Da Nang to Hoi An: Every Way There, Priced (2026)
Hoi An is 28–30km south of Da Nang, 40 to 55 minutes, and the price of getting there varies by a factor of ten depending on which option you pick. The yellow Bus No. 1 costs about 30,000₫ (~$1.20), runs every 20–30 minutes from 05:30 to 17:50, and is the right answer for most people going out. A Grab car is 250,000–350,000₫ one way; a tourist shuttle 120,000–250,000₫; a private transfer $15–25; an organised tour $20–30. The Old Town heritage ticket is 120,000₫. The single biggest planning mistake is going in the morning: the Old Town is hot and commercial at midday and transformed after 18:30 — but the bus stops at 17:50, so the evening return has to be arranged in advance.
Da Nang to Hoi An, priced end to end
This is the comparison the SERP does not have. Prices are one way unless stated, for the 28–30km run from the beach strip to the Old Town. The number to hold in your head: the same journey costs 30,000₫ or 350,000₫ depending purely on which vehicle you get into, and the expensive one is only about fifteen minutes faster.
| How | Price one way | Time | What it is actually like | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow Bus No. 1 | ~30,000₫ (~$1.20) | 60–75 min | The public bus, every 20–30 minutes, 05:30 to 17:50. Yellow, no air conditioning worth the name, stops constantly, and conductors have been known to quote foreigners a higher fare — hand over 30,000₫ and hold your ground. It leaves from the central bus station and picks up along the route. Slow, cheap and completely fine. | WORTH IT |
| Tourist shuttle bus | 120,000–250,000₫ (~$5–10) | 45–60 min | Fixed departures — typically 08:00, 13:00 and 16:30 southbound, with evening returns — air-conditioned, hotel-area pickup. The compromise most couples should take: four to eight times the bus fare, and it solves the 17:50 problem in the evening. | WORTH IT |
| Grab car | 250,000–350,000₫ (~$10–14) | 40–55 min | Door to door, on demand, fare quoted in the app before you get in. Coverage in Hoi An is decent but thins after the Old Town empties, so the return leg late at night is the weak point. Split between three or four people it is the cheapest fast option. | WORTH IT |
| GrabBike | 120,000–180,000₫ (~$5–7) | 45–60 min | Half the price of a car and exposed to the weather for 30km of coast road. Fine in March, unpleasant in October. Not an option with luggage or children. | DEPENDS |
| Private transfer, booked | $15–25 per car | 40–55 min | A fixed price for the whole vehicle rather than per person, which flips the maths for families and groups of three or more. The version that lets you stop at the Marble Mountains on the way, which sit at the two-thirds point of the road. | WORTH IT |
| Organised day tour | $20–30 per person | 8–10 hrs | Transport, a guide, usually the basket boats and often lunch. Cheaper than it looks against the DIY ledger below — and the trade is that most tours run 08:00 to 16:00, which is precisely the wrong half of the day for Hoi An. | DEPENDS |
| Rented scooter | 120,000–150,000₫ per day | 45–60 min | The cheapest way to have a vehicle all day, and the one with a legal problem attached: Vietnam recognises only 1968-convention IDPs, so most Western permits are invalid and your insurance is void in a crash. Enforcement on this coast road is real. Read the licence trap first. | DEPENDS |
| Taxi hailed on the street | Unpredictable | 40–55 min | Do not. Rigged, fast-ticking meters are the one persistent scam in this city and the airport rank and Han Market are where they live. Use Grab or Xanh SM, both of which quote before you ride. | SKIP |
Prices checked August 2026. Distances are 28–30km from the My Khe strip; from Hai Chau on the city side add about 3km and ten minutes. The coast road is flat and fast outside the 17:00–19:00 crush.
Doing Hoi An yourself vs booking the tour
A full self-guided day, paying every gate price without haggling, against a typical organised day trip. The ledger is closer than most people expect — which is the honest answer nobody selling tours gives you.
About 430,000₫ (~$17) a head for the full day, and you control every hour of it — which matters more here than anywhere else on this coast, because Hoi An is an evening town and organised tours run 08:00 to 16:00. Doing it yourself is what lets you arrive at 14:00, stay for the lanterns and eat dinner by the river. The catch is the return leg: the bus stops at 17:50, so you finish the day with a 250,000–350,000₫ Grab or a pre-booked shuttle, which pushes the real total to about 700,000₫ (~$27).
Transport both ways, a guide, usually the basket boats and often lunch. On price alone it beats the DIY ledger once you add the evening Grab home. What you give up is the timing — and in Hoi An the timing is the whole product. Book the tour if you want the basket boats and the coconut village without organising anything; do it yourself if the lanterns are why you are going.
Compare Hoi An toursVerdict. Book the transport, not the day. A shuttle or transfer out and back costs less than a full tour, keeps you in Hoi An for the evening, and leaves the 120,000₫ heritage ticket and the basket boats as things you buy if you want them. The only travellers who should book a full day tour are those who specifically want the coconut village and a guide.
Hoi An Old Town, hour by hour
Almost every complaint about Hoi An is really a complaint about visiting it between 10:00 and 16:00. The town is small, walled in by day-tour coaches from two cities, and completely different after dark.
★ The reason to come. Lanterns lit, candle boats on the Hoai River, the whole town in its best hour.
What the 120,000₫ ticket buys, and what else costs money
Hoi An's pricing is unusual: the streets are free, the buildings are not, and the two biggest attractions are a boat ride and a stage show.
The Old Town heritage ticket costs 120,000₫ and admits you to a set number of heritage houses, assembly halls, museums and the communal buildings — not to the town itself, which you can walk through freely. Whether it is worth it depends on whether you intend to go inside anything. The Japanese Covered Bridge finished its restoration in 2024 and looks new, which has divided opinion; it is still the town's signature structure.
