How to get from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang
The white pristine beaches of Danang (Da Nang) might make a welcome change after chaotic charm and quirky splendour Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). The distance from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang is 950 km by bus or by train and it will take between 17 and 23 hours to get to Danang depending on how you decide to travel. The quickest and easiest way to travel to Danang from Saigon is obviously to fly, which only takes just over an hour.
If 17 hours on a train or 20+ hours on a bus seem a bit too much then you could break up the trip with a stopover in Nha Trang, another very popular beach resort in Vietnam.
Flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang
If you’re the kind of traveller that just wants to get there, then your best option would be to fly from Ho Chi Minh's Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) to Danang International Airport (DAD) and you have plenty of choices with Danang airport being Vietnam’s third largest airport. The flight time is only 1.5 hours.There are plenty of flights every day between Ho Chi Minh City and Danang. There are three major airlines servicing the route between the two cities with Vietnam Airlines being the most expensive choice. They have flights departing Saigon regularly through the day with tickets starting from USD120 per person one-way – and you can consider yourself lucky if you grab these ones!
Jetstar Pacific also operates daily flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Danang, starting from USD70 per person one-way and the other operator on this route is VietJet. It is the most budget-friendly operator of the bunch with tickets for flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Danang starting from around a very affordable USD45.
Note It is worth highlighting than the flights between Ho Chi Minh City and Danang are usually in high demand and so it is best to book well in advance because prices and availability can fluctuate quite significantly depending on the demand at your time of booking for the date and time you wish to travel.
From Ho Chi Minh City to Danang by train
Overnight sleeper trains are a popular way to travel in Vietnam because they are affordable and it’s a great way to see at least a part of this large country from your carriage window, too.There is a choice of seats and berths on offer, from more affordable 2 class AC seats to plusher 1 class 4-berths soft sleepers, but taking into consideration the length of the journey, sleepers are probably a better option. Our top recommendation is 2 class AC sleepers which are a decent balance between the price and the comfort.
Note There are basically two types of sleeper trains in Vietnam, SE and TN trains. TN trains generally take longer because they stop more often than their SE counterparts. You can normally buy convenience items like snacks and drinks on the trains, too, and sleeper options come with pillows and a blanket for each berth. All the trains also have WC facilities on-board.
The Reunification Express or North–South Railway operated by Vietnam Railways have regular departures from Saigon train station (Phuong 9, Quan 3, Ho Chi Minh City) to Danang train station (202 Hai Phong, Thanh Khe, Danang). The journey takes around 17 hours to cover the 940 km between these two cities.
The services than run on this route include SE2, SE4, SE6, SE8, SE22 and TN2. Trains depart from Saigon regularly each day between 6am and 10pm and tickets, depending of your class of travel, range between USD21 and USD55 per person, one-way.
Tip Schedule-wise, the two most convenient options are night trains SE2 leaving HCMC at 7.30pm and reaching Danang before 1pm and probably TN2 which departs in the early afternoon at 1.10pm but arrives to Danang by 8.30am leaving you with the whole day ahead of you.
From Ho Chi Minh City to Danang by bus
If you’re travelling around Vietnam on a tight budget then the most inexpensive way to get around is probably by Open Ticket Tour Buses.Open Ticket buses, also known as sleeper buses, offer great flexibility because you can hop off the bus at any major stop along the route and then catch another bus when you are ready to continue your journey. To use this popular option you do need to advise the tour operator of your plans at least 24 hours before you travel though.
A couple of other things to note would be that the buses do vary depending on the operator you travel with but most sleeper buses have air-conditioning and WC facilities on-board and some even come with TVs and DVD players, too. Another tip is to pick your seat on the bus carefully because the legroom available can vary on a seat-by-seat basis on the buses in Vietnam!
To get from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang by bus you could travel with one of Vietnam’s newer long-distance bus operators, the Hoang Long Bus Company. Buses leave from Mien Dong Bus Station (292 Dinh Bo Linh Street, Binh Thanh District) in Ho Chi Minh City at regular intervals through the day between 7am and 6.30pm. Seats on this service start from USD22 and the trip will take about 21 hour.
