From Siagon, we decided to travel north up the SE coast of Vietnam, starting with Nha Trang. We read it’s built up w fancy hotels & restaurants but the beach itself is beautiful. All of that proved to be true. As we stayed at an “okay” place in Saigon, we decided to splurge a bit & stay at a nice joint right on the beach.
We took an early morning flight from Siagon. Prior to landing, we flew over Nha Trang & its surroundings & it looked gorgeous. A 45 min drive into Nha Trang revealed it’s even prettier as the beaches are vast and backed by lush mountains & the blue sea is dotted w similar lush mountainous islands (upwards of 70 islands just off the coast). I had pho for breakfast for the first time since landing in Vietnam & was on the beach in comfy chairs by 10:30am without a care in the world.
Our days went like this:

– Sleep in, workout in morning

– Pho breakfast

– Beach chairs & umbrella by 9:30/10 for swimming, sunbathing, napping, walks on the beach. We needed that umbrella. I think we’re fairly close to the equator here & that sun gets awfully hot.

– Lunch on the beach

– The winds would pickup around 3pm so we’d head up to shower at 4 & hit the rooftop bar w gorgeous views for 2-for-1 happy hour drinks & trip research

– Great dinners, drinks & then retire
After 3+ weeks of non-stop traveling & touring, it was just what we needed. What we certainly did not need was all of the loud, obnoxious, selfie-stick obsessed Russians who have infiltrated this place & apparently adopted it as a vacation destination. There are store signs and menus in Russian & some servers even speak a little, all catering to the fact that they apparently love this place & are everywhere. As a result, the city at night is a little douchey. There are bright neon lights everywhere. There are douchey clubs everywhere playing douchey music as if that’s going to lure me inside. After dinner one night around 11, we swung by a mini-mart type shop along the beach to pick up some water, beer & snacks for the room only to find the shop also sold handbags, luggage, shoes, etc. We commented on how odd it was they carried that stuff just as 2 different Russian couples entered & a woman picked out a bright pink handbag & a man was inspecting the luggage. I guess they know their customer base.
Also a little tiresome were the tour buses jammed with Chinese & Japanese tourists that would periodically stop for an hour break & swarm the beach dressed head to toe in clothes, hats & raingear so they could enjoy the sun without threatening their pasty white skin tone, painstakingly documenting the excursion w their selfie sticks.
So while the atmosphere during the day was, for the most part, relaxing & definitely entertaining, we had our fill after a few days as I needed to go in search of what I had dreamed about when thinking of Vietnam beaches… Pristine beach & a whole lot of nothing.