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Checking into the Regalia Gold Hotel, the room felt considerably more expensive than it actually was, which is the sort of administrative error I am always happy to benefit from. It was clean, comfortable and centrally located, with a rooftop pool for pretending I have made excellent life choices.
A walk along Tran Phu Beach before breakfast confirmed the sea was wonderfully calm. The road running beside it, on the other hand, appeared to be hosting Vietnam’s national motorbike championships.
The Ancient Towers, Before the Tour Groups
Po Nagar Cham Towers are best visited early: ancient brick towers, incense drifting through the air, and views over the Cai River, all considerably more peaceful before the heat and the tour groups arrive. The surviving towers form part of a Cham religious complex built over several centuries, and they are still in active use by worshippers, which makes the whole visit feel rather more significant than simply viewing ruins that survive purely as an attraction.
A woman climbed the steps beside me with the ease of someone popping upstairs for her reading glasses. I arrived at the top breathing like an accordion in distress. I went back later in the trip and immediately regretted not bringing a hat; ancient civilisations may have understood brick construction rather well, but they offered very little shade for future British visitors.
Coconut Coffee, Reviewed Extensively and Repeatedly
Ola Cafe, all pink walls, curved archways and enough carefully designed corners to keep Instagram occupied for several weeks, turned out to be an excellent place for a coconut coffee, which remains one of Vietnam’s finest achievements. It is essentially coffee wearing a dessert as a hat.
I returned more than once, telling myself each time that I was reviewing the consistency. Very professional. Charmant Cafe and Gallerie offered a different kind of retreat entirely: quiet rooms, dark blue interiors, proper air conditioning, and the sort of atmosphere where sitting alone never feels like the table requires a second person. I stayed long enough on one visit for the staff to begin regarding me as a piece of furniture. GA Premium, further south, was similar again: quiet tables, good lighting, and customers actually working rather than staging elaborate photographs of their drinks. A useful refuge whenever the beachfront cafes became too lively.
Food That Arrives in Pieces
Nem nuong at Nem Nuong Dang Van Quyen arrived as grilled pork, rice paper, herbs, vegetables and dipping sauce in separate components, leaving me briefly in charge of food assembly without the necessary qualifications. My first rice-paper roll was not elegant, but it remained structurally sound long enough to reach my mouth. By the fifth attempt, several days later, I had grown overconfident and attempted one with too much filling. It disintegrated immediately, restoring balance.
Bun ca, the local fish-noodle soup, made an unexpectedly good breakfast: light broth, fish cake and noodles. Vietnam has now thoroughly convinced me that cereal was merely a failure of imagination. Banh can, small rice cakes cooked in round clay moulds, crisp at the edges and soft inside, became something of a habit too, eaten in quantities that only make sense under snack-based accounting.
Fresh seafood near the waterfront came with one small complication: choosing the fish before it was cooked felt reassuring right up until I noticed some items were priced by weight, and I had no idea what anything weighed. I now ask the price before ordering. Age has finally taught me that “market price” can occasionally mean “a little surprise between friends.”
A City That Still Behaves Like a City
Nha Trang is often described as a beach resort, but it still behaves like a proper Vietnamese city underneath the hotels. People exercise at dawn, eat noodles for breakfast, and transport objects on motorbikes that Britain would move using a small removal company. Fishermen work near the coast early in the morning, hotel towers rising behind them along the shoreline; the city seems permanently caught between being a working coastal place and an international resort.
The beach itself is busiest in the early morning and late afternoon. During the middle of the day, only tourists and people who have misunderstood the power of the sun remain outside.
Hon Chong and Long Son, for a Change of Scene
Hon Chong Promontory offers large rocks, open sea and excellent views back towards the city, peaceful right up until a tour group arrived and began photographing every boulder from the position I had been standing in a moment earlier. Several visitors squeezed beneath and between the rocks for photographs; I decided dignity and functioning knees mattered rather more than social media engagement.
Long Son Pagoda, with its enormous white Buddha visible from across the city, involves climbing enough steps to test whether your spiritual commitment extends to cardiovascular exercise. I paused halfway up to admire the view, which is mature-traveller terminology for needing to stop immediately. The pagoda itself felt calm and reflective once I removed my shoes and stepped inside, and I briefly forgot that Nha Trang’s traffic was waiting at the bottom of the hill to resume shouting at me.
A Day at Sea, Loudly
I booked an island-hopping trip. The boat was lively, the water was beautiful, and the advertised “relaxing day at sea” included considerably more loud music than the word relaxing usually implies. The coastline and islands look magnificent from the water, though some coral areas around Nha Trang have suffered serious environmental damage, so it is worth choosing operators who avoid anchoring on reefs and treat marine conservation as more than a sentence on their website.
