My Khe is the beach we'd pick in Da Nang: it's free, it's a few minutes from the centre, and it has lifeguards on the sand all day. The catch is the sea itself, not the beach. From 1 October 2026 to 14 March 2027 the lifeguards keep their off-season hours, with full cover from 05:00 to 07:30 and from 15:00 to 18:30, and you're asked to swim only between the buoys or the red and yellow flags. Outside those hours, and on rough days, stay on the sand.
What to look for
The sand and the stretch. The city counts My Khe as a 900 m stretch running alongside the Hoang Sa and Vo Nguyen Giap coast road, part of a much longer run of sand that goes from the Son Tra Peninsula south toward Hoi An. Tripadvisor ranked it sixth among Asia's beaches in its 2024 Travelers' Choice awards, and Forbes once put it among six of the most attractive beaches in the world. We'd judge it on the early morning, not the awards.
Late afternoon. The beach gets busy just before sunset, when locals come down to swim and play sports. Seafood restaurants and rooftop bars line the road behind it, so dinner is a short walk.
The Lady Buddha. Look north from the sand and you'll see the white statue at Linh Ung Pagoda on the Son Tra hillside, 67 m tall. Whenever rain shuts the peninsula to visitors, as it did from 8 to 14 October 2026, this is the easiest way to see it.
Fishing boats. Fishing boats still work this shore, and visitors can join fishermen pulling in their nets.
Hours and fees
The beach itself is free and open all the time. The hours that matter are the lifeguards':
| 1 Oct 2026 to 14 Mar 2027 | Lifeguard cover |
|---|---|
| 05:00 to 07:30 | Full cover |
| 07:30 to 15:00 | Reduced cover |
| 15:00 to 18:30 | Full cover |
| After 18:30 | None: get out of the water when the shift ends |
This season's rules: swim only where lifeguards are working, inside the buoy line or the red and yellow flags; children wear a life jacket and stay with an adult; keep out of signed no-swimming areas and rip currents. In an emergency, tell the nearest lifeguard or call the beach hotline, 0236 2218 878.
The board's price list for beach services, posted in 2019, is cheap:
| Service | 2019 price |
|---|---|
| Fresh-water shower | VND 2,000 a person |
| Motorbike parking | VND 4,000 |
| Car parking, up to 16 seats | VND 20,000 |
| Deck chair | VND 40,000 |
| Coconut | VND 30,000 |
| Large life jacket | VND 20,000 a go |
A morning worked out. Two people with two deck chairs, two coconuts, two showers and one motorbike parked come to VND 148,000 at those 2019 prices. Prices on the sand may have moved since; we didn't find a newer list.
Getting there
My Khe runs along Vo Nguyen Giap Street on the east side of the Han River. It's 8.7 km and about 13 minutes by road from Da Nang airport, and 5.3 km and about 7 minutes from Han Market, crossing the river. There are fresh-water showers and parking along the coast road, so you can arrive by motorbike and change on the spot.
Nearby
- Han Market: about 2.6 km in a straight line, across the river.
- Dragon Bridge: about 2.7 km in a straight line.
- Linh Ung Pagoda, Son Tra: about 4.3 km in a straight line, on the Son Tra Peninsula, which reopened on 14 October 2026 after a rain pause; check it's open before you go.
- Marble Mountains: about 8 km south in a straight line.
Questions travelers ask
Is the water clean after heavy rain? A September 2026 thread on r/DaNang asked exactly this. Two of the replies:
"Do not swim within 48 hours of a rainstorm at a minimum. And never swim within 250m of either of these drains at any time."
u/kohphayampair on r/DaNang
"Always assume the water is contaminated unless you see a lot of locals swim there. Even then still assume it's contaminated."
u/Fun_Trip_Travel on r/DaNang
We couldn't find published water-quality results for My Khe to check either claim, and the beach board's advice is about waves and currents, not drains. In the rainy months we'd follow the 48-hour rule anyway; it costs you nothing.
Our take
We'd swim at My Khe at 06:00, when it's cool and the cover is full, then come back after 15:00 for the light. From October to February, Da Nang's rainy season, we'd treat it as a beach for walking on rough days and check the central Vietnam October forecast before planning a swim.
How we checked this: lifeguard hours, swimming rules and the hotline from the beach board's notice for the 2026 low season as reported by Bao Van Hoa (2 October 2026); service prices and the Forbes mention from the board's own pages, posted in 2019; the 900 m stretch, the Tripadvisor ranking and net pulling from Da Nang's city tourism portal; the sunset crowd and the Lady Buddha view from Vietnam Tourism; the rainy season from VnExpress; the Son Tra pause and reopening from VnExpress (8 October 2026) and Bao Da Nang (14 October 2026). The morning total is our arithmetic, drives are our OSRM routing, and straight-line distances are our calculation from OpenStreetMap and Wikidata coordinates. Checked 13 October 2026; Son Tra status checked 19 October 2026.
Correction, 16 October 2026: from 14 to 16 October this page still said the Son Tra Peninsula was closed. It reopened on 14 October.
