Con Dao is famous for its primitive beautiful beaches and fine white sand that captivates visitors. In addition, the air on the island is very fresh, like a paradise for relaxation, is a great destination for those who want to “escape” the noise in the city. This is a complete guide to travel Con Dao Islands in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province, Vietnam.
Table of Contents
Ideal travel time for Con Dao
The time from after Tet to the end of summer, from March to the end of September is the best time to travel to Con Dao. However, from October to February, although the waters of Con Dao often have big waves, since this time is the dry season, there is always a fair amount of sunshine and it is also worth visiting Con Dao.
How to go to Con Dao?
By plane
This is the fastest way, but currently there are only two direct routes to Con Dao: Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho City. Air ticket price to Con Dao from Ho Chi Minh City is about 1 million and a half / way and from Can Tho is about 1 million / way cheaper. If you go from Hanoi, you will have to fly to Tan Son Nhat and continue another flight to Con Dao. Therefore the fare will also be much higher.
By boat
As an island off Vung Tau, nowadays, there are ships going to Con Dao every day, namely Con Dao 9 and Con Dao 10 with a capacity of 200 people/boat. However, because it is offshore and depends heavily on weather factors, the boat schedule is often not fixed. Fares from Cat Lo port (Vung Tau) to Con Dao usually fall from 150,000 to 200,000 per trip.
By super speed ship
As the fastest means of transport when going to Con Dao. With ships going from Vung Tau, will depart from Cau Da Port to Ben Dam, Con Dao. Ticket price is from 660,000 to 1.2 million VND / time. Or if you take the Superdong Ship from Soc Trang to Con Dao, the ticket price is 310,0000 / one way departing from Tran De Port, Soc Trang to Ben Dam Harbor, Con Dao.
How to go around Con Dao?
With a small island terrain like Con Dao, you should rent a motorbike to fully explore the roads as well as the tourist destination of Con Dao. To rent a motorbike you can contact the hotel owner, motel or car rental services, the price is about 100 – 200,000 depending on the type of motorbike. Besides, bicycles are also a means that you cannot ignore if you want to explore the island in the most environmentally friendly way.
Stay in Con Dao
Con Dao hotels mostly fall into 2 types: the first is resorts with 3-star standards or more. The price of a 3-star hotel room usually ranges from 1,300,000 VND / night or more, the second is for those who do not want to spend too much on sleep, roomoom rates range from 500,000 VND / night. In addition, guest house, homestay with spacious rooms, near the beach are also options that can be considered for the economical Con Dao trip.
Another method is that you can choose package tours, picking you up as soon as you arrive in Con Dao and famous resorts and hotels. The program includes the itinerary to explore the most famous tourist destinations of Con Dao with the most reasonable cost. Some famous Con Dao tours can be mentioned as:
- Con Dao tour, 2 days 1 night, picking up at Con Dao Airport.
- Con Dao brief tour 2 days 1 night (picking up at Ben Dam port).
- Legendary Con Dao Tour 3 days 2 nights (pick up at Con Dao airport).
- Legendary Con Dao Tour 3 days 2 nights (picking up at Ben Dam port).
Con Dao tourist destinations
Dam Trau Beach
Dam Trau is a beach associated with the legend of Cau and Trau. At Dam Trau Beach, visitors can enjoy swimming and enjoy the cool waters of the beach mentioned by many people. Dam Trau Beach is also one of the most beautiful beaches in Con Dao. In addition, just swimming, you can also watch the planes landing, a unique feature only here.
Suoi Nong Beach
A short distance from Dam Trau Beach is Suoi Nong Beach. The advantage here is the wild beauty as well as the rare mangrove ecosystem. This is a beautiful beach like a vivid picture of the tropical sea with flat white sand and cool water.
Bay Canh Island
This is the second-largest island out of 16 islands in the Con Dao archipelago, with the most number of sea turtles laying in Vietnam. Nature here is especially pristine, so every year there are hundreds of mother turtles to lay eggs, creating a very unique landscape.
Coming to Hon Bay Canh, visitors will have the opportunity to explore the ecology of the mangrove forest and snorkel and watch the coral. The corals here are diverse in types with the tabletop, branch, and block corals, all in the Red Book of Vietnam.
Tai Island
It is a colorful and colorful picture of corals mingling with marine creatures hidden in the sun through clear blue water. Coming to Tai Island, visitors will admire the mysterious shimmering beauty of the the palace in the water with many colorful and fancy corals that are hard to see anywhere else.
