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.
Worth it once, for the right person, and not for the reason it is sold. The standard four-island day is a beach, a seafood lunch on a floating restaurant, a mud bath on Hòn Tằm and a cable car ride, packaged with hotel pickup for anything from 350,000 to 990,000 VND an adult in 2026. The stop that headlines every brochure, snorkelling at Hòn Mun, has been closed to swimming and diving since June 2022 and was still closed in May 2026.
I have taken visitors on it more than once. If what you want is coral, a Vĩnh Hy day is better. If what you want is a beach with nobody on it, Điệp Sơn is better. If what you want is a day out with lunch, mud and a boat, and you have never done it, the four-island tour is fine, and this is what to expect.
The 2026 itinerary from the operators’ own pages runs: pickup at 08:00; Bãi Tranh beach on Hòn Miễu from 09:00 to 11:00; seafood lunch at the Làng Chài floating restaurant from 11:30 to 13:00; the Hon Tam mud bath from 13:00 to 15:00; Vinpearl Harbour and the cable car from 16:00. Eight hours door to door, five or six of them on the water. Included: an air-conditioned coach with hotel pickup, the speedboat, a guide, the lunch, and the entrance tickets to Bai Tranh, the Hon Tam mud bath and the round-trip cable car. Not included: VAT, personal spending, watersports and holiday surcharges.
| What | Price seen in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Full package, adult over 140 cm | 990,000 VND (list price 1,050,000) |
| Full package, child 100 to 139 cm | 742,500 VND |
| Child under 100 cm | Free |
| Budget group tour with lunch | 350,000 to 700,000 VND (May 2026) |
| Private speedboat, 2 to 8 people | USD 200 to 350 |
| Island entry fees when not bundled | Typically 60,000 to 90,000 VND; Hon Tam 190,000 VND (May 2026), against a separate 2026 quote of 350,000 |
| Standard three-island tour | 400,000 to 600,000 VND; VIP version about 1,200,000 |
The difference between the 350,000 tour and the 990,000 tour is mostly what is bundled. Cheap tours add the island fees, the mud bath and the lunch at the pier, and my experience is that the extras bring the two prices closer than the brochure suggests. Check what the quoted price includes before you pay. Check the refund rule too, because boats are cancelled outright in rough weather from about October to December, and the season the operators themselves quote is January to September.
Not Cầu Đá. The old pier at the southern end of Trần Phú, where the cable car station still stands, no longer runs the tourist boats. The departure point is the Nha Trang Tourist Wharf at 388 Võ Thị Sáu in Vĩnh Trường, now part of Nam Nha Trang ward, which opened on 16 May 2020 next to the fishing port and is run by the Nha Trang Bay Management Board. It was upgraded in 2025 with twelve berths for canoes and speedboats, covered waiting areas, free WiFi and automated ticket counters. Boats to Hon Mun, Hon Tam, Hon Mieu, Hòn Một, Đầm Bấy, Bích Đầm and Robinson beach all leave from here. Monkey Island is a different bay, Nha Phu, with its own port at Long Phú to the north.
Almost every booked tour includes a hotel pickup, so you may never see the wharf. If you go independently it is 6 to 7 km south of the centre, 15 to 20 minutes by taxi, and the walk-up prices at the gate are the worst you will be offered. The Nha Trang Guide page on the tourist port and ferries has the detail.
Hon Mun is the core of Vietnam’s first marine protected area, established in 2001, about 10 km out from Cau Da. Surveys found live coral cover on its south-west and south-east sides had collapsed from about 52 percent in 2015 to under 11 percent in 2022, and in June 2022 the province suspended swimming, snorkelling, diving, boats and glass-bottom boats around the island. Six dive sites used by 17 licensed operators closed and diving moved to Hòn Rơm. Monitoring in late 2023 found 30 to 50 percent live cover in the north and north-west with new colonies growing, and by May 2026 surveys reported clear recovery, but swimming and diving in the strict protection zone remained suspended to let the reef heal.
