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coast from Con Son Town, has super-modern, timber-framed villas, and a private butler to take care of guests’ every need. For those on a more moderate budget, the new Saigon – Con Dao Resort, 18–24 Ton Duc Thang (064/383 0336, www.saigoncondao.com; US$31–50), is the best of the rest, with a small pool and most rooms offering good views of the beach. The nearby Resort A, 16b Ton Duc Thang (064/383 0456, 064/383 0111; US$31–50), has a few rooms in thatched, wooden, stilt-houses and others in brick bungalows, though the bungalows are a bit cramped together. The Con Dao Resort (064/383 0939, www.condaoresort.vn; US$31–50), 8 Nguyen Duc Thuan, has a swimming pool and probably the best beach location in Con Son, plus they can arrange boat trips. The only budget option is the Phi Yen Hotel (064/383 0168, 064/383 0428; US$11–20) at 34 Ton Duc Thang, which has simple but clean rooms, all with hot water. All the resorts have restaurants, and there are a few basic eateries around the market, but you’ll need your phrase book.

The south–central coast |

Vung Tau and the coast road

From Bien Hoa, just outside Ho Chi Minh City, Highway 51 heads southward via modest Long Thanh (famed locally for its impressive fruit market) to Ba Ria. From there, a dog-legged road ventures out across the swampland and shrimp farms of the Vung Tau Peninsula to Vung Tau itself, home of the most southerly beaches on the eastern Vietnamese coast.

VUNG TAU, “The Bay of Boats”, is located some 125km southeast of Ho Chi Minh City on a hammerheaded spit of land jutting into the mouth of the Saigon River. Once a thriving riviera-style beach resort, the city’s offshore oil industry and steadily growing port have transformed it into a more business-oriented conurbation, though residents of Ho Chi Minh City still flock here on weekends, when hotel rates rise. However, despite a recent effort to clean them up, the town’s beaches – Bai Dau, Bai Truoc, Bai Dua and Bai Sau – are all second-rate.

Portuguese ships are thought to have exploited the city’s deep anchorage as early as the fifteenth century. By the turn of the twentieth, French expats, who knew the place as “Cap Saint-Jacques”, had adopted it as a retreat from the daily rigmarole of Saigon, and set to work carving colonial villas into the sides of Nui Lon and Nui Nho, two low hills near the coast. Shifts in Vietnam’s political sands duly replaced French visitors with American GIs. With them gone, and the Communist government in power, the city became a favoured launch pad for the vessels that spirited away the boat people(see "The “boat people”") in the late 1970s. These days, it’s become a weekend bolt-hole for the stressed-out inhabitants of Ho Chi Minh City.

The south–central coast | Vung Tau and the coast road |

Arrival, information and city transport

All buses terminate at the bus station at 192 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, where cyclo and xe om riders will be on hand to ferry you to a hotel. Hydrofoils from Ho Chi Minh City usually dock at the south end of Bai Truoc (“Front Beach”), though in bad weather they are forced to use a more sheltered location 12km away, from where free shuttle buses are provided. Once in Vung Tau, you can get around by cyclo, xe om or taxi. For more independence, you can rent a bicycle or motorbike through most hotels, though rates are a bit steep here (up to $5 a day for bicycles and $10 for motorbikes). Curiously, tandems are more common than regular bicycles.

For local maps and information, go to Vung Tau Tourist (064/385 7527, www.vungtautourist.com.vn) at 29 Tran Hung Dao, which is near the Vietnam Airlines office (064/385 6099) at 21 Tran Hung Dao, where you can book domestic or international flights. The post office (7am–8.30pm) is at 408 Le Hong Phong; several hotels have internet access and wi-fi, though for cheaper rates, try the shops on Bacu. Vietcombank, 27 Tran Hung Dao (Mon–Fri 7–11.30am & 1.30–4pm), changes traveller’s cheques and has a 24-hour ATM.

The south–central coast | Vung Tau and the coast road |

Accommodation

Most of Vung Tau’s mid-range