Getting around Con Dao: flights, ferries, bikes and the island's first bus

Prices and schedules checked in August 2026. Rate used: 1 USD ≈ 26,000 VND.

How transport works on Con Dao

• Con Son town (Thị trấn Côn Sơn): The only town in the archipelago — 2 × 1.5 km, walkable end to end
• Con Dao market (Chợ Côn Đảo): Terminus of electric bus 173 — Bike parking 5,000–10,000 VND
• Co Ong airport (Sân bay Côn Sơn (VCS)): 1,830 m runway, no night flights — 14–15 km from town
• Ben Dam port (Cảng Bến Đầm): Every ferry docks here — 12–15 km from town, 15–20 minutes
• Tran De pier (Cảng Trần Đề): Mekong Delta, Can Tho — Superdong: 2 h 15 to the island
• Cau Da port, Vung Tau (Cảng Cầu Đá): Thăng Long catamaran — 3.5 hours, three sailings a week
• Dam Trau beach (Bãi Đầm Trầu): 12–14 km over hairpins — The most nerve-racking road on the island

Côn Đảo sits 230 km off Ho Chi Minh City, and only one island in the group, Côn Sơn, is inhabited. Two ways in: a 45-minute flight or a fast ferry taking anywhere from two to five hours. Six ways around, and the choice between them is mostly a question of distance, because almost everything sits within 15 km of town.

Book ahead. Flights, a hotel that meets you, and a bike are all things you want locked in before you leave the mainland. Walking up and asking usually works, but in high season — January to March, Tet, the long weekends around 30 April and 2 September — bike prices climb 20–30% and return flights genuinely sell out.

The other thing worth knowing before you land: there is barely any traffic. Roads are narrow but empty, lane markings come and go, and there is nobody to overtake. For the island itself, its beaches, prisons, hotels and prices, see our Con Dao guide.

Flying to Con Dao: VASCO, Vietjet and the ATR-72

About ten flights a day connect Ho Chi Minh City to Con Dao, which makes it closer to a shuttle than an island hop. The workhorse is the same as it was twenty years ago: VASCO, a Vietnam Airlines subsidiary, flying 66-seat ATR 72 turboprops. Tickets sell under the Vietnam Airlines brand and VN flight codes.

VASCO

The August 2026 timetable shows roughly 67 flights a week on the SGN–VCS line, around ten a day each way. First departure out of Tan Son Nhat is 05:40, last is 15:30. Coming back off the island, flights run from 06:25 to 16:45.

The ATR-72 is a turboprop, not a jet. That means engine noise, a rattly take-off roll and an unpleasant surprise for nervous flyers. It also means it can land on the 1,830 m runway at VCS, which no A320 or 737 can. Expect 1,100,000–1,800,000 VND ($42–69) one way depending on how far ahead you book, or 2,200,000–3,600,000 VND ($85–140) return.

Baggage is standard Vietnam Airlines domestic: 20 kg checked, 7 kg cabin, excess around 50,000 VND per kilo. Check-in at Con Dao closes 40 minutes before departure, which the terminal is small enough to make painless.

Vietjet and the Hanoi direct

Vietjet joined the route in April 2025 with Comac C909 regional jets wet-leased from Chengdu Airlines. It opened two routes at once: HCMC–Con Dao and, for the first time in the island's history, a direct Hanoi–Con Dao service, about 2 hours 15 minutes in the air.

The service has been stop-start. Vietjet pulled the C909s in mid-October 2025 when the first six-month lease ran out, then put them back on 25 November 2025 under an extended lease, one flight per direction per day on each route. In April 2026 the airline announced ten more C909s, but aimed at its China network.

Bamboo Airways, still listed as a Con Dao carrier in most guidebooks, left the route in April 2024 along with its Embraer fleet and has not come back.

Everything else

Can Tho gets seasonal direct flights, which is convenient if you are already spending a couple of days in the Mekong Delta. Check specific dates rather than assuming.

There are no international flights to Con Dao and there will not be any until the runway is extended, a project currently pencilled in for 2030. Everyone arrives via Ho Chi Minh City. For routes into Vietnam, see our flights guide.

When to book

Three to four weeks ahead in high season. The airport handles roughly 400,000 passengers a year and 66-seat aircraft fill up. From June to October seats are almost always available and fares drop 20–30%, but that is also storm season: two-to-four-hour delays are routine and cancellations happen.

