Visit My Son Sanctuary from Hoi An: Motorbike or tour?

I nearly didn’t go to My Son. Someone had told me it was a pile of bricks and a long drive, and for a while I took that at face value, which I now think was a mistake, though not a huge one. It is partly a pile of bricks. That’s what happens when you bomb a place.

Anyway, the motorbike or tour question. Everyone asks it as a money question and the money barely differs. Riding out yourself comes to about $12 with the ticket, a tour is about $22. Ten dollars.

The thing I’d actually think about is the time you turn up, because My Son at seven in the morning and My Son at ten in the morning are not the same visit at all, and the transport you pick mostly just determines which one you get.

• Quick Answer: My Son Sanctuary is 40km from Hoi An, an hour on a scooter. A bike is 100,000 to 150,000 VND a day and entry is 150,000, so about $12. An early morning small-group tour with hotel pickup is around $16 plus the same ticket. Take the tour if it’s what gets you there for the 6:30 opening. Ride yourself if you’ll really leave Hoi An at 5:30am, and be honest with yourself about that.
• The Two Options, Priced:
  • Scooter: 100,000–150,000 VND rental, roughly 50,000 petrol, 10,000 parking.
  • Early morning tour: from $16, 5:30am pickup, back in Hoi An by 11.
  • Afternoon tour with the Thu Bon boat: similar money, 12:30 pickup, done by six.
  • Private car and driver, no guide: 700,000–900,000 VND return.
  • Entry: 150,000 VND, and plenty of tours don’t include it.
• Before You Go:
  • Open 6:30am to 5:30pm. The 11am to 2pm window is the one to skip.
  • Ticket covers the museum, the 2km electric buggy and the Apsara dance.
  • Dance performances at roughly 9:30, 10:45, 2:30 and 3:30.
  • Cash only at the window, and there’s no ATM out there.
  • Two hours does the site. Four if you’re a sign-reader.

You’ll notice I’ve linked to a few hotels and activities I used or recommend, you can even highlight any text to check prices and book instantly. If you make a booking through them, I receive a small commission, which really helps support the work I do here, at no additional cost to you.

How Far Is My Son Sanctuary from Hoi An?

Forty kilometres inland, an hour on a bike. Slightly more if you stop, which you probably will, because there’s decent coffee about halfway at a couple of roadside places in Duy Xuyen.

Hoi An is the sensible base for this, which is why nearly every My Son Sanctuary tour leaves from here. Da Nang operators do run them, but they charge 300,000 VND each way extra to come and get you, and you’re adding forty minutes to an already early start.

The road itself is nothing to worry about. West out of Hoi An, then the DT610 through Duy Xuyen, rice fields and brick kilns and eventually a turn up into the valley. Flat all the way.

What Each Option Costs

Two of you on one bike and the DIY figure drops to something like $8 each, and that’s the only version of this where the money is a real argument.

Otherwise you’re deciding whether ten dollars is worth a guide, a van with air conditioning, a driver who knows the turning, and breakfast.

For most people on a two-week trip it obviously is. I’d still take the bike some days, for reasons that have nothing to do with value.

About the ticket. A few of the tour listings put the 150,000 VND entry fee in the inclusions and then say further down, in the bit nobody reads, that it isn’t included and you should bring cash. Same page, both statements.

I’ve seen it on a listing with over three thousand reviews, so it isn’t some fly-by-night operator being sneaky, it’s just badly written. Bring the cash.

Riding There Yourself

Rental in Hoi An is 100,000 to 150,000 VND a day and half the shops in town do it. Automatic unless you specifically want otherwise.

Directions aren’t complicated. West out of town, DT610 through Duy Xuyen, and there are signs for Mỹ Sơn from around 15km out. Parking is at the visitor centre by the ticket windows, about 10,000 VND.

Then everyone gets on the same electric buggy for the 2km into the valley, whether you came on a tour or not, which slightly undermines the feeling of having done it independently.

The licence thing is what I’d think hardest about. Vietnam wants a Vietnamese licence or a properly converted international permit for anything over 50cc, and most travel policies won’t pay out on a motorbike claim if you don’t have one. Nobody at the rental shop will ask you. That’s not the same as being covered.

What I like about riding out there is that you go when you like and stop when you like, and the run back through Duy Xuyen around midday, when the light is flat and everyone’s inside, is one of my favourite bits of road near Hoi An.

What I don’t like is arriving with no idea what I’m looking at, which at My Son matters more than it does at most places.

And then there’s the timing problem. If you ride, leave at 5:30am. Not seven. The whole point of having your own bike is that you choose when you arrive, and almost nobody actually uses that, which is why the car park at half nine is full of independent travellers who’ve turned up at the exact same moment as the coaches.

Taking a Tour

The early morning small group is the one people book. Hotel pickup around 5:30, coffee in the van on the way, at the gate for the 6:30 opening. Two hours or so walking the site with a guide, then a Champa breakfast at a local place at nine, back in Hoi An by 10:30 or 11.

