Con Dao beaches in 2026: Bãi Đầm Trầu and the quiet bays

Everything else about the island — the prison museum, hotels, food, how flights and ferries actually work — sits in our Con Dao guide. This piece is only about the coast.

Map and comparison table

• Dam Trau Beach (Bãi Đầm Trầu): The island's headline beach — Planes on final approach, reef 700 m offshore
• An Hai Beach (Bãi An Hải): Town beach — Five minutes on foot from Con Son market
• Lo Voi Beach (Bãi Lò Vôi): Shallow water, casuarina shade — The best beach here for toddlers
• Dat Doc Beach (Bãi Đất Dốc): Private beach of Six Senses — Reddish sand, Elephant Mountain backdrop
• Bai Nhat (Bãi Nhát): Only exists at low tide — Best sunset on the island, not for swimming
• Ong Dung Beach (Bãi Ông Đụng): 25-40 min jungle trail — Snorkeling, strong current by the rocks
• Dam Tre Lagoon (Đầm Tre): Mangrove lagoon, 2 h hike — Park guide compulsory, never any swell
• Bay Canh Island (Hòn Bảy Cạnh): Main turtle rookery in Southeast Asia — 1884 lighthouse, 40 min by boat
• Tai Island (Hòn Tài): Snorkel and dive site, tours only — Plenty of fish, modest visibility
• Cau Island (Hòn Cau): Best visibility in the archipelago, over 20 m — Lighthouse, coral gardens, diving

Every beach on Con Son island fits inside a 15 km radius. The furthest one, Bai Dam Trau, is 20-25 minutes away by scooter along the coast road. The outer-island beaches — Hòn Bảy Cạnh, Hòn Tài, Hòn Cau — are boat-only, and only on an organised tour: nobody here rents you a boat privately.

Two things to sort out before any of this. First, cash. Con Son has ATMs and the bigger hotels take cards, but beach parking, loungers, park tickets and the seafood shacks are cash-only, and there is no ATM anywhere outside town. Draw a day's worth in the morning, and expect international roaming to be close to useless out on the coast — a local eSIM is the difference between having a map and not.

Second, the address on your booking is probably wrong. Since 1 July 2025 Con Dao has not been a district of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province; the province was absorbed into Ho Chi Minh City and the island became a special zone (đặc khu) of the city. Hotel listings, review sites and most guidebooks still say "Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province". It is not a booking error, just a stale line — and the same reshuffle moved the Tran De ferry port from Soc Trang into Can Tho.

Rates used here, late August 2026: $1 ≈ 26,000 VND. Dollar figures are rounded guidance, not a quote.

Bai Dam Trau — the headline beach

Dam Trau is the best beach in the archipelago and one of the best-known in Vietnam: Travel + Leisure put it on its 2021 list of the world's 25 most beautiful beaches, the only Vietnamese entry on it. Fine white sand, clear water, green hills and casuarinas closing off both ends. And the beach sits on exactly the same line as the runway of Cỏ Ống airport (VCS), so several times a day an ATR-72 passes over the water at a few dozen metres.

It reads like a gimmick until you see it. You hear the approach before you see it: engine noise behind the hill, then a shadow crossing the sand, then the aircraft itself, and the entire beach lifts its phones in unison. A minute later it is quiet again. People who do not care about beaches come here for this.

One scheduling detail almost nobody publishes. The Co Ong runway has no lighting, so the airport is daylight-only: flights from Ho Chi Minh City run roughly 05:15 to 15:30, about ten a day on Vietnam Airlines' VASCO ATR 72s, plus Vietjet's regional jets. By sunset the aircraft are done. If you want the shot of a plane over the water, come in the morning or early afternoon; if you want the sunset, come in the evening and do not wait for a landing.

Getting there

Head north out of town on Co Ong Road. Before the terminal, turn left at the "Dam Trau Beach" sign. The last kilometre is a narrow dirt track between hills; in the rainy season it turns greasy, and on worn tyres that matters. If you have not sorted transport yet, our Con Dao transport guide covers flights, the ferry and scooter rental.

What is actually there, and what it costs

The beach itself lies outside the national park boundary, so there is no official entrance ticket and never has been. The services are a handful of private shacks: a toilet with a rinse shower, changing cabins, loungers and hammocks, a couple of seafood kitchens. Nothing has a posted price, which is exactly why you agree the number before you sit down — otherwise it surfaces at the end of the day, always in the vendor's favour.

