Private My Son Sanctuary Tour from Hoi An (Including the Marble Mountains)
- Shal & James
- Jan 15
- 4 min read
Updated: Feb 17
A private My Son Sanctuary tour from Hoi An that fits neatly into one day: UNESCO-listed My Son Sanctuary in the morning for its atmospheric ruins, Marble Mountains in the afternoon for caves and viewpoints.
One of the absolute best things about Vietnam is that private tours with English-speaking guides are a very affordable luxury. And honestly, there’s nothing better than having your own driver and guide so you can explore at your own pace with no crowded schedules, no being herded from site to site.
For this very reason, we booked a private full-day My Son Sanctuary tour from Hoi An (including the Marble Mountains) (£68 pp; converted: €78.39 / US$90.93).
DAY TRIP ITINERARY
We’ve included what we paid with currency conversions based on current exchange rates to help with planning, but things change, so it’s always worth double checking to dodge any last-minute surprises.
MY SON SANCTUARY
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 Cambodia 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.
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 My Son's 70+ structures, leaving only 17 standing today.
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
To fuel up before tackling the Marble Mountains, we made a quick stop at a local pho shop. Lunch was included in the tour price, which sounded great... in theory...
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 calls for 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.
MARBLE SHOPPING
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 beautiful pieces.
The sales lady was sweet, but 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.
However, 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 at 5:30PM, completely wiped but totally satisfied. Overall, the private My Son Sanctuary tour from Hoi An (£68 pp; converted: €78.39 / US$90.93) 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.
NOT QUITE DONE EXPLORING?
About to check Vietnam off the bucket list? Start with our 15 Vietnam travel tips for first-timers and exact 3 week Vietnam itinerary, or opt for the pared-back 2 week Vietnam itinerary if you’re travelling on a tighter schedule.
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