My Son Sanctuary Tour from Hoi An

Discover why a private My Son Sanctuary tour from Hoi An is one of Vietnam’s best affordable luxuries — complete with your own guide and total freedom to explore at your own pace.

Shal taking in the temple at My Son Sanctuary, framed by the jungle’s wild embrace — a perfect blend of ancient history and nature’s power.

One of the absolute best things about Vietnam is that private tours with English-speaking guides are a surprisingly affordable luxury. And honestly, there’s nothing better than having your own driver and guide so you can explore at your own pace — no crowded schedules, no being herded from site to site. For this very reason, we booked a full-day private adventure to My Son Sanctuary and the Marble Mountains (~£65 / $86 pp).

We were picked up sharp at 9 AM by our driver Lu and our guide, Kong and headed straight for  UNESCO-listed My Son Sanctuary hidden in the jungle. This Hindu temple complex was the most important of the Champa Empire and built a whopping 800 years before Ankor Wat in the 4th century. This wasn’t just a place of worship—it was reserved for kings, who followed a strict routine: Meditate from sunrise to sunset to clear the mind, then step through a gate-like structure to worship the gods in a candle-lit windowless temple.

Standing in the doorway of one of the original temples at My Son Sanctuary, feeling the weight of centuries of history in every stone.

And here’s a cool detail: The temple carvings were intentionally left partially unfinished as a sign of humility—only the gods could create something perfect.

Unfortunately, war did what time couldn’t. French explorers documented My Son in 1898, but during the Vietnam War, it became a battleground. Bombs and bullets wiped out most of the 70+ structures, leaving only 17 standing today.

We particularly loved the library—it’s one of the best-preserved original structures at My Son Sanctuary.

Despite the destruction, some of My Son’s original brickwork has held up better than modern restorations. We know they used half-baked bricks to avoid crumbling, tree resin instead of mortar and then fired the whole structure to harden the bricks and make them weatherproof. However, even with all our fancy technology, we still haven’t figured out exactly how they did it.

Lunch at a Local Pho Shop

Shal examining noodles at a super local pho shop.

To fuel up before tackling the Marble Mountains, we made a quick stop at a super local pho shop — lunch was included in the tour price, which sounded great... in theory. In reality? Pretty meh. The portions seemed generous, but they lacked substance, and by mid-afternoon we were running on fumes. We skipped the raw veggies (as it was very unlikely they were washed in purified water), but even so, Shal still found a worm doing the backstroke in her soup. Super gross — but desperate times, desperate measures. She powered through, washed it down with a local beer, and carried on like a champ. The tour itself? Fantastic. The lunch? Request a different spot if you can. Trust us on this one.

Marble Mountains

My Son isn’t the only place where war left its mark. The Marble Mountains—a set of limestone and marble peaks, overlooking a disused American airbase—were used as a hospital and hideaway by Vietnamese fighters during both the French and American wars. You can still spot bullet holes on the cave walls, a reminder of the intense rappel assaults by American GIs who tried to storm the cave, using bomb-created holes as entry points.

One of the most famous caves here? Am Phu Cave, a Buddhist vision of hell filled with statues depicting karma, punishment, and repentance. Basically, it’s a terrifying but effective reminder to live a good life.

Shalon standing in a low, dimly lit cave at Am Phu, clearly startled by an eerie figure looming abov

The bodhisattva rescues his mother from suffering in the moral-heavy tableau inside Am Phu Cave

“Heaven” at Am Phu Cave — a glowing hall of over 1,000 Buddha statues that leads to one seriously epic panoramic view of Da Nang. Enlightenment with a view!

And trust us, there’s no shortage of Buddha statues to either pray to or strike a pose with — whatever moves your spirit (or your Instagram feed).

Marble Goodies

As with most tours (private or not), you're inevitably led to your guide’s buddy’s shop, where they promise you a "good price." So, off we went to a family-owned marble carving studio, and wow — they had some seriously cool pieces.

Watching the artisans at work was mesmerising, and the craftsmanship was next-level.

The sales lady was super sweet, but she followed us around like we were magnets and she was metal, which, honestly, isn’t our vibe. There was a gorgeous, small hand-carved jade lion that caught our eye, and after some successful haggling, we almost pulled the trigger. But, in the end, the pushy sales tactics were too much, so we walked away. Yet, after seeing the mass-produced souvenirs around Vietnam, we can’t help but regretting it. That jade lion was one of the few truly local, beautifully crafted treasures we saw, not the typical tourist trinkets. Major should’ve bought it moment!

After the marble shop, we were dropped off at our hotel around 5:30 PM, completely wiped but totally satisfied. Overall, the private My Son Sanctuary tour from Hoi An (~£65 / $86 pp). was a total gem — we learned so much from Kong, our guide, about the historical sites and what life in Vietnam is really like. Highly recommend if you’re looking to dive deep into the history while going at your own pace.