Nha Trang to Hoi An

Known for its lovely beaches and diving sites, Vietnam’s coastal resort city of Nha Trang is one the country’s popular vacation spots and has plenty to do off the beach too. An amusement park, cable car, beautiful pagodas and temples and some great seafood restaurants make Nha Trang a place you’ll want to spend some time checking out its attractions. And when you’re done here, wind your way north along the coast to another popular city, Hoi An. Smaller than Nha Trang, Hoi An is famous for its well-preserved ancient town and canals as well as some wonderful colonial architecture and the Japanese Covered Bridge, that gives this city quite a different feel.

Read about:
• From Nha Trang to Hoi An by Bus
• From Nha Trang to Hoi An by Flight

Options for Travel from Nha Trang to Hoi An

If you want to travel by road there are a couple of different routes to consider, but the shortest and therefore the fastest, is to follow the coastal road which is a distance of about 510 kilometers (320 miles). If you’re in a rental car, you can expect this to take somewhere around 9 hours, depending on how often you want to stop and enjoy the scenery or take a break! Luckily you don’t have to drive yourself from Nha Trang to Hoi An as there are buses that make this journey. Another much faster option would be to catch a flight, perfect if you’re only in Vietnam for a shorter visit and want to get from A to B as fast as possible.

From Nha Trang to Hoi An by Bus

Buses are always a popular way to travel, both for locals and tourists, because they’re cheap. If you’re visiting Vietnam and want to stick to a travel budget, taking the bus is a great way to do this. Not only do you save yourself money, but you get to see lots of scenery along the way which you would not see from a thousand feet up in airplane! The main problem with taking the bus from Nha Trang to Hoi An is that it takes a long time. The scheduled journey time is 11 hours, so this is a long time to be cooped up in a bus but there will of course be some stops long the way when you can get off the bus for a while and stretch your legs.

There are two good bus companies that you might like to consider and both of these can be booked through the travel website 12Go.asia. Check prices and schedules on 12Go so you can compare the cost and decide which company you’d like to travel with. The two options are The Sinh Tourist and Hanh Café. Prices are almost the same with both, but you should carefully consider which type of bus you want to spend 11 hours on.

Hanh Café operates a standard bus with air conditioning. It’s comfortable enough but there aren’t any services or facilities on board, and the seats are standard bus seats which do not give you a lot of legroom.

For just a very small additional cost you can travel with The Sinh Tourist on their Semi Sleeper bus. The seats on this type of bus do recline, giving you far more space for your legs and allowing you to sleep if you want to. Both companies run their buses from Nha Trang to Hoi An overnight, so you will probably want to get some sleep while onboard. They both depart at 7pm and arrive into Hoi An around 6am the next day.

Flights from Nha Trang to Hoi An

If the thought of spending 11 hours on a bus doesn’t fill you with joy, you might like to consider catching a flight from Nha Trang to Hoi An instead!

Flights have a reputation for being way more expensive than almost all other forms of transport, and while it’s true that catching a flight will set you back more money than a bus, you may be surprised at just how reasonable it is to fly from Nha Trang to Hoi An. It’s only around two times more expensive than the buses, and when you consider that the buses are extremely cheap, you can see that flights are actually pretty cheap too!

There are two airlines to choose from and both can be booked online through 12Go. A flight with Vietnam Airlines is a little more expensive than with VietJet Air, but then tickets with Vietnam Airlines include a checked baggage allowance of 20kg while VietJetAir does not. The flights takes only an hour, but, there’s an important point to bear in mind – there is no airport in Nha Trang itself, or in Hoi An. This means you will be departing from Cam Ranh International Airport, a little south of Nha Trang, and arriving at Da Nang Airport, a little north of Hoi An.

Getting from the city to the airport and vice versa is not a problem as it’s enough to find buses and taxis to take you, but you’ll just have to remember that catching a flight from Nha Trang to Hoi An is not as direct as the bus. Even so, add on the time it takes to get to the airport from Nha Trang, and from the airport to Hoi An, and you’re still going to get to Hoi An way faster than you would if traveling by bus.

So, although there are only two major options for getting from Nha Trang to Hoi An they are good options and neither of them will break the bank! Buses will save you money, but not time, whereas flights are not particularly expensive and will get you there much faster, even when adding in the transfer times on either side.