Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, Vietnam / since September 2024
I moved to Nha Trang in September 2024 and have spent the two years since riding around every corner of Khanh Hoa: the beaches, the islands you can still visit, the passes, the salt, the durian plateau, and the dry south that joined the province in 2025. This is what I would tell a friend who just landed.
The rain comes in October and November, the beach road is a barrier not a doorstep, the inland streets are where the city lives, and the province is far bigger than the beach. Twelve things I wish someone had told me in September 2024, each with a link to the post that covers it.
As of September 2026 you can go to Hon Tam, Hon Mieu, Hon Mot, Monkey Island, Diep Son and, as a resort guest, Whale Island. Binh Ba and Binh Hung are closed to all tourism under a provincial order of 4 June 2026, and swimming and diving in Hon Mun's strict protection zone were still suspended in the May 2026 reports.
February to May is when I tell friends to come: dry, the sea between 25.5 and 29 degrees, under 70 mm of rain a month. June to August is hot and fine, September turns, and October and November are the two months to avoid unless you like rain. The highlands and the dry south run on different rules.
Dai Lanh is the best beach in the province and Doc Let the easiest good day out. Bai Dai and Binh Lap come next, Ninh Chu is the south's beach, and the Nha Trang city beach is good at dawn and poor by noon. Hang Rai is on the list only to say it is not for swimming.
North first: Doc Let and the Hon Khoi salt, Dam Mon and Mui Doi, Dai Lanh and the old Ca pass road. Then west to the top of the Khanh Le pass, south over the Khanh Son pass to To Hap and Ta Gu, down to Cam Ranh bay and Binh Lap, along the Nui Chua coast road to Phan Rang, and 95 km of Highway 1 home. Not between October and December.
Binh Ba and Binh Hung sit inside the security belt of the Cam Ranh naval base. On 4 June 2026 the province ordered every tour to them stopped, for Vietnamese and foreigners alike, under a 2025 Prime Ministerial decision that repeats one from 2015. So this site will not tell you how to get there: it tells you what the order says and where I go instead.
You cannot ride all the way round Cam Ranh bay, but the public roads that frame it make a long half day: Nguyen Tat Thanh down Bai Dai to the airport, round the head of the bay to Ba Ngoi, south past the salt and east to the Cam Lap promontory, then north on QL1A. The loop leg by leg, with sourced distances and where the navy says you stop.
Worth it once, for a family or a first-timer who wants a beach, a floating-restaurant lunch, a mud bath on Hon Tam and the cable car organised by someone else, for 350,000 to 990,000 VND an adult in 2026. Hon Mun, the snorkelling stop, has been closed to swimming and diving since June 2022. For coral go to Vinh Hy; for an empty beach, Diep Son.
The season is the north-east monsoon, roughly November to March, with the strongest and steadiest wind in December and January. My Hoa, a flat beach over 4 km long on DT702 north of Ninh Chu, is the established spot, with four kite centres counted there in 2019. No My Hoa lesson price is published anywhere I could find.
As of 15 September 2026 the e-visa gives up to 90 days at USD 25 single entry or USD 50 multiple, applied for only at evisa.gov.vn or thithucdientu.gov.vn, and a 45-day visa-free stay cannot be extended. A long stay is therefore a rhythm of exits: most people I know fly out of Cam Ranh and back, and the immigration division in Nha Trang handles the rest.
Skip the resorts and Cam Ranh is Ba Ngoi: a working port and navy town on the west shore of the bay, about 19 km by road from the airport, with a seafood market that is over by mid-morning, a waterfront you may not photograph freely, and a ferry pier that no longer takes tourists anywhere. There is not much, and I go anyway, for the market and the light.
The Hon Heo pass road is the only way onto the outer peninsula: QL26B east from Ninh Hoa past the salt flats and the shipyard turn, then nearly 10 km of single road over the ridge to Ninh Van fishing village, about 70 km from Nha Trang. It opened in 2009, parts of it have broken up, and it is still the best short ride in the north of the province.
I shop at Xom Moi on Ngo Gia Tu for the daily basket, Vinh Hai in the north of the city when I want seafood at boat prices, Dam Market for dried goods and gifts, and Lotte Mart or Co.opmart for packets. The three night markets on Tran Phu are for visitors. One rule covers all of them: agree the rate and the weight before anything is cooked.
On the published 2026 rates a scooter costs about 2.5 million VND for 30 days at a Nha Trang shop, or about 625,000 a month on a long term, while a used Honda Wave lists from 8.5 million VND. Past a few months the sums favour buying, but no official page I found settles whether a foreigner can register one, and the licence comes first.
Looking for a hotel? This guide does not rate them. For hotels by name, taxi numbers and the bus station, I keep two reference guides: Nha Trang Guide for the city, its hotels by name and how it works, and Cam Ranh Guide for the airport and the Bai Dai resort strip.
