10 BEST VIETNAM BEACHES

Spoilt for choice, Best of Vietnam beaches → Despite have been late to Southeast Asia’s beach party, but it was well worth the wait. The country boasts more than 3400km of coastline, with infinite stretches of powdery sand, coves, lagoons, impossible boulder formations and tropical islands ringed with yet more beaches. We can help you navigate the overwhelming amount of choices through the 10 of the best Vietnam Beaches

If you want beautiful beaches, Vietnam delivers them perfect. Cruise an azure ocean pierced by surreal-looking limestone islands in Halong Bay, witness the spectacular sandy bays of the central coastline, explore the reefs and coves of the Cham and Con Dao Islands and then party hard through the night in Nha Trang. For their own reasons, these are all the most acclaimed Vietnamese beach bum hangouts. But one of the delights of this long, thin nation is that there are so many other beaches basking under a tropical sun. Leave the highways behind, forget where the other travellers are going and strike off down a sea-bound lane and you might just find a pristine patch of sand known only to local villagers, explore best beaches in Vietnam on your coming vacation.

Nha Trang → Top rated Vietnam Beaches

Perhaps, the heavyweight champion of all Vietnam Beaches, Nha Trang has been knocking out visitors for years. True, the town is brazen and brash, but the beach is bold and beautiful and a gateway to a cluster of quieter islands. Welcome to the beach capital of Vietnam. Loud and proud (say it!) the high-rise, high-energy resort of Nha Trang enjoys a stunning setting: ringed by a necklace of hills, with a sweeping crescent beach, the city’s turquoise bay is dotted with tropical islands.

The beachfront has been given a huge makeover in recent years, with parks and sculpture gardens spread along the impressive shorefront, while the streets inland reveal a cosmopolitan array of dining options known as best seafood eateries in on Vietnam beaches. As the restaurants wind down, the nightlife cranks up – Nha Trang is a party town at heart, like any self-respecting resort should be. Forget the curfews of the capital of Vietnam; people play late here and call Nha Trang the Number 1 beach in Vietnam.

If cocktails and shooters aren’t your flavour, there are some more sedate activities on offer. Try from island hoping tours with snorkeling and or go relax and chill in an old-school spa treatment with a visit to a mud bath or explore centuries-old Cham towers still standing in the centre of town. Nha Trang Vietnam beaches has its very own microclimate and the rains tend to come from October until December, a time best avoided if you are into lazing on the beach or diving in crystal-clear waters.

Mui Ne → Adrenalin capital of southern Vietnam Beaches

Once upon a time, Mui Ne was an isolated stretch of beach where pioneering travellers camped on the sand in the early 1990s, but it was too beautiful to be ignored. Times have changed and it is now a string of luxury resorts, expanding in number every year. However, the beach retains much of its charm and the resorts are, for the most part, mercifully low-rise, set amid pretty gardens by the sea. The original fishing village is still here, but tourists outnumber locals these days. Mui Ne is definitely moving upmarket, as more exclusive resorts open their doors, complemented by swish restaurants and swanky shops, but there is still a (kite)surfer vibe to the town.

Mui Ne is the adrenalin capital of southern beaches in Vietnam. There’s no scuba diving or snorkelling to speak of, but when Nha Trang and Hoi An get the rains, Mui Ne gets the waves. Best to surf up from August to December. For windsurfers, the gales blow as well, especially from late October to late April, when swells can stir things up big-time. Kitesurfing in Mui Ne has really taken off and the infinite horizon is often obscured by dozens of kites flapping in the wind. If this all sounds too much like hard work you can simply lounge around on the beach, watching others take the strain.

Mui Ne sees only about half the rainfall of nearby Phan Thiet. The sand dunes help protect its unique microclimate, and even during the wet season (from June to September) rains tend to be fairly light and sporadic. One major problem the area faces is the steady creep of coastal erosion. Many resorts north of Km 12 have almost completely lost their beaches and rely on sandbagging to keep the little they have left.

Road safety is another serious issue. There are no traffic-calming measures along the main coastal road, and speeding cars and trucks have little regard for pedestrians. Take care. It’s almost impossible to get lost in Mui Ne, as everything is spread out along a 10km stretch of highway. Most accommodation lines the beach side, while restaurants and shops flank the other. Mui Ne’s Vietnam beaches are one among the many.

