Hoi An is unusually well placed. Inside a 90-minute drive you have a UNESCO-listed Cham temple valley, a marine biosphere reserve, one of Asia's most photographed coastal roads, a mountain theme park with a bridge held up by giant stone hands, and two craft villages reachable by bicycle. The trade-off is a saturated tour market, where quality varies more than price does.
This ranking is editorial — what we would send a friend to do, in what order. All prices are as of mid-2026, at roughly 25,500 VND to the US dollar.
The eight, ranked and compared
| Rank | Day trip | Distance / time each way | Entry cost | Typical group tour | Pick this if |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | My Son Sanctuary | 50 km / 1 hr 15 | 150,000 VND | $18-30 | You want the region's one great historical site |
| 2 | Da Nang city + Ba Na Hills | 30 km / 45 min | 1,000,000 VND cable car | $45-75 | You want a full-scale day out and do not mind theme parks |
| 3 | Cham Islands (Mar-Sep) | 20 km sea / 20-30 min | 90,000 VND park fee | $18-32 | Clear water, snorkelling, and the season is right |
| 4 | Hai Van Pass | 21 km of pass road | Free | $45-65 easy rider | You care about the drive more than the destination |
| 5 | Marble Mountains | 20 km / 30 min | 40,000 VND | Often bundled | You want a half day with caves, pagodas and a view |
| 6 | Tra Que + Thanh Ha | 3-4 km / 15 min | 35,000 VND each | $20-35 | You want craft villages without leaving the bicycle |
| 7 | An Bang + Cua Dai beaches | 4-5 km / 15 min | Free | n/a | You want a slow beach day, with caveats |
| 8 | Hue | 130 km / 2.5-3 hrs | 200,000 VND citadel | $55-90 | You have no other chance to see the Imperial City |
How you get there, and what it costs
Four ways to move, all figures as of mid-2026.
Group tour. Cheapest per head and includes a guide, which matters enormously at My Son and not at all at a beach. Budget $18-32 for short trips, $45-90 for Ba Na Hills or Hue. The catch is fixed timing and, at the cheap end, a 40-seat coach.
Private car with driver. Roughly $45-70 for a full day, split across up to four people; Hoi An to Da Nang point-to-point is about 300,000-600,000 VND. Best value for families and anyone who wants to leave a site early.
Grab. Fine for Da Nang and Marble Mountains, around 250,000-350,000 VND to Da Nang. Poor for My Son, where you will struggle to find a return car at a rural temple car park.
Motorbike. An automatic scooter rents for about 120,000-150,000 VND per day. Ideal for the villages, beaches and Marble Mountains; riskier on Highway 1, and you need the right licence and an International Driving Permit for insurance to hold.
1. My Son Sanctuary — book this one first
50 km / 1 hr 15 · Entry 150,000 VND · Group tour $18-30 · Best time: sunrise
A valley of brick Hindu temples raised by the Cham kingdom between roughly the 4th and 13th centuries, bombed heavily in 1969, still standing in ruined, moss-dark clusters. It is the region's one genuinely important historical site.
The 150,000 VND foreign-visitor ticket as of mid-2026 covers the museum, the electric buggy to the temple groups and the Cham dance performance. Children aged 5-15 pay 30,000 VND, under-fives free. Gates open at 06:30.
Take the sunrise tour, around $26 per person. Departures leave near 05:00, and the difference is not marginal — low light on the brickwork, air that has not hit 34C, and forty-five minutes before the coaches unload.
Pick this if: you want one properly memorable site rather than a full day of activity. Our My Son Sanctuary guide has group-by-group detail.
2. Da Nang city and the Golden Bridge
30 km / 45 min · Ba Na cable car 1,000,000 VND · Group tour $45-75
Two days share one heading. Da Nang itself — the Dragon Bridge, My Khe beach, the Han riverfront, a food scene we rate above Hoi An's — is a free city day by Grab. Ba Na Hills is the paid version: a cable car to 1,400 m, a reconstructed French village, gardens, an indoor games hall, and the Golden Bridge held aloft by two vast stone hands.
As of mid-2026 the cable car is 1,000,000 VND for adult non-residents, 800,000 VND for children 1.0-1.4 m, free under 1 m, and 650,000 VND for Da Nang residents with ID. From 1 January 2026 the ticket became valid three consecutive days with unlimited rides inside 72 hours of first use, which improves the value if you are based in Da Nang.
Be honest about what it is — a theme park with a spectacular ride up, not a mountain. Go early; the bridge is shoulder-to-shoulder from about 10:00 and cloud often closes in after midday.
Pick this if: the Golden Bridge is on your list, or you have teenagers. More in our Da Nang hub.
3. The Cham Islands — excellent, and genuinely seasonal
20-30 min by speedboat from Cua Dai · 90,000 VND park fee · Tour 450,000-800,000 VND
Cu Lao Cham is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of eight islands with the clearest water near Hoi An. Day trips combine snorkelling over coral, a seafood lunch at Bai Lang or Bai Chong, and the old Hai Tang pagoda. Round-trip speedboat tickets run roughly 500,000-600,000 VND as of mid-2026, plus a 90,000 VND marine conservation fee unless bundled. Full packages sit near 450,000-800,000 VND.
