Da Nang vs Nha Trang: Which Base for Surf and Diving?

by Yannick SchrothOct 27, 202615 min read

My Khe Beach, Da Nang, February 2024, with surf breaking offshore: the Da Nang side of this comparison. Photo: Ray in Manila, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Sea state is modeled significant wave height, 2023 to 2025; water is NOAA's satellite sea surface temperature, 2021 to 2025; rain is the average of complete months at the two airport and city weather stations, 1995 to 2024. All are calculated for this page and explained below. Rules, fees, timetables and visa terms are as read on the issuing body's pages on 27 October 2026.

Da Nang vs Nha Trang for surf: the swell reaches My Khe a month earlier

Both cities sit on the same coast and share the same engine. From October to February, in the winter monsoon, the waves in all three model cells below come from the northeast, and both seas build. The difference in Da Nang vs Nha Trang is when it starts, and how much of it reaches a beach you can walk to.

These are monthly means of significant wave height, with the share of model hours carrying a meter of sea or more, for two cells of open sea and one inside Nha Trang's islands:

Calculated for this page from Météo-France's MFWAM wave model, run for Copernicus Marine on a grid of 1/12° (about 9 km), January 2023 to December 2025, 8,768 three-hourly values per cell. The cells are centered at 16.00° N 108.42° E, about 19 km east-south-east of My Khe; 12.17° N 109.33° E, east of Hon Mun; and 12.17° N 109.25° E, inside the line of islands. Shares of hours are shares of the model's three-hourly steps.

October is the month that separates them. Off My Khe the monsoon sea is already up, with a meter or more in more than half the hours and a mean wave period of about 7 seconds. Off Nha Trang it is one hour in seven. By December the two open seas are level. From May to September both are small, and the summer waves off Nha Trang come from the south-southeast rather than the northeast.

The third column shows what the islands do. Hon Tre and the smaller islands sit between Nha Trang's city beach and the open sea, and inside them the model's waves are a fifth to a third smaller in every month. Our Da Nang guide covers My Khe's surf schools and its flat summers.

Nha Trang's Hon Mun reef: closed since June 2022, and still charged for

The Khanh Hoa Party Committee's own news portal calls Hon Mun Nha Trang's best-known dive site. On 24 June 2022 the Nha Trang Bay Management Board announced that swimming and diving at Hon Mun would stop from 27 June 2022 "cho đến khi có thông báo mới", until further notice, because coral there and elsewhere in the bay had been damaged and was declining. The provincial Party standing committee named climate change, Typhoon Damrey in 2017 and storm number 9 in 2021, along with illegal fishing, dredging and tourism waste.

The pause is still the policy. On 20 May 2026 the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment reported young coral colonies growing back at Hon Mun, and quoted the board describing "tạm dừng các hoạt động bơi, lặn ở phân khu bảo vệ nghiêm ngặt Hòn Mun", the suspension of swimming and diving in the Hon Mun strict protection sub-zone, as its most direct measure, with patrols around the clock.

The fee is where it gets odd. Khanh Hoa's Resolution 02/2025/NQ-HĐND, in force since 25 August 2025, charges tourists on boats inside Nha Trang Bay per person and trip: 6,000 dong for Hon Mieu, 8,000 for Hon Tam, Hon Tre or Hon Mot, 10,000 for Hon Mun, 40,000 for all routes. Its first article excludes the strict protection sub-zones, from Dam Bay out to Hon Mun, Hon Noc and Hon Cau, with the water "ra phía biển 300 mét", 300 meters out from each island at the lowest tide. A boat to Hon Mun pays; the reef itself is not where you are going.

What divers can still do in the rest of the bay is in the Nha Trang diving guide, along with the coral surveys behind the closure.

Cu Lao Cham, the Da Nang reef day: 70,000 dong and three kinds of water

Da Nang's offshore reef is Cu Lao Cham, seven islands whose reserve is centered about 28 km southeast of My Khe in a straight line. Since the 2025 reorganization of provinces under National Assembly Resolution 202/2025/QH15, the reserve belongs to Da Nang city, which re-established it in January 2026 as Cu Lao Cham Nature Reserve: 23,530 hectares with its buffer zone, of which 21,887 are sea.