Phu Quoc → Vietnam’s Fringed white-sand beaches

Simply the most beautiful island in Vietnam, Phu Quoc beaches liberally sprinkled with picture-perfect white sand beaches and cloaked in dense, impenetrable jungle. Long Beach is sophisticated, Ong Lan Beach romantic, and Bai Sao simply irresistible. Beyond the resorts lining Long Beach, it’s still largely developing, so there’s ample room for exploration and escaping. Dive the reefs, kayak in the bays, eat up the back-road miles on a motorbike, or just live the life of a lotus eater by lounging on the beach, indulging in a massage and dining on fresh seafood.

The tear-shaped island lies in the Gulf of Thailand, 45km west of Ha Tien and 15km south of the coast of Cambodia. It’s no lightweight: at 48km long (with an area of 574 sq km), Phu Quoc is Vietnam’s largest island – about the same size as Singapore. Phu Quoc is called by Cambodian as Koh Tral and this explains why the Vietnamese have built a substantial military base covering much of the northern end of the island. It was only granted to Vietnam by the French in 1949, as part of the formal annexation of the Mekong Delta. Whatever, you want an amazing island in Vietnam? Hope on for best beaches and get drenched at its sunny shore.

Phu Quoc is not really part of the Mekong Delta and doesn’t share the delta’s extraordinary ability to produce rice. The most valuable crop is black pepper, but the islanders here have traditionally earned their living from the sea. Phu Quoc is also famed across Vietnam for its production of high-quality fish sauce (nuoc mam). The island is also well-known for its hunting dogs, which have ridgebacks, curly tails and blue tongues. Muscular and energetic, they are said to be able to pick up their master’s scent from over 1km away (the nuoc mam their masters eat probably helps).

Despite development (an international airport, a golf course, new roads and a planned ‘casino eco-tourism resort project’), much of this island is still protected since becoming a national park in 2001. Phu Quoc National Park covers close to 70% of the island, an area of 31,422 hectares.

Phu Quoc’s rainy season darkens skies from late May to October, when the sea gets rough and a lot of diving stops. The peak season for tourism is midwinter, when the sky is blue and the sea is calm and you’ll have the most beautiful beaches in Vietnam at your own, but it can get pretty damn hot around April and May. Tourists regardless of nationality, can now fly directly to Phu Quoc with return ticket and receive 30 days visa on arrival, this isn’t apply for rest of the Vietnam though. Read more about Vietnam Visa requirements

Con Dao (Con Son) → Stars of Vietnam Beaches

Con Da, or Con Son offers star Vietnam beaches and its just an hour flight away from Ho Chi Minh City. It is a popular beach destination by locals and it offers pristine hiking, diving and exploring empty coastal roads and deserted beaches in Vietnam, there are some excellent wildlife-watching opportunities such as the black giant squirrel and the endemic bow-fingered gecko.Although it seems something of an island paradise, Con Son was once hell on earth for the thousands of prisoners who languished in confinement here in no less than a dozen jails during French rule and the American-backed regime.

Roughly 80% of the land area in the island chain is part of Con Dao National Park, which protects Vietnam’s most important sea-turtle nesting grounds. For the past decade, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has been working with local park rangers on a long-term monitoring program. During nesting season (May to November) the park sets up ranger stations to rescue threatened nests and move them to the safe haven of hatcheries. Other interesting sea life around Con Dao includes the dugong, a rare marine mammal in the same family as the manatee.

Many visitors to Con Son are package-tour groups of former VC soldiers who were imprisoned on the island. The Vietnamese government subsidises these jaunts as a show of gratitude for their sacrifice. The driest time to visit Vietnam’s Con Dao Beach is from November to February, although the seas are calmest from March to July. The rainy season lasts from June to September, but there are also northeast and southwest monsoons from September to November that can bring heavy winds. September and October are the hottest months, though even then the cool island breezes make Con Dao relatively comfortable when compared with HCMC or Vung Tau.

Change has been almost glacial, but with the arrival of the über-luxurious Six Senses Con Dao a decades ago, the islands are now on the radar of the international jet-set. Travellers are discovering the islands as transport connections improve, but as flights are sometimes quite expensive (and the islands’ cost of living is approximately double the mainland’s), numbers are still small.