Rough guidance from what visitors actually pay, not an official tariff:

• Lounger or hammock for the day — roughly 30,000-100,000 VND (~$1-4)
• Freshwater rinse, toilet, scooter parking — a few thousand dong each
• A seafood lunch — roughly 150,000-400,000 VND (~$6-15) per person

One fee that is easy to confuse with beach entry: the park runs walking route no. 10, Ma Thiên Lãnh — bãi Đầm Trầu — bãi Ông Cường, at 50,000 VND (~$2) per person. That buys you the trek across park land, not the walk from the car park to the water.

The menu is short: grilled fish, rice, spring rolls, coconuts. It is cooked twenty steps from the water with no restaurant pretensions attached, and it is still the most straightforward seafood on the island.

Snorkeling and swimming

The reef starts roughly 700 metres offshore. There is nothing to look at in the shallows, but if you can make the swim you get clownfish in anemones, sea stars and the occasional turtle. Bring your own mask: rental is not always available, and half the rental masks leak.

Swimming is safe. The bottom shelves gently and the water is close to flat from January through April. During the monsoon, July to October, there is swell, but the headlands shelter this bay longer than the open beaches.

When to come

Before 10am or after 3pm the beach is nearly empty. Between eleven and two the day tours arrive from Con Son, which by local standards means around thirty people in the whole bay. At sunset Vietnamese visitors turn up with cameras: Dam Trau faces west and the colour is worth the ride.

Every plane that lands is a small show. The whole beach freezes, waves, takes photos. It does not matter that you have seen it five times that day — you watch againparaphrased from TripAdvisor reviews, April 2026

Bai An Hai — the town beach

An Hai is five minutes on foot from Con Son market. Fine golden sand, calm water, a shallow entry. This is the default beach if you are staying in town and have no intention of renting a scooter every time you want a swim.

It is not a postcard. What it is: you walk out of your hotel in flip-flops, swim before breakfast and get back before the coffee goes cold.

What is nearby

• Con Son market — 10 minutes on foot
• Con Dao Museum — 5 minutes on foot
• Cafés and restaurants the whole length of the promenade
• Umbrella and lounger rental — 50,000-80,000 VND (~$2-3)

The downsides

• Darker, coarser sand than Dam Trau or Dat Doc
• Town buildings in the background of every photo
• No snorkeling: the water near shore is cloudy
• Seaweed collects along the waterline in the rainy season

If you want a beach to swim at and forget, An Hai does the job. If you want a beach you will remember, that is Dam Trau, and it is worth the trip at least once.

We ran at An Hai every morning at six. The locals run too, they nod, they say hello. An hour later it is too hot and everyone goes homeparaphrased from traveller reviews, 2026

Bai Lo Voi — shallow water for families

Lo Voi is the second town beach, at the northern end of Con Son next to Saigon Con Dao Resort and ANA Mandara. The point of it is the shallow water and the large casuarinas along the whole shoreline. For families with small children it is the best beach on the island by a wide margin.

What to know

• Ankle-deep at the waterline, knee-deep about ten metres out
• Pale, fine, clean sand
• Enough shade even at midday
• The promenade sells water, coconuts and ice cream
• Locals come here for morning exercise; foreign visitors are rare

Where to stay nearby

Saigon Con Dao Resort, ANA Mandara and Con Dao Resort are all 3-4★ properties right on the sand. If you want the "out of the room and into the water in thirty seconds" format, book here. Our separate Con Dao hotels review covers the rest of the island.

The downsides

• No snorkeling at all: silty bottom, no coral
• At a strong low tide the shallows stretch out twenty metres and adults have nowhere to swim
• Storm debris collects along the shore; volunteers clear it, but not instantly

Bai Dat Doc — the private Six Senses beach

Dat Doc is the closed beach of Six Senses Con Dao, open to resort guests only. Reddish sand (the name translates as "steep earth"), a groomed shoreline, roughly two hundred metres of beach per guest. On the horizon sits the Núi Chúa ridge, which locals call Elephant Mountain.

Getting in without staying

There are three legitimate routes, all of them through the resort's till:

1. Dinner at the Six Senses restaurant. Book through reception. Staff usually do not object to a walk along the beach afterwards, up to sunset.
2. The spa. Treatments start around $80. A session buys you coffee and access to the lounge area by the water.
3. Book the cheapest night you can find. Rates move a lot: four-night stays and 30-day advance bookings routinely knock 30-35% off.
4. The Turtle Conservation Centre tour. Six Senses runs a turtle protection programme and sometimes admits visitors for a donation.

