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Is Vung Tau worth visiting?
Vung Tau is worth it for one reason above all: it’s the closest real beach to Saigon. The town sits on a hilly peninsula about 100 km south-east of the city, with a long swimming beach on one side, a harbour full of blue fishing boats on the other, and a 32-metre statue of Christ looking down on both. It’s busy, cheap and very Vietnamese at weekends, when half of Saigon seems to drive down for seafood and a swim.
It isn’t the prettiest beach in the south. If you have more time, the sand gets quieter the further you go along the coast towards Long Hai and Ho Tram. But when you have a free weekend, or a day before a flight, and can’t face four hours in a car to Mui Ne, Vung Tau gets you out of the city and onto the sand by lunchtime.
Since July 2025 Vung Tau has officially been part of Ho Chi Minh City, after the old Ba Ria–Vung Tau province was merged in. Nothing changes on the ground: it’s still its own town at the end of the road, with its own beaches and its own weekend crowd.
How long from Saigon to Vung Tau by car?
A private car from Tan Son Nhat airport to Vung Tau takes about 1¼ to 2 hours. The Bien Hoa–Vung Tau expressway opened along its full length on 18 May 2026, and it changed the trip: the old route down Highway 51 used to take two and a half hours or more behind container trucks.
The variable part is still getting out of Saigon. The airport is in the city, so the first stretch crosses town to the expressways heading east. Land at 10 pm on a Tuesday and you can be at your Vung Tau hotel before midnight. Leave the airport at 5 pm on a Friday and the first hour is a crawl.
For now the new expressway only allows vehicles with fewer than 9 seats, at 60–80 km/h. That covers our sedans and 7-seaters. The limousine vans and 16-seaters, like the big buses, still take Highway 51, which adds 30 to 45 minutes. The expressway is free until tolls start, which was expected towards the end of 2026; our prices already include tolls either way.
With a private car the driver meets you at arrivals with your name on a sign, loads the bags and drives you to your hotel’s door. Stops are fine: a toilet, a coffee, a bánh mì. It’s your car.
Vung Tau ferry, bus or private car?
The honest answer depends on where you start and who’s travelling. The Greenlines DP hydrofoil from District 1 is the nicest way to arrive if you’re staying in central Saigon with a backpack. A limousine van is the cheapest. From the airport, or with children and luggage, a booked private car wins, because it’s the only option that goes door to door at a time you choose.
The hydrofoil leaves from the Greenlines terminal at Bach Dang pier, at the bottom of Ngo Duc Ke street in District 1, and takes about two hours down the Saigon river and across the bay. Seats cost 170,000–320,000₫ (fares from 1 October 2026). It’s air-conditioned and pleasant, and it’s the one public option we’d happily take ourselves. The catches: it doesn’t start at the airport, departures are fixed, and boats are cancelled when the sea is rough.
Limousine vans and buses run all day from Saigon for 160,000–230,000₫ a seat. Some pick up from hotels in town, which takes a while when there are ten other passengers to collect, and all of them use the slower highway.
You can also hail a car on an app or take a metered taxi. It’ll get you there, but you find out what the car is like, and whether the driver is willing to do a 100 km trip, when it turns up.
Here’s where a private car earns its price. You know the car before you travel, you agree a fixed price before you book, and the driver tracks your flight and waits for you, with 90 minutes of free waiting after landing. We hold every driver to the same standard: a non-smoking car with working seatbelts, no overpowering air freshener, and calm driving rather than leaning on the horn. For a family of four, four hydrofoil seats at weekend fares plus a taxi to the pier come close to the price of the whole car (see the price table above), and the car starts at the airport.
Which car for the trip to Vung Tau
Pick the vehicle by luggage, not just by people. A sedan or electric VinFast is fine for two people with normal cases. A family of four or five, especially a tall one, will be more comfortable in a 7-seater such as a Toyota Innova or Mitsubishi Xpander, and that’s also the car to choose with a pram, golf bags or more than three big cases.
Child seats are available on request; add them when you book and put the children’s ages in the notes. For groups, the VIP limousine van has reclining captain’s chairs and the 16-seater has the most room for bags. Remember that both take Highway 51 rather than the expressway for now, so allow 2 to 2½ hours.
Meeting your driver at Tan Son Nhat
- Book in the box at the top of the page. You get an email confirming your booking, and the driver’s name, photo and number plate the evening before.
- Give us your flight number. We track the flight, so a delay doesn’t cost you anything, and the driver waits up to 90 minutes after landing for immigration and bags.
