How to Get Around Da Nang, Transport

Da Nang is a huge city, and if you plan a vacation not of the "hotel-beach" type, you won't manage without using transport. Fortunately, Da Nang is quite developed in this regard. There are city buses, taxi apps work, and there are motorbike and bicycle rentals. So, if you wish, you can easily and inexpensively get around the entire city and its immediate surroundings. And how to use it, we will now tell you everything from multiple personal experience:

Walking in Da Nang

If we don't consider long distances, then in our opinion, Da Nang is one of the most comfortable resorts in Vietnam for walking. There are wide streets, sidewalks, promenade areas on the embankments, many pedestrian crossings and traffic lights. Moreover, the pedestrian zones here are so wide that you don't even have to constantly step onto the road to bypass a sidewalk occupied by motorbikes and trading carts.

There is only one downside: you will have to walk a lot and far. For example, if you stay on the first line by the beach in the main tourist area, you will have to walk 2-3 kilometers to the city center with bridges and the Han River embankment.

And also keep in mind that sometimes to walk from point A to point B, which are a hundred meters apart, you sometimes have to walk half a kilometer around due to wide roads and bridges. But mainly this is only in the center near the bridges, and in the coastal area everything is much simpler. We recommend installing OSMAnd or Maps.me maps for pedestrian navigation (they work without the internet), or use Google Maps.

Taxi

There are many car taxis and motorbike taxis in Da Nang. We recommend using taxis by meter or through apps for short trips, and for long trips out of town, for example to Hoi An, to Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge on Hands, My Son Sanctuary ruins, etc., you can negotiate a fixed price with taxi drivers on the street, through travel agencies, at hotel receptions, or book a ride through the InDrive app.

The cost of a taxi ride by meter starts from 12,000 VND (0.46 USD) for boarding and the first few hundred meters, and then from 10,000 per kilometer. On all official taxis, the price is indicated on the side of the car, and if it's not there, then you have an unofficial "bomber" in front of you, and you need to agree on everything in advance with them. So a taxi in Da Nang will cost:

• Minimum trip in the area from 30,000 VND / 1.14 USD.
• Average trip within the city center from 60,000 VND / 2.28 USD.
• From/to airport or railway station from 100,000 VND / 3.8 USD.

The price for a motorbike taxi is almost half that.

We traditionally recommend ordering taxis through the Grab, Maxim, XanhSm, InDrive apps:

• Grab - in our experience the most optimal, many cars and well-developed service.
• XanhSm – this is eco-friendly taxi on locally produced electric cars, rapidly developing, but a bit more expensive than Grab.
• Maxim – the cheapest, but good luck waiting for a car.
• InDrive - complicated to use for short trips, use it for long-distance ones.

All apps register without problems on Russian SIM cards, they have cash payment at the end of the trip, no Russian cards work.

Transport Rental

Prices

• Semi-automatic scooter - from 100,000 VND / 3.8 USD.
• Automatic scooter - from 120,000 / 4.56 USD.
• Powerful 150cc motorbike like NMax - from 150,000 / 5.69 USD.

Prices are about the same everywhere, differing by 10-20 thousand depending on the rental location. In hotels, prices are usually a bit higher. Ask for a discount for renting for several days.

Where to Find

There are many rental agencies in Da Nang, especially in the tourist area along the main Da Nang beach My Khe. Here are the streets where we came across especially many rentals: Nguyen Van Thoai, Ha Bong, Ho Nghinh. And we found a whole group of rentals on Ha Dac Street.

If you don't want to walk and search on the street, you can follow a modern working scheme that works great in Vietnam now: look for rentals on Google Maps by searching for "Motorbike for rent", contact the owner via WhatsApp or the local messenger Zalo, and agree on the price, terms, and delivery to the hotel.

You can also find a rental in hotels and guesthouses, but according to personal experience, it's usually 20-30 thousand more expensive there.

Finally, if you have a foreign bank card, you can book a scooter online on the website BikesBooking.com

Documents, Deposit, and What Else You Need to Know

When renting, they don't ask for a license, but you must have an International Driving Permit (IDP) and category "A", everything else is illegal. You can get an IDP in addition to your license through the Gosuslugi website, you don't need to retake the exam. The state duty for issuance is 3200 rubles.

For rental, they usually ask for a passport as a deposit, although sometimes a photocopy or even a photo of it on a smartphone is enough. In general, it depends on your ability to negotiate and persuasiveness, there are no uniform rules on this matter.

Car Rental

The price for car rental in Vietnam still remains quite high, from 40 dollars per day. But now international rental companies have opened offices here, you can book a car for rent at Da Nang Airport or get a car in the city itself, including with a driver right away. There is a chance that because of this, prices will drop a bit:

City Buses

The most budget option for getting around Da Nang and the immediate surroundings is the city bus system. The fare is from 8,000 to 30,000 depending on the route. Payment is made to the conductor.

You can get to the city bus from the railway station and bus station to the city center, to the Marble Mountains, to Hoi An city, and even to the My Son ruins. There are 14 routes. But honestly, it's not very convenient for tourists to get around on them, because they mainly pass through the city center, and cover the beach area and embankment very poorly. And in general, the route network for such a big city is clearly insufficient.

Here are useful routes for tourists:

• No. 1 (suspended) – from Da Nang Bus Station to Hoi An, goes through the Marble Mountains. You can also board No. 1 in the city center, where it makes at least 10 stops in different places, including near the railway station. The fare is 17,000. Runs every 30 minutes from 05:30 to 17:50.
• No. 2, LK-02 and No. 16 – from Da Nang Bus Station through the center and Dragon Bridge to the Marble Mountains. You can board these buses in the city center, where they make at least 10 stops in different places, including near the railway station. The fare is 15,000 VND. Runs every 15-30 minutes from 05:00 to 19:00.
• No. LK-02 – from Da Nang Bus Station through the center, Dragon Bridge and Marble Mountains to Hoi An. You can board in the city center, where it makes at least 10 stops in different places, including near the railway station and near the Dragon Bridge. The fare is 30,000 VND. Runs every 15-30 minutes from 05:00 to 19:00.
• No. 06 – from the airport through the city center and Dragon Bridge to the Marble Mountains.

For searching and building routes, you can use the DanaBus mobile app. If you can't find the DanaBus app in the app stores (and for some reason it doesn't show up in search there), then install it via links to stores from the official website on this page - https://www.danangbus.vn/about/danabus-mobile-app-5.html. Also on the website you can see up-to-date information and a route map https://www.danangbus.vn/roadmap.html. Another backup option is planning a route on Google Maps, they also have buses.

But honestly, all these sources do not give 100% accurate information. The app is very buggy, and the official website information about routes is not updated in a timely manner, and Google Maps only knows some of the routes. Even, as we saw for ourselves, the information on the route map in the buses themselves and at the stops does not fully correspond to reality. Therefore, the most reliable way is to find out everything on the spot and ask local residents and other tourists.