An Banh Beach → Vietnam’s most called beaches

Located within 5 minutes motorbike ride from the old town of Hoi An. An Bang is perhaps most wanted by the western tourists when they visiting Hoi An and or even Danang as you may forget My khe (Cua Dao) once you see the laid back atmosphere of An Bang Beach a hidden gem on Vietnam’s picturesque coastline. An Bang Beach offers a tranquil escape from the bustling streets of Danang (35km), with its pristine white sands and crystal-clear waters. This idyllic destination caters to both relaxation and adventure, providing the perfect backdrop for sunbathing, water sports, or simply enjoying a stunning sunset. Make the most of your visit to Hoi An by experiencing the charm of An Bang Beach, where tranquility meets tropical paradise.

Ho Coc → A tempting Vietnam Beaches

Vung Tau to Phan Thiet is almost one long beach, but much of it remains mercifully inaccessible to the masses. Sample its potential with a retreat to Ho Coc, a glorious sandbar about midway along this stretch. With golden sands, rolling inland dunes and clear waters, this beaches in Vietnam makes a tempting place to stop. The giant Saigon-Ho Coc Beach Resort, very much geared at the local market, has grabbed a large chunk of the shoreline, but on weekdays it’s still peaceful here and you should have the beach largely to yourself.

Doc Let → Among Vietnam’s best beaches

You’ll hop on one of Vietnam’s best beaches, the powdery-white sands and shallow turquoise waters of Doc Let stretch for almost 18km, lining the shores of a huge bay. The beach itself is divided into three sections. The northern part of the bay is where most of the tourism action is, with a cluster of beachfront hotels and cheaper guesthouses inland. Looming over the central section is the giant Hyundai shipyard and port, an important local employer but a real blot on the landscape. The isolated southern section is backed by a wooded promontory and is the place to really get away from it all.

There’s little public transport available, but with a rented bike it’s easy to find your own piece of beachside paradise for the day.

My Khe (Cua Dai)→ Danang’s Vietnam’s best beach

Out of all top Vietnam beaches, My Khe is something slightly different. Whether you call it My Khe to the north or Cua Dai to the south, or even China beach, it’s all just one long, luscious stretch of sand. Try surfing off the shores of Danang or just pamper yourself at the resorts near Hoi An. My Khe offers beautiful sandy beach with fairly smooth warm water – this is what you only expect from surfing a day at the My Khe beach one you’re in Danang. The good news is, My Khe beach is not flocked by surfers.

Cat Ba Island → Northern Vietnam Best Beach

Experience the allure of Cat Ba Island Beaches, an exquisite destination for sun-seekers and probably the best beach escape from Hanoi withour driving more than 2 hours. Cat Ba island is nestled in the captivating Halong Bay, this pristine beach offers a perfect blend of golden sands and turquoise waters. Cat Ba Island Beach is renowned for its tranquil atmosphere, making it an ideal escape from the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. Whether you’re seeking relaxation or adventure, the beach provides a stunning backdrop for various water activities and leisurely strolls.

Immerse yourself in the island’s rich biodiversity and explore nearby attractions, ensuring an unforgettable retreat. Plan your getaway to Cat Ba Island Beach for an idyllic escape and rejuvenating coastal experience.

Cham Islands → Diving & Snorkeling from Hoi An

A great island for diving and snorkeling. In the last decade the serenity of the Cham islands has been compromised (on weekends and Vietnamese holidays) by boatloads of day tripping tourists from the mainland Hoi An or Danang, so try to plan your visit accordingly if you can. It’ll have to be between March to September, as the ocean is usually too rough at other times.

Only the main island, Hon Lao, is inhabited – the other seven Chams are tiny, rocky specks, covered in dense bush. Dip beneath the ocean and you’ll find a rich underwater environment, with 135 species of soft and hard coral and varied macrolife. The islands are officially protected as a marine park. Fishing and the collection of birds’ nests (for soup) are the two key industries here.

Bai Lang, Hon Lao’s little port, is the main village (aside from two remote hamlets). A pretty, very relaxed place, its leeward location has long offered protection for mariners from the rough waters of the South China Sea. You’ll find its lanes are a delight to explore – the laid-back ambience and slow pace of life here are a real tonic for road-weary travellers.

Tiny Bai Huong, a fishing village 5km southeast of Bai Lang, is an idyllic but isolated spot where an excellent new homestay initiative has been set up.