Da Lat to Hoi An Drive: Road Trip Tips & Info

This city on the central Vietnamese coast is a well-preserved example of the important Southeast Asian trading port it was from the 15th-19th centuries. Already a common stop for backpackers, it is becoming better known to tourists. On the 14th day of each lunar month, the town trades its electric lights for traditional colored lanterns. Sights include the Japanese Covered Bridge and the Quan Cong Temple. Let the town’s expert tailors make you some bespoke clothing.

If you’re planning this same drive and want to know all about it – how long it is, how long it takes, and where to stop along the way – read on. By the end of this post, you’ll know everything about the drive between Da Lat and Hoi An.

How far is Hoi An from Da Lat?

As the crow flies, it’s roughly 272 miles between Da Lat and Hoi An. Luckily, we can’t skip over all the good stuff and have to drive – that means seeing some of the sights and countryside between these two points.

For driving, it is roughly 385 miles or 620 km between Da Lat and Hoi An. This may vary slightly depending on your start and end points.

Da Lat to Hoi An drive hours

In terms of travel time by car, the 385 miles drive from Da Lat to Hoi An takes 8 hours 53 minutes. Again, your final drive time depends on where you start in Da Lat and end in Hoi An.

This is a really long drive, so it's not very realistic to drive nonstop. To get a better idea of how long this road trip would actually take, scroll down to calculate how many hours it would be if you drive with stops.

Da Lat to Hoi An road trip

Realistically, you're not going to want to drive without stopping all the way from Da Lat to Hoi An, especially if you're the main driver. So let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Hoi An, and you need to stop along the way to rest. Plus if it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting stops along the way, eat at great restaurants, and find a hotel to stay overnight. That's what we are perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.

Based on the length of this trip, we think you could spread out this fun road trip over a number of days.

Road trip: 2 days of driving

With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.

Travel time: 8 hours 53 minutes hours on the road with 2 overnights

Itinerary

Start at Da Lat.

Drive for about 3 hours, then stop in Khánh Hòa Province and stay for about 2 hours. Next, drive for another 4 hours then stop in Quang Ngai province. Stay overnight.

Finally, drive for about 1.9 hours and arrive in Hoi An.

Da Lat to Hoi An airports and flights

To give you a better estimate of real-life travel, we've put together a flight itinerary with actual airports. Eventually you'll be able to customize this plan, choosing your own airports and flights. But for now, here's an example we've selected to give you an idea of how traveling might work between airports.

Departure airport: Lien Khuong Airport (DLI)

Arrival airport: Da Nang International Airport (DAD)

With the airports selected, we can estimate the travel time to and from the airport, based on how far the airport is from downtown.

Getting to the airport: 32 minutes

Getting to your destination: 29 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an example flight from DLI to DAD and figure out how long it would take to fly including take-off and landing, and time to taxi on the runway.

Commercial flight time: 36 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from Da Lat to Hoi An including time spent getting to/from the airports, an estimated wait time of 2 hours at the airport for TSA security lines and waiting at the gate, and the actual flight itself.

Total travel time: 3 hours 36 minutes

Flying non-stop from Da Lat to Hoi An

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Da Lat and Hoi An. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.

Flight time from Da Lat, Lam Dong Province to Hoi An, Quang Nam Province is 33 minutes under avarage conditions.

Our flight time calculator assumes an average flight speed for a commercial airliner of 500 mph, which is equivalent to 805 km/hr or 434 knots.

Actual flight times may vary depending on aircraft type, cruise speed, routing, weather conditions, passenger load, and other factors.