Is It Safe to Swim in Da Nang? Beach Flags, Hours and Rip Currents

Stay inside the buoyed area marked by yellow-red flags and follow the on-duty lifeguards. Don't swim after the end of duty hours is announced. Don't swim in bad weather or rough seas. From 15 March to 30 September, the beach management board's 2023 notice set duty hours of 4:30am–7:00pm, with peaks at 4:30–7:30am and 3:00–7:00pm.

Swim only inside the buoyed area marked by yellow-red flags, where on-duty lifeguards can see you, and get out when the end of duty hours is announced. Stay out of the water in bad weather or rough seas. From 1 October to 14 March, lifeguard peak hours are 5:00–7:30am and 3:00–6:30pm, so the safest swim is in those windows.

Those signs matter, because around 5:15pm on 18 May 2024 a drowning at the beach access at the end of Ho Xuan Huong Street left 2 people dead and 1 missing. It was in what was then Khue My Ward, and the beach management board said the area where the victims were swept away already had a danger sign prohibiting swimming. Here are the board’s rules on flags, lifeguard hours and rip currents.

What the flags and signs mean

Rules for swimmers:

• Swim only inside the area marked off with safety buoys and identified by yellow-red flags, and follow the on-duty lifeguards’ instructions.
• Don’t keep swimming once the end of duty hours is announced.
• Don’t swim on days of bad weather, rough seas or big waves.
• Don’t swim where a sign posts a danger warning and prohibits swimming.

Yellow-red flags mark the buoyed swimming area. A posted danger sign means no swimming. Any other flag colour is unexplained, so follow the on-duty lifeguards’ instructions.

The Rescue Team’s mandate includes studying and proposing signs. The signs mark the area safe for swimming, an unsafe area, whirlpool areas and dangerous no-swim areas, so bathers can recognise and avoid risk.

Lifeguard hours

A Management Board notice posted 24 March 2023 set these duty hours. Lifeguards are on duty in both the peak and the low-traffic periods.

• 15 March to 30 September: peak 4:30–7:30am and 3:00–7:00pm; low-traffic 7:30–11:30am and 11:30am–3:00pm.
• 1 October to 14 March: peak 5:00–7:30am and 3:00–6:30pm; low-traffic 7:30–11:30am and 11:30am–3:00pm.

Outside these hours no lifeguards are on duty. A peak-season notice posted 3 June 2024 repeated only the 15 March to 30 September hours.

A 2022 notice said that from May through the end of August, the rescue team blows a whistle at 6:45pm to signal the end of duty hours, which comes before the afternoon peak period ends. Stop swimming once the end of duty hours is announced.

Rip currents

The board lists the signs of a rip current:

• The water looks darker than the surrounding sea, because it’s usually deeper there.
• The surface is calm, usually with smaller waves than the water around it.
• Debris or foam may be seen floating on the current and drifting out to sea.
• There may be a no-swimming sign from the lifeguard force at the beach.

A calm, darker patch among the waves is therefore a place to avoid, not a good spot to swim. A missing sign does not mean there is no rip current, because a no-swimming sign is only one of the warning signs the board lists.

If you’re caught in one:

• Stay calm and let the current carry you, or swim with the current, rather than fighting it.
• Signal for help from people nearby and the rescue force.
• At the same time, swim to either side or in a V-shape toward the shore.
• Never swim directly against the current, struggling toward the beach.

Only swim inside the area marked off with safety-limit buoys, and follow the on-duty lifeguard force’s instructions. Never swim in a rip-current area that already carries a no-swimming sign.

Who runs the beaches, and who to call

The Son Tra Peninsula and Da Nang Tourist Beaches Management Board was established under Decision No. 4694/QĐ-UBND (11 July 2006) of the Da Nang City People’s Committee. Its duties include carrying out rescue operations at Da Nang’s tourist beaches. Its posted rip-current guidance lists a hotline: 0236.2.218.878. For an ambulance or police, see Da Nang emergency numbers.

The board’s visitor rules list these duties for individuals:

• Strictly follow the Management Board’s regulations, the beach’s own rules and the on-duty lifeguards’ instructions.
• Cooperate with responsible staff and lifeguards, taking part in promptly rescuing anyone in danger when asked to.
• Help keep order and environmental cleanliness at the beach.

The city’s tourism portal published a set of criteria on 26 June 2020, titled “Professional Standard for Serving Guests at Tourist Beaches in Da Nang”. It calls for the specs below. Don’t assume every beach meets them.

• A safe-swimming corridor of buoys, boundary flags and warning signs, at least 150m long out to sea, with markers 50m apart, in a colour that contrasts with the water.
• At least one rules board, at least 6m² in size, at every beach access path, stating the rules in two or more languages including Vietnamese and English.
• Rescue-observation stations no more than 300m apart.
• At least one rescue boat, one rescue jet-ski and one radio set at each tourist beach.

Rules on the beach

At Da Nang’s public beaches, the board’s visitor rules (posted 2019) say no individual or organisation may:

• Dump untreated waste into the sea, or litter outside designated bins.
• Beg, hawk goods, fight or disturb public order.
• Run unauthorised sports activities, play football, or herd or release livestock.
• Bring vehicles onto the beach.
• Run a business without the competent authority’s permission, or beyond what was permitted.
• Bring food or drink to eat in areas where a beach’s own rules don’t allow eating.
• Tap a well or borehole without the state management agency’s consent.

On some beaches being developed as model beaches, businesses are strictly forbidden from encroaching on the beach to set up umbrellas or chairs inside the area reserved for swimmers.

The board’s sea-tourism division inspects and proposes how to handle violations of the rules in three documents. They are a Da Nang City People’s Committee decision, the Scheme for Managing and Exploiting Da Nang’s Tourist Beaches, and the commitment contracts of bathing areas, parking points and vendors.

Storms and seasonal closures

On the afternoon of 6 November 2025, the Management Board announced a temporary halt to swimming and water-sports activities from 1:00pm that day until further notice, to keep residents and tourists safe given Typhoon No. 13’s complex developments. The rule against swimming in bad weather, rough seas or big waves applies even without such a notice.

In June 2024, a national forecasting official expected El Nino to turn neutral and then shift toward La Nina, with typhoon and tropical-depression activity likely to concentrate from July to September in Vietnam’s Northern and North-Central regions. It was likely to concentrate from October to December in the middle and southern parts of Vietnam’s central coast (Trung Trung Bo and Nam Trung Bo).

That was an outlook for that year, not a fixed calendar.

For which months matter for Da Nang, see Da Nang’s typhoon season, and for streets that flood after heavy rain, see Da Nang flooding streets.

Recent drownings

These are examples reported in the press, not a complete list.

In April 2024, twin siblings P.G.B. and P.B.T., both 14, drowned at the beach in what was then Hoa Hai Ward.

On the afternoon of 4 January 2025, two foreign tourists were swept away by waves while swimming in what was then Hoa Hai Ward. It was in front of a resort that the report names only by the initials N.A. Both tourists were brought to shore safely, but one resort rescue worker who took part in the rescue was swept away and went missing.

↑ Contents

Not confirmed: Whether the lifeguard hours above still apply, as they come from notices dated 2022 to 2024. Whether the board's hotline is staffed around the clock or in English; in a medical emergency call 115. Whether flags other than yellow-red are used and what they mean; follow the on-duty lifeguards.

General information checked against the sources listed above, not legal advice for your situation. Rules and office practice change; confirm with the immigration office or a licensed adviser before you act. See how guides are checked.

Spotted an error? Report it.