Once a luxury resort established by the French, Ba Na Hills is now a popular tourist destination in Vietnam featuring a replica of a France medieval town, beautiful gardens, a Disneyland-like fairy tale princess castle, and a mini amusement park.
Ba Na Hills is located about 40 kilometres from Da Nang and about 60 kilometres from the magical town of Hoi An. We had booked a private car for a day for transportation from our hotel in Da Nang to Ba Na Hills and back. But you can also visit Ba Na Hills using your rented vehicle or on a group tour.
I would advise against booking a tour package as it is not a guided tour and you have to manage on your own inside Ba Na Hills. Basically, they only provide transportation service and buy tickets on your behalf. You also become time-bound and will have to be back by a predefined time. You can book Ba Na Hills tickets from here.
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Cable Car to Top of Ba Na Hills
From the car park, we took the complimentary bus to take us to Hoi An cable car station. Then we took the cable car to Marseille Station. The cable car ride was 10-15 minutes long and offered panoramic views of the valley.
Golden Bridge
As we got off the Marseille cable car station, we came across the magnificent Golden Bridge. Seeing the crowd, we thought we wouldn’t be able to take good photos. Although taking a perfect photo with no unintended person in the frame is next to impossible, you can still take a decent photo if you patiently wait for the crowd to disperse.
Many people have the misconception that Golden Bridge is the only attraction at Ba Na Hills, but it is actually one of the many attractions.
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On the other side of the Golden Bridge, we saw many different face-shaped sculptures. There was a path parallel to Golden Bridge and we were curious to see where it leads. It took us to a viewing platform where we had a good front view of Golden Bridge supported by giant hands.
Gardens Area
After exploring the Golden Bridge area, we walked towards Le Jadin Station and took a cable car to D’Amour Station. This area features 9 gardens – Suoi Mo Garden, Eden Garden, Mysterious Garden, Couple Garden, Reflection Garden, Mythical Garden, Memories Garden, Sacred Garden, and Vineyard.
We found Couple Garden to be the most beautiful. The dancing lady flower statue at the centre adorned the garden. There is a balcony-like structure at the end of the garden which offers beautiful views of the Couple Garden.
There is also a wine cellar at the D’Amour station area which has nothing much to talk about.
A path from the gardens leads to Linh Ung Pagoda. It is the second Linh Ung Pagoda in Da Nang after the one in Marble Mountains. We quickly took the pagoda photo and went towards the Debay Station.
French Village
We then took the cable car to Morin Station. As we stepped out of the station, we felt as if we were in a theme park. We were actually at the medieval Fench town square with a castle, fountain, and carriage around us.
There was also a Disneyland-like show happening at the entrance of the castle. The castle was not opened to visitors and the gates closed as soon as the show ended.
Fantasy Park
We thought of taking the Alpine Coaster ride but it was closed for a short duration for maintenance work. So, we went to explore Fantasy Park.
Fantasy Park is a small indoor amusement park having theme rides, arcade games, and a natural history museum. The theme rides include 4-D and 5-D shooting games, a bumper car ride, and a drop tower ride. The museum and rides are free whereas the arcade games cost extra money.
We didn’t play any arcade games but we enjoyed bumper car rides and shooting games. In free games, queues were quite long and we had to wait for at least 15 minutes for each ride.
Alpine Coaster Ride
After we came out of Fantasy Park, we saw that the Alpine Coaster was functional again. We took no time in getting to the queue.
The queue was long and moved very slowly. We waited for about 45 minutes in the queue. The Alpine Coaster ride was short and not as thrilling as it was at Datanla Waterfall in Da Lat.
More French Village
We then started exploring the rest of the French Village. The golden-coloured globe with Sun World engraved was hard to miss. It reminded us of the globe we saw at the entrance of Universal Studios in Singapore.
We saw many hotels and restaurant buildings with medieval European architecture on both sides of the road.
As we continued walking, we came across the carnival-themed area. We hopped on Carousal and a couple of other rides.
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This was the end of French Village and Ba Na Hills, so we started walking towards the Cable Car Station to take the cable car back to the bottom of the hill. As we were walking back to the station, we saw the Grand Cascade – a fountain area built on the theme of Ancient Greece, having a collection of 40 golden horse statues. I have heard that it looks amazing in the evening when the area is lit with golden lights.
While we were searching for the cable car station, we saw an amphitheatre that had beautiful spots for pictures like two hands with a red heart in the middle, and many giant fairy tale books.
Poor Experience with Local Car Driver
Initially, we had booked the private car transfer from the hotel in Da Nang to Ba Na Hills and back for VND 530k (~INR 1850) through Klook. But our cab driver who dropped us off from Da Nang Airport to the hotel told us that he would take us to Ba Na Hills at a lower price than what we had booked. As it was our first private car transfer booking with Klook, we were a bit apprehensive about the flexibility or lack of it like if we wanted to stop for lunch or something else. So we booked a private car transfer with him for VND 500k (~INR 1750) and cancelled the Klook booking. We had checked with him multiple times that this quoted price includes everything from toll, parking and any other miscellaneous charges and only after his confirmation, we had cancelled the Klook booking.
Private Car to Ba Na Hills from Da Nang – Klook
He sent somebody else to pick us up which he didn’t mention during any of our conversations. We were fine with it as we only cared about reaching Ba Na Hills on time and not who was the driver behind the wheel. The driver started asking whether we wanted to buy Ba Na Hills tickets through him. When we told him that we had already bought it, he realized that he had no way to fleece more money from us and told us that we would have to pay him 50 VND (~ INR 175) extra for parking charges. Megha contacted the driver who took our booking and he asked us to pay an extra 50 and stopped responding to her messages afterwards. When we told our driver that we wouldn’t pay an extra 50, he stopped the car midway and told us to get out of the car.
We were left with no choice but to pay an extra 50 but it made us feel cheated. Although the extra money we gave was nothing but it was not about that. It was about principle, staying true to your words and not changing TnC whenever it suits you.
Moral of the story – Do not book a car with any random driver. Always choose a reputed travel company for any travel booking.
Final Thoughts…
Although we enjoyed our day at Ba Na Hills, having a few more activities would have been great. Apart from Alpine Coaster and a few rides in Fantasy Park and Carnival, there is not much to do at Ba Na Hills.
No doubt, Ba Na Hills is exquisite with medieval architecture and many gardens but they start to feel monotonous after a while.
A trip to Ba Na Hills can also get expensive if we take all the expenses into account – steep ticket prices, expensive food, and transportation costs from Da Nang. So, I am in a bit of two minds about whether to call it a value-for-money attraction. But there is no doubt that it is a one-of-a-kind attraction and must be visited at least once in your lifetime.
Note – To avoid buying over-expensive food at Ba Na Hills, take a packed lunch (Banh Mi or Sandwich) and hide it in your backpack. Although outside food and beverages are not allowed, no one checks the bag at the entry.
Address – An Son Village, Hoa Ninh Commune, Hoa Vang District, Da Nang City, Vietnam
Phone – + 84 (0) 905 766 777
Official website – https://banahills.sunworld.vn/en/
Opening Hours – 8 AM to 10 PM.
Suggested Duration – Full day
Ticket Cost – ~INR 3100 (Adult), ~INR 2600 (Child)
Have you ever visited Ba Na Hills? Share your experience in the comments below.
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