At Tai Island, you can see black squirrels – endemic squirrels found only in Con Dao, lizards, geckos, … and many species of seabirds, red monkeys – precious monkeys breed being raised at Tai Island.
Dam Tre Bay
Dam Tre Bay is favored by the nature, windtight due to the surrounding mangrove forest. Here, visitors can visit the mangrove forest, swim and watch the corals, watch swallow birds nest during the breeding season and many good marine species. On the way to Dam Tre Bay, you can also enjoy the beautiful scenery of Con Son Bay, Lo Voi Cape, Dat Doc Beach, Chim Chim Cape, Northeast Bay,…
Ba island (Lady Island)
Ba Beach has beautiful beaches, diverse forest and mangrove ecosystems with many rare species of flora and fauna. Love Peak and coral resources around Hon Ba are notable attractions for those who love the beauty of nature. In the rainy season, after swimming, visitors can also enjoy bathing in cool streams right on the edge of the forest near the beach.
Mr. Dung primary forest
From Con Dao, you can go to the West to be Ong Dung primary forest. Here you can experience a 20-minute trekking, crossing primeval forests and natural vegetation only in Con Dao. The rows of pristine, green tropical trees lead to the beautiful beach at the end of the forest.
Nhat Beach
Lo Voi Beach
Lo Voi Beach is located in the heart of the district, the sea is smooth and the sea is very clear, the coast has a long and very clean white sand strip, suitable for outdoor travel.
An Hai Beach
Along with Lo Voi Beach, An Hai beach is quite convenient, located on the longest coast of Con Dao and in the center of Con Son town. Most of the resorts and hotels of Con Dao are concentrated on the cool, shady road along this beach.
Dat Doc Beach
The most beautiful beach not to be missed when traveling to Con Dao is Dat Doc Beach, where the natural beauty is gentle and fresh. Clear, cool sea water, rolling waves along with a smooth, gentle, crescent-shaped beach of endless length, Dat Doc Beach is ready to seduce anyone to come here.
Hang Duong Cemetery
One of the tourist spiritual destinations in Con Dao, is home to the tombs of more than 2,000 martyrs. Especially, the grave of Ms. Vo Thi Sau is a point that cannot be ignored. Come here to burn incense, you should prepare offerings, such as a comb, fresh flowers. If you need to prepare a ceremony to visit Ms. Sau at midnight, ask local people.
Lady Phi Yen Temple
Lady Phi Yen Temple is also known as An Son Mieu. Mrs. Phi Yen is the concubine of Lord Nguyen Anh, the mother of Prince Cai. Being taken advantage of by a bad guy, because she was so resentful, Phi Yen suicided when she was only 25 years old. You should also visit Prince Cai’s Shrine and tomb, right next to Co Ong Airport.
Nui Mot Pagoda or Van Son Pagoda
In the center of Con Dao is Nui Mot pagoda with the position which is considered the most beautiful feng shui temple in Vietnam. It is Newly inaugurated in 2011, has sweeping views of the sea – mountains – city – extremely beautiful An Hai lotus lake.
Lord Island Palace
That is the living and working place of the island lords before. The Víitors can learn about the history of Con Dao through artifacts, antiques, images and documents from the French time to the present.
Con Dao Museum
This is a place to keep pictures and portraits of political prisoners in Con Dao, images of the resilient and indomitable struggle of revolutionary soldiers, prisoners imprisoned in a very strict prison regime, but there are no words to describe. Here visitors have also witnessed documents condemning to death many communist soldiers, including Heroine Vo Thi Sau.
Con Dao Prison – The vestige of the Tiger Cages
Here Visitors can go back in time to find the tragic history of earthly hell, learn about the life, brutal torture methods, and living quarters of detained prisoners. This is also the place where Ms. Vo Thi Sau is kept.
Activities cannot be missed
Snorkeling and watching Con Dao coral
You can find an impressive variety of corals as well as fish on most of the small islands around the big island of Con Dao. The coral system in Con Dao can be said to be the most abundant in Vietnam.
Fishing in Con Dao
Fishing has two types, recreational fishing (half or 1 day duration) or professional fishing (usually 3 days 2 nights or more). Whether it’s recreational fishing or professional fishing, this activity especially attracts Con Dao tourists from all over the world.