Now the honest part. From roughly October to February the sea is rough and sailings are frequently suspended, sometimes decided on the morning itself. March to September is the dependable season, best visibility April to August. In the wet season, keep this flexible and have a backup. One local rule: Tan Hiep commune banned plastic bags in 2009, the first place in Vietnam to do so.
Pick this if: you are here between March and September and want water rather than temples. See the Cham Islands day trip page.
4. The Hai Van Pass
21 km of pass road, 500 m summit · Free · Easy rider $45-65
The pass climbs the spur of the Truong Son range separating Da Nang from Hue, and on a clear day the view back over Da Nang Bay from the old bunkers at the top is the best roadside view in Vietnam. Most traffic uses the tunnel beneath, so the road is quiet.
Do not do it as a loop. Ride one-way to Hue on an easy-rider tour — roughly $45-65 as of mid-2026, six to seven hours, luggage carried separately, stops at Lang Co beach and Lap An lagoon. A round trip means the same 21 km twice plus two hours of Highway 1 at each end.
Pick this if: you are moving north anyway, or you value a road over a monument.
5. Marble Mountains
20 km / 30 min · Entry 40,000 VND · Elevator 15,000 VND one way
Five marble and limestone hills rising out of the flat coast south of Da Nang, riddled with caves that have held Buddhist shrines for centuries. Thuy Son is the one you climb. Entry is 40,000 VND as of mid-2026; the elevator is 15,000 VND one way or 30,000 VND return, or take the 156 steps free. Am Phu Cave, the theatrical hell cave, is an extra 20,000 VND.
Allow two to three hours, before 09:00 or after 15:00 — the steps get slippery when crowded. The stone-carving workshops at Non Nuoc village below are worth twenty minutes.
Pick this if: you want a half day that combines with Da Nang.
6. Tra Que herb village and Thanh Ha pottery village
3-4 km / 15 min by bicycle · 35,000 VND each
Tra Que grows the herbs that end up in Hoi An's cao lau and banh xeo, fertilised with lake weed rather than chemicals; the 35,000 VND entry as of mid-2026 includes a herbal drink, and most farms will let you hoe a bed and cook lunch for extra. Thanh Ha has thrown pottery for over 500 years — 35,000 VND for adults and 15,000 VND for children covers the village, the communal house and a turn at the wheel, with the museum at 40,000 VND or a 70,000 VND combined ticket. Do both by bicycle in one morning; a tour adds cost and removes the best part, the lanes between them.
Pick this if: you have a spare morning, are travelling with children, or want the quieter side of Hoi An.
7. An Bang and Cua Dai beaches
4-5 km / 15 min · Free · Sun lounger typically 50,000-100,000 VND with a drink order
An Bang is still the better beach, but both need a caveat. Erosion has accelerated since around 2014, and storms in late 2025 stripped sand from close to 8 km of shoreline, more than 200 m lost in four days at the worst point. Sandbag walls now front long stretches that used to be open sand, and scour holes of 3-5 m have opened in places.
Still enjoyable, but the usable strip is narrower, varies by month and section, and the northern end of Cua Dai has held up better than the southern. Check on the day rather than trusting photos.
Pick this if: you want a low-effort day and accept the beach as it is now.
8. Hue as a long day
130 km / 2.5-3 hrs each way · Imperial City 200,000 VND · Tour $55-90
The old imperial capital is 132 km via the Hai Van tunnel, 155 km over the pass. As a day trip that is five to six hours in a vehicle, leaving four to five on the ground — enough for the Imperial City (200,000 VND for adults as of mid-2026, 40,000 VND for children 7-12, open 06:30-17:30), one royal tomb and a bowl of bun bo Hue. Not enough for the city to land.
Do it if this is your only shot. Otherwise make Hue a one-way move over the pass and give it a night. Our Hue food guide is the argument for staying.
One ticket that is not a day trip
Hoi An's own 120,000 VND Old Town ticket buys five of twenty-two heritage buildings inside the protected core, is valid 24 hours, and is enforced at each door rather than on the street. It has nothing to do with any trip above. For wider budgeting, see our cost index and the Hoi An hub.
Limitations
This covers trips you can complete and return from in one day, so it excludes Phong Nha and the western Quang Nam districts. Entrance fees are published foreign-visitor rates as of mid-2026 and are the figures most likely to drift; the Ba Na Hills cable car alone changed both price and ticket validity within the last year. Tour prices are ranges observed across operators, not quotes we negotiated — the same itinerary can vary by 40 percent between an Old Town shopfront and an online marketplace.
Two things we could not verify to our own standard. Beach width at An Bang and Cua Dai changes storm by storm, so any figure we publish will be stale within a season. And we found no authoritative source confirming a numerical daily visitor cap on the Cham Islands, so we have not asserted one; sailing suspensions are decided locally on the day.
Driving times assume normal daytime traffic and no incident on Highway 1 or the Da Nang bypass, either of which can add 30-45 minutes. We have not ridden every operator's version of these trips this season.