Mui Ne Beach

Mui Ne overview
Mui Ne Beach is about 300km from Ho Chi Minh City and can only be reached by road at present. It's composed of soft light grey sand and backed with trees and hotels facing a road that runs the length of the beach, with restaurants on the inland side.

The hotels range from small ‘backpacker’ establishments to Deluxe standard resorts.

The development has been well handled: all the hotels are low-rise, and many have wooden or bamboo bungalows on the edge of the beach. Most have good to excellent gardens and tree screening, which gives a sense of seclusion. The beach is safe for most of the year, and the facilities are good.

During the period between July and October, the fishing season is at its pinnacle in Phan Thiet as fishermen go out to sea. These boats form a magnificent display of lights at night and can be seen from shore.

On the northern side of the road there is a string of restaurants offering Vietnamese and international menus at a variety of prices. The local seafood is excellent. You'll also find a few places renting bicycles.

The fishing village
At the far end of the beach, Mui Ne fishing village and several hectares of massive rolling sand dunes make a pleasant diversion from relaxing on the beach, swimming and windsurfing.

The village is worth a visit for three reasons – firstly, very few tourists go further than the dunes, and secondly, the small harbour is picturesque (there's an excellent view from where the dunes road turns off).

Thirdly, there's an interesting pagoda where followers of Vietnam’s whale cult hold services and store skeletons of the massive sea mammals.

The dunes are remarkable, but don't venture on to them during the full sun - the sand gets very hot!

Water Sports
Mui Ne is frequently subject to onshore winds from the South China Sea. From November to May, the wind blows in a north-northeast direction often reaching a30mph strong breeze, sometimes gusting to a moderate gale. For the rest of the year there's a pleasant south-southwest moderate (10mph) to fresh (25mph) breeze, ideal for wind surfing.

Entering the water during the windy season is not advisable unless you're a strong swimmer. However, the weather conditions on Mui Ne beach are often ideal for water sports, especially board and kite surfing.

For large waves during the windy season, Hon Rom beach (10km from Mui Ne) offers even better surfing opportunities.

A word of warning
Recently, several new hotels have sprung up on the far side of the promontory where the fishing village is located . However, the gradient of the beach in the sheltered area is much reduced thus making swimming less practical.

At low tide, the locals use the wide sand flats for football and other games.

The local fishing fleet also uses the sheltered area - the boats anchor near the shore.

It's a picturesque scene, but there's a pungent fishy smell in some resorts on the other side of the village from May to October, and an invasion of flies during May, June and July.

Unless you don't mind a fishy smell and wading a couple of a kilometres to get enough water to swim at low tide, you'd be wise to stick to the Phan Thiet side of Mui Ne Beach.