3 days in danang - VIETNAM TRAVEL DIARY
Hello! I'm sorry it took me THIS long to start writing about my trip to Danang in October, and especially so to the ones who've been waiting for this post (your trip might already be over...:/) I've been really swamped with work but I shall pen this down today so that it'll be of help to those of you who're planning to travel there soon! (I hope)
It was my first trip to Vietnam and we only visited Danang for a short 3D3N trip. We booked our flight via Jetstar when they ran a promo and tickets were around SGD130 each for a round trip without check in baggage. We reached at night so we didn't do anything except to check in to our hotel and have dinner before calling it a day!
Oh yes, we got ourselves a private transfer from the airport to the hotel which we booked from Klook, which costs around $14 for a one way transfer.
Tbh, this is slightly more expensive than booking off Grab but it'd make economical sense if you're traveling in a group of more than 4!:)
For accommodation, we stayed at Adaline Hotel (~$40 per night) which is a 5 minute walk from My Khe beach. Hotels in Danang are separated into 3 areas -- in the city centre, near the beach, or at Son Tra Peninsula (only 2 resorts). The hotel was clean, spacious for 2, had a rather nice view with partial view of the sea and the Son Tra peninsula, served decent breakfast and also had a small rooftop pool :) I also felt that it was a good choice to have stayed away from the city center because I could already hear motorcycles driving past in the morning when I'm asleep, can't imagine the noise level in the city center??? LOL
Day 1 : Marble Mountain & Hoi An
After a good night rest and breakfast at our hotel, we set off for our first day of exploring Danang! We basically took grab around because 90% of the time, it is cheaper than hailing a taxi there.
Our first stop was Marble Mountain, which is along the way to Hoi An. It was 12pm and thankfully for the morning rain, the weather was comfortable and not hot at all! :P (Otherwise, I'd be really grumpy LOL)
There are 2 ways to get up Marble Mountain -- either by foot (free) or taking the elevator up and then slowly make your way down as you explore. For the latter, the elevator ride up costs about $5 from what I remember and I chose that because... lazy lah. LOL
We went to the viewing deck first when we got up, and it offered a panoramic view of Danang city :) Following that, we explored a few caves while making our way down and in total, we spent about 1.5 hours at Marble Mountain before heading for Hoi An!
Hoi An was probably the favourite part of my trip despite it being a tourist town! The colorful old town bustling with life in every alley and corner was really what I felt was the most attractive. I kinda felt like I was in a movie set, and the fact that us tourists could walk the streets without being touted for business was a major plus to me.
One tip here which H told me was to cross the bridge for dining options, it'd be much cheaper once you cross the bridge and it was very true!
(I forgot what we ate for lunch but) After lunch, we found a nice, cozy cafe that roasts their own coffee beans and had our cuppa for under SGD2! (Erm, for pricing comparison, before you cross the bridge, a cuppa would cost you around $3)
We basically spent the entire afternoon in Hoi An and also walked out of the main old town (aka tourist area) to hunt for some food~ We were too hungry for Banh Mi so we walked past Mdm Khanh's Banh Mi Queen without trying but we found the roadside sesame paste vendor which we wanted to try! I know having street food in Asian countries is quite a bet we're taking but the black sesame paste was really very yummy :Q
We then headed back to the old town and went to Hoi An market to try some of the local must-try food/snacks. Tbh we were very full but I didn't want to miss out on trying their local food so mm, my stomach could do with a little expansion hahaha.
Took a leisure stroll around the entire town and entered quite a few shops to check out their leather goods/knick knacks while waiting for sunset! For the sunset, you can opt to find a cafe with a nice viewing area or just watch it along the river. We did the latter because we were really too full for another cup of drink, plus we were planning to have dinner soon LOL.
I highly recommend that you guys stay till past sunset because Hoi An is extremely beautiful at night with all the lanterns lighting up the entire town! We headed back to the hotel after dinner and called it a day.
Day 2 : Day Trip to Bana Hills
We started Day 2 early because we booked a day trip up to Ba Na Hills via Klook ! It wasn't a private tour and we shared our tour with 2 korean families, a couple from Hong Kong and a solo traveler. The shuttle was punctual in their pick up time at our lobby.
It was around a 45minute drive from our hotel to the area where we'd get our cable car tickets to get up to Ba Na hills. I guess Ba Na Hills was the most touristy place I've visited the entire trip because it's just packedddd man!
