Vinh Hy Bay: what changed between my first visit and my last

The bay is the same bay. On my first visit, a few months after I moved to Nha Trang, and on my last, earlier this year, the glass-bottom boats left from the same association office, went out to the same coral and came back in about the same time. If you came here for Vịnh Vĩnh Hy itself, the answer is that it is still worth the ride, on a weekday, in the dry season, and that the published 2026 boat prices are lower than I expected the first time and have not moved much since.

What changed is everything around the bay. The province it sat in ceased to exist on 1 July 2025 and became part of Khánh Hòa. The islands across the water were closed to tourism in June 2026. And the coast road that brings you here has stopped being a secret, which shows in the number of vans at Hang Rái by nine in the morning.

What was it like the first time?

I rode down from Nha Trang on DT702 with no plan beyond seeing the bay, which is about 43 km south of Cam Ranh and 42 km north of Phan Rang. The road comes over a pass and the whole thing opens out below you: a near-enclosed bowl of water with the mountains of Núi Chúa National Park on three sides and a narrow opening to the south. The Lô Ô stream runs into it all year and fishing boats have always used it as a storm refuge. The Ministry of Culture made it a national scenic site on 7 January 2020.

I bought a boat ticket at the office in the village, which is how it has worked since late 2021, when the operators were put under a single glass-bottom boat association with electronic ticketing. The 45-minute trip over the coral cost less than I had braced for. The coral itself was patchy in places and bright in others, and the boatman knew exactly where the bright bits were.

What I did not do, and would not do now, was take up the offer of a canoe from Bãi Kinh up the road to Bình Hưng island. More on that below.

What has actually changed since then?

Less than I expected, once I went looking for sources rather than memories. No page I could find reports any new restriction on Vinh Hy boat trips between 2024 and 2026. The association office, the electronic tickets and the conservation fee for the national park were all in place before I arrived.

Three things did change. First, the map: Ninh Thuận province merged into Khanh Hoa on 1 July 2025, so Vinh Hy is now in Vinh Hai commune of a much larger province, and the tourist office that covers it is in Nha Trang. The merger post has the practical side.

Second, the islands. In June 2026 the province ordered tourism to Binh Ba and Binh Hung stopped, because both islands sit inside the security area of the Cam Ranh naval base. Bai Kinh, a few kilometres up DT702 from Vinh Hy, was the canoe pier for Binh Hung. Any boat that offers to add Binh Hung to a Vinh Hy trip is offering something illegal, and I would walk away. The islands you can still visit has the full picture.

Third, a provincial dispatch of 11 May 2026 on security in the Binh Hung, Bai Kinh and Vinh Hy areas. I could not find its contents anywhere, so I do not know what, if anything, it means for the bay. If a boatman tells you a route is off limits, believe him.

What do the boats cost in 2026?

The two 2026 price lists I found disagree by 20,000 VND on the basic trip, so I give both. Everything excludes VAT, and both lists say the prices do not apply on public holidays or at Tết. A 20,000 VND per person conservation fee, collected for Nui Chua National Park, is added to every ticket and is legitimate.

Trip, 2026 lists	Adult	Child	Notes
Coral viewing, 45 minutes, shared boat	80,000 to 100,000 VND	60,000 to 80,000 VND, age 5 to 11	Shared boats need 15 or more
Coral viewing, private boat	800,000 VND for up to 4		Up to 2,400,000 VND for 20 to 29 people
Snorkelling trip, 75 to 120 minutes	160,000 VND	140,000 VND, age 6 to 11; under 6 free	Private boat from 1,100,000 VND for up to 4
Park conservation fee	20,000 VND	20,000 VND	Per person, every trip
Speedboat	200,000 VND per person		With 6 or more; all-day package with lunch from 650,000 VND

The boats visit a headland the operators call Dolphin cape, the beaches at Bãi Cóc and Bãi Nhà Cũ, a cave called Hang Yến and the reefs. I never found a fee for entering the bay itself, and nobody has asked me for one. Buy from the office, not from anyone who approaches you in the car park.

Is the coral worth seeing?

Yes, with the caveat that you are looking through a glass panel from a moving boat, not swimming over it. The English Wikipedia entry for the park lists 307 recorded coral species on the reefs off Nui Chua and describes them as in generally good to excellent condition, which is better than most of what is left around Nha Trang. On a calm morning with the sun high you can see the bottom clearly. On a choppy afternoon you see foam.

The longer trip includes time in the water with a mask, which is the version I would pay for now. The 45-minute trip is fine if you have children who will not last longer, or if the sea is up.

Field note: the first boat of the morning gets the clearest water and the emptiest deck. By eleven the light is flatter, the wind is up and the shared boats wait until they have their fifteen.

What about the turtles?

Nui Chua protects the last regular sea-turtle nesting beaches on the mainland, and this is the part of the bay’s story most visitors never hear. Green turtles, hawksbills and a third species the park calls đồi mồi dứa come ashore at Bãi Thịt and the beaches beside it from May to October, with a peak in August. Between 2014 and early August 2024 the park recorded 530 nesting visits, 173 successful nests and 11,349 hatchlings released. A clutch is 80 to 120 eggs and hatches in 47 to 50 days.

Bai Thit is a strict protection zone, patrolled at night by community volunteer groups from the villages. You cannot go there on your own, and you should not try. What visitors can do is join supervised hatchling releases through the park’s visitor programme, which is based at Hang Rai rather than in Vinh Hy village. The park dates from 9 July 2003 and has been a UNESCO biosphere reserve since 14 April 2021. I have never managed to time a release, which tells you how much it depends on the season and the park’s schedule.

What I’d do

1. Ride the Nui Chua coast road from the Cam Ranh side on a weekday between January and August, leaving early enough to reach Vinh Hy before the shared boats fill.
2. Buy the snorkelling trip at the association office: 160,000 VND an adult plus the 20,000 VND park fee on the 2026 lists.
3. Eat in the village afterwards; the seafood is landed within sight of the table.
4. Stop at Hang Rai on the way back, or better, sleep nearby and do Hang Rai at first light the next day.
5. Skip anything with Binh Hung in it, and skip the bay entirely on public holidays.

If you are staying on the Bai Dai strip, the Cam Ranh Guide page on Vinh Hy Bay has the airport-side detail; Aman’s own figure for the drive to its Amanoi resort on the bay, which has been there since 2013, is 75 minutes from Cam Ranh airport.