Viet40 Experience In Da Nang

Since I was younger, I’ve always heard the phrase “life begins at 40,” so it always felt like it was a milestone age.

Apart from the daily blog, one of the ideas that we floated was #Viet40 because we’ve grown enamored of Vietnam after staying there for over a year. It was a discussion between Tring, Nino, and me last year when we were thinking about things to do for our 40th birthdays.

Initially, it was going to be a Ho Chi Minh trip, but ultimately, we figured Da Nang would be a nice, short trip that both kids and adults would be able to enjoy.

I think it went pretty well despite not having a lot on the itinerary. We hit a few tourist-y spots to feel like tourists, but we mostly enjoyed the place at our own pace.

Here are some highlights of the trip:

French Village

We stayed in Mercure Danang French Village situated at Ba Na Hills. The tricky part of staying here is that it can only be accessed by cable car, and the service ends at 5pm. If you’re still in the city after that time, you’ll probably have to book other accommodations.

The plan was to visit Hoi An at some point, but the logistics didn’t make sense, and besides, the 20-minute cable car ride felt like forever for Che. Going down meant going through that thing at least twice.

The French Village felt like an old European town that you’d see in books. The architecture and the pavement made it feel like we’re in those books. The weather was quite chilly, and there were times when it was foggy, so you know you’re way up there in the clouds.

The days also felt longer here, as sunrise was before 5am. By 5.30am, it’s already as bright as 8am in Singapore.

Food And Drinks

There is a variety of food options, but most of them only open at 9am and close at 5pm, so if you’re planning to stay here, it would be best to stock up on snacks if you’re a late-night snacker and some quick breakfast bites if you’re an early riser.

Of course, there are still dinner options. I think there were a couple of shops that were open until 9pm and there was a tapas bar that was open until midnight.

We tried a hand-pulled noodle shop that everyone enjoyed. There were plenty of broth choices, but the noodles were really the highlight.

There are roasted meat options, which we had to try because we kept seeing how they barbecue it on the pits. Personally, I didn’t love it. I guess it just didn’t live up to how I imagined it to be. Yes, it’s nearly impossible to mess up barbecued meat, so it’s not really bad, I just may have imagined more flavors from the meat without dipping it in sauces.

Ba Na Hills also has their own craft beers. They have a pale ale, a lager, and a stout, called Sun Kraft Beer. None of it was to my liking. The pale ale had a bitter aftertaste, the lager lacked flavor, and the stout felt flat. All of them felt too bubbly and made you feel bloated after drinking.

I’ve always enjoyed beer from Vietnam, but this particular line did not live up to that standard.

Coffee was a different story, though. There are at least three cafes in the main area, and I suggest getting local coffee instead of getting your fix at Starbucks. They have good pastries as well, naturally influenced by France.

Activities for Kids

Ba Na Hills has an outdoor carnival setup, with some rides and carnival games. The kids wanted to try their luck playing the carnival games, but as expected, it was tough to win. I can’t say it’s a trap, because at the end of the day, it was our choice to play it.

The attendants would upsell you for more chances, which I did appreciate. They genuinely want you to win, but they are not oblivious to the fact that it’s really difficult to win. Of course, they also want you to spend for more chances.

Ultimately, we won a few small prizes, but we did get big ones. I got a couple when we played basketball – the one game that I felt was winnable by skill. The ring wasn’t standard, but it wasn’t unfairly small. The stuffed toys were insanely big and would be a nightmare to pack, but the kids were happy. All the families had at least one big prize.

We got on bumper cars, the merry-go-round but the kids enjoyed the spinning swings the most. They liked it so much that we had to ride it three times.

Elsewhere, they had this ride called the Alpine Coaster. It’s a one to two-person car that goes along the rails that goes downhill along the mountainside. There’s three courses that you can choose from, or you can buy tickets for all three.

Vino is like his mom when it comes to rides – he hates it. However, he gathers confidence to get on rides if he’s with a group of kids who want to get on them, which is why we got on the spinning swings three times. The other older kids wanted to try the Alpine Coaster, so Vino also wanted to do it.

The good thing about this ride – for parents who aren’t really thrill seekers – is that you can control the speed of your ride. You can even stop it if you feel you’re going too fast, but no use getting stuck up there if you’re already hating the fact that you’re so high up in the mountains.

The ride takes about 5-7 minutes, and might be even more enjoyable if it wasn’t too cloudy.

There’s also an indoor carnival space with some rides and games. We found it when we were riding the Alpine Coaster, but it was our last activity before heading down to the city so we weren’t able to enjoy it properly.

Tourist Traps

You can’t say you went to Ba Na Hills without going to the Golden Bridge. It’s literally the first thing that pops up when you search for Ba Na Hills on Google.

There’s no other way to head up there apart from the 20-min cable car ride and another (shorter) cable car ride from the French Village. After all that, you have to brace yourself for the insane number of people there.

It is a sight to behold, but dealing with so much people at around 11am dampens the mood a bit. We were lucky we bumped into a friendly staff who offered to take our photo.

