How To Visit Khe Sanh, Vietnam

Khe Sanh, famous to Australians from the Cold Chisel song with vocals by Jimmy Barnes, is a place from Vietnam War history that you can visit today. Find out more in our post, with photos of Khe Sanh.

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We visited Khe Sanh and the DMZ on this tour from Hue, Vietnam. We paid for the trip ourselves, and our opinions are not swayed by sponsorship or gifting. If you need more help with travel in Vietnam, our complete Vietnam travel guide for first-timers (updated from our 2025 visit), is here.

Khe Sanh

Khe Sanh was a village or area in Central Vietnam, today there is a city where the village stood. Khe Sanh City is the district capital of Hướng Hoá District, Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam, 130 km northwest of Hue. It’s close to the Laos border.

Khe Sanh Combat Base was situated to the north of the city and is a tourist attraction, war memorial and site of the Khe San Battlefield Victory Museum and Ta Con Airport Relic Museum.

The base held strategic importance as it was close to the DMZ, the zone between North and South in Vietnam.

The Battle of Khe Sanh

The Siege of Khe Sanh was in January 1968.  The People’s Army of Vietnam made attacks on the US Marine Corps base at Khe Sanh. A 77 day siege followed and the allied forces were massively outnumbered.

During the siege, Operation Niagara was launched. 115,000 tonnes of bombs, rockets and napalm were dropped by American and allied aircraft crews, including B-52 bombers. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) was involved in these bombing raids.

Both sides seem to claim victory in the battle of Khe Sanh, even though the American forces ultimately withdrew. The seige was maybe a strategic move by the Vietnamese to divert forces away from the upcoming Tet Offensive.

I’m no war historian, we won’t get lost in the weeds here, and I hope I’ve got my facts straight, but the on-site museum certainly claims victory for Vietnam. The Wikipedia coverage of the battle seems to cover it better than most sources. I rarely link to Wikipedia, but the facts are very murky.

I believe that the Vietnamese call Khe San base Ta Con Airport.

Where is Khe Sanh?

Khe San’s location is marked on the map here.

How To Visit Khe Sanh

If you have your own vehicle, you can drive there. Maybe you could hire a car for a day.

Otherwise, the only way to get there that we could find from Hue, was to book this full day tour, or this private tour with guide.

There is a similar tour to Khe San and exploring the DMZ from Dong Hoi City.

You can also visit Khe San from Phong Nha.

You can also visit Khe San from Hanoi or Da Nang, but you’ll have an extra hour or so of drive time. Take a look at options from Hoi An and Da Nang here.

Is it Worth Visiting Khe Sanh?

I’ve visited Khe Sanh twice, once as a young backpacker and again with my kids. I thought it was a valuable educational excursion for them, as they learned history through worldschooling. The base has a small museum, a few bunkers and a lot of military vehicles.

Interestingly, when I first visited, our guide told us that nothing would ever grow there because of the fuel and chemicals that soaked into the ground. Today, it’s a grassy site surrounded by coffee plantations.

Yes, you should go to Khe San, part of a Central Vietnam day trip from Hue. It’s an excellent day out, and you’ll visit more Vietnam War sites during your day. Locally, of course, it’s called the American War.

Other War Memorials and Places of Interest Near Khe San & In the DMZ

Obviously, the DMZ is a very important area and there is a lot to learn about wartime history here. We also visited Vinh Moc Tunnels, the largest tunnel system in Vietnam. It’s worth going, even if you’ve already been to Cu Chi Tunnels, outside Saigon.

The DMZ was obliterated by wartime bombing. The people of Vinh Moc lived underground. There are incredible photos of the area before and after the attacks at the museum.

The Rock Pile is also in the DMZ, and you can see it from the road.

We loved this tour, it is one of the best that we’ve ever done in Vietnam and it’s great for older kids and teens. Particularly if they have an interest in history. The Vietnam War was on my son’s GCSE History exam, spending so much time in the country, visiting all of the sites and museums, was certainly helpful

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