During this private tour we also visited the isolated Da Nang beach at the foot of Son Tra Monkey Mountain. Furthermore, we rode along Hai Van Pass mountain pass and stopped at the viewpoint on the top by the old bunkers used during the American War .
A lot of riding around Da Nang region
Our full-day tour included many hours of driving to our destinations. We would see beautiful landscapes and… we got a lot of time to talk to our driver.
Communication with our guide / driver was not very good … Although he was very cool, very friendly, he didn’t speak English very well. Truth is that he didn’t properly understand what we were trying to say and we… well, we got much less from what he said.
Marble Mountains
The first stop was at a workshop where marble is carved it into different shapes. From ornaments to place on a shelf or on a desk to giant pieces of marble weighing at least 1000kg, to place in a garden.
We continued our journey to our next stop at the Marble Mountains. It’s actually five hills located next to Da Nang from where marble used to be quarried out until very recently.
Each of them is named after one of the five elements. Mount Thuy (the Water Mountain) has become an attraction since it’s possible to climb to its summit while visiting several Buddhist sanctuaries found within the hill.
We went up the first section by elevator. It was a great recommendation from our driver that helped us saving a lot of energy for the rest of the visit. Later, you could always go down on foot, using the stairs, which is definitely much easier than going up.
The stones and caves were interesting, but above all, the views from the top were very very impressive.
The temperature was already unbearable, but fortunately the elevator saved us from wasting our energy and overheating on a large section of the way up.
Once above, we kept on climbing a little more on foot. You could see that nobody wanted to make an extra physical effort, due to the high temperatures, so in the end, in the highest parts, we were the only ones there.
In the mountains there were also caves with Buddhas carved in marble right there on the wall.
Pagodas, Buddha sculptures and gardens there on the mountain made the place much more impresive and beautiful.
After our way down paying a lot of attention not to slip down the stairs, we continued our journey towards the Ba Na Hills Golden Bridge, skirting Da Nang coast.
Our guide offered us to stop and go to the beach for a while, but with more than 40 °C we certainly preferred to stop just a moment to take some photos and continue the trip with air conditioning.
Besides, we had already had our experience at Da Nang beach.
Ba Na Hills - Golden Bridge
Truth is, once again, we weren’t quite aware of what we were going to visit.
We had seen some impressive photos of the bridge and we knew that you had to pay a ticket to be able to visit it. We had only read that it was one of the places to visit and … thank goodness we came!
Sunworld Amusement Park
The entrance fee to Sunworld amusement park, considering Vietnam prices, is very expensive, about USD 30 per person, but it is well worth it.
We got confused and thought they were included in our tour fee, but in the end they weren’t … and thank goodness we didn’t know it because we may had decided not to come.
Sunworld at Ba Na Hills is a theme park and we are not huge fans of those destinations, to be franck. If we had learned this before, we may have chosen a different plan.
Anyway, we had already booked the tour, the photos of the bridge had captivated us … we decided to go with the flow.
Amazing views from the longest cable car in the world
To go up the mountain where the Golden Bridge and all the attractions are located we had to get on a cable car… the longest cable car in the world!
The first section of the cable car is 6 km. You go up the mountain with incredible views. It’s crazy. We were tacken aback!!
The Golden Bridge
That first section of the cable car ended at the famous bridge that is supported by 2 hands comeing out from under the ground. This place makes you feel like taking one thousand photos.
It’s crowded, certainly, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. The view is very beautiful, it is like being on top of an airplane, watching a city that seems tiny from above.
Exploring other attractions at Ba Na Hills
The whole complex is very well set up. The bridge is brand new, it was opened up only in June 2018. There are also gardens, pergolas, spaces for meditation, etc. Everything looks super nice and neatly maintained.
There’s also a hedge maze from which we thought for a moment we would never be able to get out. It was super funny
Enjoying the most pleasant weather
We noticed that it was the first time on our trip that we felt that the weather was very pleasant. Due to the elevation of the resort, the temperature is significantly cooler.
Actually that’s why the resort has been founded in 1919, when the country was a French colony. French tourist would enjoy the cooler weather like they did in Da Lat village, a resort center in the highlands. Nowadays, just ruins remain from that time, but it’s the same idea.
Flying over the mountains
Well, Ba Na Hills Sunworld park was actually divided in two mountains. So, you could take the funicular that connects to the other mountain where the “French Village” is located.
So we got up the funicular, very excited about the views we were going to enjoy. If it had been up to us, we would have spent the whole day going up and down, over and over again …
The French Village
In short, the “French Village”, as its name indicates, looks like a French medieval style village.
There are constructions that look like French-style palaces (just as those seen in Buenos Aires, for example) and castles that look like Carcassonne, where hotels, restaurants and businesses related to tourism work.
Time passed very quickly and soon we had to go down the mountain by cable car again.
It was not the same cable car we used for going up, so again we were taken aback by the landscapes. The vegetation, the waterfalls and all the views were absolutely impressive.
Hai Van Pass
Once at sea level, we meet our driver again. Our journey continued in the direction of Hue, our next destination, and we still had about three hours to go.
In order to reach our destination we had to go through the mountain pass known as Hai Van Pass. It is 21 km long, going up, down and skirting mountains. Breathtaking, again.
Our guide offered us to stop at a viewpoint, that used to be a bunker during the war against the US. The scenery at sunset moved us a lot.
Finally, after almost 12 hours touring around the area, we arrived at our new accommodation in Hue city.
It was late, we were exhausted and hungry, so we went to get something for dinner and then to rest. It had been a very long day.