How to visit Golden Bridge, Ba Na Hills in Da Nang

Ba Na Hills is extremely popular amongst Vietnamese. It was a hill station at one point of time built by French colonists. At the top lies a whole French village complete with European architecture, activities to do, rides for kids, rollercoasters, and restaurants. Today, it has been converted into a theme park, where most local families come to enjoy their holidays. Like a local getaway.

But for people from other parts of the world, it is the Golden Bridge in Ba Na Hills that catches the eye . The unique bridge that peers over the valley sits on massive hands made of stone. A feat of engineering, unlike others.

Another unknown fact about Ba Na Hills is that it is connected by the world’s longest cable car that stretches around 5 kilometers and can get extremely scary at times.

The Sun group undertook the creation of the amusement park at Ba Na Hills and the complex is called Sun World, Ba Na Hills. This is, in fact, a luxury style resort on the top of Ba Na Hills full of a luxury villa, cathedral, train station, and buildings that resemble perfectly with a 19th-century French town.

The emphasis on the design is to get a person to feel that he/she has been transported to a French village, in another century. Detailing of buildings and landscape are done in utmost precision. A lot of effort is put in getting the texture of the buildings with stained glass, pavements, decorative items, sculptures, topiaries, flower gardens right. The atmosphere makes one feel like entering a surreal dimension for the day.

I have to agree that Ba Na Hills are beautiful and grand. They have been designed with a lot of thought and an extravagant amount of money has gone in its making. If you ask any local, they will say your trip isn’t complete without a visit to Ba Na Hills.

However, if you have been to Europe and have seen similar architecture and ambiance, most likely it is not worth it. Visit if you really want to see the Golden Bridge or you have not seen experienced the ambiance of a European village yet.

If you are traveling on a budget or on a tight schedule, then going to Ba Na Hills is both expensive and time-consuming. Apart from the ticket, the cab rides to and fro is neither cheap and the whole trip will take almost all of your day in Da Nang or Hoi An.

If the weather is bad, rainy or even cloudy, it is not worth visiting Ba Na Hills. The whole place is filled with mist and most rides and restaurants are closed. Plus, you are cold and drenched the whole time. Visit only on clear days.

Official timings of Ba Na hills: 7.30 am to 9.30 pm

Recommended time of visit: 9 am to 5 pm. (There are far more things to do during these times and more rides are open)

Important!

Best Days to visit: Visit Ba Na hills only on clear and sunny days. You will have to check the weather forecast beforehand online. If the days are cloudy, misty and rainy, the whole complex is filled with fog and mist. Rainfall is almost continuous. Visibility is zero, rides are closed and you do not get a view at most viewpoints including Golden Bridge. The park remains open still.

Avoid Visiting on popular holiday seasons like Tet since you may find the park extremely crowded.

The first thing you need to do is to get hold of a map. The park is well over 45,000 square meters in area and was extremely confusing for us and it took us a while to understand how the park is spread out.

There are two levels of the park that you need to navigate via cable car and the funicular railway to visit. The higher level consists of a French village, recreation area, spirit area (pagodas) and restaurants. The lower level consists of The Golden Bridge, wine cellar, French gardens, and Linh Ung Pagoda. A separate cable car connects both levels.

Of course, you will board it. There is no other way to reach the amusement park. But it is a hell of a ride. This is the world’s longest non-stop single-track cable car. The height at which it operates is scary at times. If you are acrophobic, better take a nap.

The cable car ride is around 20 minutes long but can seem like an eternity. On bad days all you can see is mist around you. You can feel like a sock hung out to dry. On good days you will witness lovely scenery, of waterfalls, jungles, valleys, and cityscapes around.

The French village is lovely and a lot of time, focus and dedication have gone to it get it just right. If you haven’t had a taste of Europe, this is perhaps its closest twin. The buildings comprise of hotels, gaming sections, restaurants, churches, entertainment arenas, and even a wine cellar.

Every building you enter will be a surprise. Both exteriors and interiors are done with utmost craftsmanship and detailing of every nook and corner is thought of. I think you can spend a long time appreciating it.

