From relatively humble beginnings as a small fishing village, Mui Ne has evolved into a busy stretch of coastline catering to a mixture of weekend visitors from Ho Chi Minh City and overseas tourists. If you’re looking to add some family beach time to your Vietnam itinerary, visiting Mui Ne is a good option but there are a few quirks and negatives you need to be aware of. Keep reading for our tips on what to do, where to stay, the best places to eat, and some pitfalls to avoid.
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Getting to Mui Ne
Mui Ne isn’t quite on the North-South railway line, the closest you can get is Phan Thiet or Binh Thuan, which are both still 30km from Mui Ne. The trains from HCMC take about four or five hours but aren’t at particularly convenient times, with only a couple arriving before 11pm. It’s a similar problem if you’re coming from the north so we wouldn’t recommend the train this time.
The better option is a sleeper bus from HCMC that costs around VND250,000 and takes between three and five hours. The standard of sleeper buses to and from Mui Ne is poor compared to the rest of the country, but the journey is mainly on major roads so it tends to pass by quickly.
Sleeper buses aren’t allowed into the centre of HCMC during the day so you’ll be shuttled from the bus company’s city centre office to the sleeper bus terminal on the outskirts of town. This can take about forty minutes. Once on the sleeper bus, it’s only an hour or two before you arrive at Phan Thiet on the outskirts of Mui Ne. Depending on where you’re staying and which bus company you’re travelling with, you may now need to transfer to a smaller minibus to complete the final leg to Mui Ne itself. This does vary with companies though, and many of them do drop you directly in Mui Ne.
Coming from HCMC, it’s difficult to select your seats if you book online, so you’ll need to arrive early at the bus company’s office to be allocated seats. We booked a few days beforehand using 12Go and ended up being sat near each other, but not the seats we’d have chosen ourselves. If you book via a travel agent in HCMC, you might stand more chance of being seated together, but you’ll pay a small premium.
After Mui Ne, we were travelling to Dalat and decided to book with a helpful travel agent opposite Joe’s Cafe. She not only booked our Jeep Tour but also our bus ticket to Dalat by telephoning the bus company and arranging specific seats for us (and was very patient whilst our youngest changed his mind several times about which seat he preferred). The sleeper bus then picked us up outside Joe’s Cafe and took us directly to Dalat.
First impressions of Mui Ne
Mui Ne struggles to make a good first impression. Its main attributes (i.e. sandy beaches and blue ocean views) are hidden behind an endless stream of low-rise buildings that house hotels, restaurants and massage parlours. With space limited by sand dunes and the ocean, Mui Ne has developed either side of a main road that cuts through the town. There aren’t any quiet side streets to escape to and every bus, truck, car and moped roars along the road, hardly creating a serene atmosphere.
Your bus will drop you off somewhere along the main road and you get an immediate sense that everywhere looks the same. The road stretches several kilometres through the town, with a steady stream of vehicles honking their horns and overtaking at great speeds. Keep a tight hold of your kids throughout your stay whenever you’re near the road, although there is a wide footpath to use.
The stretch of beach behind the main road as you enter Mui Ne from the west isn’t great, suffering terribly from coastal erosion. Concrete groynes have been installed but are failing to make much impact and it looks like the battle with Mother Nature has been lost. In many places, the depth of the beach is no more than a couple of metres, and any swimming must factor in the hidden concrete dangers.
There are better beaches further south, but you will need to jump in a Grab taxi to get to them.
Mui Ne, more than any other place in Vietnam we visited, felt lacking in investment and had a tired, run-down energy. Half-finished buildings, boarded-up shops and piles of rubbish are fairly common sights and the main road never lets you feel any sense of true peace and quiet. There are some fancy restaurants and hotels, but they’re vying for space with mini-supermarkets and massage parlours (although massages are very cheap, only VND125,000 for a one-hour session).
The good news is that once you leave the main road and enter your resort, hotel or beach, things do start to improve.
Mui Ne Jeep Tour
READ: Mui Ne Jeep Tour REVIEW – is it worth doing?
Click here to book the tour
One of the most popular activities in Mui Ne for tourists is the Jeep Tour and you’ll find most places in town can sell you a ticket. The basic price is VND600,000 per jeep (if booked at one of the tour desks in Mui Ne) and they can seat up to five people.
