Hoi An and Hue are 126 km apart, a distance that is easily covered by car, bus or motorbike. Expect it to take between five or six hours to travel between Hoi An and Hue, with stops along the way. Hiring a private driver will be more expensive but will give the flexibility to alter your schedule and stop for photographs.
We hired a car and driver for the day and were able to visit Marble Mountain, travel over Hai Van Pass, walk on Lang Co Beach, and have stops for lunch and photographs. We paid 70US$ for the trip. It was all arranged through our hotel in Hue, the Holiday Diamond Hotel.
Our day started at 10.30 am (the car got a puncture so our departure was delayed by an hour). We drove towards Da Nang and after only thirty minutes or so we were at our first stop, Marble Mountain. Marble Mountain is a limestone karst hill containing a series of caves and religious sites.
We climbed to the highest point where we looked out over Da Nang and China Beach. China beach is well known as it is the site where many US troops came ashore and took their rest and relaxation during the Vietnam War. The views over Da Nang and China Beach were worth the hot and sweaty steep climb. Few people made it to the highest look out point so we had it almost to ourselves.
The next part of our drive was very scenic…the drive over Hai Van Pass. Now we were driving up winding roads to the top of a mountain, with spectacular views along the Vietnamese coastline. We made a brief stop at the top to take some photographs. There was also an old French fort and an American bunker position to be explored. Interestingly, the pass serves as a dividing line between the climates of the north and south. The pass protects the south from the fierce Chinese winds from the north-east. From November to March it can be wet and chilly on the exposed north side of the pass, while just to the south on the beaches of Da Nang and Hoi An it is warm and dry.
Our last stop before arriving in Hue was Lang Co Beach, a beautiful, completely empty beach. The beaches in Vietnam have so much potential, these wide, scenic stretches of coastline that are almost deserted.
From Lang Co beach it was another hour and twenty minutes driving to Hue.
At 4 pm we arrived in Hue. It was great to combine sightseeing and transportation on this day.
3 Comments.
It all sounds fantastic. You look so healthy too. Trying to send short message. None of mine have got through. Yvonne x
Hi Yvonne. We are all really well and having a great time. We have seen and done so much on our trip so far. Hope you are enjoying our blog. i am loving writing it. You can also like our Facebook page goliveyoung and then the blog posts get posted on there too. You can comment on there if its easier. Your message came through on the website this time so i’m not sure what was happening previously! We are in Hanoi at the moment in the north of Vietnam. Tomorrow we are going on a trip on a traditional Vietnamese junk on Halong Bay for 2 nights and 3 days. We are very much looking forward to it.
Yvonne. We’ve just figured out the problem. People could comment on the posts but the mail address wasn’t working properly. All fixed now so you can send us a message.