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By Root 1414 0

hotels are located on Bai Sau, where a string of high-rise places offer comfortable facilities. The classier (and more expensive) places tend to be clustered around the town centre, while the town’s few budget places are mostly on Hoang Hoa Tram. Weekend rates are higher than weekdays, as the town is invaded by swarms of escapees from Ho Chi Minh City. Two of the swankier places downtown are Petro House, 63 Tran Hung Dao (064/385 2014, petrohousehotel@vnn.vn; US$31–75), and the Grand, 2 Nguyen Du (064/385 6888, www.grand.oscvn.com; US$51–150), both of which have smart, attractive rooms, attentive staff and good facilities for business travellers. The Grand is right on the front and many of its rooms boast delightful sea views. The most appealing place in town, however, is the Binh Anh Village, a little further up the coast at 1 Tran Phu (064/351 0016, www.binhanvillage.com; US$76–US$151 and over), where ten individually furnished and decorated rooms enjoy fabulous sea views, and some have private gardens as well. Among the mid-range options on Bai Sau, the Dic Star, 169 Thuy Van (064/358 5537, dicstarhotel@vnn.vn; US$76–150), has over a hundred smart rooms with good sea views from its top floors. A decent budget option is the Phuong Nhi at 46 Hoang Hoa Tham (064/352 4382; US$11–20), with clean rooms, air-conditioning and hot water, while the Thang Muoi, at 151 Thuy Van (064/385 2665, 064/385 9876; US$11–30), has ageing but smart rooms set in a quiet, single-storey compound opposite the beach.

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

The City

For Vung Tau’s most interesting sights and views, head for Nui Nho (“Small Mountain”), to the south of town. The town’s lighthouse, built in 1910, seems to have been based on a child’s sketch of a space-rocket, and is a popular place for locals to walk or jog to in the morning and evening. To get there, turn up a small lane called Hai Dang, just north of the hydrofoil jetty. The views from here out to sea and across town make for good photos, as do those from Vung Tau’s own little touch of Rio, the 28-metre-high Giant Jesus (daily 7.30–11.30am & 1.30–5pm; free), which sits on a lower peak a few hundred metres further south: it’s approached by a stairway from the southern end of Ha Long. Cherubs wielding harps and trumpets herald your approach to the outstretched arms of the city’s most famous landmark. Climb the steps inside the wind-buffeted statue and you can perch, parrot-like, on Jesus’s shoulder, from where you’ll enjoy giddying views of the surrounding seascape. A new cable car is currently being built on the slopes of Nui Lon, to the north of Nui Nho, which will take tourists to the top of Vung Tau’s highest peak for yet more sweeping views.

One of the few remaining colonial structures worth a look is the imposing Bach Dinh at 12 Tran Phu (daily 7am–5pm; small admission fee), peeping out from behind a vanguard of frangipani and bougainvillea. Built at the end of the nineteenth century, it served as a holiday home to Vietnam’s political players, hosting such luminaries as Paul Doumer, governor-general of Indochina (for whom it was originally erected), emperors Thanh Thai and Bao Dai, and President Thieu. Inside you can see the building’s collection of “valuable antique items”, excavated from a seventeenth-century shipwreck off Con Dao; among the exhibits are such unmissables as “dry burned fruits”, “beard-tweezers” and “pieces of stone in the ship”. Upstairs is a display of Cambodian Buddhist statuary and shards of old pottery, but they are eclipsed by the commanding views of the bay.

If swimming and sun-seeking brought you to Vung Tau, your best bet is to head for the sands of Bai Sau (“Back Beach”), far and away Vung Tau’s widest, longest (5km) and best, which is not saying much. Backed by high-rise hotels, it’s not exactly a tropical paradise, though on weekends, when it’s cluttered with kids, deckchairs and umbrellas, and the fruit- and seafood-vendors are out in force, it’s pleasant enough. Ocean Park (daily 6.30am-5.30pm; free), which occupies a seven-hundred-metre