What your money is worth today, how far everything really is, and when to come. Then the noodle shops we queue at, the food you'll dare each other to try, the photo spots worth an early alarm, and six mini maps to walk or ride them. Written by the guides who ride these streets every day.
Three things every guest asks us in the first five minutes: what's the rate, how far is it, and will it rain.
Vietnam runs on the dong (VND), and the numbers get big fast. These are Vietcombank's counter rates, the benchmark most banks and exchange shops price against.
| 1 unit of | Bank buys your cash | Bank sells |
|---|---|---|
| USDUS dollar | 25,760 | 26,170 |
| EUREuro | 28,474 | 29,976 |
| GBPBritish pound | 33,428 | 34,848 |
| AUDAustralian dollar | 17,561 | 18,307 |
| CADCanadian dollar | 17,789 | 18,544 |
| SGDSingapore dollar | 19,772 | 20,652 |
| JPYJapanese yen | 159.04 | 170.01 |
| KRWSouth Korean won | 16.67 | 20.09 |
| CNYChinese yuan | 3,777 | 3,937 |
| HKDHong Kong dollar | 3,217 | 3,374 |
| THBThai baht | 682.94 | 791.01 |
| CHFSwiss franc | 30,569 | 31,868 |
Vietcombank, updated 2 Oct 2026, 23:00 (Vietnam time), in VND. “Bank buys” is what the bank pays for your foreign notes; that is the number that matters to you. US dollars and euros are the easiest to change. Rates move every day: check today's Vietcombank table.
The Vietcombank rate is for clean notes. Exchange counters and gold shops inspect every bill, and they pay less, or refuse it, if a note is:
Bring crisp, recent, large notes. Ask for the final rate for your notes before you hand them over, and count your dong at the counter.
Typical 2026 prices. The quick trick: drop three zeros and divide by 26 to get US dollars.
Banks on weekdays, with your passport. Licensed gold and jewellery shops around Han Market and Con Market keep longer hours and often give the sharpest cash rates: look for the sign “Đại lý thu đổi ngoại tệ”. Airport counters are fine for your first million dong.
ATMs are on every block. Most give 2–5 million VND per withdrawal and add a fee on top of your own bank's. Hotels, malls and bigger restaurants take cards. Street food, markets and parking are cash only, so keep 10,000–50,000 notes handy.
Two pairs of notes fool everyone once: 500,000 and 20,000 are both blue, 200,000 and 10,000 are both brownish-red. Check before you pay, especially at night.
Measured by road from the Dragon Bridge, the middle of town. Times are for a normal day by car or scooter; add a little in the 5–6 pm rush.
One of the closest city airports in Asia. GrabCar about 80,000–120,000 VND.
Trains north to Hue along the coast, south to Nha Trang and Saigon.
Straight over the Dragon Bridge.
On the coast road towards Hoi An.
Along the Son Tra coast road.
Steep. Automatic scooters are turned back at the checkpoint.
North-west along the bay road.
Hoi An's beach, on the coast road.
Then 20 minutes by cable car up to the Golden Bridge.
Motorbikes go over the pass, not through the tunnel.
Plus 20 minutes by speedboat.
GrabCar about 250,000–350,000 VND one way.
Inland, at the foot of the Ba Na range.
Over the pass. By tunnel it is 31 km and 40 minutes, cars and buses only.
South-west, through rice country.
By road through the tunnel, or 2.5–3 hours by train.
Since July 2025, Hoi An, My Son and the Cham Islands are officially part of Da Nang City (the old Quang Nam province was merged in). Older maps and blogs still say Quang Nam. Same places.
| To | Best way | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Quy Nhon307 km by road | Train to Dieu Tri | 5.5–6 hrs |
| Nha Trang500 km by road | Train, or flight to Cam Ranh | 9–10 hrs by train · 1 hr 10 by air |
| Da Lat627 km by road | Direct flight | 1 hr 15 |
| Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)860 km by road | Direct flight | 1 hr 30 · 16–18 hrs by train |
| Mekong Delta (Can Tho)1,020 km by road | Direct flight, or via Saigon | 1 hr 30 |
| Phu Quocisland | Direct flight | 1 hr 50 |
Landing in Saigon next? That's our home turf. See our Saigon rides
| To | Best way | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Hue98 km by road | Car, or the coast train | 2–3 hrs |
| Phong Nha caves317 km by road | Car, or train to Dong Hoi | 5–6 hrs |
| Hanoi772 km by road | Direct flight | 1 hr 20 |
Direct flights usually run on these routes, but schedules change with the season. Check before you plan around one.