Simply walking in does not work: the property is staffed and the beach is watched.

What makes it different

• The softest sunset light on the island — the Núi Chúa ridge acts as an enormous diffuser
• Fine sand underfoot with no rocks at all
• Most of the archipelago is visible from shore: the specks out there are Hòn Bà, Hòn Tài and Hòn Bảy Cạnh
• No outsiders, by definition

The downsides

• The price of admission is a villa from roughly $800 a night, and $1,100-1,200 for the beachfront categories
• Weak snorkeling from shore: sandy bottom, nothing for coral to grip
• Winter northeasterlies bring surf

If the Six Senses budget is out of reach but you want the same ridge in your photos, Bai Nhat four kilometres further on gives you close to the same angle, minus the privacy and the waiter.

Bai Nhat — the beach that only exists at low tide

Nhat is the strangest beach on Con Dao. At high tide nothing is left but rock and water. At low tide a strip of pale sand emerges with stone formations scattered across it, and the bay turns into a film set. It sits at the southern tip of Con Son, on the road to the lighthouse and the Núi Thánh Giá viewpoint. The island's best sunset is here.

Timing the tide

Look up the tide table for your date — search "Con Dao tide chart" or use any app such as Tide Times. The window you want is 90 minutes to two hours before low water and an hour after. Between April and August the sun sets around 18:15-18:40, and low tide often falls in the same window. That is the lunar cycle rather than luck, but it does feel like a gift.

What to do here

• Walk out over the exposed rock, in reef shoes
• Shoot long exposures of the stone islets and water texture
• Wait for sunset: the view points due west with nothing built on the horizon
• Look at the crabs and molluscs in the rock pools without touching them

The downsides

• You cannot swim: at high tide there is no beach, at low tide it is shallow and rocky. Locals avoid bathing here because of the currents, which is a better signal than any sign
• Zero facilities — bring your own water and food
• The road here is a switchback with no lighting, so do not ride it after dark

At sunset at Bai Nhat there were four of us: me, my husband and two frogs. Not a single other tourist. Núi Chúa behind, the sun on the horizon. Best beach in Vietnam across three tripsparaphrased traveller review, 2026

Bai Ong Dung — the wild beach through the jungle

Ong Dung sits inside the national park and has no vehicle access. You leave the scooter at the ranger post and walk about a kilometre of trail through tropical forest — twenty-five minutes if you do not stop for every butterfly. At the far end: a rocky shoreline, almost nobody, and one of the best snorkeling spots on the main island.

The route

Clear up the ticket question before you go, because every English-language page gets it wrong. There is no single day pass. The tariff is set by provincial decree and charged per route: 50,000 VND (~$2) per person for a walking route, which covers Ong Dung, Sở Rẫy and Đầm Tre separately, and 60,000 VND (~$2.30) for a boat route to the outer islands. Students pay 20,000, schoolchildren 10,000, under-sixes go free. Services are not included: guide, boat and gear are all extra.

You buy it at the ranger post or at the national park office at 29 Võ Thị Sáu in Con Son town, where staff handle foreign visitors routinely. There is no English online booking, so plan on going in person the day before, or let a tour operator do it. One more practical note: the Sở Rẫy-Ong Dung link was closed for almost a year for cable works and only reopened on 15 November 2025. Routes here shut without warning — confirm your plan at the office the day before.

What to bring

• At least 1.5 litres of water per person
• Food — there is nothing at the beach
• Mask and snorkel
• Closed shoes: rocks, roots, slick after rain
• Insect repellent for the forest section
• A dry bag for your phone
• A hat

Snorkeling

The bottom is rocky and the reef begins 30-50 metres out. Visibility depends far more on the wind than on the calendar: on a still dry-season morning it can pass ten metres, and it drops to about five after lunch or in the monsoon. Expect clownfish in anemones, sea stars, occasionally small barracuda. Also sea urchins, which is why nobody walks in barefoot.

The downsides

• Rocky entry — painful without reef shoes
• Almost no shade on the beach
• The trail turns into a slide in the rain
• No mobile signal, so download offline maps first

The trail to Ong Dung is an outing in itself: butterflies the size of your palm, a monitor lizard crossing the path. On the beach there was one monk and us. An hour later, nobody at allparaphrased from travelfish.org, 2026

Dam Tre Lagoon — mangroves and the best snorkeling on the main island

Đầm Tre is an enclosed mangrove lagoon on the northeast side of Con Son, reachable only on foot: two hours through the jungle. The payoff matches the effort — the best snorkeling on the main island, in a bay with no swell, coral at the waterline, molluscs on the bottom and, in season, juvenile turtles.

