Ba Na Hills & Golden Bridge: Private car from Chan May Port

4.71

(7 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

“If you’re afraid of heights, just look at the hands,” our driver joked as we pulled up to Ba Na Hills from Chan May Port. He grinned in the rearview mirror, like he’d said it a hundred times but still meant it. The drive itself was quiet — mist curling around the windows, that faint smell of wet earth after last night’s rain. I kept thinking about how far we’d come from the port, maybe an hour or so, but it felt like another world already.

The cable car up was… well, I didn’t expect my ears to pop twice. You glide over this wild green tangle — waterfalls somewhere below, birds you can’t see but definitely hear. Our guide Linh pointed out old French villas hidden in the trees (“colonial ghosts,” she called them) and told us about couples who come here for wedding photos on the Golden Bridge. When we finally stepped onto that bridge — those giant stone hands holding it up out of nowhere — I just stood there for a second. The fog rolled in and out so fast you could barely see Da Nang below, then suddenly everything cleared and gold railings glowed in the sun. It smelled like flowers and wet stone.

I tried to pronounce “Linh Ung Pagoda” right (Li laughed when I butchered it), and we wandered through gardens thick with orchids and something sweet I couldn’t name. There’s an old wine cellar too — Debay — built by the French ages ago; cool air inside, kind of musty, almost like stepping into someone else’s memory. We took the funicular up to Nui Chua Mountain where it got colder than I thought possible for Vietnam in June. After all that, walking back across the bridge felt different — lighter somehow.

The ride back down was quieter; everyone just sort of watched the hills slide past outside. Our driver handed us cold water bottles without a word. Sometimes you don’t need words anyway.