My Danang, Vietnam Vacation: May-June 2025

Had a wonderful vacation in Danang, Vietnam towards the end of May/beginning of June 2025, where we were joined by our friends from Singapore.

Key Highlights

1. Quality of destinations over quantity. While there are many great places to visit in Vietnam, we wanted to spend a relaxed 5-6 nights at one place with plenty to see/explore rather than have a rushed vacation, where you just spend 1-2 nights in each destination doing tourist stuff at a hectic pace. Danang in central Vietnam is ideal from that point of view and keeps you busy for at least a week (if you wish to explore in a relaxed manner). Most of our days included getting up comfortably, getting some exercise, breakfast, some sight seeing (including lunch outside), followed by relaxation at the hotel/or the resort (where our friends were staying) and then a nice dinner.

2. Beach destination with mountains nearby. Danang has some great beaches including My Khe Beach, Non Nuoc Beach, Son Tra Beach and Bac My An Beach. Our hotel was located right at My Khe beach, which is one of the popular tourist hotspots. Additionally, the mountains with the fantastic Bana Hills resort were just an hour's drive away. 

3. Kids Friendly Destination: it's safe, the locals are friendly and there are plenty of food options (both Vietnamese and International) that kids would like. Lots of activities that the kids would like including beach, sight seeing and the vibe (in general).

4. Amazing food: I loved the various salads, local Vietnamese food like Pho, Banh Mi, Bahn Xeo. As an Indian, I did have 2 Indian meals, which were average. However, I would recommend trying the local food as it can be easily modified to suit our spicy palate with the various sauces on offer and local food would be more affordable.   

Tips Based on My Experience

a. Visa: even though the process takes around a week, I applied 6-7 weeks before our flight date just to be safe. While applying, please ensure that you enter your details exactly as mentioned on your passport. The official websites to apply for the e-visa are https://evisa.gov.vn or https://thithucdientu.gov.vn. There will be some links of some service providers that come up as well, but you can stick to the official websites as the process is simple enough. The fee when I applied was US$ 25 for single entry and US$ 50 for multiple entry. A multiple entry visa would be required if you are visiting other countries from Vietnam and coming back to Vietnam once again in your journey. Once you get your visa, please match all the details with your passport and even if it is a minor error like a letter or number interchanged, please do not take a risk. It is better to spend that $25/50 once again rather than pay significantly extra for approval letters etc if you take the visa on arrival option. Better to mention the exit date a few days ahead just in case you decide to extend your vacation or face any unplanned event. For example, instead of 7 days, I mentioned 10 days as duration of stay on our applications.

b. Flights: If you have connecting flights within Vietname, then I would recommend at least a 3 hour gap. For example, we landed at Ho Chi Minh City and had to take another flight to reach Danang. Our take off got delayed by 30 mins and the immigration lines were long. Additionally, we had to go to the domestic terminal to take our connecting flight. So 3 hours is generally enough. I would also recommend booking all the flights from the same airline. We booked everything from Vietnam Airlines and did not have to bother collecting our luggage for the flight change as they ensured that it would directly reach Danang or New Delhi (on the way back). It was so convenient that we got enough time for a snack and some rest as well.

c. Travel: A light suitcase: Between the four of us, we did not even use 75% of our checked in baggage allowance and used just two carry on bags instead of the four allowed to us. This allowed us to keep our options open for shopping, picking up stuff from duty free. We also chose a hotel that had some local laundry shops (with decent ratings on Google) near by and we used those

d. Food: Though I do eat meat, there are times I enjoy vegetarian and vegan food as well. For many street food options, it was easier for the vendor to understand vegan as compared to vegetarian. Going to Indian restaurants in Vietnam will ensure that you spend at least 2-3 times more as compared to local food or even fast food. My recommendation would be to have local food - I had Pho, which is a noodle soup with lots of vegetables everyday for breakfast. It is already quite flavourful and can be enhanced by adding more sauces. Other Vietnamese food that we absolutely loved included Banh-mi - a sort of subway sandwich but the crispy on the outside and soft inside filled with meat and veggies. Most places offered pork options, but a few did have chicken options. Banh Xeo was another dish that I particularly liked - crispy rice flour pan cakes stuffed with vegetables and meat.

Regarding food, it will help if you can remember some basic terms to identify the type of meat. This will help you avoid certain types of meat as per your religious or dietary preferences. For example, Ga means chicken and Com-Ga would mean chicken rice, Bo is beef, Vit is duck, Fish is Ca, pork would be thi lon and so on.

And don't forget to try out the various varieties of coffees that are available. Vietnam is a leading producer of coffee globally. 

e. Stay: If you are a larger group staying together, you might want to book a villa at a location close to any of the popular tourist hang outs. Our friends wanted a relaxed vacation so they booked a resort a few kms away from the rush. We wanted to be close to most of the touristy places and have the option of walking around to explore dining options nearby so we booked a hotel at My Khe Beach. 

f. Sightseeing: Must do at Danang would include a full day trip to Bana Hills. Lady Buddha statue and a visit to the Sontra Peninsula (moring or after 4 PM), Marble Mountain (early morning or late afternoon). a trip to the old town of Hoi An (evening), My Khe beach or other beaches (early morning and late evening), dragon bridge fire and water show (around 9PM from Friday to Sunday), spending time around the Han River Promenade later afternoon or evening.  I would also recommend keeping the occasional relaxed day where you just enjoy your hotel swimming pool. For taxi and ordering local food, I would recommend downloading the Grab app and adding your credit card - I did this before our departure from India.

g. Currency: while we paid our hotel in advance, we did keep around US$ 500 in cash as some places like souvenir shops or street food accepted cash only. This was more than enough for a week for all four of us.  Taxi, Bana Hills and eating out was taken care of by card. You may use any good forex card or enable international transactions on your credit/debit cards.

h. Shopping: my personal favourite for small souvenirs were the SonTra Night Market (next to the Dragon Bridge) and the Han Market. Other than that, many supermarkets will also offer a variety of Vietnamese goods that you can pick up for family members. We liked the banana candy, coin cakes and coffee. There were many other local candies/desserts that I wanted to try, but could not as smaller sizes were not available. I found Chocolates to be on the expensive side. If you plan to pick up Vietnamese liquor, then do it from a supermarket and carry it in your checked in baggage. The same stuff was on the expensive side at the airport shops. 

Overall, I would consider Vietnam as one of my best vacations. It is ideal if you are with family and the kids will enjoy themselves.