Ba Den Mountain: cable cars, pagodas and the summit

Ba Den, the "Black Lady" mountain, is also called Van Son, the cloud mountain, because its summit is often in cloud. VnExpress describes it as the highest peak in the South-east region. For centuries it was a pilgrimage site: the pagoda halfway up, Linh Son Tien Thach Tu, dates from 1763 and is described by Saigon Giai Phong as the oldest Buddhist pagoda in Tay Ninh. Around it are other pagodas and caves, including Chua Hang, Chua Quan Am and Linh Son Hoa Dong.

Since the cable cars opened, the mountain has become a large managed resort as well as a shrine. The summit now has a plaza, a 72-metre bronze statue of the Bodhisattva known as Tay Bo Da Son, a 36-metre sandstone statue of Maitreya, a Buddhist art exhibition of about 2,000 square metres, a film theatre and a buffet restaurant. It is clean, organised and busy. Visitors who come for the old pagodas walk among people who came for the views and the photographs, and both groups are in the same queues.

The honest summary: the mountain is worth the trip for the view over a completely flat province, for the pagoda complex and for the scale of the summit works. It is not a quiet nature walk, and on festival days it is not a calm religious visit either.

These are the hours published in April 2026. In 2024 the summit line ran much shorter hours, from 7:45 to 16:00 on weekdays, so the schedule does move. Last-car times and holiday hours were not stated. If you plan a dawn or evening ride, confirm the times for your date.

The spring festival runs through the whole first lunar month. In 2026 it opened on the evening of the fourth day of Tet, and the busiest days are the first day of the lunar year and the full moon. Police and local authorities set traffic diversions and parking control on the roads to the mountain during the festival.

The second peak is Le via Ba, the festival of the Lady of the mountain, on the fourth to sixth days of the fifth lunar month, with the fifth as the main day. In 2025 it fell between 30 May and 1 June. Smaller peaks follow Buddhist dates: the Quan The Am festival, Buddha's birthday in the fourth lunar month, and Vu Lan in the seventh. Public holidays add their own: over 150,000 cable car trips were recorded during the 2026 National Day break, from 29 August to 2 September, and about four million trips in the first seven months of the year.

Food at the summit is priced for a captive audience. A bowl of noodle soup in town costs a fraction of the summit buffet. Check every figure before you travel.

• Anyone looking for quiet, in the first lunar month or on a public holiday. Queues and controlled traffic are part of the visit then.
• Visitors who mainly want a hike. The stone path is steep and slippery when wet, and most people now ride.
• Travellers on a tight budget who would only ride to the summit for a view in cloud. The summit is often in cloud, and the fare is the largest single cost of a Tay Ninh day.
• Afternoons in the rainy season, May to November, if you are counting on a clear view. Go in the morning instead.

If one of those applies, the Holy See alone, or the Holy See with a drive past the foot of the mountain, still makes a full day. See the Holy See page and when not to go.