You reach the Marble Mountains (Ngũ Hành Sơn) and find ticket booths at two gates, plus stone steps and a glass elevator up the mountain. Which tickets do you actually need, and what does the elevator add to the bill?
How much Marble Mountains tickets cost
Decide first whether you will climb or ride, because the elevator is a separate ticket. A Marble Mountains ticket for Thuy Son (Thủy Sơn) costs 40,000 VND (about US$1.5) for adults and 10,000 VND (about US$0.39) for students, and children under 6 go free.
The elevator costs 15,000 VND (about US$0.58) one way or 30,000 VND (about US$1) round trip. Am Phu cave (Động Âm Phủ), at the foot of the mountain, has its own ticket. The table lists each ticket as published by the city's tourism portal in January 2026.
| Ticket | Adults | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Thuy Son peak | 40,000 VND (about US$1.5) | 10,000 VND (about US$0.39) |
| Am Phu cave | 20,000 VND (about US$0.78) | 7,000 VND (about US$0.27) |
| Elevator, one way | 15,000 VND (about US$0.58) | No student rate |
| Elevator, round trip | 30,000 VND (about US$1) | No student rate |
Children under 6 go free on all of them. One adult with the Thuy Son ticket, the round-trip elevator and Am Phu cave pays 90,000 VND (about US$3.5) in total. A guide costs 50,000 VND (about US$2) per group. The Thuy Son prices were set by a 2016 city council resolution (No. 24/2016/NQ-HĐND), and the portal listed the same prices in January 2026.
What to see on Thuy Son
Spend most of your visit on Thuy Son, because it has nine caves, five pagodas and towers, and two viewpoints on 15 ha. The Marble Mountains are six peaks: Thuy Son, Kim Son, Moc Son, Tho Son and two Hoa Son peaks. Their names, taken from the five elements, were set in 1837 under Emperor Minh Mang.
Huyen Khong cave (Động Huyền Không) is the largest cave in the Marble Mountains, and light comes in through openings in its roof. It lies on Thuong Thai (Thượng Thai), the highest summit in the Marble Mountains, and its Buddha statue was carved in 1960 by Nguyen Chat, a craftsman from Non Nuoc stone village. Am Phu cave, on the south side of Thuy Son, gets darker the deeper you go.
Tam Thai pagoda (Chùa Tam Thai) dates from 1630. Linh Ung pagoda (Chùa Linh Ứng), built in 1825 under Emperor Minh Mang and renamed in 1891, faces the sea. The Vong Hai Dai (Vọng Hải Đài) viewpoint looks out over the beach and, to the southeast, the Cham Islands (Cù Lao Chàm). The Vong Giang Dai (Vọng Giang Đài) viewpoint looks out over the mountains and the city. The Linh Ung pagoda with the 67 m Lady Buddha statue is a different one, on the Son Tra (Sơn Trà) peninsula.
Since December 2018, the Marble Mountains have been a special national relic. On November 26, 2022, 78 inscriptions in Chinese and Nom script, carved into the rock and caves between the 17th and 20th centuries, were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World register for Asia and the Pacific.
Opening hours and when to go
Go in the morning, because the city's tourism portal suggests spending about 3–4 hours there in the morning and Vietnam's national tourism site advises avoiding the hottest hours of the day. The portal lists the opening hours as 7:00 am–5:00 pm, though some other sources say 5:30 pm, so arrive well before closing.
The site is busy. It had nearly 2.2 million visits in 2025, more than 1.5 million of them international, and over the first three days of the 2026 Lunar New Year, it drew more than 10,000 visits a day. Avoid that holiday if you want quiet caves.
Wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a hat and water: you climb more than 150 stone steps unless you take the glass elevator. Vietnam's national tourism site asks visitors to dress respectfully and to take off their shoes and hats before entering any pagoda. It also suggests avoiding the rainy season, so check Da Nang's weather by month before you choose a day.
How to get to the Marble Mountains
Give your driver the address the city's tourism portal lists for the site: 81 Huyen Tran Cong Chua (Huyền Trân Công Chúa) Street, Ngu Hanh Son ward, about 8 km (5 miles) from the city center. You can buy tickets at gate 1 or gate 2.
Public bus route 02 runs along Le Van Hien (Lê Văn Hiến) Street. Its stops there are 754 Le Van Hien for buses toward Hoi An and one signed "Chùa Non Nước", opposite 722–724 Le Van Hien, for buses toward the city. The fare is 8,000 VND (about US$0.31) for up to 10 km and 20,000 VND (about US$0.78) for 10–25 km. Check the walk from the stop to the gate on a map before you go.
Hoi An is about 30 minutes away by car along Truong Sa Street, so the two fit into one day. See how to get from Da Nang to Hoi An for fares on route 02, Grab and taxis, and Hoi An Ancient Town for its 2026 entry fee.
Non Nuoc stone village and the Quan The Am festival
If you buy a stone carving in Non Nuoc (Non Nước) village, expect the stone to come from elsewhere, because quarrying on the Marble Mountains has been banned since 1990. Non Nuoc stone carving dates from about the 17th century and was listed as national intangible cultural heritage in 2014.
The Quan The Am festival takes place on the 17th to 19th days of the second lunar month at Quan The Am pagoda (Chùa Quán Thế Âm) on Kim Son. It was listed as national intangible cultural heritage in 2021. The 2026 festival ran April 4–7, and the 2027 dates had not been announced as of October 2026.
If you have half a day, Thuy Son with its caves and viewpoints is enough, and route 02 or a short car ride takes you on to Hoi An.
Sources and how we checked
We used the prices and hours published by Danang Fantasticity (the city's tourism portal), the 2016 city council resolution behind the Thuy Son fee, Vietnam's national tourism site for the caves and visitor advice, DanaBus for route 02, and dated Vietnamese news reports for the names, the heritage listings, the festival and visitor numbers, checked on October 1–2, 2026. Where sources disagreed on hours or details, we used the most recent official page. US dollar amounts use Vietcombank's transfer rate of 25,800 VND per US$ on October 1, 2026, rounded to the nearest cent below US$1, US$0.5 up to US$100, US$1 up to US$10,000 and US$1,000 above that.
- Danang Fantasticity (in Vietnamese): 2026 ticket prices for Da Nang attractions (January 22, 2026); Marble Mountains (August 1, 2025); Non Nuoc stone carving (August 13, 2025).
- Da Nang City People's Council, Resolution 24/2016/NQ-HĐND on Marble Mountains fees, August 11, 2016 (in Vietnamese).
- News reports (in Vietnamese): Tuoi Tre, 1837 names and special national relic (January 16, 2019); Da Nang newspaper, Huyen Khong cave (July 19, 2022); Phap Luat, Memory of the World inscriptions (March 1, 2023); Dai Doan Ket, visitor numbers (February 20, 2026); Van Hoa, Quan The Am festival 2026 (February 16, 2026).
- Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, Marble Mountains (in Vietnamese): caves and visitor advice.
- DanaBus (in Vietnamese): route 02 stops, viewed October 1, 2026; notice on route 02 fares (August 28, 2026).
- Vietcombank, exchange rates, October 1, 2026.
- Photos: Danang Fantasticity, Marble Mountains page, August 1, 2025; Danang Fantasticity, art at the 2026 Quan The Am festival (April 4, 2026).
Updated: October 2, 2026