Central Vietnam follows neither the north nor the south. It is dry and hot from February to August and wet from September to December, with typhoons possible from September to November.
19–25°C, grey skies and light drizzle. Too cool for most beach days, perfect for food rides and museums. Tết (Lunar New Year) falls on 6 February 2027: for about five days many family kitchens close and transport is packed.
25–33°C, dry, with a calm sea warming to 27–28°C. Beach, mountains and Hoi An all work. It gets busy around the 30 April–1 May holiday.
29–36°C and strong sun. Locals hit the beach at 5 am and again after 4 pm; copy them. Vietnamese summer holidays and the International Fireworks Festival (30 May–11 July in 2026) fill hotels at weekends.
Rain peaks in October and November at 400–600 mm a month, with a few typhoons between September and November. The sea is rough, Hoi An floods, the Cham Islands close. The upside: low prices, empty sights and proper soup weather.
No hotel buffets, no laminated tourist menus. These 34 family kitchens and alley stalls are the ones locals argue about, and most cost a dollar or three a plate. And phở? That is Hanoi's noodle. Here it's mì Quảng.
The noodle this region is named for. Wide, turmeric-yellow rice noodles with just a ladle of concentrated broth, topped with shrimp, pork, chicken or frog, then peanuts and a shard of sesame rice cracker.
How to eat it: Crumble the cracker in, pile on the herbs, squeeze the lime, add the green chilli if you're brave, and toss it like a salad.
The safe first bowl. A local chain that grew out of one family kitchen, and still where Da Nang people take visiting relatives.
Old-school and no-frills, a favourite of people who grew up in the city centre. Rich broth, generous toppings.
Named after its own address. Decades on the same corner, feeding half the offices in town.
The frog specialist. It arrives braised in its own clay pot beside the noodles: tender, a little spicy, and far less scary than it sounds.
A bright orange shrimp broth with quail eggs, fish cake and crunchy jellyfish. Mornings and lunch only, and it sells out.
Two Quảng classics under one roof: mì Quảng, and boiled pork you roll yourself in rice paper.
Central-style bánh xèo is palm-sized and extra crisp, a turmeric rice-flour pancake folded over shrimp, pork and bean sprouts. It almost always comes with nem lụi, pork grilled on lemongrass sticks.
How to eat it: Lay a pancake on a sheet of rice paper, add a skewer, herbs and a slice of green banana, roll it tight, pull the stick out, and dunk it in the thick peanut-and-liver sauce.
At the dead end of an alley and full every night. People come for the dipping sauce: thick, nutty, made with peanut and pork liver.
The beach side's answer to Bà Dưỡng. Pork grills over charcoal at the door; inside it's pancakes, corn rolls and skewers.
Bình Định style: small, thick-edged pancakes topped with river shrimp so fresh they're called “jumping shrimp”.
Bún thịt nướng is charcoal-grilled pork over cool rice noodles, herbs and pickles, with peanut sauce spooned on top. Its louder cousin, bún mắm nêm, swaps the peanut sauce for fermented anchovy. That one is Da Nang's real comfort food.
How to eat it: Mix everything from the bottom up before the first bite, so the sauce reaches the noodles.
Thirty-five years of charcoal smoke. Thick-cut, well-marinated pork and a peanut sauce people try to copy at home.
A neighbourhood standby that does one thing, all day.
Roomier than most, with a koi pond and its own take on the peanut sauce. Closed in the afternoon.
The dish Da Nang people miss most when they move away: rice noodles, roast pork, pig's ear and a pungent fermented-anchovy sauce. Deep in a snack alley.
Fish-cake noodle soup, pork you roll yourself, steamed rice cakes, and the market food court where all of it costs coins.
