Topic
The cold side of a beach province: passes, plateaus, pools and the hikes to them.
Hon Ba is the 1,578 m mountain south-west of Nha Trang where Alexandre Yersin built a research station in 1915 and where Tuoi Tre measured 17 to 20 degrees in June 2024. Since a pilot scheme at Tet 2024 the summit is reached with an organised tour, not independently, and I found no 2025 or 2026 statement on whether the 37 km summit road is open.
With one free day I would go to Ba Ho between January and May and scramble to the third pool. Yang Bay is the park for a family, a rainy day or a hot spring, where the fall is the least of it. Ta Gu is the best waterfall of the three, 40 m in one drop and free, but about 100 km away over the Khanh Son pass and worth it only with a night in To Hap.
Ta Gu is a 40 m single-drop waterfall in Son Hiep, Khanh Son, 10 to 15 km from To Hap and about 100 km from Nha Trang. The walk from the road end is a couple of hundred metres over stream crossings and steep wet rock; no source I found requires a guide for the falls, entry is free with a small cleaning fee quoted, and in the wet months the leeches find you.
Yang Bay is worth the 200,000 VND gate price (2026) if you are taking children or parents and want a full, easy day out of the city. It is the wrong choice if the waterfall is the point: the fall itself is modest, and the park around it, with its hot spring, crocodile farm and animal races, is the real product.
Yes, ride it, but by day and in the dry months. The pass was shut for over a month after a rockfall killed six bus passengers on 16 November 2025, reopened to all vehicles from 13 February 2026 between 05:00 and 18:00, and in September 2026 the authorities still advised staying off it at night.
Mui Doi, at the tip of the Hon Gom sandbar in Dai Lanh commune, is the easternmost point of mainland Vietnam; Mui Dien across the water in the former Phu Yen is second. You reach it on foot from Dam Mon, 12 to 13 km each way over dunes, forest and boulders with a night at Bai Rang beach, or by hired boat in 30 to 45 minutes. January to June is the season.