From Ho Chi Minh City to Danang via Nha Trang
Nha Trang is Vietnam’s rising star in terms of popular beach resorts and has a lot to offer from high-rise modern hotels to beautiful beaches and an active nightlife scene.Make a stopover in Nha Trang and enjoy its impressive promenade, quiet parks, quirky boutiques and numerous dining options. It isn’t hard to see why this beach resort in Vietnam is becoming so popular with travellers and tourists.
If you decide that a stopover in Nha Trang to break up your journey from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang is a good idea then this is a really easy option to arrange and you have plenty of choice because Nha Trang is a major transport connection hub in Vietnam so all the trains and buses travelling from south to north and vice versa stop at Nha Trang en-route.
It means that to get from Ho Chi Minh to Nha Trang you can take any of the trains mentioned about above plus several other departures are available, too. These include HNT8, SNT2, SNT4, SNT6 and SE26. It takes between 7 and 9 hours to reach Nha Trang from HCMC by train. Expect to pay from USD16 for a 2 class soft seat up to USD50-60 for a berth in a commercial train like Livitrans Express or Saigon Golden Train.
Tip The best time-saving option here is arguably SE4 train leaving at 10pm and arriving to Nha Trang at 5am the next morning.
Nha Trang is easily reached from Ho Chi Minh by bus, too. In addition to the Hoang Long buses consider the veteran open ticket tour bus operator The Sinh Tourist and Hahn Café. Both offers similar service to Nha Trang from Ho Chi Minh: the journey takes between 9.5 and 11 hours and tickets cost from USD9 to USD11per person one-way.
The remaining leg from Nha Trang to Danang takes more or less the same time – from 8 to 10 hours by train and from 9 to 11 hours by bus. Hanh Cafe, The Sinh Tourist and Hoang Long will be happy to sell you tickets for USD9-USD11 for either their morning departures between 7am and 8 am or evening departures (between 8pm and 9pm).
Alternatively, hop onto a train – consider SE3 and SE25 as the best night options (10.15pm and 10.50pm respectively) though SE7 at 8.35am comes handy, too, if you do not mind travelling by day.
Why travel to Danang
Danang has historically been seen as a provincial backwater but in recent years things have been changing fast for this South Central Vietnamese city. The white pristine beaches, nearby national parks, interesting museums and stunning bridges are transforming Danang into a popular choice with both travellers and tourists in Vietnam.
Onward travel from Danang
Some options for other places in Vietnam to explore once your stay in Danang is over, might include a quick trip down to nearby Hoi An, which is only 1.5 hours from Danang and with fares starting from only USD6.50 the opportunity to enjoy and explore this ancient South East Asian trading port that dates back to the 15th century with all its historic charm has to be worth considering.
Hue is another Vietnamese city that isn’t too far from Danang at between only 2.5 and 3 hours. Located north of Danang on the Perfume River, Hue offers a mixture of old and new with its interesting history and active nightlife scene.
Just seven hours from Danang you’ll find the UNESCO World Heritage site at Phong Nha Cave. Phong Nha Cave is in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, around 50km northwest of Dong Hoi in Quang Binh Province and you could get there from Danang in around 7 hours direct or via a stop off in Dong Hoi, which is just 6 hours away from Danang.
If you haven’t yet made it to Hanoi then Vietnam’s capital city could be another option for you from Danang. Hanoi’s Old Quarter is very popular with travellers and tourists looking to explore this wonderful, historic city and then possibly move on to the UNESCO world heritage site at Halong Bay with it’s 1,600 unpopulated islands.
Further afield from Hanoi think Sapa, which is sometimes referred to as The Queen of the Mountains. Sapa is well known for its trekking tours where you can experience endless mist-covered valleys, rolling mountainsides quilted in rice paddies and the culture of the local hill-tribes. Experiences that are not to be missed while you’re in Vietnam, surely?
If destinations in Vietnam are not what you’re looking for after visiting Hanoi then, as Vietnam’s capital city, the whole of South East Asia is waiting for you. You could be enjoying Bangkok’s lively nightlife, incredible history and marvellous shopping in only 2 hours for just USD120 per person or how about heading for clean, modern sophistication of Singapore which is only 3.5 hours from Hanoi and with airfares starting at just USD120 – why not?