The route

• The trail starts near the airport, behind Dam Trau beach
• Two hours each way, about 150 m of elevation gain
• Budget 5-6 hours round trip including swimming time
• Route ticket: 50,000 VND (~$2) per person
• A park guide is compulsory — you cannot walk this one on your own
• Carrying capacity is 45 visitors by day and 24 overnight

The guide requirement is a rule, not an upsell: the park will not let you into the lagoon unaccompanied, and in high season the slots go early. The park's packaged day programme runs 720,000-1,250,000 VND (~$28-48) per person and bundles the route fee with the guide.

What you see on the way

• Mangroves: roots, herons, fiddler crabs
• Tropical butterflies and geckos
• The endemic gecko Cyrtodactylus condorensis, found only on Con Dao
• Long-tailed macaques, sometimes

Snorkeling in the lagoon

The mouth is narrow and almost no sea gets in, so the water stays still and clear even when everything outside has gone murky. Coral starts right at the shoreline, rays sit on the sandy bottom, schools of small fish hang near the surface, and turtles come in during nesting season.

Hazards

• Overheating: the two-hour climb in the heat is the usual reason people turn back
• Junctions are poorly marked and it is easy to lose the trail
• Be heading back by 17:00 — the forest goes dark earlier than the coast
• No signal: download an offline map and tell someone where you went

Do not attempt this without basic fitness, and definitely not in flip-flops.

The outer islands — Bay Canh, Tai and Cau

Of the sixteen islands in the archipelago only one is really inhabited. The rest are national park, reached only by tour boat. Three of them are beach destinations: Hòn Bảy Cạnh (turtles and the 1884 lighthouse), Hòn Tài (reef and snorkeling) and Hòn Cau (best visibility, diving). All three are served by day boats out of Con Son harbour.

Hon Bay Canh

The main green turtle nesting site in Southeast Asia. Rangers patrol the beaches, nests are monitored overnight, and in season part of the clutches are relocated to a protected hatchery.

The 2026 season started strongly: park management counted 48 females coming ashore to nest on Bay Canh by late March, before the peak had even begun. In a good year the park records 600-900 nesting females, around 2,000 clutches and roughly 150,000 hatchlings released.

The lighthouse climb takes 30-40 minutes up a steep track. From the top you see the whole archipelago at once, including islands you cannot pick out from Con Son.

Hon Tai

A small island with minimal tourist traffic. The draw is density of life: noticeably more fish than anywhere near Con Son, plus turtles, barracuda and small reef sharks (harmless, but startling the first time). Divers come for the underwater caves. Do not expect clarity, though — visibility at Tai usually sits around four or five metres. For glassy water you go to Hon Cau.

Hon Cau

The furthest of the three and usually the last stop on boat tours. The best water clarity in the archipelago, over 20 metres, with coral gardens to match. A historical footnote: in the 1930s the future prime minister Phạm Văn Đồng was held here under detention. Today there is a lighthouse, a small beach and a couple of ranger buildings.

How to get out there

Tours only. Nobody rents boats privately:

A note for anyone who has read the English listicles: there is no "4-Island Tour" on Con Dao. That itinerary belongs to Phu Quoc and has been copied across by content farms. What Con Dao actually sells is one- and two-island day trips, the park's own programmes, and whole-boat charter.

Book ahead. There is exactly one dive centre on Con Dao — Con Dao Dive Center — and a handful of tour operators; in the January-to-March high season the day-trip seats go three or four days out. For an overnight turtle stay, allow a month or more: the islands have tiny visitor quotas. The dive centre works in English and German and answers on WhatsApp faster than by email; boats leave the Tourist Pier at 07:45 and are back by about 13:00.

What happened to the coral

The part the brochures leave out. In the summer of 2024 the archipelago went through a mass bleaching event: from mid-May to October the sea held 32°C down to twenty metres. A joint survey by the national park and the Institute of Oceanography found that on the eastern side — Dam Tre, Hon Cau, Hon Tai — 80-100% of colonies had bleached and 15-20% had died outright. On the western side, off Ong Dung and Ong Cuong, 60-70% bleached.

