Region / Ninh Hòa / 27 km from Nha Trang as the crow flies
North of the city the coast opens up: a long white beach at Doc Let, salt fields that are worked before dawn, a peninsula road that hides a bay you have heard of, and a town whose grilled pork rolls are famous across the country under its own name. Ninh Hoa is an hour away and I go more often than anywhere else.
Hotels and hard practical facts for this area live on Nha Trang Guide, which I also write.
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.
Ba Ho is three pools on a forest stream 25 km north of Nha Trang, reached by about a kilometre of boulder scrambling. From January to May the water is clear and the granite is dry enough to trust; from October to December the same rocks are wet and the stream can flood. The official adult ticket was 135,000 VND in September 2026.
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.
Doc Let is the long, very shallow white-sand beach 46.3 km north of Nha Trang, about an hour by motorbike, and on a weekday in the dry months it is close to empty. The gated resort strip charged 50,000 VND an adult in 2025, chair and shower included; there is free sand outside it. At weekends the families arrive.
The Hon Khoi salt fields are about 400 hectares of evaporation pans on the flats behind Doc Let beach, roughly a kilometre from the sand. Salt is made from March to September, most of it from April to July, and the first shift is on the pans from 04:00 to 09:00 because the brine must be spread before the sun. Go at first light in those months.
Nem nuong, grilled pork on bamboo skewers rolled in rice paper with herbs and a thick sauce, is named for Ninh Hoa, 33 km north of Nha Trang. No source I found documents a recipe difference between town and city; the reason to eat it in Ninh Hoa is the small family shops at local prices. Quan Nem Ba Nam at 142 Nguyen Thi Ngoc Oanh is the address I can give.
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Nem nuong in its home town, the salt fields at dawn, Doc Let on a weekday, the Hon Heo road.
Straight-line distance from the Nha Trang beachfront to Ninh Hoa: 27 km. Road distances are longer and are quoted in the posts from their sources.
