Vung Tau City Guide: Where Fishing Village Meets Modern Beach Town

Vung Tau strikes a balance you don’t find much in Vietnam: laid-back beach town and booming city that’s distinctly Vietnamese. It’s got amazing food, walkable neighbourhoods, and spectacular city-meets-sand-meets-blue sea activities. It’s clean and modern, but it also feels unfiltered and authentic. It’s sort of like a more compact, more culturally pure alternative to Da Nang. I’ve mentioned Vung Tau in several of my Vietnam guides and I rank it among the best beach towns in Vietnam. I hear from plenty of short-term tourists that it was their favorite stop in the south of the country and the more time I spend here, the more I think it deserves more attention. Worth knowing before you go: Vung Tau is the 7th most visited city in Vietnam, largely thanks to its popularity with domestic travellers. The city gets particularly busy on weekends, so if you can, I’d recommend visiting on a weekday when it feels considerably more relaxed. In this post, I hope to capture some of Vung Tau’s beach city magic and set you up for a memorable 3-5 days there. Vung Tau as a day trip: If you’re short on time, Vung Tau also works as a day trip from Saigon – this package tour covers the beach, the Chris...