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 6am opening. Ride yourself if you’ll really leave Hoi An at 5am, and be honest with yourself about that.
• The Two Options, Priced:
  • Scooter: 100,000 to 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 to 900,000 VND return.
  • Entry: 150,000 VND, and plenty of tours don’t include it.
• Before You Go:
  • Open 6am to 5pm, daily. 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.
  • No dress code. It’s a ruin, not a working temple.
  • Two hours does the site. Four if you’re a sign-reader.
• One Thing That Confuses Maps: after the 2025 provincial merger My Son is addressed as Thu Bon, Da Nang on some listings and Duy Xuyen, Quang Nam on others. Same valley, same gate.

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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.

One thing that catches people out on maps. The 2025 merger folded Quang Nam into Da Nang, so the site now shows up as Thu Bon, Da Nang on some listings and Duy Xuyen, Quang Nam on older ones. Both get you to the same gate, and the pin to trust is the one at 15.7688, 108.1193.

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.

My Son Sanctuary Entrance Fee, Hours and Rules

On the dress code: this comes up a lot and the answer is that there isn’t one. My Son is an archaeological site, not a functioning temple, so nobody is checking your shoulders at the gate. Cover up if you’d rather, and the stronger reason to is the sun, since there is almost no shade once you’re among the towers.

There are cafés and toilets inside the site near the temple groups, which surprised me the first time. Fans too, in a few of the sheltered spots. None of that makes midday pleasant, but it makes it survivable.

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 5am. 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 close to 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. There’s a lotus pond on the way back that most people walk straight past.

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 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. If you’re riding out alone, the audio guide sold at the entrance is the cheap middle option.

The ticket also covers the museum, which is small and better than it looks. The part worth ten minutes is the virtual reconstruction of Group G, built from laser scans and the old French survey drawings, which shows you what the valley looked like before 1969. The ticket also covers the Apsara dance at the Performing House, with shows around 9:30 and 10:45, then 2:30 and 3:30. Go at six and you miss it. I think that’s a fine trade. Not everyone does.

Practical Bits

• Water. Bring more than you think. There are cafés inside, but they’re between the groups, not with you among the towers.
• Toilets. At the visitor centre and up near the temples.
• 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.
• Phone signal. Patchy in the valley. Screenshot your ticket or booking before you leave Hoi An.

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, and the case for the town generally is in is Hoi An worth visiting.

Questions I Get Asked

How much is the My Son Sanctuary entrance fee? 150,000 VND for foreign adults, 100,000 for Vietnamese, under-15s free. Cash only at the window.

What are the opening hours? 6am to 5pm, every day. Arrive at opening and you have the valley almost to yourself for an hour.

Is there a dress code at My Son Sanctuary? No. It’s an archaeological site, not a working temple. Wear what you like, and cover up for the sun, not for the rules.

How far is My Son from Hoi An? Forty kilometres, about an hour by scooter or car on flat roads.

Is My Son Sanctuary worth it? If you want the Cham story and you go early, yes. If you’ve seen Angkor and you turn up at ten in the morning, probably not.

Do I need a guide? The site doesn’t explain itself well. A guide or the audio guide makes the difference between brick towers and a kingdom.

Why do maps show two different addresses? The 2025 merger put Quang Nam inside Da Nang, so you’ll see both Thu Bon, Da Nang and Duy Xuyen, Quang Nam. Same place.

How long do I need? Two hours for the site, four if you read everything. Nobody needs a full day here.

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, and it’s the only part of this decision that changes the day.

Ten dollars buys a guide and a van. It doesn’t buy you the six o’clock version of My Son. Only the alarm does that, and the tour is just the most reliable way I’ve found of making the alarm stick.

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