A lot of expats who travel to Da Nang have no idea what to do in here, mostly because it’s a small city but still bigger a town like Hoi An without many English information. The following is a short instruction for any people who want to visit Da Nang city in 1 day.
05h00 to 07h00: Sunrise at the beach
To avoid the strong sunshine during the day, Da Nang people usually go to the beaches at a very early time in the morning, so if you love challenge, getting up at 05h00 and go to the beach and you’re going to have a very interesting experiences. The beach at 06h00 is usually full of people, from the children to the elders, most of them are local people because the tourist cannot get out of their dream. The water quite cold after a long night and very fresh, everything is in grey and orange in the rising sun.
07h00 to 09h00: Street food for breakfast
There are many choices for breakfast in Da Nang, don’t choose the restaurants with a list of 50 dishes. There are many street food restaurants with 1 or 2 dishes and they are usually better and cheaper a lot so try to have some food on a corner. You can change the dishes everyday such as My Quang (Quang’s Noodles), Bun Cha Ca (Grilled Fish Cake Noodle), Banh Canh (Rice Spaghetti), Bo Ne (Sizzling Beefsteak), Banh Beo (Beo Cake)…
09h00 to 11h00: Visit the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture
Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture is the only museum on the world about Cham people and the Champa lost kingdom. There are around 2000 artifacts, but the display space of the museum just enough for 500. In the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture, you can see the beautiful artworks of Cham and see the interfering culture between India and China. But in You should have some knowledge about Champa beforehand to have better experience because the information at the museum is not enough to understand the beauty of the artifacts.
11h00 to 13h00: Visit the Marble Mountain
Marble Mountain is the best place for you to hide from hot air and sunshine of Da Nang in the noon, it’s a nice place for both nature and history fans. With the pagodas were built deep in the caves, walking in the marble mountain give a holy feeling for anybody.
At the Marble Mountain, there are also a traditional Non Nuoc Stone Village where local people make the beautiful stone artifacts that you can buy as souvenir for your friend and family. The price for each artifact vary from the cheapest one around VND 30,000 to hundreds million for the big and beautiful statues. Pay attention not to buy the cheap, very detail and smooth ones because most of them was made from stone powder, not carving by hand.
14h00 to 15h00: Local food for lunch
Now it’s time to try one of the special foods in Da Nang. The main ingredients Banh Trang Cuon Thit Heo (Sliced Pork Rolled With Rice Paper) includes: boiled pork, a mix of herbs, girdle cake and fish sauce. Everything you need to do is using rice paper to roll the pork and herbs together by hand and eat them with fish sauce.
15h00 to 18h00: Afternoon beach or visit Son Tra Peninsula
If you don’t have time for the beach in the morning, this is the good time for taking a bathe, the afternoon beach usually noisier, windy and a lot of people. After taking a bathe, just 5 km from the beach, Son Tra Peninsula is the next location for you to have a sight seeing to the city at the feet of the big Buddha statue (on Linh Ung Pagoda). Furthermore, this mountain is the house of one of the rarest langur (long-tail monkey), the Red Shanked-Douc.
19h00 to 20h00: Dinner (Seafood)
Banh Xeo (Pancake) is the second special food of Da Nang, to cook Banh Xeo, local people fried a mix of water, rice flour, shrimp and pork meat to make a yellow crunchy cake. Banh Xeo (Pancake), then, is eaten together with herbs, rice paper and peanut sauce, you have to roll them by hand, of course.
If you don’t like Banh Xeo (Pancake), Hai San (Seafood) also a great choice, most of them are fresh and Da Nang culinary make it better.
20h00 to 23h00: Han River Bank
It’s time for take a look at the 4 bridges (Thuan Phuoc Bridge, Han River Bridge, Dragon Bridge, Tran Thi Ly Bridge) of Da Nang by night and sit at the bars along the river bank for a drink and sight seeing.
Some recommend bars
- Bamboo 2 bar: Nice view to the Dragon Bridge, suitable for backpacker.
- Waterfront Bar and Restaurant: More elegant Bar, nice decor and western style.
- Sky Bar 36: Bar and night box, for dancing and look at the city from one of the highest building.
- Memory Lounge: Suite bar on the river, nice decor and view, good service.
23h00 to 02h00 (Next day): Midnight foods
Not as busy and Ho Chi Minh city, you have to discover the midnight street food in the different corner of Da Nang, their are plenty of things for you to choose including Sweet soup, Noodle, Rice soup, Duck and even coffee
The famous places for midnight street food such as
Con Market: local people sell midnight coffee here with duck rice soups and plenty of things
Midnight culinary street: Pham Hong Thai Street, famous for sweet soups, clean and right at the city center
Now, it is too late to explore Da Nang city, you should come back your hotel and sleep well.
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