- Walk out of arrivals and look for your name on a sign. Our Saigon airport transfers page shows where drivers wait at each terminal.
- Pay the driver at your hotel in Vung Tau, in Vietnamese dong or by VietQR bank transfer. Tolls and parking are in the price.
Immigration queues at Tan Son Nhat can run past an hour when several long-haul flights land together. You can add fast-track immigration when you book, and a local SIM or eSIM can be waiting in the car so you’re online before you leave the airport.
Things to do in Vung Tau
Vung Tau is a beach town first, and most visitors split their time between the sand, the hills and the seafood. Back Beach is for swimming, Front Beach is for sunsets and dinner, and the two hills between them, Nui Nho and Nui Lon, hold the sights.
Back Beach (Bai Sau)
Back Beach is the long, straight swimming beach on the ocean side of the peninsula, lined with hotels, seafood restaurants and rows of sunbeds. On a weekday it’s quiet; on a Sunday it’s a Saigon family day out.
The Christ of Vung Tau
The Christ of Vung Tau stands 32 metres tall on Nui Nho (Small Mountain), arms out over the sea. It was finished in 1994. You climb several hundred steps up the hillside to reach it, and a narrow 133-step staircase inside the statue leads up to the shoulders for the view. Go early, before the heat builds.
Vung Tau lighthouse
Vung Tau lighthouse, also on Nui Nho, dates from the French period and looks out over both bays.
Front Beach (Bai Truoc)
Front Beach faces the harbour. It’s not much of a swimming beach, but the promenade and the park along it are where the town comes out in the evening.
Bai Dau
Bai Dau is the quieter bay on the north-west side of Nui Lon, with fishing boats pulled up on the sand and a large white statue of the Virgin Mary on the hillside above. Further around the coast is the big seated Buddha at Thich Ca Phat Dai pagoda. Vung Tau’s mix of churches, pagodas and statues on every headland is part of its character.
Ho May park
Ho May park sits on top of Nui Lon (Big Mountain) and is reached by cable car from the coast road: a Vietnamese family theme park with gardens and views over the town.
Eating in Vung Tau
Seafood is the reason Saigon drives down. Restaurants along Back Beach and the streets behind Front Beach sell fish, crab, squid and shellfish from the tank, priced by weight: ask the price per kilo before they cook it. The local dish to try is bánh khọt, small crispy rice-flour pancakes topped with shrimp, eaten wrapped in lettuce and herbs with dipping sauce. Stingray hotpot (lẩu cá đuối) is the other Vung Tau speciality.
Food and drink here are noticeably cheaper than in central Saigon, and so are the rooms.
Where to stay in Vung Tau
Stay on or near Back Beach if the beach is the point of the trip: that’s where the resort hotels, including the Pullman, and most of the seafood places are. Stay around Front Beach if you’d rather be in town, near the harbour and the evening promenade. For something quieter, the guesthouses and small hotels around Bai Dau face the calmer bay.
Rooms run from small guesthouses to large international hotels. Prices jump at weekends and on public holidays, when Saigon fills the town.
When to go to Vung Tau, and when to avoid it
Vung Tau is good all year, with two things to plan around: the weather and the crowds.
The dry season, roughly December to April, has the most sunshine; it’s also when the wind picks up and Back Beach can get rough. From May to October expect hot mornings and short, heavy afternoon storms, which are a reason to leave Saigon early rather than a reason not to go.
The crowds matter more. Saturday and Sunday are busy, and the drive back to Saigon on a Sunday afternoon is slow on any vehicle. Tết, the Lunar New Year (early February in 2027), and the long holidays at the end of April and early September are the busiest times of year: hotels sell out, prices rise everywhere, and every road out of Saigon is full. If you can, go midweek.
Onward from Vung Tau
Vung Tau is the start of the coast road east, and the private car is the easy way to string the beaches together. Ho Tram, with its long empty beach and resorts, is about 35 km and 45–60 minutes away, past the fishing town of Long Hai. Further along the coast, Mui Ne and Phan Thiet are about 170 km and 3½–4½ hours from Vung Tau. Closer in, Ke Ga and La Gi sit along the same coast road.
Vung Tau is also one of the ports for Con Dao: Phu Quoc Express runs high-speed boats to the islands, about 3½ hours, a few days a week. A car ferry also crosses from Vung Tau to the Can Gio mangrove forest. For Phu Quoc, the ferry ports of Rach Gia and Ha Tien are a long drive west across the delta.
To book any of these legs, change the From and To in the booking box; the prices for every route into Vung Tau are in the table above.