I wore a life jacket despite several younger passengers declining theirs; I am no longer at an age where survival equipment interferes with my personal brand. Snorkelling produced fish, coral, and the legs of approximately twelve other tourists.
Mud, Voluntarily
I-Resort’s mud bath sounds like something nobody would voluntarily pay for until you actually try one. Lowering myself into warm mud came with understandable uncertainty; I emerged feeling surprisingly relaxed, although visually similar to an archaeological discovery. Afterwards, you find yourself discussing mineral content as though you have always taken wellness seriously.
The Rest of the City
The National Oceanographic Museum offered an interesting, occasionally dated, look at Vietnam’s marine life and the country’s relationship with the sea; some areas felt more scientific than polished, which I rather liked. One aquarium fish followed me along the glass for some time. Either we formed a profound interspecies connection, or it believed I might have food.
Nha Trang Stone Church stands above the surrounding roads and offers an interesting contrast to the city’s Buddhist and Cham sites. I arrived during a service and stayed discreetly at the back; travel feels more meaningful when a religious building is still genuinely part of local life, rather than merely somewhere visitors queue to photograph a ceiling.
The evening market brought souvenirs, seafood, clothing, and enough identical printed shirts to outfit a medium-sized cruise ship. One shopkeeper called me “young man.” I immediately became more receptive to his prices.
Where to Stay
I stayed at the Regalia Gold Hotel and would recommend it without hesitation: clean, comfortable, centrally located, with a rooftop pool offering genuinely excellent city views. Nha Trang looks surprisingly orderly from above, mostly because you can no longer see anybody attempting a three-point turn on a motorbike. Staff were helpful when arranging transport, and I have noticed that a good reception desk can save several hours of online research and at least one argument with Google Maps. Breakfast offered enough choice, fruit, eggs, noodles, several pastries, to create the illusion that I was eating sensibly.
For a quieter stretch of sand than the central strip, it is worth knowing that Nha Trang’s wider coastline includes busier urban beaches and more remote alternatives; the main beach near the hotels is convenient, but rarely peaceful, and my beach guide for introverts covers how to pick a quieter spot.
Getting Around
Nha Trang is reasonably easy to navigate, particularly around the beach and central streets. The challenge is not finding things. The challenge is crossing the road once you have found them. Grab is cheap and straightforward, and saved me from conducting fare negotiations while standing in direct sunlight slowly losing the will to travel. I took a Grab motorbike once; the driver was perfectly calm, while I spent the entire journey gripping the rear handle and silently reviewing the terms of my travel insurance.
A Few Practical Basics
Nha Trang is served by Cam Ranh International Airport, roughly 40 minutes south of the city by taxi or Grab, with regular domestic connections and a growing number of direct international routes. My Vietnam packing guide covers what is worth bringing, sunscreen especially. British passport holders can currently enter Vietnam visa-free for up to 45 days, though it is always worth checking current requirements before booking. A local eSIM through Airalo (paid link), which I have reviewed in full here, is worth arranging before landing, and sorting travel insurance that actually covers snorkelling and island-hopping trips is worth ten minutes of reading the small print. If you would rather book the Regalia Gold, or somewhere similar, ahead of time, Agoda (paid link) is where I generally start looking (my Agoda versus Booking.com comparison covers the reasoning), and the island-hopping trip itself is easy enough to arrange through GetYourGuide (paid link) or Viator (paid link).
Why It Works
I found Nha Trang more relaxed than Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, although “relaxed” remains relative; it is relaxed in the same way an airport is relaxed once you have passed security. The beach, cafes and promenade make it easy to travel slowly: morning walk, coffee, one attraction, lunch, rest, evening wander. At no stage is it necessary to pretend you are competing in an endurance event, and an afternoon spent doing absolutely nothing beside the pool is not wasted time, it is preventing tomorrow from becoming a documentary about fatigue.
Would I Recommend Nha Trang?
Without much hesitation. My final observation is that Nha Trang is part beach holiday, part Vietnamese city, and part vertical construction project. I came for the sea, stayed for the food, and spent an unreasonable amount of time locating cafes with reliable air conditioning. For about fifteen minutes one morning, walking the beach at sunrise with the mountains framing the bay and the fishing boats still offshore, the city felt entirely peaceful. Then the beachfront exercise music started, and normal service resumed.
A note on how I write: Every trip starts with a journal, filled in wherever I happen to be; on a bus, plane, train, or in a backstreet cafe that has clearly seen better days. It’s not tidy, and it’s not always legible even to me. When I get the time, I use AI to help turn those notes into something readable, organising drafts and occasionally rescuing a sentence that has wandered off without me. The experiences, the perspective, the humour and every editorial decision remain entirely mine. As for the photos, I’m not remotely fond of having my picture taken, family portraits included, so I also use AI to help visualise the places and moments I write about.
