OverviewNearbyReviewsWin PrizesRecommended Trip Travel Guides Asia Vietnam Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province Vung Tau Vung Tau Beach Share to  See all(7) Bãi Trước 2.6 No comments yet Beaches Recommended sightseeing time:2-3 hour Address: Beach Road, Vung Tau, VietnamMap What travelers say: Show More Reviews Vung Tau Beach ToursLong Tan Battlefield and Vung Tau Beach full day tour from Ho Chi Minh City No comments yet From US$234.00 Purchase Vung Tau Full Day Tour 1 Day From Ho Chi Minh City No comments yet Available for Tomorrow Onwards From US$239.00 Purchase More Tours Related to Vung Tau Beach In August 2014, I found myself with 5 days in Southern Vietnam and decided to do an overnight trip from Ho Chi Minh city to the nearest coastal town for a beach day. Vũng Tàu (pronounced Boong T’ow) is a mid sized Vietnamese regional city stretching across the Long Son inlet, located 100KM South East of Ho Chi Minh city. Travel logistics are relatively easy by taking a cheap public bus (took me about 1 hour, 45 minutes) that you can book from the numerous transport company outlets in HCM city. However Vung Tau is not a destination frequented by foreigners, and figuring out exactly what you need to do to book a ticket is a little tricky if you can’t speak Vietnamese. I had a friendly worker at the hostel that I was staying in translate for me at the chaotic bus ticketing office. Vung Tau‘s main attraction is its beach, and on weekends local middle class Saigon residents flock to the seaside city as a demonstration of Vietnam’s emerging domestic leisure and recreation industry. Waiting for my bus to arrive, I struck up conversation with a friendly passenger – an engineer taking his wife and three young children for a weekend out of the city. The bus terminal was packed with similar local families waiting to do the same. I was the only foreign tourist. Leaving and arriving at Vung Tau on a weekend was a mistake. I had no accommodation booked, and spent several hours enquiring with the main hotels and resorts along the beach only to be told no rooms were available. I paid a taxi driver USD$8 to drive me around to different places until I could find a free room, and ended up staying a smelly, large house-turned hotel about a 40 minute walk from the beach, for an inflated weekend price. Even this place was almost full, and similar neighbouring guest houses on the same street were all booked out as well. I briefly considered just sleeping on the beach. Smelly and Crowded BeachesApart from the lack of accommodation, the other downside to travelling to Vung Tau were the beach crowds. Vietnamese families don’t just throw a towel on the sand and play in the water – they basically bring half their kitchen and settle in with tents, chairs, cookers, umbrellas … everything to bunker down for a weekend by the sea. The effect of this is some really smelly beaches – an enduring stench of slightly rotten garbage and fried cooking that hangs in the air and contrasts to the fresh, cool beach breezes one normally associates with being by the sea. Most of the beach is strewn with trash, as few people bother to pack their garbage with them or find appropriate bins for disposal. I spent little time in the main beach areas near the resorts. The rubbish was just too depressing to look at. Beautiful Mountain TrekkingVung Tau’s second attraction after the beach is it’s touristy ”little mountain’ (there’s a ‘big mountain’ as well) hike path, culminating in a small scale version of Vientman’s Christ The Redeemer statute at the peak (you can see the statute from the beach in the above photo). Also of interest are the historical 19th century French cannons pointing out the sea that were used to defend the island from naval attacks. Unfortunately, the path up the mountain is as accessible to casual domestic tourists as the main beach areas, and much of the initial paths are littered with the same rubbish problem. Once you go beyond these areas, the views across the city and sea are well worth the trek The above photo is the view to Hon Ba island, housing an isolated temple accessible only by boat. Cool Communist StuffWithin the city centre, ringed by wide, ringed roads you can visit various communist government tributes and buildings. Walking around this well maintained yet relatively empty part of Vung Tau, it is easy to find contrast with the hustle and bustle of the main tourist strips that drive the booming domestic tourist trade from Saigon residents. VerdictVung Tau provides an unfiltered view of Vietnam’s middle class recreation habits. There are few highlights for foreign tourists, however like much of the rest of Southern Vietnam, the locals are friendly and more curious of foreign travellers due to lack of day to day exposure. Few will be able to speak English, however are more than willing to help when you ask for assistance. Apart from domestic tourism, the other primary industry for the town is offshore gas drilling, and part of the commercial development of the town caters toward relatively highly paid workers and a smattering of what I would imagine to be well paid foreign workers staying in hotels drinking heavily on their on-shore off days. On my second and final day in Vung Tai, a fierce storm swept over the town for a few hours. I had already checked out of my hotel and there were few places to get under cover. I found a bar adjacent to a hotel catering to the offshore workers but didn’t want to buy anything. So I huddled underneath a thin strip of awning just to try and keep my bag dry. I struck up conversation with two lovely ladies selling tourist postcards, and then was greeted by a worker in the neighbouring bar. He invited me into his empty bar to get out of the rain, and offered me cigarettes, beer and food for free. It was a great example of the hospitality shown to strangers that I will remember most fondly about my two days in Vung Tau. To cap off his generosity, he then gave me a lift to the bus terminal on his scooter when the storm started to die down. |