A follow-up survey in mid-2026 found colour returning and juvenile colonies settling, but the scientists are blunt that full recovery takes years. The practical version: Con Dao still has the best coral in Vietnam, and it is also thinner than the photos from 2019 suggest. Touching the bottom was always a bad idea; now it is a worse one.

Which beach to pick

Ten beaches sounds generous until you have two or three days. A short lookup by purpose:

A five-day plan that works

• Day 1. Arrive, check in, Dam Trau for sunset if the flight has not finished you off
• Day 2. Boat tour to Hon Cau and Hon Tai, a full day of snorkeling
• Day 3. Dam Trau in the morning, walk out to Ong Dung after lunch
• Day 4. Overnight turtle stay on Hon Bay Canh — the programme runs April to October and books out far ahead
• Day 5. Bai Nhat for sunset plus the Con Dao lighthouse

With only two days, take days one and two: between them you get the headline beach and the best snorkeling. Where to stay near each beach is the subject of a separate Con Dao hotels review.

Swimming safety — swell, currents, jellyfish

Con Dao is a calm beach destination, and there are only three things to hold in your head: seasonal swell, the local current at Ong Dung, and jellyfish in the wet season. Serious incidents are rare, but on the wild beaches there is nobody to call.

Swell by season

The month-by-month breakdown with rainfall, water temperature and wind is in our Con Dao weather guide.

Currents

The one well-documented hazard is Bai Ong Dung: a strong longshore current along the rocks on the right side of the bay. Swim in the middle, not alone, and stay inside the coral line.

An Hai, Lo Voi and Dam Trau are effectively current-free in the dry season. During the monsoon, rips form on the open beaches. The response is always the same: do not swim against the water, move along the shore, come back in at an angle.

Jellyfish

From June to October there are noticeably more jellyfish in the shallows. Con Dao has no resident population of severe stingers such as Portuguese man o' war, but individual stings happen every season.

• In the wet season, wear a rash guard or long-sleeved lycra
• Carry vinegar — it neutralises the sting
• Do not rub the sting or rinse it with fresh water: vinegar for 30 seconds, then warm water
• Swelling, nausea or breathing difficulty means the Con Son hospital, immediately

Urchins and coral

On the rocky beaches — Ong Dung, Dam Tre, the outer islands — sea urchins live on the bottom. Reef shoes cost 100,000-200,000 VND (~$4-8) in Ho Chi Minh City, or bring your own, which is the safer plan.

Do not touch coral. Park rules prohibit it, and coral cuts in the tropics heal slowly and infect readily.

Sun

Con Dao sits at 8° north, so the sun is close to equatorial and burning you on a cloudy day is easier than on a clear one. SPF 50+ is not optional. There is shade at Dam Trau, Lo Voi and Dat Doc, but not much of it.

• A cap or a wide-brimmed hat
• A light long-sleeved shirt
• Sunscreen — a 100 ml tube covers roughly five days
• After-sun lotion

Peak sun runs 10:00 to 15:00, so the beach window is early morning until ten and from three until sunset.

Drones and underwater cameras

Be realistic about this one. Vietnam requires Ministry of Defence authorisation for a foreign visitor to fly a drone, applied for roughly two weeks ahead, and agency-assisted applications are quoted in the hundreds of dollars per flying day. The national park covers most of the coastline and needs its own permission on top. And the shot everybody wants — the aircraft over Dam Trau — is over an active approach path, which is a hard no-fly area regardless of paperwork. Every aerial shot you have seen of this island was either licensed or flown by somebody who got away with it. Rules here have changed repeatedly, so check before you pack the drone rather than after.

Turtles on Con Dao beaches

Con Dao is the main green turtle rookery in Southeast Asia. The season stretches from April to October and peaks between July and September. Nesting concentrates on Hòn Bảy Cạnh, though isolated nests appear on Dam Trau and other Con Son beaches too. If you spot tracks or a fresh mound in the sand, walk wide around it.

Where you can see them

Booking the night tour

1. Book through the national park, your hotel or a licensed operator — a month or more ahead for the overnight version, because quotas are small
2. Meet at Con Son harbour in the evening
3. The boat runs to Hon Bay Canh in about 40 minutes
4. A ranger briefs the group on the island: no noise, red light only, no flash
5. You wait on the beach, sometimes deep into the night
6. If a female comes ashore, you watch from five metres or more
7. You sleep on the island; hatchlings are released at dawn

The park's official overnight programme costs 2,150,000-5,100,000 VND (~$83-196) per person for the 24-hour stay, and commercial operators sit in the same band. If you see "from 500,000 VND" quoted anywhere, that is the shorter daytime hatchling-release trip, which is a different product. Booking through Six Senses costs considerably more but comes with a conservation guide rather than just a park ranger.

