Adventures Around Vietnam's Son Tra Mountain

If you've visited Da Nang, the beautiful beach city in Central Vietnam, you’re likely familiar with Son Tra Mountain. This stunning mountain extends from the city into a peninsula, with the city on one side and the sea on the other. It’s forested peak towers over the Da Nang, and is the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. Today, we will adventure up to this mountain by motorcycle, exploring its winding roads and stopping at a few memorable spots along the way.

The first stop on our journey is to a not well-known natural pool at the far tip of the peninsula. To get there, we must drive about 25 minutes from the beginning of the mountain, along the southern coast road. After a great deal of driving up, down, and around on a tight forest road, we come to a dead end. This is where we find the trailhead. Follow the path marked with red arrows for about 35 minutes through the forest. The hike is not too difficult, but stable shoes would be ideal considering there was a bit of scrambling up a few boulders. We come out of the forest at a relatively high elevation, so need to climb down some more rocky trail before we come to the pool pictured below. This natural pool is protected by large rocks, making it a nice place for some cliff diving and swimming in the cool water. The day is hot and humid, and the cool water is especially refreshing after our hike through the forest.

After our swim, we begin to hike back up the mountain to continue our adventure. The next stop is only a few minutes back down the forest road, where we come to an ancient banyan tree. We decide to replenish our fluids and buy some coconuts from a man who has set up a little roadside drink stand. He tells us that this tree has been used for many years as a secret meeting point for local soldiers during many of the area’s past conflicts. It is a fascinating tree, with many trunks spreading from its base across a wide area, appearing to be almost a forest in itself. Besides the coconut man, we are the only ones here. It is peaceful, and it doesn't take long before our energy is once again restored and we set back out on the road.

We take the forest road back up to the main road and continue on to the far side of the peninsula, where I am told there will be a lighthouse. I have never been this far down the road before, and it is clear not many others have either. After about 15 minutes of driving, the road narrows to about the size of a footpath, with debris littered across the ground, and tree branches hanging low. Once again the path takes us up and down steep hills, and around tight curves for about 10 minutes. It is certainly not the safest road to drive on, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn’t fun. We come to a fork in the road, and to the right, I see a steep path down to the base of the lighthouse. We pay a small parking fee and wander around the grounds. The air is fresh, and the city cannot be seen from any direction. You can almost forget the city is just on the other side of the peninsula.

We see a large storm coming in from the sea, and know it is time to start heading back. Almost as soon as we voice our decision to leave the wind kicks up a powerful gust of cool air, and I know the storm would be following close behind.

As we were now retracing our previous path back, I was able to navigate the road more efficiently, and we nearly made it off the mountain before the rain opened up on us. Luckily for us, we avoided a complete soaking by taking refuge at the final stop on our little day trip, the Lady Buddha pagodas. The storm came and went quickly, and we were able to enjoy the beautiful grounds of the temple. This is one of my favorite places to visit in Da Nang, as it has many interesting buildings…

Statues...

Friendly dogs...

Monkeys!

And amazing views at sunset.

All photos were taken by myself on a Samsung S20. Thank you for reading! :)