Two rival kitchens a few doors apart, both with a Bib Gourmand. Fish-cake noodle soup in a light broth sweetened with pumpkin, pineapple and tomato.
The easy introduction to bánh tráng cuốn thịt heo: thin-sliced boiled pork, a basket of herbs, two kinds of rice paper and mắm nêm for dipping. Clean, picture menu, good for groups.
Steamed rice cakes the way grandmothers make them: bánh bèo in tiny dishes, sticky bánh nậm and bánh lọc, and bánh đập you smash before dipping. New to the Michelin list in 2026.
The cheapest tasting menu in town. Dozens of stalls under one roof: bún thịt nướng, nem lụi, bánh bèo, jackfruit salad, sweet soups. Point, sit, eat, move on.
You pick it live from the tank and pay by weight. Go where the plastic chairs are full.
Before you order: Always ask the price per kilo before you point, and how they would cook it.
Hidden at the end of three alleys in a fishing quarter, and still packed. Prices are on a board on the wall and nobody haggles.
The big, loud seafood hall across from the beach. Choose from the tanks, they weigh it, you pick how it's cooked.
What the city eats between meals, usually on a stool no higher than your shin.
The home of chè sầu, a cold sweet soup of durian, coconut milk and jelly. If durian scares you, chè Thái is the gentler order.
Avocado ice cream: smashed ripe avocado, a scoop of coconut ice cream, toasted coconut on top. Eaten on a plastic stool inside the market.
After-school snack food with a Michelin nod: grilled rice-paper “pizza” and mixed rice-paper salad.
Eating meat-free here is easy. Vietnamese Buddhists go vegetarian on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month, so every neighbourhood has a quán chay, and a new wave of vegan cafés has opened by the beach. Look for the word “chay” on the sign.
Say it: Outside vegetarian kitchens the catch is fish sauce. Say “Tôi ăn chay, không nước mắm” (toy an chai, khom nook mum): I'm vegetarian, no fish sauce.
The special-occasion vegetarian table: a calm tea-house room on the river, Vietnamese techniques, careful plating.
Where the city's Buddhists eat on the 1st and 15th. Plain room, steel tables, rice plates and noodle bowls for pocket change.
The place to try Da Nang's own dishes without the meat: vegetarian mì Quảng and bún chả nem.
A menu of over 200 dishes, from rice plates to hot pots. Good for groups who can't agree.
Family recipes in a room dressed like an old Vietnamese house.
A humble alley kitchen known for vegetarian cao lầu, Hoi An's chewy noodle.
Vietnamese and international plates on the bay-front road, with vegan cakes for afterwards.
An Thượng's vegan living room: smoothie bowls, buddha bowls, burgers and kombucha.
A small dinner-only kitchen loved by long-stay travellers. Vietnamese and Western dishes, all vegan. Also signed Bếp Chay Không.
Brunch bowls, raw cakes and good coffee a few blocks back from My Khe.
Modern and bright, with Vietnamese soups next to burritos and pizza.
A stall that sells exactly one thing: a fully vegan bánh mì.
Our Da Nang food rides visit kitchens like these in one evening. You sit on the back, we handle the menu, the traffic and the bill.
None of this is strange to us. It's a normal Tuesday. But these are the plates our guests photograph first and taste second. Dare levels are our own, one to five.
A duck egg incubated for about 18 days, then boiled. Yes, there is a duckling in there. Locals eat it as a late snack and swear it gives you strength.
How to eat it: Crack the wide end, sip the broth, then spoon it out with rau răm (Vietnamese coriander), ginger and salt-pepper-lime.
Where: Evening snack carts: look for the words “hột vịt lộn” around Con Market and at most snail stalls. About 10,000 VND.
The fishing village of Nam Ô's answer to sashimi: raw herring cured in lime and galangal, then tossed in roasted rice powder.
How to eat it: Lay out a rice paper, add forest leaves and fish, roll, and dip in the thick fermented sauce. There is a “dry” and a “wet” version; order both.
Where: Gỏi Cá Thanh Hương, 1029 Nguyễn Lương Bằng, Nam Ô. Open 10:00–21:00, about 80,000 VND a portion.
