A 3-day loop covering Ba Na Hills, Hoi An and My Son Sanctuary from Da Nang runs roughly $85-140 per person if you plan it yourself, or $65-155 per person for guided day tours covering the same three stops. Those ranges overlap, and the real decision isn’t really about price - it’s about how much your time is worth and whether you want someone else handling the 6am departures and shuttle transfers between three sites that don’t sit near each other.
I’ve lived in Asia for 9 years and been running tours out of Da Nang since 2023, so I’ve watched travelers try both approaches more times than I can count. Some save real money doing it alone. Others burn a full day on logistics and wish they hadn’t.
DIY vs Organized Package: Cost Breakdown
The numbers below assume one adult traveler, foreign-visitor ticket prices, and a base in Da Nang or Hoi An for the 3 days.
| Cost item | DIY (self-arranged) | Organized package |
|---|---|---|
| Ba Na Hills entrance + cable car | 970,000 VND (~$38-39) | Usually bundled into tour price |
| My Son Sanctuary entrance + shuttle | 150,000 VND (~$5.90) | Sometimes bundled, sometimes extra |
| Hoi An Old Town ticket | 120,000 VND (~$4.50) | Rarely included, pay on arrival |
| Transport for all 3 days | Grab/taxi legs, ~$35-90 total for a full-day private car charter | Included in package price |
| Guide | None | Included |
| Lunch (Ba Na Hills day) | Pay separately, buffet or street food | Often included in Ba Na Hills tours |
| Estimated 3-day total | ~$85-140 | ~$65-155 |
The DIY column assumes you’re comfortable booking Grab rides between towns and reading a shuttle schedule at My Son without English signage everywhere. The organized column assumes a mix of a full-day Ba Na Hills tour and a My Son day trip, priced separately, plus your own Hoi An entrance ticket.
How Many Days Do You Actually Need?
Three days is workable but tight: one full day for Ba Na Hills, one for Hoi An Old Town at a walking pace, and a half or full day for My Son Sanctuary with the drive from Hoi An factored in. Trying to compress this into two days means skipping either the Golden Bridge’s quieter early hours or a relaxed walk through Hoi An’s Ancient Town.
The distances explain why. Da Nang to Ba Na Hills runs about 35 km and 45-60 minutes by car, longer during the 7-9am and 4-6pm rush windows. Da Nang to Hoi An is a shorter 25-30 km, roughly 40-50 minutes. Hoi An to My Son is the longest single leg at 40-45 km, commonly around 1 hour 10 minutes each way because the road narrows and slows through rural stretches. Stack My Son onto the same day as Hoi An sightseeing and you’re looking at 2-2.5 hours of driving alone.
What Does Each Ticket Actually Cost?
Ba Na Hills charges foreign visitors 970,000 VND (~$38-39) for entrance including the round-trip cable car, a figure confirmed across multiple 2026 ticket resellers including Ve Cap Treo Ba Na - I break down every ticket tier and the new validity rule in our full Ba Na Hills ticket guide . Children under 1m ride free, those between 1-1.4m pay roughly 530,000-800,000 VND, and anyone over 1.4m pays the adult rate. Starting January 1, 2026, a single Ba Na Hills ticket is valid for up to 3 consecutive days with unlimited cable car rides, which matters if you want to split the mountain across two visits without buying twice.
My Son Sanctuary is far cheaper: 150,000 VND (~$5.90) for foreign visitors, covering entrance and the 2-way electric shuttle from the parking area to the ruins. Children aged 5-15 pay 30,000 VND (~$1.20), and kids under 5 enter free. Hoi An’s Old Town ticket costs 120,000 VND (~$4.50) and gets you into 5 of roughly 22 heritage sites via a coupon booklet, so you pick which five matter to you before you go.
Where DIY Actually Saves Money
The savings show up almost entirely in transport and guide fees, not in entrance tickets, since those are fixed regardless of who books them. A private car with an English-speaking driver for a full day, roughly 8-12 hours covering around 100 km, runs about $35-90 depending on the platform and duration - cheap enough that splitting it between 2-3 travelers often beats a group tour’s per-person rate. Booking your own Grab or hotel-arranged car for the Da Nang-Hoi An transfer alone can come in under $35 one-way, which covers most of a day’s driving budget if you’re staying central.
If you’re weighing My Son against other day-trip options from Hoi An, I’ve laid out the full lineup in our Hoi An day trips guide . Where DIY loses is at My Son and Ba Na Hills specifically, because both sites reward local knowledge you don’t have on a first visit - which ruins to prioritize when the shuttle group is moving fast, or which side of the Golden Bridge gets the crowd first. That’s usually where I get pulled in: I run this exact loop myself, picking up from the hotel, timing the Ba Na Hills cable car before the mid-morning crowd, and driving straight to My Son afterward instead of routing back through Hoi An twice. Whatever you decide about the rest of the trip, that’s the piece I handle without you needing to negotiate a driver rate or double-check a shuttle schedule yourself.
When the Organized Package Is Worth the Extra Cost
An organized Ba Na Hills day tour, including guide, round-trip transport, entrance ticket and buffet lunch, runs roughly $52-97 per adult depending on the operator and what’s bundled - some listings sell the cable car ticket and lunch as add-ons, so check inclusions before comparing prices. A My Son day or half-day tour ranges from budget hotel-organized trips at $10-25 up to $55 for a private early-morning small-group departure that beats the crowds.
The package earns its premium when your trip is short and every hour matters, or when you’re traveling with people who don’t want to manage three separate bookings and a shuttle timetable. It also earns its keep at My Son specifically, since a guide explaining the Cham ruins’ history turns a 45-minute walk through scattered brick towers into something that actually makes sense, rather than reading a small placard at each site. For longer trips that add the coast or the Central Highlands to this same loop, our Vietnam tour routes cover the wider itineraries. Travelers extending this exact 3-day core often add our 7-day central Vietnam route on top of it.
What to Choose: DIY or Guided Package
Both paths land in the same rough range, so the deciding factor isn’t really price - it’s how the $85-155 gets spent. If you’re confident booking your own Grab rides and comfortable reading a shuttle sign in English-light settings, DIY keeps more of that money on entrance tickets and less on a guide. If you have 3 days exactly and want to skip the guesswork on cable car timing and which My Son ruins are worth the walk, a guided day tour buys back the two biggest failure points: missing the early cable car window and mistiming the Hoi An-My Son drive.
I run this exact 3-day loop for travelers who’d rather hand off the driving and timing than plan it themselves - picking up from your hotel, sequencing the sites so you’re not backtracking, and paying for parking and shuttle fees on the spot so you’re not fumbling with small change at each stop. Message me on Telegram with your travel dates and I’ll tell you what fits in 3 days versus what needs a fourth.
Methodology: Where These Numbers Come From
Entrance ticket prices for Ba Na Hills, My Son and Hoi An Old Town come from official operator pricing (Sun World for Ba Na Hills) and site-management pricing pages, checked for the 2026 season. Organized tour prices are ranges pulled from multiple tour-booking aggregators and local operator listings, since inclusions vary enough that a single number would be misleading - I’ve marked those as estimates rather than fixed figures. Private car charter rates come from ride and transfer platforms operating in the Da Nang-Hoi An corridor. Distances and drive times reflect typical daytime conditions; add 15-20 minutes during weekday rush hours or Vietnamese public holidays.
