- Distance
- About 40-45 km, up to an hour each way
- 2026 entry
- 40,000 VND per new rule; portal still shows 150,000
- Gates
- 6:00 am opening, beat the 9 am tour buses
- Time at site
- 2-4 hours, little shade, 32°C+ by 9 am
- Dance shows
- Around 09:45-16:00, weather permitting
My Son Sanctuary, the ruined temple-city of the Champa kingdom, sits in a jungle basin west of Hoi An and fits neatly into a half-day. The realistic version: out of your hotel between 5 and 6 am, walking among the brick towers in cool morning light, back at a Hoi An cafe for lunch. Here is how that day actually runs.
Distance and the honest travel time
Distances differ by source, so treat these as a band: Da Nang's city tourism portal, danangfantasticity.com, says about 35 km from Hoi An and 45-50 km from central Da Nang, the site's own management board says 45 km and 68 km, and other 2026 guides put it around 40 km from Hoi An. On the road, allow up to an hour each way from Hoi An and up to 1.5 hours from Da Nang. One route note: the tourist bus to the site is suspended, so the practical choices are a group tour, a private car or taxi, or a motorbike for confident riders.
The 2026 ticket confusion, explained plainly
Two official figures currently coexist and do not match. Under Da Nang People's Council Resolution 98/2026/NQ-HDND, effective 10 August 2026, the entrance fee is 40,000 VND per person, the same for all nationalities, with children under 16, students and Vietnamese citizens over 60 exempt. Meanwhile the site's official ticket portal, mysonticketonline.vn, was still listing 150,000 VND for foreign visitors and 100,000 VND for Vietnamese visitors as of October 2026, plus a 30,000 VND shuttle ticket for children aged 5-15. The old 150,000 VND ticket included the electric buggy to the temple groups, the site museum and the Cham dance shows; whether the new 40,000 VND fee covers the same is not yet confirmed. Check the price at the counter or on the portal before you pay, and do not assume a full visit costs only 40,000 VND.
A realistic itinerary
5:00-5:30 am: pickup. Sunrise tours collect you from your Hoi An hotel; standard group tours leave around 8 am. 6:00-6:30 am: arrive near the 6 am opening. The ticket portal lists visiting hours 06:00-18:00 with ticket sales until 17:30. Walk the on-site museum first for ten minutes of context, then take the electric buggy the last 2 km into the basin. 6:30-9:00 am: the temple groups. This is the good window: empty ruins, low golden light, bearable air. By 9 am the day-tour buses arrive and the shadeless bowl climbs past 32°C in the dry-season months. 9:30 am onward, optional: the Cham dance shows, listed at 09:45, 10:30, 11:15, 14:00 and 16:00, weather permitting. Note the built-in trade-off: a sunrise visit has you leaving before the first show, so empty ruins and the dance are competing choices, not a package. 10:30-11:00 am: buggy back, drive to Hoi An, lunch by 12:30.
What the site demands
- Water, a hat and sturdy shoes; the basin has very little shade among the towers.
- 2-4 hours on site: the management board says a visit lasts more than two hours, and danangfantasticity.com suggests three to four for the main groups, museum and a show.
- Cash or a card that works on a Vietnamese QR portal, plus patience if the fee rules are mid-transition at the counter.
Back in town, the rest of the day is easy; our 3-day Hoi An itinerary with parents shows how to pace it. For costs across the trip see the Hoi An couple budget, and Hoi An weather February to August helps you pick the month.
A Miranda House graduate and lawyer who traded courtrooms for slow travel. Cheshta travels with the batches we host ourselves, with a soft spot for travelling alongside elders.
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