover it in 10-15mins. Very short stretch.

ALL BELOW, YES, ITS COVERED BY YOUR LOCAL TOUR. USUALLY COVERED IN ONE DAY. HUE IS A SMALL TOWN.
Imperial Citadel
Tu Duc Tomb
Tomb of Khai Dinh
Tomb of Ming Mang
Thien Mu Pagoda
Walking street plenty of food near Truong Tien bridge
On the way to hue, can stop by famous Hai Van pass - It's nothing at all. Coaches will not stop, unless u hire yr own car.

many here seem to prefer a private driver from hoi an to hue to that they can stop at the hai van pass
as for those da nang places, i'm a hardcore traveller, i often find place that less ppl go with killer views
just this is the 1st time i ever do 3 places at once
so the transportation part for me is abit worrying..thats why need opinion on how those who had been there travel around

because i read, i even saw train from hoi an to hue

I am not sure what's the attraction with Hai Van Pass. It's just an underground tunnel. And to hire a pte driver just to make that one-stop is it worth it? That's a question that only u can answer.

Btw to hire a local driver is no problem at all.... the problem is most of them can only speak Vietnamese. Ur right, with a driver u can specify where exactly u wanna go, but u still need to communicate with the driver to tell him where to drop/pick u up...esp around the Citadel as it's a no parking zone. So its back to the language issue. The last time I went with my group, we encountered this problem but fortunately I can speak Vietnamese so no issues.

i dnt think hai van pass is an underground tunnel
it's a hill side road
even if u google it, none of the picture showed underground tunnel

Sorry my bad. I was referring to Hai Van tunnel which cuts through the mountains. Yes, ur right... the road leading up to the tunnel is quite scenic looking down at the coast etc. But it's very dangerous to stop along the highway if ur using a car. If u are really keen, I would suggest to rent a motorbike or go on a motorbike tour.

There are similar scenic drives along coastal highways all across VN eg the road leading to Nha Trang for eg.

I would say not worth.
I too contemplated to visit My Son but after calculating costs and time, I'd figure its not really worth because I plan to go Angkor Wat in future.
But that's my calculation. Not sure what do u think.

In order to cover the entire Hue Citadels and Tombs and Temples, I think you will need to stay 2d1n in Hue.
If ur gonna travel from Danang/Hoi An to Hue for daytrip u will definitely have not enough time as I've done that.
Only the citadel itself you might need to take 1.5 hours to cover the entire city with some light reading of histories + photo.


It's like the great ocean road basically.
Scenic coastal drive.

This post has been edited by Vengeance_Mad: Jun 20 2018, 04:47 PM

my plan is still flexible
i'm actually prepared to stay 2D1N at hue actually, all accommodation not confirmed yet actually

mind sharing your experience on how do u travel from hoi an to hue..vice versa
and how do u travel to say hue's attraction?...grab?

I stayed in Hoi An and booked a private car to Hue because we travel as 5.
So I booked in advance even before going to Hoi An.
The price for the private car was 120USD(Include toll/petrol/etc).

Our driver drove us to any of the hot spot we wanted to go.
We gave him a list and he sort it out.
But because travelling from Hoi An to Hue takes almost 2.5 -3 hrs, we really have limited time.

Depart at 830AM, and reach almost 1PM because we took a short stop at Marble Mountain while on the way to Hue.
Oh and we got delayed because there was a bus on fire on the Hai Van Pass or something, so gotta wait for the fire fighters to clear the road.

We immediately went for the Citadel, and given 1.5 hrs to meet up again.
2.30pm we meet outside the citadel and ask drive to bring us to any restaurant for lunch.
Because it was during Tet, many locals are closed so we just went to 1 of the shop which is open.
After lunch, we get ourselves and driver a nice cold vietnam coffee and head to Thien Mu Pagoda.
Took about 30-45 mins to finish walking and photo.

By this time its already close to 4PM, and we need to rush to Tomb of Khai Dinh.
Reach around 420PM and straight up to the Tomb Hall then walk around for some pictures.
Then we went back down to our car and its already 5PM, so we have to start our return journey to Hoi An as it will take another 2hrs+ (Shorter since we take the tunnel).
Reached Hoi An town around 7+PM and finished the day trip.

As u can see, we only have very limited time to spend there if u do a day trip.
We cant even finish our initial plan to also visit Tu Duc Tomb.

i took a tour from Danang (900k) (4 of us).Itinerary 8-2.30pm (but when we finish back to danang almost 6pm)

include van, english guide, lunch & entrance fees

Hai van pass
Thien mu pagoda
Khai dinh tomb
Hue imperial city

In Danang I think you can take grab. Hue i think better take one day tour.

looks like many here only took the day tour to hue instead of staying there for a night