Looking for nice beach area to be LAZY :-)

daCabbie wrote:

I say this WITHOUT a doubt.....Go to Hoi An.....It is near Da Nang.

HOI AN doesn't have a beach - it's inland on the sewage filled THU BON RIVER. Great for mosquitoes, though.

There is a 'beach' nearby at CUA DAI (GPS: 15.897758, 108.364895).

Two things to note about this beach:
1. It is a pebble beach (about 0.5 cm stones) with a TWO METRE drop off a little way in to the sea.
2. It is a KILLER BEACH. The hotels won't tell you about it - but the Cua Dai Peoples Committee erected a sign in ENGLISH advising of the dangers. IF THE TWO FLAGS ARE FLYING near Highway 603 and Cua Day Road it is dangerous to enter the water.

Hundreds of people have drowned over the years. Every time I have stayed over in Hoi An there has been at least one drowning.

All the nice sandy breaches have been 'acquired' by the adjacent hotels.


Photo courtesy: VietNamNet

Cua Dai 'Beach'

Vung Tau beaches (in town) are dirty and littered with drug paraphernalia. There are good beaches north of the city where tourists never go.

If you go south into the MeKong Delta there are many nice beaches especially towards Ca Mau (GPS: 9.195250,105.152802) and along the coast to Ha Tien (GPS: 10.382934,104.487778).

Phan Thiet has good beaches - the most secluded are behind the Nuoc Mam store houses.

Take TRAN HUNG DAO out of downtown, cross the bridge over the river, turn RIGHT (GPS: 10.926536, 108.101830) on to PHAM VAN DONG to LE LOI (GPS: 10.919109, 108.107237) then follow it along. Between many of the Nuoc Mam factories you will find narrow footpaths leading to your 'private' beach. No vendors, no crowds.

If you want noise and crowds and sand dunes, then Mui Ne (GPS: 10.933100,108.282997), a suburb of Phan Thiet, is for you.

Thanks. That gives me a good idea. Ideally I want to be able to swim in the ocean every morning and go for long walks along the beach. A crowded beach would not be suitable for that. Daytime would be lazing about on my laptop / reading etc. At night I'd probably go to a couple of bars for a chat and drink.

I am currently wearing a thick jumper in the house and there is snow outside. Looking forward to arriving 

One more thing. I heard someone say they rented a place in Nha Trang for a month which cost around $250 or so. It had wifi / cable and a balcony. That sounds good. Can you recommend anywhere like this?

Cheers!

OK I just looked on agoda and they have lots of inexspensive rooms.

ODB wrote:

OK I just looked on agoda and they have lots of inexspensive rooms.

Check back in 6 hours time (I worked the night shift) and I'll tell you how to get best prices.

FYI, I've been living 200 meters from Ha My beach just outside Hoi An but 6kms down from Cua Dai beach and I walk my dogs on the beach and swim most mornings.  Unlike what Jaitch says, on calm mornings I can walk 80 meters into the water off the beach and still have my head above water, it is a clean sand beach, and yes, there can be dangerous rips from October until Jan/Feb, but most of the year the beach is safe and clean.  An Bang beach which is 3km nearer to Hoi An (some magazine named it one of the world's 10 best beaches) has a number of small villas for rent and a good selection of bars/restaurants along the beach.  Hoi An has lots of attractions, a substantial expat community and is only 4km inland from An Bang.

Hi try Jungle beach up the coast, rustic but good....

alanzet wrote:

Hi try Jungle beach up the coast, rustic but good....

Jungle Beach is good. Run by a Foreigner and his wife. Been  there for years.

Hoi An doesn't have a beach - it is Cua Dai. On the Da Nang Highway and drownings occur at certain tide conditions throughout the year. Hoi An and Cua Dai tourist suppliers play down the poor beaches - which are fast disappearing in to the sea - as well as the dangers from drowning by the flags. Why else would a Peoples Committee erect a big sign, in English, if there weren't risks?

Better beaches are towards Da Nang, such as the Non Nuoc Beach famously known to TV viewers as China Beach. The Cua Dai hotels and residences dump their sewage in to the sea so if you wonder what the strange looking fish are ...

Look out for the motorcycle parking scam, too, at Cua Dai where a guy with a police baton tries to make you park in his private parking lot. The 'honey trap' is next to the Post Office by the ATM machine.

Next richiv will be trying to persuade us it never floods in Hoi An or are there never any bad storms in the Fall!