Nothing is guaranteed: no turtle may come ashore at all, and the programme still runs and still costs what it costs.

Hatchling releases

Hatchlings emerge 45 to 60 days after the clutch is laid. Rangers collect them and run an organised release at dawn. Groups are small — Bay Canh takes at most 48 visitors by day and 24-25 overnight, so the "up to 100 spectators" figure that circulates online does not physically fit. There is nothing theme-park about it: you help the hatchlings reach the water past the crabs and the birds, and it is the only part of the programme where you do anything at all.

The rules

• Do not touch turtles, nests or eggs
• No torch, no phone screen: light disorients both females and hatchlings
• No noise
• Keep at least five metres away
• Carry your rubbish out

The island's conservation programmes are covered in the full Con Dao guide, and the tours themselves in Con Dao tours.

What to bring to the beach

A mask-and-snorkel set for $15-25 is the single best-value purchase of this trip. Rental masks leak, and the best minutes of a snorkel go on clearing the lens instead of looking at the reef.

Practical tips

Collected from TripAdvisor reviews, forums and traveller blogs over the last two seasons.

1. Dam Trau before 10:00 or after 15:00. Day groups arrive between eleven and two. The rest of the time the bay is close to empty.
2. Check the tide before Bai Nhat. Without low water you will find rock and nothing else. Search "Con Dao tide chart" or install Tide Times.
3. Book day trips three or four days out, and an overnight turtle stay a month out. January to March fills fast, and island quotas are tiny. Con Dao Dive Center replies quickest on WhatsApp.
4. Carry cash to every beach. Cards are almost never accepted: parking, loungers, coconuts, all VND. Draw it in town, and decline the ATM's offer to charge you in your home currency.
5. There is barely any shade. At Dam Trau and Nhat there is none at all. A hat and a shirt solve it.
6. Snorkel in the morning. Before ten the water is still, the fish are active and visibility is at its best. Wind picks up after lunch.
7. Never swim alone at Ong Dung. The current there is real. Stay in the middle of the bay, ideally with company.
8. Bring your own mask. Rentals are a lottery, and a set pays for itself on the first swim.
9. Ride in trainers. Flip-flops plus the switchbacks down to Nhat is the most common way to leave the island with a scraped leg.
10. Keep a rubbish bag in your pocket. Bins are scarce and carrying your own waste out is a park rule.
11. Dam Tre without a guide is not allowed. This is a park rule, not advice: the route only runs with a ranger. The packaged day programme is 720,000-1,250,000 VND (~$28-48) per person.
12. Get into Six Senses through dinner. To see Dat Doc without paying eight hundred dollars a night, book a table at their restaurant.
13. Local kids play at An Hai in the evening. If you are travelling with children, that is your company sorted. The language barrier lasts about five minutes.
14. Rent a scooter for two days, not one. The discount is usually 10-20% off the daily rate and up to 30% over three days.
15. Take a windbreaker on boat tours. The ride back after sunset gets cold, especially in January and February.

We flew in for four days and went to Dam Trau on the first. Thought it was just another beach. Sat down with a coffee, and then a plane came in to land. Everybody on the sand froze. A year on, I still remember itparaphrased from traveller reviews, 2026

FAQ — Con Dao beaches

Numbers at a glance

All ten beaches in short

Around twenty beaches sit in the archipelago and ten of them matter. Dam Trau is the postcard: white sand, a reef 700 metres out, aircraft overhead. An Hai and Lo Voi are in Con Son itself, minutes from the market, which is where families and morning runners go. Dat Doc is behind the Six Senses fence, and the Elephant Mountain view comes bundled with a villa.

Then the wild half. Nhat surfaces for a couple of hours at low tide and hands you the best sunset on the island. Ong Dung and Dam Tre are reached only on foot through jungle. And Hon Bay Canh, Hon Tai and Hon Cau are boat-tour islands, which is where the best snorkeling, the diving and the turtles live. Best windows: February to April for the water, July to September for the turtles.

Read next: Con Dao guide · Con Dao attractions · Con Dao weather · Best beaches in Vietnam