Sixteen dollars, twelve people maximum, and there are always spots for solo travellers. Vegan breakfast if you mention it when you book.

The afternoon one picks up at 12:30, gets there at two, includes a Cham dance performance and a boat back down the Thu Bon, and finishes around six.

Reviews are good. The two complaints that keep coming up are the heat, which is unavoidable at that hour, and that the banh mi they include is a banh mi.

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before. That’s worth having in October and November, when the valley floods and trips get pulled with no notice.

There’s a private car option too, no guide, 700,000 to 900,000 VND return. If you’re travelling with parents who don’t want to be on a scooter but also don’t want to be on someone else’s schedule, that’s the one.

The Bit That Actually Decides It

My Son is small, it’s in a valley, and there’s very little shade. All of that gets worse as the morning goes on.

Read the reviews of the dawn tours and they’re all saying the same thing, and it’s not really about the guide. They had the place to themselves. The ones who went at ten wrote about the heat.

I’m not a morning person. I’ve said so in enough of these that it’s probably tedious by now. But I have never once managed to get myself out of Hoi An before six under my own steam, and I’ve stopped pretending I will, so I book the tour and let someone else be responsible for the van being outside at half five.

What’s Actually Left to See

I’d want to know this in advance, so here it is.

My Son was the religious centre of the Champa kingdom, in use from around the 4th century until the 13th, mostly dedicated to Shiva. The towers are brick with no mortar between them.

Nobody has properly worked out how they did it, which sounds like tour guide talk but is apparently true, and there’s a section in the little museum about the restoration attempts that failed because modern brickwork won’t behave the same way. I find that more interesting than it probably deserves.

There were more than seventy structures. There are nowhere near seventy now. Group A, which by all accounts was the finest of them, was destroyed by American bombing in 1969 and what’s on the ground there today is rubble and a sign explaining what used to be standing.

You walk groups B, C and D mainly, plus E and G in various conditions, and the loop takes about two hours if you’re not rushing.

If you’ve been to Angkor it will look small. That comparison comes up constantly and it’s fair.

What makes it worth the trip is the carving, the setting, and the Cham story, which you won’t get in this much depth anywhere else in the country. That’s the second argument for a guide, and honestly the stronger one.

In Hue or the Hoi An old town you can wander around and absorb something on your own. Here, with nobody explaining, it’s brick towers and some information boards that don’t say much.

The ticket also covers the museum, which is small and better than it looks, and the Apsara dance at the Performing House. Shows are around 9:30 and 10:45, then 2:30 and 3:30. Go at 6:30 and you miss it. I think that’s a fine trade. Not everyone does.

Practical Bits

• Entry. 150,000 VND for foreign adults, 100,000 for Vietnamese. Under-15s are free but pay about 30,000 for the buggy. Cash only, no ATM anywhere near.
• Hours. 6:30am to 5:30pm, daily, all year.
• Dress code. No strict one. It’s a ruin, not a working temple, and shorts are fine. Cover your shoulders if you’d rather.
• Shoes. Uneven brick and dirt paths. Trainers.
• Kids. Doable, but it’s an hour each way and two hours of walking with nothing at the end for them. The cooking class and basket boat is a much easier day with young ones.
• Rain. The valley floods in the wet season and access closes sometimes. Check in October and November before you set off.
• How long. Two hours. Four if you’re thorough. Nobody needs a full day here.

So Which One?

I’d take that last row seriously. My Son is half a day out of a town that most people underrate and underbook, and if you’ve only got three nights I’d think about whether the day is better spent in Hoi An itself. There’s a longer version of that argument in how many days in Hoi An.

Pick the Time First

Work out what time you want to be standing at the gate, then choose how you’re getting there. That’s the order.

If you’ve read all that and you’re still telling yourself you’ll ride out at 5:30 in the morning, good luck, and I mean that sincerely. Come back and tell me if you managed it. I’ve been saying I’ll do it for years.

Help Us Keep It Real 🥰

Astrid Freja (Author)

Did you find this guide helpful for your trip? 🤔

Yes, absolutely love it! 😍

Good, but I wish it had more details. 🙂

Not really what I was looking for. 😕

Other reason... 🧐

Send

Everything is still accurate! 😊

Prices or opening hours have changed. 😕

I found a better spot nearby! 🤩

Other updates... 🧐

Submit Field Report 😄

Thank you so much! 🥰

Your contribution helps keep our community informed. If you love our authentic guides, please support us on Google! (It only takes 5 seconds) 😊

Add as preferred source on Google 😍

Keep Exploring Hoi An

• See & do Ultimate
  My 7 favorite things to do in Hoi An as an expat ›
• Guide Must read
  Is Hoi An worth visiting or overrated now in 2026 ›
• Guide
  Comparing all 4 ways to get from Da Nang to Hoi An ›

0 Like 0 Comments Send Share