The visit fee is set by Da Nang's People's Council in Resolution 16/2026/NQ-HĐND: "Mức thu: 70.000 đồng/người/lượt", 70,000 dong per person per visit, in force since 10 June 2026 and collected by the reserve's management board. Children under 16 and pupils are exempt, as are Vietnamese citizens aged 60 or over and residents of Tan Hiep, the islands' own commune. Everyone enters free at Tet and on three anniversaries, among them 26 May, the day UNESCO recognized the biosphere reserve.

The rules are in a management regulation issued on 28 May 2026 and in force from the same 10 June. The reserve is split into zones. In the 566.81 hectares of strict protection, around Hon Tai, Bai Nan, Hon Mo, Hon La, Hon Kho and the north of Hon Lao, the listed activities are buoys, research, education, patrols and monitoring, plus forest trails on land; boat tourism is not among them. The 1,120.41-hectare restoration zone allows ecotourism "nhưng không gây tổn hại", as long as it does no harm. Organized tourism belongs in the service zone. Anything not listed is banned.

Article 9 is the line for a boat day: tour boats must load and moor at set points, and "nghiêm cấm các hoạt động thả neo trên rạn san hô, thảm cỏ biển", anchoring on coral or seagrass is strictly banned. Guides must be trained by the board each year, and tour operators sign an environmental commitment with it. Ask your operator whether it has one.

Son Tra's coral zones: a Da Nang rule from 2007 that is still in force

Closer to town, the reefs around the Son Tra peninsula have their own regulation. Da Nang's Decision 54/2007/QĐ-UBND, of 13 September 2007, sets up a management area of 3,940 hectares from Hon Chao to the south of Hai Van pass and around Son Tra. The city's official gazette still lists it as in force.

Its core is small. The strict protection zone is 82 hectares at Hon Sup, Bai But, Huc Lo, Vung Da and the east of Bai Bac, from the shore out to 300 meters and an average depth of 12 meters, holding 36.2 hectares of coral. A restoration zone of 48.5 hectares lies at Bai Nom. Everything else is a zone of "khai thác hợp lý", reasonable use.

Article 7 bans destroying reefs and fishing with explosives, electricity or poison across the whole area. In the restoration zone it adds a ban on anchoring boats on coral; in the core, a ban on collecting coral or any marine life. The article names no ban on swimming, snorkeling or diving, and its tourism clause asks that tourism not harm the area's resources and that tourism projects be approved. On paper, then, Son Tra's core is open to a snorkeler in a way Hon Mun's is not today.

Da Nang and Nha Trang water temperature: Nha Trang warmer to May, Da Nang in summer

The two seas are not the same temperature, and the gap changes sides during the year. NOAA's satellite sea surface temperature, averaged by month:

Monthly means of NOAA's Optimum Interpolation sea surface temperature, version 2.1, 2021 to 2025, from the monthly-mean file NOAA's Physical Sciences Laboratory publishes. The quarter-degree cells are centered at 16.125° N 108.375° E, 15.875° N 108.625° E and 12.125° N 109.375° E.

Nha Trang is warmer from January to May, by up to 2.1 °C in April. Then it stalls: its water dips from 29.4 °C in May to 28.5 in August, while Da Nang climbs past 30. That summer dip matches the upwelling that temperature loggers recorded in Nha Trang Bay from 2008 to 2019. February off Da Nang, near 23.4 °C, is the coldest water on this page; our travel wetsuit guide covers what to wear at that end.

Da Nang vs Nha Trang in the wet season: October rain against November rain

Both cities get most of their year's rain in four months, and they are not quite the same four. Average monthly rain at the two weather stations:

Calculated for this page from the daily rain-gauge records of Da Nang International (WMO 48855) and Nha Trang (WMO 48877) in NOAA's Global Historical Climatology Network, 1995 to 2024. Only months with at most two days missing are used, between 13 and 21 per calendar month.

Da Nang's rain arrives early and hard. September already brings 456 mm and October is the peak, so September to December holds 77% of its year. Nha Trang's season starts more slowly and peaks in November, when the two cities are level. It also has the drier year, about two thirds of Da Nang's.

For a month of remote work the practical reading is simple. September and October favor Nha Trang. From February to June both are dry; January is wetter in Da Nang, 66 mm against 33.

Typhoon season near Da Nang and Nha Trang: September and October against November

Near these two cities, storm season does not fall in the same months. In the tracks the Japan Meteorological Agency keeps for the western North Pacific, as compiled in NOAA's IBTrACS archive, these are the storms of tropical-storm strength or more whose centers passed within 200 km of each city, 1996 to 2025:

Counted for this page: each storm once, in the month of its closest approach, at 34 knots or more of 10-minute sustained wind in the Tokyo center's record. The points are My Khe and the center of Nha Trang.