Beef tripe, intestine and lung simmered soft in coconut milk and five-spice. Saigon's street stew, cooked a little less sweet in Da Nang.
How to eat it: Dunk bánh mì into the broth, or have it over noodles, and dip the pieces in tamarind fish sauce.
Where: The stall at the Con Market gate (290 Hùng Vương, about 15:00–19:00), or Phá Lấu Sài Gòn 1976 at 16 Xô Viết Nghệ Tĩnh (15:00–20:00).
The smell arrives before the bowl. Whole anchovies fermented for months, then loosened with pineapple, garlic and chilli. It is the soul of central Vietnamese cooking.
How to eat it: Start with it on the side of a bún mắm, next to pig's ear and roast pork. Most guests end up pouring it over.
Where: Bún Mắm Vân, K23/14 Trần Kế Xương.
The starter version of balut: bite-sized, hidden under sweet-sour tamarind sauce, peanuts and herbs.
How to eat it: Scoop one up with a piece of bread. By the third you have stopped looking.
Where: The K23 Trần Kế Xương snack alley, and most after-dark snack streets.
Pig's ear and skin fermented with galangal, garlic and chilli, wrapped tight in guava leaves and a bundle of straw. Sour, crunchy, made for beer.
How to eat it: Unwrap, add chilli sauce, and chase it with a cold Larue.
Where: Speciality shops and Con Market. “Tré Bà Đệ” is the name locals trust.
Small snails stir-fried with lemongrass, chilli and coconut. The tips are snipped off so you can suck the meat straight out of the shell.
How to eat it: Lips on the shell, one sharp suck. It will be loud. That is the point.
Where: Bắc Mỹ An Market from about 15:00, or Ốc Hút Hạnh at 277 Đống Đa. From 20,000 VND a plate.
Two local twists on the city's favourite noodle: frog braised in a clay pot, or crunchy jellyfish in shrimp broth.
How to eat it: Frog tastes like tender chicken; mind the small bones. Jellyfish is all texture.
Where: Frog at Bếp Trang, 441 Ông Ích Khiêm. Jellyfish at Hồng Vân, 59 Lê Hồng Phong, mornings only.
The fruit that gets you fined in hotel lifts, served cold with coconut milk and jelly.
How to eat it: Stir well. The first spoon decides whether you are a durian person for life.
Where: Chè Liên, 189 Hoàng Diệu.
Sticky, smoky, glazed with honey and chilli. More nibbling than eating.
How to eat it: Work around the knuckles, leave the bones, order a second plate.
Where: Evening grill stalls, and the Sơn Trà Night Market by the Dragon Bridge.
The gentle one. Shredded young jackfruit with pork skin, herbs and peanuts.
How to eat it: Scoop it up with pieces of sesame rice cracker.
Where: Con Market food court.
The one we skip: tiết canh, raw blood pudding. It carries a real infection risk and no guide of ours will order it for you. Everything else on this list is cooked, cured or fermented the way it has been for generations.
On our local street food ride your guide orders, shows you how to eat it, and finishes whatever you can't.
Da Nang street food ride · $49From a dragon that breathes fire to a golden bridge in the clouds. For each one: when the light is right, what it costs, and how to get the shot without two hundred strangers in it.
1
A 666-metre steel dragon arching over the Han River, and the city's symbol since 2013. On weekend nights the head breathes fire, then water.
Photo tip: Stand on the east bank near the Love Lock Bridge for the head-on shot. On the bridge itself, the water phase will soak you and your phone.
A pier of heart-shaped lanterns beside a marble carp turning into a dragon, spraying water into the river. Da Nang's take on the Merlion.
Photo tip: Shoot from the far end of the pier back toward the city: lanterns in front, Dragon Bridge behind.
Vietnam's first swing bridge, opened in 2000 and partly paid for by residents' donations. The middle span turns 90 degrees to let ships through.
Photo tip: Be on the Bạch Đằng riverside by 10:45 pm. On weeknights it turns at around 1:00 am, for night owls only.
A candy-pink Gothic church built for the city's French residents. Locals call it Rooster Church after the weathervane on the spire.
