Mui Ne - Vietnam's Southern Seaside Town

Mui Ne is a resort seaside town just 6.5hr from Ho Chi Minh City. It has only recently developed into a tourist destination since 2000 and is not as famous as Nha Trang for travellers. We spent 5 days in this lovely town and hope our friends and fellow travellers put Mui Ne on their next itinerary if they plan to travel to Vietnam.

Getting there

Perfect bed for me. Stefan is 1.8m tall and still fit comfortably.

We took a deluxe sleeper bus with the Phuong Trang bus company from Ho Chi Minh City for VND120,000 ($6)pp. The bus trip was only 6.5 hours and the built in beds in the seats made the trip extra comfortable. The trip was pretty smooth but for us it got a bit chaotic when we reached the main strip of Mui Ne. Because we couldn't speak Vietnamese and the driver didn't understand much English, they missed our guesthouse and let us off close to the bus depot. We hailed a taxi and had to call our guesthouse owner to give the driver directions. When we finally reached the guesthouse, it was around 9:30pm, we were both relieved and super hungry.

See

Mui Ne is famous for its beautiful beaches. There are many beachside restaurants and accommodations along the main strip. If you take a casual stroll along the beach you'll undoubtedly see the collection of colouful kites in the sky from the large portion of kitesurfing enthusiasts in the water. If you rent a motorbike you can ride along the main strip towards the local town and head to the harbour. It is especially beautiful to watch the sunset along the harbourside or the beach.

Harbour panorama

Harbour at sunset

Mui Ne is also known for its red and white sand dunes. We went to the White Lake (Bao Trang) which is where the white dunes are. It is approx 30mins away from the main strip by motorbike. There are day tours which take you there by Jeep. Unfortunately, we went a bit late so we didn't get to stay long until it got dark. However, we got to see the huge lake and the sprawling white dunes. It was hard to believe in the middle of Vietnam, next to the beach, were these incredible desert like sand dunes. During the day you can ride the quad bikes or go sledding down.

White sand dunes at the White Lake

Do 

Kitesurfing

As I've already mentioned, Mui Ne is well known to extreme sports fans for its kitesurfing and windsurfing scene. Most days you'll see the beach is laid out with these giant, colourful kites. For those who are interested in trying out kiting for the first time, I recommend Windchimes Kitesurfing School. It is located just in front of the Saigon Mui Ne Resort, which you can walk through to get to Windchimes. The instructors come from all over the world and can teach in Vietnamese, German, French, Russian, Polish, English and Lithuanian! They are patient, friendly, and can help any novice pick up the basics quite quickly. I recommend you give yourself 2-3 days during your stay for kiting lessons. This will include land lessons with the training kite and then going into the water with the instructor with a full size 8-12m kite. It is such a thrill even for non-extreme sports enthusiasts, like myself. Windchimes rates are US$50/hr and each lesson takes around 2-2.5 hours. However they charge $36/hr if you learn in small groups (2-3ppl). This includes equipment hire during the lessons.Click here to read more about our first Kiting experience!

If you plan to swim at the beaches I would recommend going to an area where you can avoid kitesurfers. If there are many kitesurfers in the water it is probably a sign of very strong winds and waves which may not be ideal for swimming conditions.

Ride around with a bike

The easiest way to get around is with a motorbike. However, if you do not have a license, you can easily hire a bicycle too. If you are going to hire a motorbike try to haggle the price to US$8/day. As I said before, there is a lot to see along the beachside strip and also towards to local town. You can visit the sand dunes, go watch the sunset at the fishing harbour or visit the local markets.

Along the main strip. One straight road makes it nearly impossible to get lost

P.S. Mui Ne has a huge fish sauce plant factory on the road from the main strip to the local town. I recommend you block your nose or your senses will be assaulted by the smell of fermenting fish while on the bike.

Eat

Mr Crab

OTP

We fell in love in Mui Ne...not with each other but with our beloved seafood BBQ restaurant 'Mr Crab'. We were on the bike when we suddenly smelled the delicious scent of fresh grilled seafood wafting in the air. Immediately, we knew where we were going to have dinner that night...and almost every night afterwards in Mui Ne.

Take your pick

At the front you can choose from a gallery of fresh seafood. All the seafood prices are unbelievably cheap. One of our dinners there cost us both around $56, which included 1kg scallops @ VND80,000/kg ($4), 1.1kg fresh lobster @ VND600,000/kg ($30), 500g prawns @ VND350,000/kg ($18) and a whole red snapper for VND20,000 ($10). We were in an intense food coma afterwards.

                  

               Huge prawns the size of your hand

Smaller grilled  prawns for two

Grilled red snapper

$30/kg freshly grilled lobster?! We tasted the food of gods.

Grilled scallop with scallions and fried onion - The best

You can choose how you want your seafood to be cooked but grilled is probably the best option. If you're feeling like some snapper I recommend steamed with soy sauce and spring onions - absolutely delicious. The main strip has many seafood 'Boke' BBQ restaurants but we settled with Mr Crab. I recommend the grilled scallops in shallots and fried onion. We had 1kg a day and I'm salivating just thinking about it now....

Joe's Art Cafe

Quesadilla by the sea

For late night drinks and entertainment, Joe's Art Cafe is popular with many visitors. Their food is pretty good and we had been there for brunch the first day we were there. Their menu is mainly western food and I enjoyed the quesadilla  At the day time, their beachside view was a winner. At night, you'll be entertained by some great live music. Their drinks menu is quite extensive and reasonably priced. If you're looking for a late night spot to chill, check out Joe's.

King of Sandwich

American Baguette owns Subway 100x

Our favourite place for a quick and delicious bite at lunch or breakfast before heading to the beach or kiting. Their baguettes are delicious and cheap. There's something for everyone on the menu and service is quick and efficient. We got free iced tea for every meal. I recommend the lemongrass chicken baguette and the American baguette w/ french fries. Most sandwiches were quite big and cost less than $5.

Stay

We stayed at the Evergreen Guesthouse for 5 days. It is run by a very nice American-Vietnamese couple, Ken and Monique. The guesthouse owners were very attentive and fixed any issue we had very quickly. When we suddenly decided to extend our stay by two days they were  helpful and allowed us to moved to a bigger spare room at the same rate. Monique even helped us book bus tickets over the phone seeing as we didn't speak Vietnamese. The rooms were clean and spacious and included a queen size bed, AC, flat screen TV, en suite and mini-fridge. 

The garden and pool was also the most beautiful I've ever seen. If you're feeling like just chilling after lunch and not in the mood to go to the beach, you can just laze on the deckchairs and afterwards take a dip in the lovely pool. 

I definitely recommend Evergreen Guesthouse to anyone planning to head to Mui Ne. The owners are friendly, the rooms and garden are first class at a traveller's budget and it is just across the road from the main beach. The owners are also animal lovers so you'll often see their lovely pet cats and dogs scuttling about :) At peak season, the rates were US$35/night not incl. breakfast and $40 incl. breakfast. I think you can forgo breakfast here and walk along the main road to King of Sandwich (5mins left) or Joe's Cafe (7mins right) instead.

Having been to both Nha Trang and Mui Ne, I can safely say that I would choose to return to Mui Ne over the former. The atmosphere was very relaxing and chilled, the beaches were beautiful. and the food was cheap and delicious. I don't know what else travellers would want in a destination!

Have you been to Mui Ne and/or Nha Trang? Tell me which you prefer and what your favourite thing about the town was!

Thanks for reading,
Jo