The cable car is the longest and tallest in the world and the road up is really pretty scenic! Unfortunately, we visited on a very foggy and cloudy day and this was basically our view of Ba Na Hills and its attractions when we reached...
Talk about expectations vs reality man LOL (and this is alr after LOTS of editing)
The only clear shot I had, was when the clouds cleared for under a minute and I quickly caught a snapshot of the place!
We spent about half a day there (around 8 hours) and we kinda felt it was too long because the weather deterred us from seeing anything -- we spent most of our time in the arcade LOL By the way, we had a local guide bringing us who could speak English, but he is the pretty chill kind. He brings you to one spot, gives a brief intro, gives you a certain time, and off you go to explore while he sits at a bench and wait for all of us to gather again. So if you're the kind who dislikes tour guides who go on and on and on and leaving you no time to see see look look and take photos, yeah this tour is good. HAHAHA. Then again, I'm not too sure if all the guides will be the same, since it pretty much depends on the booking arrangement Klook makes with their travel agents.
However, I must say, Ba Na Hills was very underwhelming during our visit because of the weather. So it is good to do your homework on the weather for the few days you're in Danang and pick the best day to go Ba Na Hills in order not to make your trip go to waste!
After Ba Na Hills, we got the bus driver to drop us off at this spa place that we planned to check out, which was pretty near our hotel. It is called Queen Spa and I found it on google maps and it had pretty good reviews!
The facilities were clean, and while not the most luxurious of spas, I'd say it's pretty worth it for the price!
After our massage, we went for dinner and H found this place on Google maps which is a local restaurant called Quan Nao Lao Dai and so, we went to check it out!
This is the place on google maps. I'm not too sure if y'all can find it on the SG google maps because some of you who asked me for this place on IG said you couldn't locate it!
The restaurant is akin to our zichar on a up scale level in terms of shop size. The entire place was bustling with business with all the locals so we felt kinda out of place. Thankfully, we found a waiter who could speak english and we could order our food! Which by the way, the food here is awesome and affordable. You guys should totally come here for seafood zichar and this place is definitely not a tourist trap hahaha.
Day 3: Lady Buddha Statue, Da Nang Cathedral & trying coconut coffee at Cong Caphe
Our last day in Da Nang before catching our evening flight home! We started our day by going to My Khe beach, which is located just a 5 minute walk from our hotel. The beaches in Danang are really clean and the sand is pristine white! (Oh yes, the best part of all, NOT CROWDED) We were lucky it didn't rain that day like the previous 2 days so we could finally make a trip to the beach :)
There are some restaurants and cafes along the beach with beautiful interior. However, as we already had our meal before we went to the beach, we didn't try any of those. If any of you head there and do try out the dining options located along the beach, let me know if they're good!:) There are also lots of construction in progress and it seems like they're gonna line the whole beach area with restaurants -- similar to Seminyak in Bali, if you get what I mean!
We then took a grab to the giant Lady Buddha statue located on the Son Tra Peninsula.
The lady buddha statue is really super huge, we can actually see it from our hotel room! We spent about an hour there, walking around the entire premises and also checking out the surrounding pagodas and temples next to the Lady Buddha statue.
At the area in front of the Lady Buddha statue, you can also get a nice panoramic view of the entire Danang city!
After visiting the Lady Buddha statue, we went for a coffee break and we decided to check out Cong Caphe because I read good reviews when I saw it on Google maps.
It was relatively crowded when we got there. The cafe has 2 storeys, was very rustic in its interior design but very, very cozy! We ordered their coconut coffee to try because it is apparently one of their star products there and omgggg, it was really nice leh!
The coconut taste was super fragrant and went well with the coffee, although I have to say, it did get a little too sweet after awhile but the coffee was definitely worth a try.
After our coffee break, we decided to check out the Danang Cathedral which was a 10 minute walk from Cong Caphe.
The Cathedral opens to the public for visiting from 10am to 5pm, and is very popular with tourists because well, it's in such a pretty shade of millenial pink and would make a nice instagram photo LOL (surprisingly though, I didn't really spend too much time getting a photo here)
We spent the remaining of our time walking along the roads of the city, having another cup of coffee or two and had some food before heading for the airport for home!
Overall, I personally feel that Danang is a great place for a short getaway which has a good combination of places to visit, beach, spa and food and it isn't as crowded as say, Hanoi or HCM! However, do check the weather in the month you're planning to go as most of the places will be best visited with good weather, especially the beaches and Ba Na Hills!