So the “Hon Mun snorkelling” line on the tour is not what it was. Operators still sell it; the activity happens in buffer areas or at other islands, and whatever you are shown from a boat, it is not the reef that made the island famous. Agency price lists in 2026 quote a marine-park fee of 22,000 VND an adult; I could not find that fee on the management board’s own pages. If a boatman offers to take you into the closed zone, he is either lying or breaking the rules, and the province closed the site once already because of exactly that.
It suits a family with children who want a boat, a beach, a mud bath and lunch organised by someone else, on a calm day between January and September. Bai Tranh on Hon Mieu is a real beach, the floating-restaurant lunch is a real lunch, and the Hon Tam mud bath is a smaller version of the mainland ones with a sea view. The cable car at the end, 3,320 m over open water in a glass cabin, is the best ten minutes of the day for most people I have taken.
It does not suit anyone who came for coral, anyone who wants quiet, or anyone on a second visit. It is a production line, run well, with a guide with a microphone and a fixed time at each stop. Every time I have done it with guests, the guests enjoyed it and I spent the day looking at the islands I would rather have been on.
For a beach, Diep Son. Three islands in Vân Phong Bay about 60 km north of the city, joined at low tide by a sandbar that is under about a metre of water at high tide, reached from Vạn Giã pier by speedboat for 200,000 VND return in 2026, or 100,000 by wooden boat. The season is December to June, and which half of the day the water falls depends on the lunar date. It is a full day, and I have written it up in the Diep Son tide path.
For coral, Vinh Hy. A near-enclosed bay 43 km south of Cam Ranh inside Núi Chúa National Park, where the glass-bottom boats run through a single association office: a 45-minute coral-viewing trip cost 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 the park. Buy at the office, not from touts. What has changed there, and why, is in Vinh Hy Bay: what changed.
One warning applies to Vinh Hy and to any boat in the south of the province. Bình Ba and Bình Hưng islands sit inside the security belt of the Cam Ranh military base, and on 4 June 2026 the provincial tourism department ordered every travel company and boat operator to stop organising, advertising or selling any tour to them. The ban is on tourism itself and applies to everyone, Vietnamese citizens included. A boat trip that offers to add Binh Hung is illegal, and I walk away from anyone who offers it. Which islands you can still visit, province-wide, is in the Khanh Hoa islands you can still visit.
Field note: the moment on the four-island tour that visitors remember is not an island. It is the cable car at the end, when the sun is low and the fishing fleet is under the cabin.
In 2026 the full package with hotel pickup, lunch, the Hon Tam mud bath and the cable car was listed at 990,000 VND an adult (742,500 for a child of 100 to 139 cm), and budget group tours with lunch ran 350,000 to 700,000 VND. Island fees are often added at the pier.
The Nha Trang Tourist Wharf at 388 Vo Thi Sau in Vinh Truong, 6 to 7 km south of the centre, which replaced the old Cau Da pier in 2020. Most tours include hotel pickup. Monkey Island boats leave from Long Phu port in Nha Phu bay instead.
Not in the strict protection zone. Swimming, snorkelling and diving around Hon Mun were suspended in June 2022 after the coral collapsed, and surveys in May 2026 reported recovery but kept the suspension. Tours still sell the stop; the activity happens elsewhere.
Yes, on a calm day between January and September: a beach at Bai Tranh, a mud bath on Hon Tam and the cable car at the end. Children under 100 cm travelled free on the 2026 package and 100 to 139 cm paid 742,500 VND. Boats are cancelled in rough weather from about October to December.
No. On 4 June 2026 the provincial tourism department ordered all operators to stop selling or advertising tours to Binh Ba, Binh Hung and Mui Hoi, which lie inside the Cam Ranh military base security belt. The ban applies to everyone, Vietnamese citizens included.
Read on 15 September 2026. Prices, hours and rules change; these are the pages the figures came from.
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.
I swim on the central city beach in front of a rescue tower, early in the morning, from February to August, and only under a green flag. I do not swim at the north end near Hon Chong, at the harbour end by Cau Da, or from November to January, when the winter swell runs and the rip currents form.
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.
