Practical

Da Nang to Hoi An: Every Way to Get There, and Which One to Pick

It is about 30 km and somewhere between forty minutes and an hour and a quarter, depending entirely on what you get into. The choice is less about money than about what happens at the other end.

It is about 30 km of flat coastal road, and most of the time it takes forty to fifty minutes. There is no train, no boat worth taking, and no complicated transfer. In that sense this is one of the easiest journeys in Vietnam.

Which is why the interesting part is not how you get there. It is what you have arranged for the other end, and whether you have accidentally agreed to a shopping stop.

The five options, honestly compared

1. Ride-hailing app (Grab, Xanh SM)

The default, and for most people the right answer. You see the price before you accept it, the route is tracked, there is no negotiation, and there is a record if something goes wrong. Download the app and set it up before you fly, because that is easier on your own wifi than in an airport queue.

The catch: picking up from the old town in the evening is awkward, because the centre is pedestrianised and the pin lands somewhere your driver cannot reach. Walk to a named corner outside the zone and set the pin there.

2. Metered taxi

Fine, widely available, and usually a little more than the app. Use the well-known operators, make sure the meter is running, and be aware that a taxi waiting hopefully outside a tourist attraction is the most expensive taxi in Vietnam.

3. Private car, booked in advance

A fixed price, a named driver, and somebody standing there when you come out. For a first arrival, with luggage, after a long flight, this is worth the difference to most people over fifty — not because the alternatives are bad, but because it removes the one decision you least want to make at that moment.

It is also the only option that lets you treat the journey as part of the day rather than a transfer. More on that below.

4. Shared shuttle

Cheaper per seat, slower, because it collects and drops other passengers. Sensible if you are travelling alone and unhurried. Less sensible if you are two people, because by then a whole car often costs about the same.

5. Public bus

The cheapest option by a wide margin and the slowest, and its status has changed over the years — some sources describe a yellow public service running between the two cities, others report it suspended. We are not going to tell you it is running when we have not checked it that week.

Why we are not printing fares

You will find figures for this journey all over the internet, and they contradict each other by a factor of two. Some are five years old. Some quote a car, some a seat. App pricing moves with demand and time of day.

If an offline offer is close to that, take whichever you prefer. If it is far above, you know. This takes thirty seconds and works in any city in Vietnam. Pay in dong, in cash or in the app — see money in Vietnam for the note sizes.

From Da Nang airport

Da Nang’s airport sits inside the city, which is unusual and convenient. From the terminal to Hoi An is the same thirty-odd kilometres and the same forty to fifty minutes.

• Arrange the first transfer in advance if you can. Arriving after a long-haul flight is the worst moment to negotiate.
• Use the official ride-hailing pickup point if you are using the app — airports have a designated area and the app will direct you to it.
• Have the hotel’s name written down in Vietnamese, including the ward. Several Hoi An hotels have similar names.
• If you land at night, remember the old town is pedestrianised and your drop-off may be a short walk from the door.

The stop nobody mentions

On a pre-booked car or a tour transfer you may find the route includes a pause at a marble workshop, a silk shop or a “handicraft centre”. Commission is paid for bringing visitors through the door.

There is nothing sinister about it and some of the workshops are genuinely interesting — the stone carving below the Marble Mountains is a real craft worth five minutes. But it is your time, and a forty-minute transfer can become two hours.

• Ask before you book: “Does this go directly, or are there stops?”
• If there are stops, ask how long. A vague answer is an answer.
• You may always decline to go in. Waiting in the car is completely normal and nobody will be offended.

Coming back at night

This is the part that goes wrong most often, and it is entirely avoidable.

The old town closes to vehicles in the evening. At half past nine, in the dark, standing at the edge of a pedestrian zone with a weak phone signal and a flat battery, hailing a car is harder than it was at two in the afternoon.

• Agree a pickup time and an exact named corner with your driver before you walk in, if you came by private car.
• If you are using the app, walk out to a main road first and then book. Do not book from inside the old town.
• Keep enough phone battery to open the app. A small power bank solves the whole problem.

Our guide to Hoi An at night makes the case for staying late; this is the one piece of planning that makes staying late painless.

Make the journey part of the day

The road between the two cities passes the Marble Mountains and runs along the coast. Treated as a transfer it is forty minutes of nothing. Treated as the start of the day it is the best-structured morning in central Vietnam:

1. Leave Da Nang early, before the heat.
2. Stop at the Marble Mountains for ninety minutes.
3. Carry on to Hoi An, arriving for lunch.
4. Afternoon in the old town, evening with the lanterns.

That is one car, one driver and one day, and it is exactly how our three-day plan sets it out.

Common questions