A vineyard in the lower levels of the park comes with a 100-year-old wine cellar. You can taste some local and imported wine there with a view of French-style gardens. The best way to experience it is to stay in one of the hotels here and take a tour before the tourists start pouring in.

There are 2 alpine roller coasters inside Ba Na Hills. Both of them are medium intensity and you need not worry too much if you are scared of high-speed flipping coasters. The track goes through the surrounding valleys and sparse forests full of blooming flowers. Two can take a ride and it is all included in the ticket. The roller coasters are closed if it’s raining or the weather is bad.

The entertainment arena is inside a single building in the French village. There are many low-intensity rides, racing simulators, gaming stations, 5D movies with games, wall climbing, live musical and dance performances and a free-fall ride. You can spend a couple of hours if you want to enjoy all of it.

I think it’s a great place for kids but unstimulating if you have been to better theme parks (I can think of Universal Studios). The place can get really crowded on some days. There is also a wax museum on the adjoining level but you will have to buy separate tickets for the museum. If you haven’t been to Madame Tussauds yet, it can be interesting to visit.

It is a bit odd to find the oriental pagodas spattered around the French-styled village. But they are equally lovely to visit. The most important ones are located in the backside of the French Village overseeing the valley. In fact, most point gives an excellent view of the surrounding hills for miles, sometimes even above the clouds. A large white Buddha statue hovers over everything else making it a striking center-point of your photograph.

This was the reason why we took the whole trip. It really is as amazing as you see in the photos. Except for the mist and the fog dampened it much for us. However, I still feel it was worth it. Two stone hands holding up a skywalk on top of a mountain, so inaccessible is a great work of architecture.

Along with the view, there is oriental music playing in the background as you walk on the bridge by many of the speakers that the bridge embeds in its sides. I am sure the view of the surrounding valleys from the bridge is equally breathtaking which we did not get to see.

Ba Na hills have unbelievably lovely gardens. I remember our thoughts of estimating the cost of building and maintaining such huge lavish gardens. The park is a beautiful blend of both flowers and decorative elements like marble statues.

There are 9 gardens in total and each garden has a theme to it ranging from Classic French to Japanese Zen and Maze gardens. The 9 gardens are Love Garden, Secret Garden, Legend Garden, Memory Garden, Heaven Garden, Osaka Garden, Thought Garden, Mo Spring Garden, and Sacred Garden. All of them are situated around the same area.

You don’t need to worry about food in the park at all. There are various themed restaurants of different cuisines from around the globe. The European ones are particularly popular. However, one cannot guarantee complete authenticity.

Two buffets are also available in European and Oriental styles. Most tourists rate both as above average. We treated ourselves to a Thai restaurant which was again above average in taste. The meal for two was around 300,000 VND, around the average price for most eateries.

For the most part of the year, the park celebrates one or another type of festival. The Flower festival goes on during the spring months of February and March showcasing tulips, bell peaches, hydrangeas and Arapangs.

A beer festival is organized with performances, live music and local flavours of beer between May to September. Halloween is celebrated with giant pumpkins, fairy tales, classical movies, and street performances. Winter and Christmas see special activities, festive decorations, and performances.

If you are looking for a lavish getaway and complete luxury, you must look at booking the resort hotel Mercure Danang inside Ba Na hills. With certain bookings, the ticket to the cable rides is also included which makes it a pretty decent deal actually.

You don’t have to buy any additional tickets thereafter. Also, you get to enjoy the whole village to yourself and very little company in the empty hours of the morning. The prices start from USD70-150 per night and you can book it ahead in time online.

Ba Na Hills is located at a considerable height and the different in temperature is obvious. For the most part, the temperature ranges from 15-20⁰C and can go lower during December-January or rainy season. Keep a jacket with you.

Also, keep a minimum rain gear because showers are still unpredictable and can catch you off-guard. You can buy water inside the park and don’t need to carry food if you don’t want to. Wear super-comfortable shoes since you will have to be on your feet the whole day. It can get very tiring.