Da Nang Day Trip

Da Nang sits between a river, a long beach and a wooded headland, with marble hills rising out of flat ground just south of it. A day is enough to take in the four things that make the city worth stopping in rather than passing through.

Five hills of marble and limestone stand together near the coast, named after the five elements — metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Thuy Son, the water mountain, is the one you go up, by steps or by lift.

What is inside them is the point. Caves have been cut and adapted into shrines over centuries, the largest of them a high chamber where daylight comes down through openings in the roof in solid shafts and lands on the Buddha below. Pagodas and viewpoints are scattered across the top of the hill, and from the edge you can see the whole sweep of the beach and the sea beyond it. At the foot of the hills, stone carvers still work the marble in the village below.

Out on the Son Tra peninsula, the Linh Ung pagoda is the largest in the city, and it is dominated by the Lady Buddha — a white figure of Avalokiteshvara 67 metres tall, standing on a lotus base of a further 35 metres, facing out to sea. It is the tallest statue of its kind in Vietnam and it is visible from most of the city’s waterfront.

The complex was built between 2004 and 2010 and the grounds hold eighteen arhat figures carved from white marble, each with a different face. From the terrace the view runs back across the bay to Da Nang and the mountains behind it.

The Cham Sculpture Museum holds what the record calls the world’s largest collection of Cham artefacts — sandstone altars, deities and temple fragments taken from the Cham sites across central Vietnam, displayed in a low colonial building with the light coming in from the sides. It is the best available explanation of what the ruins in this part of the country actually were.

The day also stops at a local market, which is where the city buys its food rather than its souvenirs — fish, herbs, fruit and a great deal of noise.

This is a full day with a fair amount on your feet. The Marble Mountains involve steps and uneven stone underfoot inside the caves, which stay damp and can be slippery; there is a lift for the main ascent but not inside the caves themselves. Wear shoes with grip.

The pagoda and the cave shrines are active places of worship, so cover shoulders and knees and remove shoes where you are asked to. Da Nang is hot and humid for most of the year — carry water and a hat.

Lunch and an English-speaking guide are included. Site admission fees are charged at the Marble Mountains and the museum; whether your booking covers them is confirmed with you, so check before you travel.