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Sun World Ba Na Hills

Da Nang, Vietnam

“Hot spot for influencers and Instagrammers”

Xin chào and good morning from Vietnam. Welcome to a country full of scooters, conical hats, spring rolls and steaming bowls of noodle soup. Vietnam has recently made huge progress when it comes to tourism and The Sun Group definitely played a big role in that story. This is one of the largest entertainment companies in Vietnam and they’re opening theme parks and resorts in the most diverse places. At some point, the modern city of Da Nang in central Vietnam even boasted two different Sun World properties. Asia Park (or Sun World Danang Wonders, as it was called during my trip) closed for good in 2025, but the popular Sun World Ba Na Hills remains open for business. As its name suggests, Ba Na Hills is located in a mountainous area approximately 20 kilometres west of downtown Da Nang. Getting there is relatively straightforward and cheap thanks to taxis and rideshare.

BA NA HILLS CABLE CAR

Don’t expect to be ready to stroll through the park once you’ve stepped out of your car. After arriving at the parking lot, visitors are escorted to a shuttle bus that brings them to some kind of shopping and dining centre. It feels like a Vegas-style mall and theming is inspired by Hoi An, a picturesque Vietnamese town. It all looks fantastic, but this isn’t the actual park. Sun World Ba Na Hills lies in the nearby mountains at an elevation of approximately 1.500 metres (5,000 feet). It can therefore only be reached by using the Ba Na Hills Cable Car, one of the longest cable cars in the world. It’s more than 5,5 kilometres (3.4 miles) long and a one-way trip lasts 20 minutes. The aforementioned mall is built around the lower station of the cable car, from where your journey to the park starts. A return trip with the cable car is included in your park admission ticket. By the way: a ticket for Sun World Ba Na Hills costs approximately 40 euros. That’s low by European or American standards, but that’s quite an astronomical amount in Vietnam.

FRENCH VILLAGE

Sun World Ba Na Hills isn’t an amusement park as we know it. It should rather be described as some kind of Instagram park. The entire resort is filled with photogenic locations. One of those locations is the French Village in Gothic style. It’s a bit fake and it lacks real rides, but local tourists seem to enjoy this simulated version of France a lot. The park also features a hill with Asian temples and these look considerably more authentic to me. But then again: you shouldn’t look for roller coasters, dark rides or merry-go-rounds here.

ROLLER COASTERS

Although the French Village and the temple mountain don’t feature any roller coasters, Coaster-Count mentions a total of six credits at Sun World Ba Na Hills. In all honesty… I’m not talking about mega coasters, inverted coasters or multi-loopers. No, Sun World offers an extremely extensive collection of Alpine Coasters manufactured by Wiegand. Unfortunately, the coaster god (should I call him Coaster Buddha?) wasn’t exactly in a good mood during our trip, as none of them were operating. Two of them were currently under annual maintenance, the other ones remained closed due to the fog. I have to admit that an Alpine Coaster isn’t my favourite attraction type, but I really hoped to get some new credits at this park. So look what you’ve done, Coaster Buddha… no Vietnamese coaster credits for Glenn today.

FANTASY PARK

Those Alpine Coasters are outdoors, but most other rides can be found in an indoor area called Fantasy Park. The eye-catcher is a free fall tower that cuts through the 3-storey building, but there’s more. As a dark ride lover, my eye was immediately caught by an attraction called Back to Jurassic. I expected some kind of dark ride through primeval scenes, but unfortunately it turned out to be nothing more than a walk-through. I still managed to get my dark ride fix thanks to Adventure to the Center of the Earth, though. The name of this ride reminded me of a world-class ride at Tokyo DisneySea, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this Vietnamese version didn’t perform on the same level. The ride vehicles look like they belong on a fairground and the station is very simple. Besides, we found the theming confusing, to say the least. During our ride, we encountered animatronic zombies, wild west scenes and some oversized carnivorous plants. If anybody is able clarify this attraction’s storyline, please do!

GOLDEN BRIDGE

The Vietnamese amusement park industry is still relatively young and that’s noticeable here at Sun World. Theming is pretty okay, but the park definitely lacks some blockbuster rides. Fantasy Park, for example, is mostly filled with 4D, 5D and 360° movies. These attractions may be interesting for families, but I don’t feel the need to visit them. However, Golden Bridge can’t be missed when visiting this park. This isn’t a roller coaster, a water ride or a dark ride, but it undoubtedly functions as the park’s main attraction. In fact, most of the guests are here solely for the Golden Bridge. Every tourist in Da Nang wants a selfie with this pedestrian bridge that seems to be carried by two giant hands. Ideally, you should take this selfie with a clear blue sky in the background. Yet the iconic bridge was also pretty busy during our foggy visit.

‘Did you go to the Golden Bridge?’ is one of the most commonly asked questions among foreign tourists in Vietnam. But despite the fact that this has become a world-famous landmark within record time (the Golden Bridge only opened in June 2018), many tourists still seem confused when it comes to this sight. They often think that you can just pop in here during a trip to Da Nang, but that’s not the case. First of all, Sun World Ba Na Hills is quite far from the city centre, making a visit to the Golden Bridge a time-consuming activity. Secondly, the bridge is in the middle of the theme park. Even if you just want to take that one selfie, you’re required to pay the full admission price.

WORTH A VISIT?

If you were hoping to read about incredible roller coasters or Disney-esque dark rides in this report, I’m sure you’re disappointed. Please don’t put the blame on me, because that’s simply not what Ba Na Hills stands for. I had also hoped for more rides, but Sun World focuses on other things. That strategy seems to work, though. This is a very popular place and it gets busy, even on weekdays. A significant percentage of those crowds are mostly here for the Golden Bridge, but admit it… Isn’t a theme park doing a great job when it’s able to attract tens of thousands of tourists thanks to one overcrowded bridge? So I admire Sun World Ba Na Hills, but I’d gladly skip it during a next trip to Da Nang. The actual amusement park is too small and there aren’t any exceptional rides. And that French village is quite beautiful, but there’s not much to do. Long story short: Sun World Ba Na Hills is a bizarre place, but it still may deliver a great new profile photo.

Would you travel to Ba Na Hills for a selfie on the Golden Bridge? Did you manage to get the park’s incredible number of Alpine Coaster credits? Should this park build a major roller coaster? Share your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

This article reflects my personal experience at Sun World Ba Na Hills during a visit in January 2020.