Later, we found this winery that offered a selection of wines for around 150,000-300,000 VND. We got the top tier one, which got us a single glass of wine of our choice. It’s a pretty big space that felt like an underground cave. At the end of it, there’s an alfresco dining space where you can have more wine that you’ll have to purchase.

Here, you have a slight view of The Buddha at the Linh Ung Pagoda. It’s a giant white Buddha statue that’s also one of the things to check out here.

I think there are a couple of castle-like structures that we weren’t able to visit, but I don’t think we missed out on a lot.

Overall, I think it’s a good place to visit for a day just to feel like a tourist and to check it off the bucket list. Weather was cool, though, with temperatures dropping to 17 degrees in the morning and at night.

City Activities and Food

After a couple of nights in the mountains, we went down to have an overnight villa stay at Ocean Villas. It’s a gated residential area with a number of villas being rented out, but we saw that there are people who live there as well.

We hit a bit of an inconvenience because there was an Iron Man race going on, so we had to take a long detour. Otherwise, the location was excellent.

After putting down our bags, we left to eat lunch in the city. This is our second time here, and personally, I enjoy the fact that there’s a city feel to it as well as a beach vibe. We didn’t go around too much back then, but we did see the Dragon Bridge and passed by it this time around.

We went to Pizza 4P’s, which is a staple stop even if it’s not exactly local Vietnamese food. Naturally, pizzas are the way to go, but the pasta there is nice as well. The kids had the five-cheese pizza while we got the burrata parma ham pizza – two of the best-selllers that we also urge friends to try when we bring them here.

Of course, despite this being a pizza place, you shouldn’t sleep on their pasta selection. I love the lasagna, as did the kids.

They also have their own craft beers, but unlike the Ba Na Hills selections, I’m happier with these. They had a new flavor that wasn’t there when we last visited, the white wine beer. I guess they add seasonal ones like this.

After lunch, we split up so the kids and the moms can go home, while Che and I accompanied the dads to the Lotte supermarket for some local goodies.

Che took us to a Lotte Supermarket that was quite huge. As it was a Sunday, there were plenty of free product tastings. We got coffee, of course, a couple of variations of tea, some coconut-based crackers, instant noodles, and a few other snacks both for eating at the villa and for taking home.

We got Bia Saigon, my favorite beer during our time there, and we surprisingly found Cheong Ha, a lighter version of soju that we learned about when we went to Korea last October. It’s not readily available here in SG, but I see it sold online at 15 SGD per bottle, which is highway robbery since it’s only 3 SGD. We got a few bottles for the others to try, and we took home a couple for our house.

After we got our stuff, we had to pack it up ourselves, which was a fun experience in itself. They had boxes that you could assemble yourself to pack your stuff in.

Given more time, I think we’d explore the city more and eat more local food. However, given time constraints, at least we were able to see a bit of the city this way.

Ocean Villas

We got a five-room villa with a private pool and a huge living area. One of the rooms on the gorund floor had two queen beds and was a bit secluded as it was hidden near the washing machine area. We decided to let it be the kids’ room where they could play.

The other room on the ground floor had direct access to the pool, which we used as the changing area for those who will be swimming in the pool.

On the second floor was a master bedroom with a walk-in closet and a huge bathroom with a bathtub. The other two rooms were both equipped with en-suite bathrooms, so we had no issues freshening up per family.

The kids enjoyed the pool in the afternoon, we ordered delivery for dinner, got some beers and popped open the whiskey for the birthday celebration, played some Kahoot games and had a midnight dip in the pool after drinks.

The next day, the kids woke up early, so we were able to maximize the last few hours of our stay. We walked to the beach, which was a 10-minute walk from our place. I’m not sure if people are allowed to swim because of the strong waves, but the kids were having fun just near the shore.

We arranged for pickup at noon, and the van was able to accommodate all of us and our luggages. That’s 11 people that includes five kids, and about 8 luggages.

We hada bit of a mishap as we left a toy in the villa that was only found after we left. Nino booked a Grab express to the airport for the item. He had to meet the guy outside the airport, but at least we got it and had time to eat a last lunch together.

Final Thoughts

Da Nang is always a fun place to visit, whether to chill or to do tourist-y things. I certainly enjoyed the fact that we didn’t have a lot of planned intineraries, so we were able to move at our own pace.

We weren’t able to explore a lot of local food spots, but we did had a nice delivery of some seafood and snails. I feel like it would have been better to eat the food in the restaurant, but at least the kids were comfortable.

Ba Na Hills is an experience that I think is fine doing just once, but you’re not really missing out on a lot if you don’t. I saw in some videos that the Dragon Bridge in the city sometimes would breathe fire at night, which I haven’t seen yet, but if it does, then maybe it’s a better alternative exprience than going up the mountains.

In any place we go to, though, what matters will always be the people you’re with. We may have missed on a few local experiences, but at least we hit some key spots.

Next time we’re out with this bunch, we probably won’t be back here in Da Nang not because it’s boring, but because we’d love to explore other places with them in the future.

Yes, we had to go home with this huge stuffed toy because it couldn’t fit in our luggage. Vino dubbed him as Chug, because he’s a pug with a chicken hat. 

Previous Posts

Random Previous Blogs