Topic
The three big bays and the islands you can still reach, legally, in 2026.
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.
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.
The bay has not changed: the boats still go out over the coral from the association office at published 2026 prices. What changed is everything around it: the province it belongs to, the rules for the islands next door, and how many people now know the coast road.
Diep Son is three islands in Van Phong Bay, about 60 km north of Nha Trang, joined by a sandbar that shows at low tide and is about a metre under at high tide. Lunar days 1 to 15 the water falls in the afternoon, days 16 to 30 in the morning. Boats from Van Gia pier run 07:00 to midday, 100,000 to 300,000 VND return; December to June.
Binh Lap is the legal answer to the Binh Ba question: a narrow peninsula on the south side of Cam Ranh bay, reached entirely by road, about 50 km from Cam Ranh airport by the May 2026 guides, with a string of small shallow bays, lobster rafts and homestays. It is not named in the June 2026 tour ban. Two days is the right length.
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.
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.