The basket boats. Fifteen minutes out of town in the Cẩm Thanh coconut village, round woven boats run 150,000–200,000₫ for a spinning, splashing hour among the water palms. It is loud, unashamedly touristic and the best thing here for children. Bargain on the spot or book it as part of a tour.
The Hoi An Memories show is the region's mega-production: nightly at 20:00 in the Hoi An Impression theme park, from about 600,000₫ (~$24), with hundreds of performers on an outdoor stage. Nothing else on this coast operates at that scale, and if you are going to buy one ticketed evening in central Vietnam, this is the one with the highest production values. It is across the river from the Old Town and it runs long.
The lantern calendar. The monthly full-moon Lantern Festival falls on the 14th day of each lunar month, when the Old Town cuts its electric lighting and runs on lanterns and candles alone — check the date against your trip, because it changes the evening entirely. New for 2026: a lantern-and-drone show series and a Light and Heritage Festival, both part of the region's push into evening programming.
Overtourism and floods: the two things guides leave out
Hoi An is genuinely beautiful and genuinely oversubscribed, and it sits on a floodplain. Both facts should shape when you go.
Overtourism is not a rumour here. The most repeated criticism in forum threads is that the Old Town has become "shops, souvenirs, coffee, souvenirs" — tailors, lantern stalls and cafés occupying buildings that were merchant houses. That is accurate for the middle of the day. It is much less true at 07:00 and after 18:30, which is the entire argument for the timings on this page. If you can only go between 10:00 and 16:00, temper your expectations or spend the time in the coconut village instead.
The flooding is the bigger planning factor. Hoi An sits on the Thu Bồn floodplain and floods properly — streets under water, boats in the Old Town — several times in most monsoons, while Da Nang drains well and recovers fast. That difference is the strongest practical argument for basing in Da Nang and day-tripping here rather than the other way round, and it is a point local forum regulars make repeatedly. Between September and December, check flood reports before committing to the day.
Da Nang's year splits cleanly in two and almost no guide says how hard. February to August is dry; September to early December is monsoon. October alone gets about 650mm of rain — more than February through August combined — with November close behind at 430mm and storms running to around 10 December. The compensation is real: typhoons here pass in a day or two, the city drains fast, and 5-star rates can halve. But if you are coming for the beach, late February to April is the answer and it is not close.
One structural note for anyone confused by the geography: since 1 July 2025 Hoi An is legally inside Da Nang, following the merger with Quang Nam province. It has not moved and nothing about the journey changed — but the administrative distinction that used to make this an inter-provincial trip no longer exists.
Hoi An from Da Nang, practically
Getting there and, more importantly, back
The outbound leg is easy — the 30,000₫ bus does it. The return is the problem worth spending money on, because the bus stops at 17:50 and the lanterns start at 18:30. Judge these against a 250,000–350,000₫ Grab, which is the alternative.
The three things in Hoi An worth paying for
The Old Town heritage ticket is 120,000₫ at the gate and you buy it there. These are the extras that are worth booking, with the gate prices to judge them against: basket boats 150,000–200,000₫, Memories show from about 600,000₫.
Da Nang to Hoi An FAQ
How do you get from Da Nang to Hoi An cheaply?
The yellow Bus No. 1, about 30,000₫ (~$1.20) each way. It runs every 20 to 30 minutes from 05:30 to 17:50, takes 60 to 75 minutes and stops constantly. Conductors sometimes try a higher foreigner fare — 30,000₫ is the number. It is the cheapest option by a factor of eight and it is completely usable.
How much is a Grab from Da Nang to Hoi An?
250,000–350,000₫ (~$10–14) one way for a car, or 120,000–180,000₫ for a GrabBike. The app quotes before you ride. Split three or four ways it is competitive with the shuttle, and it is the only on-demand option late at night when the buses have finished.
Is a Hoi An day trip worth it?
Yes, with one condition: go in the afternoon and stay past 18:30. The Old Town between 10:00 and 16:00 is hot, crowded and heavily commercial, and that is when most day tours deliver you. After dark, with the lanterns lit and the candle boats on the river, it does what it is famous for.
How much is the Hoi An Old Town ticket?
120,000₫. It admits you to a set number of heritage houses, assembly halls and museums — you do not need it simply to walk the streets, eat or shop. Whether to buy it comes down to whether you plan to go inside anything, and most visitors who do are glad they did.
What time does the last bus from Hoi An to Da Nang leave?
Bus No. 1 finishes around 17:50, which is before the lanterns come on. That single fact shapes the whole day: either accept an afternoon-only visit, or plan the return as a booked shuttle at 19:30 or 20:30, a private transfer, or a 250,000–350,000₫ Grab.
Should you stay in Hoi An or day-trip from Da Nang?
The consensus across years of forum threads is to stay in one and day-trip the other, and the tiebreaker is the season: Hoi An sits on a floodplain and floods badly, while Da Nang drains fast. Between September and December, base in Da Nang. In March and April it is a genuine toss-up, and Hoi An wins on evening atmosphere.
Is the Hoi An Memories show worth 600,000₫?
If you want spectacle, yes — it is the biggest staged production on this coast, running nightly at 20:00 with hundreds of performers. If what you came for is wandering lantern-lit streets and eating by the river, it takes the best two hours of the evening and moves you across the river to a theme park. Pick one.
Can you do the Marble Mountains and Hoi An in one day?
Yes, and it is the most efficient combination available. The Marble Mountains are 11km from Da Nang, directly on the road south, and cost 40,000₫ for two hours. Do the hill from 07:30 while it is cool and empty, go back to your hotel or the beach, then travel on to Hoi An after lunch.