Photo tip: The Trần Phú gate is often closed outside Mass. Walk around to the back gate on Yên Bái street.
5
The riverside market every visitor ends up in. Dried seafood, chilli jam, coffee and candy downstairs; fabric and same-day áo dài tailoring upstairs.
Photo tip: The cream facade with its red lanterns photographs best from across the street.
6
Where Da Nang actually shops. Busier, messier and cheaper than Han Market, with a food court locals call the city's snack heaven.
Photo tip: Shoot the food court from the end of an aisle: rows of stalls, steam, and nobody posing.
The old French town hall on the river, restored over three years and reopened in 2025 as the city museum, with 3D projection rooms inside.
Photo tip: Open roughly 8:00–17:00, with a lunch break on some days. The riverside facade is free to photograph any time.
The world's largest collection of Cham sculpture, in an airy French-built gallery from 1919. Sandstone gods and dancers from My Son and beyond.
Photo tip: The arched yellow galleries and the frangipani courtyard are the photo. The dancing apsara relief is the masterpiece.
A residential alley turned open-air gallery: murals of old Da Nang, fishing boats and street vendors painted across the house walls.
Photo tip: People live here. Keep your voice down, and ask before photographing anyone at their door.
10
A riverside sculpture park built for the 2017 APEC summit, crowned by a huge white canopy shaped like a kite in flight.
Photo tip: Frame the Dragon Bridge under the curve of the canopy as the lights come on.
11
The city's long, clean, free beach. At dawn half of Da Nang is here, swimming, stretching and playing foot shuttlecock before work.
Photo tip: East Sea Park, at the end of Phạm Văn Đồng street, has the doves and the photo frame. Swim only between the flags.
North of the hotel strip the beach still belongs to fishermen. Round basket boats line the sand, and the morning's catch is sold straight off them.
Photo tip: Ask before you photograph the sellers. A smile and a “xin chào” go a long way.
A white Goddess of Mercy as tall as a 30-storey building, watching over the bay from the Son Tra hillside. The courtyard, bonsai garden and resident monkeys come free.
Photo tip: Cover shoulders and knees. Frame the statue through the three-arched gate, and hold on to your snacks: the monkeys know every trick.
The top of the Son Tra peninsula, where a stone sage sits over a chessboard with the whole city spread out below. On the way up: jungle, sea views and, with luck, the red-shanked douc langur.
Photo tip: Automatic scooters are turned back at the checkpoint. Go by manual bike, by jeep, or on the back with a guide.
Five marble-and-limestone hills named after the five elements. Climb Thủy Sơn for cave temples, a pagoda and a sea view. Huyền Không Cave, lit by shafts of daylight through its roof, is the showstopper.
Photo tip: Wear real shoes: the steps are steep and slick after rain. Take the lift up and the stairs down.
A 150-metre golden walkway held up by two giant stone hands, floating above the forest. You reach it by one of the world's longest cable cars; the rest of the hilltop is a French-village theme park.
Photo tip: Cloud often swallows the bridge by midday. It is 10°C cooler up top: bring a layer.
Twenty-one kilometres of switchbacks between mountain and sea, crowned by a 19th-century fortress gate restored in 2024. Da Nang Bay on one side, Lang Co lagoon on the other.
Photo tip: Motorbikes can't use the tunnel, so the pass road is quiet. The hairpin just below the summit on the north side has the classic Lang Co view.
A 400-year-old trading port of mustard-yellow shophouses, silk lanterns and the Japanese Covered Bridge, reopened after restoration in 2024. Officially part of Da Nang City since 2025.
Photo tip: For the bridge without the crowd, come at 6:30 am. For lanterns on the river, shoot from An Hội bridge at dusk.
A fishing village older than the city, famous for fish sauce and raw-herring salad. In the cool months its black rocks grow a coat of bright green moss.
Photo tip: The moss is fragile and slippery. Stay on bare rock, then go and eat gỏi cá up the road.
Red-brick Hindu towers raised by Champa kings between the 4th and 13th centuries, in a jungle valley ringed by hills. UNESCO-listed, and far quieter than Angkor.