Typhoon Damrey shows what a Nha Trang November can bring: it passed about 40 km from the city on 4 November 2017 at 70 knots, and the province names it among the causes of Hon Mun's coral loss. Typhoon Kalmaegi passed about 160 km away in November 2025. Da Nang's recent close calls came in September and October, among them Noru in 2022 and Trami in October 2024.

None of this forecasts a single season. It says when to keep plans loose: September and October in Da Nang, November in Nha Trang. Check that your travel insurance covers a missed flight and a storm, not only a hospital.

Da Nang to Nha Trang by train: six a day, nine to eleven and a half hours

The two cities are 438 km apart in a straight line and 524 km by the North-South railway. Vietnam Railways' own timetable service lists six trains each way on a weekday, Tuesday 10 November 2026:

Northbound, the first train leaves Nha Trang at 02:47 and the last at 21:58; the quickest, SE2 at 03:51, reaches Da Nang at 13:06. SE7 south and SE10 north are the overnight trains that save a night's rent, leaving at 22:30 and 21:58.

Listed fares for the Da Nang to Nha Trang leg run from 419,000 dong for a soft seat on SE3 to 1,150,000 dong for a lower berth in a four-berth compartment on SE5 or SE7. SE21 also lists a two-berth VIP compartment at 1,831,000. The railway notes that fares include insurance and change with the booking date, the passenger and the berth.

Flying into Da Nang or Nha Trang: one airport in town, one 28 km south

Both cities have an international airport run by ACV, the Airports Corporation of Vietnam. The difference is distance. Da Nang International sits inside the city, about 5.5 km from My Khe in a straight line and 3.5 km from the railway station.

Nha Trang's airport is Cam Ranh International, which ACV lists in Bac Cam Ranh ward. It lies about 28 km south of Nha Trang station in a straight line. For a single arrival that is a detail. For a month with a mid-stay trip out, or a train in and a flight home, it is half a morning.

For the Da Nang vs Nha Trang leg itself, the railway is the one link with a published timetable here, and the overnight trains spare you an airport transfer at both ends.

A month in Da Nang or Nha Trang on Vietnam's 90-day e-visa

The paperwork is identical in both cities. The Immigration Department's e-visa portal states that the e-visa "có thời hạn không quá 90 ngày, có giá trị một lần hoặc nhiều lần": valid for up to 90 days, single or multiple entry. The fee is 25 USD for a single entry and 50 USD for multiple entries, paid online and not refunded if the visa is refused. Some passports are exempt from visas, and the portal links that list.

The portal offers no visa for remote work. Its application form lists four purposes of entry, tourist, visiting relatives, working and business, plus "others", and its notes say foreigners who enter to work need a work permit or a certificate of exemption under the Labor Code. Among a foreigner's duties it lists "Hoạt động tại Việt Nam phải phù hợp với mục đích nhập cảnh": your activities must match the purpose you entered for.

One more duty catches people renting a flat for a month. Foreigners must show their passport to the place they stay so that a temporary residence declaration is made. With a private landlord, ask how it will be done. The Da Nang guide covers internet, coworking and rent there.

Dive schools on the Nha Trang list, and none for Da Nang

The Nha Trang list was compiled on 21 August 2026 from SSI's register of affiliated centers. It shows which schools SSI lists there, not how many dive shops Nha Trang has, and it does not show which of them run trips while Hon Mun is closed. The register page explains which registers of Vietnamese operators can be read and which cannot.

Da Nang has no operator list on this site, for diving or surf. Before you book in either city, ask a school for its training-body number and check it with the body that issued it.

Da Nang for the winter swell, Nha Trang for an early-autumn month on the water

Pick Da Nang if you surf, or want to learn, and can come between October and February. My Khe faces the swell, the airport is in town, and Cu Lao Cham and the Son Tra reefs are a day out. Do not pick it for September or October if rain and storms would cost you work.

Pick Nha Trang if you want the water more than the waves: warmer from January to May, drier in September and October, and a bay sheltered by islands. Divers should read the Nha Trang diving guide first, because Hon Mun is still off limits. Do not pick it for November.

For the kite coast further south, see Mui Ne and Kalpitiya vs Mui Ne. Divers in either city should check that their dive insurance pays for evacuation to a chamber.