Province-wide /Islands and bays
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.
In September 2026 the honest list is short. From Nha Trang you can go to Hòn Tằm, Hòn Miễu, Hòn Một and the Robinson beach club by boat from the tourist port, and to Monkey Island from Long Phu. In the north you can walk out to Điệp Sơn at low tide and stay on Whale Island (Hòn Ông) if you have booked the resort. Bình Lập, which everyone calls an island, is a peninsula you reach by road.
You cannot go to Bình Ba or Bình Hưng: the province ordered every tour to them stopped on 4 June 2026, and the ban applies to Vietnamese and foreign visitors alike. Hòn Mun is not closed, but swimming and diving in its strict protection zone were still suspended in the May 2026 reports. Trường Sa is a special zone of the province with no civilian tourism at all.
The order is document 3689/SVHTTDL-QLDL of the Khanh Hoa Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, dated 4 June 2026. It tells travel companies, tourism businesses and boat operators to stop organising, advertising, brokering or selling any tour to Binh Ba, to Hon Chut (the legal name for Binh Hung) or to the Mui Hoi area, and to pull every such product from their promotion. It rests on a provincial dispatch of 11 May 2026 and on Prime Ministerial Decision 04/2025/QD-TTg of 30 September 2025, whose Article 21 says no form of tourism may be run or developed in those three areas, because they lie inside the security belt of the Cam Ranh military base.
The rule is older than the order. Decision 44/2015/QD-TTg of 22 September 2015 said the same in its Article 37, and the province repeated it in 2022 and in July 2024. What changed in 2026 was enforcement: spring social media was full of clips selling the islands as open to Vietnamese only, which is wrong. The ban is on tourism as such, not on a passport. Nam Cam Ranh commune is charged with inspecting and handling violators; I never found a published penalty for a visitor. I have set out why I am not writing a Binh Ba guide, and that is the whole of my advice: do not book a canoe from Bai Kinh, and do not go as somebody’s family visit.
Hon Mun is the core of Vietnam’s first marine protected area, set up in 2001, about 10 km from Cau Da. The Nha Trang Bay Management Board suspended swimming, snorkelling, diving and glass-bottom boats in its waters from June 2022 after bleaching and storm damage. In February 2024 the six dive sites used by 17 licensed operators were still closed and diving had been moved to Hon Rom, with four pilot zones proposed elsewhere in the bay. Monitoring in late 2023 found 30 to 50 percent live coral cover in the north and north-west, with new colonies growing.
The most recent report I have, from May 2026, says the reef is clearly recovering and that swimming and diving in the strict protection zone remain suspended to let it heal. Boats still go out that way and operators still sell Hon Mun snorkelling; as far as I can tell, the water time happens in buffer areas or at other islands. I would not book anything on the promise of Hon Mun itself, and I have not been in the water there since I arrived. I have a separate post on whether the four-island boat trip is worth it without it.
Everything in the bay leaves from the Nha Trang Tourist Port at 388 Vo Thi Sau, which opened on 16 May 2020 and replaced the old Cau Da pier. Cau Da no longer runs tourist boats; the Nha Trang Guide page on the tourist port and ferries has the pier detail. Boats across the bay are cancelled outright in rough weather from about October to December.
Hon Tam is the easy one: about 7 km out, roughly ten minutes by speedboat, a resort island with a beach, pools and a mud bath. Island entry was quoted at 350,000 VND an adult and 250,000 VND a child in 2026, with packages that bundle the boat from about 16 US dollars. A May 2026 list of pier-side island fees puts Hon Tam at 190,000 instead, and I cannot tell whether that is a different ticket or an older one, so read both as quotes rather than a tariff. The standard four-island tour, which in one 2026 listing runs Bai Tranh on Hon Mieu, a seafood lunch, the Hon Tam mud bath and the Vinpearl cable car for 990,000 VND an adult, is the other way in; budget group versions with lunch were quoted at 350,000 to 700,000 VND in May 2026, with island entry fees of roughly 60,000 to 90,000 VND added at the pier when they are not bundled. The port also serves Hon Mot, Dam Bay and Bich Dam. Robinson beach is a private beach club reached only by boat, with entry quoted at 100,000 VND and day tours at 400,000 to 500,000 VND.
Monkey Island (Hòn Lao) is different water: Nha Phu bay, about 15 km north of the city, boats from Long Phu port, 180,000 VND an adult in 2026, open 07:30 to 16:30. Around 1,200 macaques, and a show I skip.
Diep Son is three small islands about 60 km north of the city, joined by a sandbar that comes out of the sea at low water and sits about a metre under it at high tide. The two accounts I trust disagree on its length, so call it several hundred metres. Boats leave Van Gia pier roughly 07:00 to midday: a speedboat was 200,000 to 300,000 VND a person return and a wooden boat 100,000 to 150,000 VND in 2025. The season is December to June, and the tide rule the boatmen use is simple: in the first half of the lunar month the water falls in the afternoon, in the second half it falls in the morning. The tide path post has the day I got it wrong.
