Ba Na Hills is a resort located high in the mountains in the suburbs of Da Nang. Ba Na Hills is often called the Vietnamese Disneyland. After all, there are so many different attractions and beautiful areas for recreation. The official name of this park is Sun World Ba Na Hills. It is located at an altitude of 1487 meters above sea level. And it can only be reached by cable car. Cable car, by the way, is recognized as the highest ropeway in the world. Ba Na Hills entertainment park combines not only rides, but also beautiful views from the height, when every now and then you pass by the clouds, a beautiful area of the park on different levels, pagodas and temples, and of course, entertainment for all tastes and ages. You should come here for at least 4-5 hours, or you can come here for the whole day. You will definitely find something to do here.
Ba Na Hills Park description
At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1920, a French resort began to be built here. About 200 luxury villas were built, as well as stores, restaurants, luxury hotels – all for the rest of the French aristocracy. Cable car at the time, of course, did not exist, so the mountain had to climb on their own feet. But with the outbreak of the Vietnam War in the 40s, life on the mountain came to a halt, and numerous bombings have almost completely destroyed this beautiful French resort.
Today, Ba Na Hills Amusement Park is a cool resort with its own hotels — Mercure Danang French Village Bana Hills, Ebisu Onsen Resort, where you can stop and take your time exploring everything that has been built here. It can be compared to Singapore Park Universal Studio, with Wynperl in Nha Trang or on Phu Quoc Island.
The park is located on a flat mountain, which made it possible to build everything your heart desires. At the top of the mountain you can experience 4 seasons in 1 day: in the morning – spring, as it is cool in the morning, in the afternoon – summer, the sun shines and it gets hot, in the evening – autumn, the sun goes away and it gets cold, and at night – winter, the temperature drops and you feel the real cold.
As of 2018, Ba Na Hills Park is open on one level. Golden Bridge, which is held by the hands of God is the highlight of this place. I confess that I went to Da Nang and to this park only for the Golden Bridge. I was ready to visit only the Golden Bridge, the amusement park was in second place. Golden Bridge is so touted on social networks and on the Internet, its beautiful photos from the air are really mesmerizing. But the Ba Na Hills theme park was also worth a visit, it was one of the most memorable places on our trip to Vietnam.
How to get to the Sun World Ba Na Hills park
Ba Na Hills Park is located 30 kilometers from Da Nang City. It can be reached in the following ways:
- Taxi
The most popular way if you arrive at the train station, or fly to Da Nang for 1-2 days. Or if you have already checked into your hotel and are wondering how to get to the park. The most inexpensive cab is Grab. I recommend to put the app and use the cab service in it. The prices will be much lower than if you call a cab from the hotel or catch it on the street..
- On your own by moped or car.
This is a popular way for those who like, like us, to get to all the sights on their own. Renting a moped costs VND150,000 per day, which is about $6.3. A moped can be rented directly from your hotel. That is what we did. We checked into the hotel after arriving in Da Nang from Ninh Binh by night train and rented a moped at the hotel reception. Initially, we thought to go by cab, but comparing the cost of renting a moped and a cab, even from Graba definitely chose a moped. The roads in Da Nang are good, we drove mostly on the highway, there were few cars, in general, there is nothing difficult to get on your own on a moped. If you, like us, have doubts, then do not hesitate!
- Tours
Very often go to Danang for 1 day from Nha Trang as part of the tour. In principle, also not bad. We even considered this option. The only disconcerting thing was that we would have to go two nights round trip on a night bus slipper-bus. But otherwise, it is also a good option if you are vacationing in Nha Trang. You can also take a tour in Da Nang itself, such as at the hotel or book online.
You can fly to Danang from Nha Trang if you don’t want to spend 10 hours in a bus. Tickets are not expensive, and it’s only an hour flight. For example, we flew from Danang to Nha Trang this way, I liked it very much, didn’t get tired and saved time (and of course we stayed overnight in a comfortable hotel, not in a bus).
Ba Na Hills – Ticket prices and working hours
You can buy tickets in advance on the official website, at Klook or at the ticket office before entering the park. We wanted to buy in advance, while we were still on the train when we arrived in Da Nang. But it didn’t work out. At the stage of payment with a bank card an error kept popping up and the payment did not go through. We tried with 3 different cards. So we had to buy the tickets at the ticket office. We were expecting long lines, but there were none, which we were incredibly happy about.
The cost to visit Ba Na Hills Park on all levels, including the Golden Bridge is VND728 thousand for an adult and VND582 thousand for a child. The ticket is a single ticket, you cannot buy tickets for individual levels of the park, let’s say only for Golden Bridge. You buy a single ticket and decide where to go and what to see. The park is open from 7 am to 10 pm.
Ba Na Hills Ropeway
After you buy tickets, you have to walk to the cable car. On the way to it you will get to the mini theme park, here you can also stop and take your time looking around. At this level, at the foot of the mountain, the Vietnamese also set up a lot of things, and there are cafes and a beautiful passage to the cable car with small ponds, many stores with souvenirs. The amusement park starts already at the ticket office.
The cable car is another attraction for tourists. It was built in 2009 and entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the highest aerial tramway above sea level. Its length is 5 km, about 15-20 minutes you will be going higher and higher directly to the clouds. The capacity of the ropeway is 1500 people per hour and there are 94 cabins, which fit 6-8 people each. All the cabins are new and comfortable, and there is air conditioning and nice relaxing music playing inside – apparently for those who are afraid to navigate the ropeway. Yes, I was a little worried, too, but the surrounding beauty completely eclipsed all feelings of fear, I just turned my head in all directions, trying to see and see everything.