Photo tip: Morning mist in the valley makes the photo. See the Cham Museum in town first and the carvings will mean more.
Our sightseeing rides link the river, the peninsula and the hidden corners in one morning, with a local who knows where to stand for the shot.
Sorted the way we'd plan it for a friend: things you make with your own hands, rides you can only do with a local, and classics that are easy to do on your own.
Whisk yolk, condensed milk and robusta into Hanoi's famous dessert in a cup. Harder than it looks, and you leave with the technique.
A market run first, then mì Quảng or bánh xèo from scratch in a home kitchen. You eat what you made.
Trà Quế herb village, between Da Nang and Hoi An. Hoe a bed, water it with twin cans on a shoulder pole, then cook with the herbs you picked.
The city behind the beach hotels: fishing quarters, railway-side lanes and alleys where a family of six shares one room. Ridden with care, with a guide who knows the people there.
A female rider in áo dài, an áo dài for you, and a route built around the light: the Pink Church, Fresco Village, the river bridges, Son Tra.
Sized on the day and yours for a few hours. Pair it with a photo ride, or a lantern evening in Hoi An.
The same alley kitchens as our scooter rides, from the back of an open-top jeep. Good for families, groups, and anyone who would rather not sit on a bike.
Han and Con markets with someone who shops there. Taste, bargain, and leave with souvenirs that weren't made for tourists.
Several of the Bib Gourmand kitchens from this guide in one evening, with a guide who knows what to order at each.
SignatureDa Nang
See Da Nang's daily market life, a world away from the beach resorts
FoodDa Nang
Local stalls away from the beach resort strip
FoodDa Nang
Visit Da Nang's Michelin-recognised street food stalls
FoodDa Nang
Guide's essential picks for Da Nang street food
FoodDa Nang
On foot through Da Nang's local (non-resort) streets
SightseeingDa Nang
Covers Da Nang's iconic daytime landmarks
SightseeingDa Nang
Covers historical sites most beach-trip visitors skip
NightlifeDa Nang
Mix of local bars and lit-up city sightseeing
FoodDa Nang
Hands-on egg coffee making, not just watching a barista
FoodHoi An
On foot through Hoi An's Old Town, at an unhurried pace
FoodHoi An
Covers Old Town plus nearby areas walking tours can't reach
Pick a route, follow the numbered stops, and open it in Google Maps for turn-by-turn directions. Each one links up places from this guide.
Use two fingers to move the map
Further up, for manual bikes only: Ban Co Peak · The great banyan tree.
Every one of our tours puts you on the back of a local rider's bike: helmet on, hands free for the camera, nothing to sign at a rental shop.
Da Nang rides with a guide Ask on WhatsAppThree full days covers the city, the beach, Son Tra and one day trip, usually Ba Na Hills or Hoi An. Add a fourth for the Hai Van Pass and a slow day of eating.
Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 9:00 pm, plus some public holidays. It lasts about five minutes: fire first, then water. Traffic on the bridge stops a few minutes before.
Prices are in dong and almost everything is paid in dong. Change money at a bank or a licensed exchange counter. Some hotels and tour desks take dollars, but at a poor rate.
Yes, if you eat like the locals: busy stalls, food cooked to order, eaten hot. Go gently on raw herbs and ice for the first day or two if your stomach is sensitive. On our food rides the guide only takes you to stalls we eat at ourselves.
For anything over 50 cc, yes: your home motorcycle licence plus an International Driving Permit issued under the 1968 convention. Without it you are uninsured and can be fined. If you don't have one, ride on the back with one of our guides instead.
My Khe and An Thuong for the beach, cafés and vegan food. The Han River side, Hai Chau, for markets, street food and the bridges at night. They are ten minutes apart, so it matters less than you'd think.
Rates: Vietcombank, 2 Oct 2026, 23:00. Restaurant awards: MICHELIN Guide Vietnam 2026. Distances and map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Prices and opening hours were checked on 3 October 2026 and they do change: tell us if you spot something out of date.
Send us when you're in Da Nang and what you're curious about. We'll suggest the right tour and sort the details over chat.
Message us on WhatsApp