Flew in with a two-year-old in August. Return flight cancelled for weather, we got out a day later. No compensation, hotel on uscomposite of traveller reports, 2025

Ferries: Tran De, Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City

Every ferry docks at the same place: Bến Đầm port on the south-west tip of the island, 12–15 km from town. Three routes, and they differ a lot in money, time and how much the sea throws you around.

Tran De — fastest and cheapest

Trần Đề pier sits in the Mekong Delta at the mouth of the Hau river. Until July 2025 it belonged to Sóc Trăng province; after the administrative reform it belongs to Can Tho. The pier did not move. It is still about four hours by bus from Ho Chi Minh City.

Superdong runs it daily, leaving at 08:00 and reaching Ben Dam at 10:15. Two hours fifteen. In peak season they add a 07:00 sailing. There is one class of seat.

The port fee is charged separately from the ticket and applies in both directions. Book online and an e-ticket lands in your inbox; the pier ticket office works too, but weekends and holidays sell out.

One warning the operators give themselves: actual departure can slide 30–60 minutes with the tide and sea state. Do not schedule anything tight on either end.

Vung Tau — big boat, three sailings a week

The Vũng Tàu route restarted in February 2026 after a long pause for vessel repairs. It is worked by Thăng Long, a three-deck catamaran seating 1,017: VIP on the bottom deck, Eco on the two above.

Departures from Cầu Đá port are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 07:30, arriving Ben Dam around 11:00. Return sailings leave the island Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 13:00. Three a week, not daily, and most guidebooks still get this wrong.

The logic: Vung Tau is 90 minutes from Ho Chi Minh City by bus, which beats four hours to Tran De. The trade-off is more time in open water and more motion.

Ho Chi Minh City — no transfers

Phu Quy Express runs straight from Saigon on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, leaving at 12:00 and arriving at Ben Dam around 17:15. Just over five hours. Both seats and berths are sold.

Take it if you want no bus transfers and have the time. Skip it if you get seasick, because five hours of open sea is a very different proposition from two.

What to pack for the crossing

The north-east monsoon blows from October to February, and sailings get shifted or cancelled through that stretch. Bring motion sickness tablets and take them half an hour before boarding, a hoodie (the air conditioning is aggressive), headphones and water.

Large wheeled suitcases do not come into the cabin. They go into the hold and you collect them against a token on the way out. Keep valuables with you.

Co Ong airport (VCS)

Cỏ Ống airport, also called Côn Sơn and coded VCS, sits 14–15 km from town on the north-east side of the island. One single-storey terminal, one runway of 1,830 × 30 m, ICAO category 3C. In practice: ATR-72, Embraer and Comac C909 can land, A320 and 737 cannot. A plan to extend the runway to 2,400 m and category 4E exists, with 2030 as the target.

The detail no airline website mentions: the runway has no lighting. There are no night operations at all, the airport shuts after 18:00, and the last departure off the island is around 16:45. That sounds technical until your flight is three hours late, at which point it stops being rescheduled and starts being cancelled.

Inside the terminal you get a café, an ATM, hotel staff holding welcome signs in the arrivals hall, a bike rental desk, boards with local taxi numbers, a souvenir shop and free Wi-Fi. One baggage belt, which fits an entire flight. Arrivals and departures are essentially the same room with plastic seats.

From June to October, delays of two to four hours come with thunderstorms, crosswinds and low visibility. A cancellation pushed to the next day is not an emergency here. Domestic flights in Vietnam come with no hotel-and-compensation culture, so the airline apologises and that is the end of it.

The arrival itself is quick. The aircraft taxis for about a minute and stops, you walk fifty metres from the stairs to the terminal, bags appear within ten minutes. Wheels-down to kerbside is usually under a quarter of an hour.

From the airport or the port into town

The airport is 14–15 km from central Côn Sơn over a low pass, 20–30 minutes. Ben Dam port is 12–15 km away on the other side, 15–20 minutes. Both roads are empty and both are worth the window seat.

Hotel transfers. Four- and five-star hotels run them free, but almost always on request. Email separately when you book and give your flight number, and the person with your name on a card will be standing in the arrivals hall. Resorts like Six Senses and Poulo Condor do it as a matter of course; smaller places do it if you ask.