See turtles spawn
Visitors have the opportunity to enjoy the most unforgettable moments in Con Dao with a day on a desert island and experience a quiet but extremely charming night on Bay Canh Island. You will see firsthand the sea turtles of Chelonia mydas that folk call green turtles or Vit to nest and lay eggs by the coast.
Exploring the deserted island
Con Son Bay in Con Dao includes a system of 14 different small and large islands with a chain of Tai, Trac, Rabbit, Bay Canh, Bong Lan, Hon Cau, Egg, Hon Tre islands… In the middle of the sea, these are majestic islands, creating poetic beauty for Con Son Bay. This is also a marine ecological reserve with unspoiled coral reefs in any place that can be compared in density and type.
Wandering around the island
With a daily rental motorbike from 100,000 to 120,000 VND, you can actively roam and stop anywhere on this peaceful island, from Ben Dam port in the south to Dam Trau beach in the north. Especially the moments of stopping by the side of the road, watching the rare, wild and beautiful nature.
Eating seafood at Ben Dam port
Ben Dam port is located in the southwest, about 15 km from the center of Con Dao Town. If you take a boat from Vung Tau city to Con Dao, you will dock here. Located neatly in Ben Dam Bay, are rows of houses of fishermen. This is also a destination not to be missed to enjoy seafood. It will cost you between VND 10,000 and 30,000 for small boats to take friends to your raft. Note that the seafood on the raft is not too cheap, but especially very fresh and worth the money.
Visiting a pearl farm
With the extremely favorable natural ecosystem, the culturing of Con Dao pearls also develops extremely brilliantly. When traveling to Con Dao, do not miss the opportunity to see firsthand the exploitation and processing of pearls.
The dishes cannot be missed
Vu Nang Snail (Woman breast snail)
The conical snails, sweet meat, delicious to eat, boil, fry, salad, … If you travel to Con Dao, you can not ignore the best specialty is the snail grilled with onion fat. Especially when eating while watching the blue sea with a refreshing cold beer.
Red Grouper
Lobster
Lobster is always considered “king of seafood” in all seas. And in Con Dao too, although not cheaper than in the mainland, the shrimp here are always exceptionally fresh and delicious.
Mu Ni shrimp
Shrimp is one of the specialty seafood in Con Dao. It is flawed if visitors do not enjoy this dish when traveling to Con Dao.
Bang seed jam
Bang trees grow all over Con Dao, Bang seeds are yellow when ripe, people peel the flesh to reveal white seeds. Bang seeds in Con Dao are salty to asted with salt or sweet roasted with sugar. Eat crunchy, fragrant. Almost anyone traveling to Con Dao also buys a few pounds of Bang seed jam as gifts. Price range 20-30 thousand / kg. Peak season can be up to 50 thousand/kg.
Fermented oyster
This is an indispensable sauce dish in Con Dao. Only here, sauce made from oyster meat. The meat of the oyster is mixed with salt, chili, and spices for many days, settling out the fragrant, brown sauce.
Things need to note on your trip to Con Dao
Dress up when going to Con Dao
A part of Con Dao is rows of prisons, once the most terrible hell on earth. The prison cells, tiger cages, cow stables, rice mill, Cau Tau 914, Hang Duong cemetery … forever as proof of a dark time. Therefore, when visiting these places, you should dress neatly and discreetly to show respect for the painful loss and barbarism that has happened on this beautiful island.
Renting motorcycles
In addition to prisons, Con Dao tourism is also an amazing natural experience that Nature has bestowed on this place. Therefore, to experience the fullest, you should rent a motorbike to explore every corner and unique coastal roads. However, when renting a motorbike, always pay attention to its characteristics, brakes and engine before accepting the keys. If the car has a problem, do not hesitate to ask to change to another car to ensure safety when riding on a strange road.
Do not break corals
There is a common point of the islands here is the extremely rich coral reefs: table corals, deer horn corals, flower pots corals, hard-bodied corals, soft-bodied corals and colorful sea algae. For Con Dao tours, you always have the opportunity to see these coral reefs. Be a wise tourist and do not break coral when participating to discover, to make sure that anyone who comes to Con Dao can enjoy this natural beauty.
Con Dao is a great place to visit for domestic and foreign tourists. its peaceful, wild beauty gives visitors a sense of peace, temporarily forgetting the usual busy anxiety. Con Dao can please even the most demanding visitors. Above are the travel experiences of Con Dao. Hopefully, with these experiences, you can confidently conquer Con Dao to the fullest extent.
