Huyen Khong Cave — Attraction in Đà Nẵng

So after queuing at the base station, I finally hopped on the cable car up to Ba Na Hills — and wow, the ride itself is honestly one of the highlights.

You’re floating through clouds, passing waterfalls, forests, and misty mountains. It’s long too — apparently, it holds the Guinness World Record for the longest single track cable car ride (I totally believe it, felt like a scenic dream that just kept going).

If you're afraid of heights, brace yourself, but it's really quite stunning.

Now, a bit of backstory: Ba Na Hills was originally built by the French in the early 1900s as a mountain retreat to escape the hot weather in Da Nang.

They built villas, wine cellars, and basically turned it into a mini Europe in the clouds. It was later abandoned and overgrown — but in the 2000s, Sun Group came in and transformed it into this massive hilltop attraction we see today.

Building this place must’ve been crazy tough — imagine hauling building materials through thick jungle and rough terrain. Respect to the engineers.

Once you reach the top, it’s kind of surreal. The first thing that hits you is the famous Golden Bridge — the one held by two giant stone hands.

It’s as beautiful as it looks in photos, but expect heavy crowds. Everyone’s trying to get that perfect photo, so it’s near impossible to get a clean shot.

Still, standing there with the cool mountain breeze and the view below is something else.

Then there's the French Village — it’s like you’ve stepped into a European town with cobbled streets, gothic-style buildings, fountains, and street performers.

It feels a bit theme park-y, but it’s fun and charming in its own way.

There’s a Fantasy Park too, if you're into arcade games, mini rides, and quirky indoor attractions.

I didn’t spend too much time there, but families with kids seemed to be loving it.

There's also a peaceful spot near the Linh Ung Pagoda where you can catch a breather from the crowds and see the giant white Buddha statue overlooking the mountains.

As for food — you’ll find mostly buffet-style restaurants around, which are fine if you just want to sit, eat, and recharge. The food's decent.

There’s also Beer Plaza, which had live music and was packed with people eating grilled meats and enjoying cold beers. Definitely more lively if you want to soak in the atmosphere.

Overall, Ba Na Hills is a mix of nature, history, and modern-day theme park. It’s super popular with both Vietnamese and international tourists, and I can see why — it’s not something you’d expect to find in Vietnam.

Just be prepared for crowds, a bit of walking, and some tourist pricing.

If you’re not going with a tour group like me, I recommend taking inDrive instead of Grab — it’s cheaper but note you’ll need to pay in cash.

Or you can try their local electric taxi brand Xanh SM, which I heard is cheaper too. After getting dropped off, there’s a free shuttle bus provided by SunWorld that brings you to the actual cable car station.

Totally worth a day trip if you’re in Da Nang or Hoi An. Just come early, bring a jacket (it gets chilly up there), and don’t forget...

To begin with, one must ask — in the spirit of scientific inquiry — how so many of our fellow travellers come to confuse Ba Na Hills with Bach Ma National Park? It’s rather like muddling a military tattoo with a pagan woodland rite, or assuming the M25 to be a nature trail because it’s sometimes green on the traffic app. The difference is elementary: one is a fabricated Franco-Vietnamese fantasy where the trees are mostly decorative, the other is what the Romantics used to call “nature”.

Upon arrival, one is whisked upwards by a cable car of Wagnerian ambition, dangling in the ether like some mildly reluctant soul being hauled toward a minor celestial being. From there, the view opens out into a spectacle of such improbable grandeur that one momentarily forgets their arthritic knees have locked and are aching severely. Even Mandy, from Manchester, who’d thought she was in Cambodia, let out an involuntary “Ooh!”

At the summit you emerge in France, but France imagined by someone who had read about it once in Paris Match and decided to recreate it with the help of a Swiss chocolatier, a theme park consultant from Brentwood and a slightly drunk planning committee. The cobbled squares, the mock-turrets, the balustrades — all entirely synthetic, yet not without charm. It’s Strasbourg-by-moonlight, after a séance.

The soundtrack deserves a mention - something suspiciously adjacent to John Williams on a loop. It surges in as you admire a fountain or misplace your spouse. It lends the place a cinematic quality, though the film in question seems to hover uncertainly between Star Wars, The Sound of Music, and an ill-advised Life of Brian prequel set in Indochina.

The staff, however, are the saving grace. Impossibly courteous, composed, and unflappable, they tolerate the sort of Westerners who perspire publicly, massacre the local language (“cam on” pronounced as if it’s an Essex exhortation to get a move on), and assume that tipping fixes everything. These young men and women, with the forbearance of saints and the timing of butlers, smile through it all and deserve immediate canonisation. Their training must have been Jesuitical.

In sum, Ba Na Hills is ludicrous, overwrought, and utterly delightful. One leaves uncertain whether one has visited a resort, a hallucination, or a kind of post-colonial allegory - but one does leave smiling, and it lasts for...

Although no one will listen to me: DO NOT GO HERE!

It's one of the top places to visit in Vietnam and I don't have the slightest idea why. But I'll take it step by step.

After paying not less than 40 $ you'll take the cable car up. Arriving on the mountain the best thing will be to your right: the Buddhist temples. Best? Yes, hardly any people and quite nice, though as plastic and fake as everything else here. Walk on through the "French village", an over-the-top, plastic interpretation of a middle age central European village. Each building houses a restaurant, all of them overpriced and probably with questionable quality.

And this is the core of it: you pay the high entrance fee just to get milked at each and every corner. Nearly everything will cost extra and everything that costs is overpriced.

The Alpine Coaster was closed - of course. Most cheaper food options, stalls here and there selling fast-food, were also closed. The only positive part of our visit was that we got vouchers for 2 beers each, at the Bana Brew House. Should've been 0,25 l, was more like 0,2 l, but you'll be thankful for it. And opposite to what's stated on the voucher you can't choose which kind of beer you'll drink, you'll just get one randomly (randomly = the cheapest).

It's a disaster. And if you think a family with children might have a better time here - only if your children like to sit at Starbucks or any random restaurant.

Finally, some statistics to support my claim: the map names 60 places of interest on the mountain. Of these are 23 restaurants, 8 hotels, 6 squares of some kind and most of the 23 remaining statues, pagodas or temples.

We've been warned by a fellow traveler that this is a terrible place but as everyone is so lyrical about it we thought he was exaggerating a bit. We should've listened to him instead. So, please, listen to me and hop over this, save both...