If your ferry lands in the evening and check-in is later, arrange luggage storage in advance. Most guesthouses hold bags for free or for pocket change.

Taxis. The airport-to-town run has settled at a fixed 300,000–450,000 VND ($11.50–17). From Ben Dam port it is cheaper, 140,000–300,000 VND ($5.50–11.50), since the road is shorter and skips the pass.

Xanh SM (rebranded Green SM) has been on the island since September 2025, running VinFast electric cars as part of a green-transport rollout with Con Dao Group. Book through the app, at a desk, off the street or by hotline. The company does not publish an island-specific tariff, so go by the fare the app quotes before you confirm, because that number is locked in.

Shared minivans. Two or three sit outside the terminal with drivers calling for passengers. 50,000–80,000 VND a head, leaving when six to eight people are aboard. The catch is obvious: the driver works through every hotel on the list, and a twenty-minute ride becomes fifty.

Electric bus 173, the thing that did not exist before

On 25 December 2025 Con Dao got its first bus route ever, and it went straight to electric. Route 173, Kimlong buses with 30–40 air-conditioned seats, running between Chợ Côn Đảo market and Cỏ Ống airport.

The launch was bumpy. After the opening ceremony the route stopped running for a while, and travellers in February 2026 reported no bus at all despite Google Maps insisting otherwise. Regular service came back on 1 June 2026 and has held since. It is still a young route, so ask at your hotel whether it is running this week.

The fare is zoned by distance: under 3 km costs 5,000 VND, 3–5 km is 12,000, 5–10 km is 24,000, and anything over 10 km or the full route is 40,000 VND. Airport to market for a dollar and a half, against $11.50–17 in a taxi. The route runs along Phạm Văn Đồng, Võ Thị Sáu, Nguyễn Huệ, Tôn Đức Thắng and Nguyễn Văn Cừ, and passes the turn-off for Đầm Trầu beach.

Five more routes, 174 to 178, are planned. Separately, open-sided electric carts seating 7–12 work the island as tourist taxis rather than a scheduled service: around 25,000 VND per km, or 500,000–600,000 VND for a three-to-four-hour circuit.

Renting a bike

The bike is still the island's main vehicle. Distances are short, traffic is nonexistent, parking is free everywhere. Average rate is around 140,000 VND a day (~$5.40), with a range of 100,000–200,000 VND ($4–8) depending on the model. Three days or more gets you a discount; public holidays add 20–30%.

The Honda Vision is what most people end up on: light, cheap to run, with storage under the seat, and it carries two without complaining. The Air Blade is heavier and stronger, which matters if you are two up with a case.

Where to rent: your hotel is the easiest option and the bike will have been checked, though you pay a little more. Desks at the airport exit will hand you one straight off the plane against your passport and a deposit. Cafés and guesthouses in town are cheapest with an older fleet, and haggling is normal on multi-day rentals. Booking platforms cost 20–30% more but guarantee the model, which is worth it in high season.

Before you pay, check the brakes, the lights, the fuel level (renters love handing bikes over empty), the tyres, and that you get two helmets. Photograph the bike from all sides. That is the standard defence against damage claims on return.

Licence, and what it costs to skip it

Legally you need an International Driving Permit issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention with category A, carried with your home licence. This is the part that catches out American and Japanese travellers: the 1949 Geneva permit is not recognised in Vietnam. Rental shops will usually hand you a bike anyway, because they care about the deposit. The police care about the paperwork.

Under Decree 168/2024/NĐ-CP as amended by Decree 238/2026/NĐ-CP, in force since 15 August 2026:

• Riding without a licence: 2–4 million VND ($77–154) for bikes up to 125 cc, 6–8 million above that. The bike is impounded for seven days, and the rental shop keeps charging you daily the whole time it sits there.
• No helmet: 400,000–600,000 VND ($15–23), for rider and passenger alike.

Con Dao has fewer checkpoints than Nha Trang or Ho Chi Minh City, but the arithmetic that actually matters has nothing to do with police: without a licence, your travel insurance will not cover a crash. That is a hospital bill, not a fine.