Whale Island (Hon Ong) is a single-resort island reached only by the resort’s own boat from Dam Mon, a 15-minute crossing at 07:00, 09:00, 11:00, 13:30, 16:00 and 17:30. There is no public ferry and no day ticket; turning up at Dam Mon without a booking leaves you on the quay. The port entrance fee was 20,000 VND.
Binh Lap is a peninsula on the south side of Cam Ranh bay, reached entirely by road, about 80 km from Nha Trang and about 50 km from the airport. It is not named in the ban, and since June it has been the lawful way to get the island feeling near Cam Ranh: a string of small bays with camps and small resorts that charge day-use fees I never found published. It is in the same commune as the closed islands and close to the base, so obey the military signage. Read a weekend in Binh Lap before you go.
Vĩnh Hy, 43 km south of Cam Ranh on the coast road, runs glass-bottom boats over the coral through a single association office: a 45-minute coral trip was 80,000 to 100,000 VND an adult in 2026, a longer trip with snorkelling 160,000 VND, plus a 20,000 VND conservation fee for Nui Chua National Park. A boat that offers to add Binh Hung is breaking the law; Bai Kinh, the old pier for that island, is on the same road. What changed at Vinh Hy covers the bay in more detail.
| Island | Status, checked 15 September 2026 | Access | Source date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Binh Ba | Closed to all tourism | None lawful | Order of 4 June 2026 |
| Binh Hung (Hon Chut) | Closed to all tourism | None lawful | Order of 4 June 2026 |
| Hon Mun | Strict zone: no swimming or diving | Licensed boats only | May 2026 reports |
| Hon Tam | Open, resort day passes | Speedboat from 388 Vo Thi Sau, about ten minutes | 2026 price list |
| Hon Mieu (Bai Tranh), Hon Mot | Open, on the island tours | Boats from 388 Vo Thi Sau | May 2026 tour prices |
| Monkey Island (Hon Lao) | Open, 180,000 VND | Long Phu port, 10 to 15 minutes | 2026 price list |
| Diep Son | Open, tide-dependent | Van Gia pier, 07:00 to midday | 2025 boat prices |
| Whale Island (Hon Ong) | Resort guests only | Resort boat from Dam Mon | 2026 resort listing |
| Binh Lap | Open; a peninsula, by road | About 80 km from Nha Trang | May 2026 guide |
| Truong Sa | No civilian tourism | State delegations only | May 2025 report |
With one day and no motorbike: the four-island tour from 388 Vo Thi Sau, booked through a hotel or an agent rather than at the gate, with the entry fees confirmed before paying, and no expectation of getting into the water at Hon Mun.
With a motorbike and a free weekday between December and June: Highway 1 north to Van Gia, about 60 km, a boat before midday, and the Diep Son sandbar timed to the lunar-day rule. Dam Mon and Whale Island are on the same road north if you have booked.
With a weekend and a wish for empty coves: Binh Lap by road, then the coast road south to Vinh Hy for a boat over the coral. Nothing that goes to Binh Ba, Binh Hung or Mui Hoi, whoever offers it, and nothing that says it is fine because you are, or are not, Vietnamese.
No. On 4 June 2026 the Khanh Hoa tourism department ordered every tour, advert and boat booking to Binh Ba and Binh Hung stopped, under a 2025 Prime Ministerial decision on the Cam Ranh base. The ban is on tourism itself and applies to Vietnamese and foreign visitors alike.
Not in its strict protection zone. Swimming and diving there were suspended in June 2022, and the May 2026 reports said they remained suspended while the coral recovers. Trips sold as Hon Mun snorkelling use buffer areas or other islands.
Hon Tam: about 7 km out and roughly ten minutes by speedboat from the tourist port at 388 Vo Thi Sau. Island entry was quoted at 350,000 VND an adult in 2026, with the boat usually bundled into a day pass.
Only at low water. The sandbar sits about a metre under the sea at high tide, and boats from Van Gia run roughly 07:00 to midday. December to June is the season; in the first half of the lunar month the water falls in the afternoon, in the second half in the morning.
No. It is a peninsula on the south side of Cam Ranh bay, reached entirely by road, about 80 km from Nha Trang and about 50 km from the airport. It is not named in the tourism ban, which is why it has become the lawful alternative to the islands.
Read on 15 September 2026. Prices, hours and rules change; these are the pages the figures came from.
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.
Since 1 July 2025 Ninh Thuan is the south of Khanh Hoa, there are no districts or provincial cities, and 194 communes, wards and towns became 65. Streets kept their names and numbers, plates 79 and 85 are both valid, and old addresses still work. This is the page that keeps the dates and the new ward names straight.
Van Phong is Khanh Hoa's largest bay and its least visited: 150,000 hectares between the Hon Khoi headland and the Hon Gom sandbar, 60 km north of Nha Trang, with a 17 km mouth, 20 to 27 m deep. The depth drew a port that never got built; the shelter holds about 35,000 lobster cages. For a visitor it means Diep Son, Mui Doi, Whale Island and Doc Let.
Ninh Van is two places with one name. The resort bay has no road and no public landing; you reach it as a guest of Six Senses, An Lam or L'Alya. The fishing village of Ninh Van, on the same Hon Heo peninsula, has had a road since 2009, sits about 70 km from Nha Trang, and has homestays, seafood and beaches.
