Improving bus services between Da Nang and Hoi An

Da Nang is experiencing an economic boom as it positions itself as the third city of Vietnam. Da Nang has been designated as an International Financial Centre (IFC) of Vietnam, and in July 2025, neighbouring Quang Nam province was merged into Da Nang City. The merger means that Hoi An is now part of Da Nang. The IFC and provincial merger has elevated Da Nang into an economic and tourism powerhouse of Southeast Asia.

The city centres of Da Nang and Hoi An are about 27 km apart, yet they are poorly integrated by public transport.

There are plans for a metro system in Da Nang that will include a line between Da Nang and Hoi An. Da Nang will also be one of the five express stations of the future high-speed railway, so the future looks bright for rail transport in Da Nang.

While a metro between the two cities is an exciting prospect, Da Nang should first work out its bus system.

I’m a frequent visitor to Da Nang and Hoi An, and it’s always annoying to have to use a taxi to get from the airport or train station in Da Nang to Hoi An. Part of the problem was that the two cities were in different city and provincial governments. Now that the two cities are in the same city government, it’s time to make an integrated bus system.

Here are the most obvious problems with the bus system that need to be fixed.

Fix the bus stops and website

There used to be a public bus from Da Nang to Hoi An (Bus 1), but that was cancelled during the pandemic.

I was back in Da Nang in 2025, and I noticed there was a new bus that was going to “Hoi An Ancient Town” (Bus LK-02). I looked at the bus stop, but there was no information, and the Danang Bus website had not been updated since 2023. I figured the best way to find out information about the bus was to take the bus to Hoi An.

There are very few bus shelters in Da Nang, and the bus shelter I used next to the pink church had its information boards partially covered.

The bus stop was also being used as a bike park.

Bus LK-02 stopped at the bus shelter I was waiting at, and the bus went to Hoi An (here is my review of the Da Nang – Hoi An bus).

Buses can’t drive into the old town area, so the bus dropped the passengers off at a road nearest to the old town. There was no bus shelter or even a sign indicating that this was a bus stop. If I were in Hoi An and I was trying to work out how to get to Da Nang, I wouldn’t have been able to find where the bus stop was.

This would be the easiest fix on my list. Update the website and make the bus stops more obvious that it is possible to travel between Da Nang and Hoi An.

Upgrade the ⁠Hoi An bus stations

Hoi An is famous for overtourism in Southeast Asia, and with overtourism came the tour buses.

Hoi An has been taking steps to alleviate tourism crowds. One of the steps was to create a bus park outside the old city area. This was a sensible idea, though the bus park is a bleak slab of concrete on a blazing hot summer’s day.

More confusingly, this bus stop is only for tour buses, and not local buses. There is an old provincial bus station further up the road (marked as bến xe Hội An Nguyễn Tất Thành (Quảng Nam) on the map), but this station has closed.

Hoi An is one of those “must-see” places in Vietnam, so discouraging tourists from visiting isn’t going to work. What I would do is to make it easier to visit other places in the area. Make a pleasant provincial bus station with plenty of information about how to visit other places in the former Quang Nam province. The provincial bus station should be closer to the old town area than the old Nguyen Tat Thanh station.

Da Nang Airport – Hoi An Bus

Da Nang International Airport is the gateway to Hoi An, yet there is no airport bus to Hoi An. As with the previous Da Nang–Hoi An bus service, there might have been an issue with running a bus into a different province. Now that Hoi An is part of Da Nang, there should also be an airport bus.

Da Nang Railway Station – Hoi An Shuttle

There is no train station in Hoi An, so visitors have to go via Da Nang and get a taxi from there.

Considering how popular Hoi An is, it’s surprising that there is no bus from the train station to Hoi An.

A shuttle bus would be easy enough to organise as the buses only need to operate when the trains arrive and depart. Tickets could be sold as a package with the train tickets, allowing the bus operators to have a general idea of how many passengers to expect.

This should be something that other tourism areas should be doing, such as Dong Hoi Station to Phong Nha and Ninh Binh Station to the Trang An tourism area.

I was recalling my trip to Aomori Prefecture in Japan. I got the Shinkansen to Hachinohe, and at the station, there are buses to the smaller towns in the area. An integrated bus system like this will help spread tourism beyond the main train stations.

Vietnam doesn’t have to wait until the high-speed railway is built to establish an integrated train and bus network. Starting with the most obvious train and bus connections would be a good start.