Distances by bike

The climb to Đầm Trầu is the prettiest and the most nerve-racking stretch on the island: narrow road above a drop, oncoming traffic appearing out of blind corners, no markings. If this is your first week on a bike, take a taxi or the 173, which goes past anyway.

Start the loop between 08:00 and 10:00, before the heat and while the light is good. Street lighting outside town is close to nonexistent, and cows and dogs use the verge, so halve your speed after dark.

Taxis instead of Grab

No Grab, but plenty of taxis. Four local firms and one app.

Rough numbers: flagfall 12,000–15,000 VND, 18,000–22,000 VND per km, a short hop in town 50,000–100,000 VND ($2–4), airport to town 300,000–450,000 VND, port to town 140,000–300,000 VND.

Metered cars run the meter and there is no haggling. Cash is universal, cards are not. Xanh SM quotes the fare in the app and takes payment there, which is the calmest option if you would rather not negotiate anything in a language you do not speak.

Four ways to get a car, in order of how well they work: ask the front desk and it arrives in five to ten minutes; open the Xanh SM app, the only aggregator that functions here; call a company directly, keeping your destination written in Vietnamese on your phone, because there are no English-speaking drivers on the island; or flag one down in the centre, which is theoretically possible and practically unreliable.

Take a taxi over a bike when you have suitcases and a beach to reach, after dark on unlit roads with livestock on the verge, in a group of three or four where it beats renting two bikes, in the rain, and on long trips where you want the driver to wait.

Cycling, and walking

A bicycle costs 30,000–60,000 VND a day ($1.15–2.30), and Six Senses and The Secret lend them to guests. It works in exactly one scenario: the flat centre of Con Son and the nearest beaches.

It does not work for the climb to Đầm Trầu (12 km uphill with no shoulder), for afternoons between April and October when it hits 33–35 °C, on wet descents, or with any real luggage.

Côn Sơn town measures roughly 2 × 1.5 km, and most of what you came to see is walkable.

Walkable: the market, the waterfront, the museums, the prison memorials, Hàng Dương cemetery, the closer restaurants. The evening walk along the seafront is the one thing on the island that is both compulsory and free. Not walkable: the airport, Dam Trau, Ben Dam port, the far bays. Those need a bike, the bus or a taxi.

Parking and fuel

Parking is free almost everywhere: hotels, restaurants, museums, beaches. The exception is the market, where an attendant takes 5,000–10,000 VND and sticks a number on your handlebars. That is standard practice across Vietnam, not a scam.

Bikes are essentially never stolen here, because there is nowhere to take them. Mirrors and chargers do walk off, so take anything loose with you.

Guides have said for years that Con Dao has one petrol station with a lunch break. Vietnamese business directories now list two, one in town on Phạm Văn Đồng and one at Ben Dam port, both running roughly 05:30 to 21:00. English guidebooks still describe far narrower windows, down to "07:00–10:30 and 14:00–16:00". The sources genuinely disagree, so treat this as something to confirm on the ground.

Fuel follows the national price, revised weekly. In August 2026, E5 RON 92 runs about 21,800–22,300 VND a litre and E10 RON 95 about 22,700–23,100 VND ($0.85–0.88). Islands and remote districts sit in "zone 2", a few hundred dong above mainland prices.

Nine ways people get this wrong

1. Assuming Grab will work. It will not. Install Xanh SM before you fly, save a taxi number, or let the hotel call.
2. Booking a flight a week out in high season. January to March, those 66 seats go three to four weeks ahead.
3. Scheduling an international departure the same day you fly off the island. One delay at VCS and the connection is gone.
4. Assuming the Vung Tau ferry is daily. Three sailings a week: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
5. Ignoring bus 173. A dollar fifty from the airport to the market against fifteen in a taxi, if you are travelling light.
6. Cycling to Dam Trau. Twelve kilometres uphill with no shoulder in the heat is not a beach day.
7. Leaving fuel until the evening. After the pumps close you are buying bottles at double the price.
8. Riding without a 1968-convention IDP. Fines went up, the bike gets impounded for a week, and your insurance walks away from any crash.
9. Travelling in rainy season with no slack in the dates. June to October means delayed flights and cancelled ferries.

Con Dao transport FAQ

Read next: Con Dao guide · Con Dao attractions · Renting a motorbike in Vietnam · Vietnam SIM cards and eSIM