And the beauty, of course, is incredible! all around green, big treetops, towers where the stall switched to the next line with a crunching sound – it was all mesmerizing. There was bright sunshine and clear skies below, but the closer we got to the top of the mountain, the stronger the clouds got, and now the sun was hidden behind them and we sailed through the clouds.
First level – Golden Bridge, Flower park, Buddha
The first stop is Golden Bridge, the most popular tourist spot in Da Nang. I described it in more detail in this article. After a long walk on the bridge, we went further and came to the Flower Park.
A lot of tulips of different colors in large numbers surrounded us. It was very bright for eyes to look, everywhere you looked were they – flowers!
In the center of all this beauty we saw a figure of a peacock with a tail made of planted flowers – very, very beautiful! Then the clouds came up, and those people who were standing at the edge of the cliff seemed to be standing at the edge of the cliff. It was extraordinary to look at all this beauty from above. I went down to the so-called cliff. There was no bluff, just another platform of flowers going down.
At the top, at the very beginning of the flower park in the center are the figures of two ballerinas.
I did not see them in the tourists who went to Ba Na Hills Park before us, concluding that most likely there is a change every 2-3 months.
Honeymooners love to be photographed on the Bridge of Love, we never waited until the bridge was empty and went on.
We came to the sitting Buddha, took a quick photo and hurried back to the cable car to get to the next level. On the way we came across these figures in greenery, located right next to the benches at the exit of the Golden Bridge.
French Village, Fantasy Park, Vietnamese Sleigh
It only took us about 5-10 minutes to get to the next level, the highest level, and we were right in the clouds. My camera was out of focus and I couldn’t see anything around, we were completely in the clouds. And then gradually peeking out of the clouds we began to see where our cabin was going.
We got in a real mini – France! This place is called the French village. There are scaled-down copies of the Louvre, Notre Dame de Paris, as well as other buildings and cafes, as well as the streets in the French style.
A slice of France in Vietnam, it feels like we’re in real Europe itself!
In the center of the largest square there are musical performances at certain times. We saw the most real carnival.
And of course, you probably already noticed, in the center there is a fountain with a round ball, which rotates around its axis, with the inscription – Sun World Ba Na Hills. It’s a replica of Universal Studios, which we visited in Singapore.
Behind the fountain you can see Notre Dame de Paris, which unfortunately was badly damaged by a fire in Paris in 2019. Here you can admire its scaled-down copy.
Beautiful streets, many different cafes for all tastes and wallets, all this brings us to France.
The food here, of course, is more expensive than in Da Nang itself, but you have to be prepared for this, as in all the entertainment parks. You can buy a ticket with a Vietnamese buffet included, it will cost 225 thousand VND more. We just happened to find only 1 place where they do kebab – we paid 95 thousand VND, kebab was very tasty, made of chicken. This price includes a drink, a regular carbonated one.
Near that place we could only see Europeans munching away at this tasty dish. The Vietnamese and Chinese, for the most part, passed by.
Upstairs, by the way, is quite cool, 20-22 degrees, a jacket will certainly not hurt, especially if you’re going in the afternoon.
On the paths you can see parked cars. We decided to go up to the top, to the pagoda, from there we had a very beautiful view of the entire Ba Na Hills Bana Hills Park.
Along the way everything is also beautifully decorated, it’s a pleasure to walk here.
And here’s the view from the top!
And where are the rides, you ask? That’s right, the amusement park here is called Fantasy Park and it is located indoors. That’s what we didn’t expect and we went around looking for rides, but we couldn’t find any.
In the end, Fantasy Park was more for kids than adults. For adults we found only 1 attraction – free fall, everything else is for children.
But for adults and older children there is one very cool ride, it’s relatively new, although in Vietnam it has been around for several years – it’s a sled that you roll along the tracks and you can control it yourself, add speed, or, conversely, slow down. You have to pay for it separately and stand in line for 30-50 minutes. Sled costs 150 thousand dong per person and it is really very cool ride. Run the machine is not difficult, and the emotions and adrenaline can get a lot!
In the end, we stood in line for about an hour, already wanted to go, but we were sorry for the time wasted, so we stayed to wait for our turn to ride. In the photo above you can see the sled coming out of another aisle, there are several of them here, we somehow walked and came to another one. There is a time delay between sleds so they don’t collide. Also, 2 people can sit in the sled, they let children and adults in as well, we chose to sit in the sled one at a time. I rode first, and completely missed the instructor’s words that you need to slow down at the signs on the turns, I was flying so fast, and I did not see any signs! Of course, I was a little shocked, because I was going very fast and the turns came as a sharp, and I did not have time to slow down before them and went full speed through the turns, but I got a lot of adrenaline!
There are two cameras on the track, one at the beginning where you roll downhill, and another at the very end where you’re just rolling straight ahead, then you can buy these photos. We bought back for 80 thousand VND for 1 photo. You are shown on the computer your photos and you choose what photos you print and put in a special beautiful cardboard folder.
In general, we visited everything we wanted and I really liked Ba Na Hills Park. It is really worth a visit, its upper level and not just the Golden Bridge. It is better to come here for a whole day to take your time exploring, riding all the rides and watching the music show. I advise you to take a jacket, because on the upper level it is almost always cloudy, and the sun is not warm..
After that we rode down the cable car to the bottom of the mountain, walked a very long distance through numerous souvenir stores to get to the moped parking, took a moped and drove to Da Nang to our super cheap and nice hotel, and then to the sea, our plan was still have time to swim on the beach My Khe before sunset.