The jeeps will collect you from your hotel at a set time, depending whether you’ve chosen the sunrise or the sunset tour. The sunrise tour requires a painfully early start and might not the be the best option for families. We opted for the sunset tour which left around 1pm.
In truth, you don’t really need a jeep for the tour. We’d mistakenly assumed that the off-road aspect of the tour at the White Sand Dunes would be in the jeep but you instead need to pay a separate fee of VND900,000(!) for a couple of quad-bikes to bounce around the sand dunes for ten minutes. It’s ridiculously expensive and safety is questionable, but you’re kind of stuck otherwise.
It’s all very touristy and feels like you’re being taken for a ride but sometimes you just have to go with the flow. You’ll need cash for the quad bikes and also for the makeshift sandboards (more accurately sheets of metal) which locals pester you to rent (about VND30,000).
Elsewhere on the tour, you’ll visit the Fairy Stream (a one-kilometre long riverbed you can walk along, quite fun and fine to do in barefoot) and the Red Sand Dunes at the end of the tour. The sand dunes are busy with tourists and touts but if you find a quiet spot, the views out to sea and over the dunes are beautiful.
If you’re undecided as to whether this tour is worthwhile, then have a read of our very honest Mui Ne Jeep Tour REVIEW.
Surfing and Kite Surfing in Mui Ne
Mui Ne is perhaps most famous as a surfing and kitesurfing destination, attracting the majority of visitors in February and March when the conditions are ideal.
As we’ve already mentioned, the main stretch of beach behind the main road as you enter Mui Ne from the west isn’t great due to coastal erosion and regular concrete groynes along the shoreline. Some companies try to offer surf lessons here but it’s far from an ideal place to catch some waves, especially with kids.
You’re better off heading further west to this beach, where you can rent surfboards for VND100,000 per hour. The beach is much wider here and more conducive for kids to play and kick a football around. Do note that the tide goes in and out a long way, so on some days surfing isn’t feasible in the shallow water.
Surf lessons are comparatively expensive in Mui Ne, we were quoted prices well in excess of what we’ve paid in France. At busier times of the year, you might find better deals but it felt like most surf schools weren’t too keen on new business. As our boys have surfed before, and the waves are gentle, we just hired boards and worked it out between us.
The main kitesurfing schools can be found along this stretch of beach to the southern end of Mui Ne. In the high-season, the waters are filled with kite surfers. Lessons are essential for beginners and can be booked here.
Where to eat in Mui Ne
There are a surprisingly high number of decent food options lurking along the main road in Mui Ne, fighting for space with the traffic and building sites. Most of them don’t (or can’t) take advantage of the sea views and are stuck next to the road, but the food more than makes up for it. Prices are reasonable as well, with cheap beers on the menu to wash it all down.
We found surprisingly good pizzas at the cute The Moon Restaurant, with a very friendly family running things. The South Indian food at Goa Indian Restaurant, wasn’t perfect or completely authentic, but it made for a tasty alternative to the Vietnamese and Western food we’d been having.
The Swiss inspired dishes (excellent meat choices including chicken and chips) at Modjo Restaurant & Bar was our go-to lunch destination and we returned there several times.
Breakfast is a tricky proposition in Vietnam in general but we found the best version at Backstage Bar & Grill, with its laidback atmosphere, although it is at the pricey end of the scale.
Joe’s Café
Where we stayed: Joe’s Cafe
We do wish we could recommend Joe’s Cafe, we had such high hopes for it before we arrived, the reviews online were complimentary and it looked like our sort of place but things didn’t quite pan out like we’d hoped.
The hotel and cafe feels tired, with staff numbers so limited that it’s impossible for them to manage all their duties, from running a hotel, bar, restaurant and live-music venue in one place. The live music is fine for a while but it is incredibly loud. It’s quite hard to overstate just how loud it is, and it goes on until 11pm. Tour groups often stop in for a drink and the first hour of the show but the number of guests drops dramatically towards the end of the evening.
Out the back overlooking the sea, there’s a small pool with capacity for a few people but quickly fills up when other families are staying. Tables and chairs scattered around the pool are perfect for a cold beer at sunset. The sunbeds are tired and past their sell-by date, although they do offer nice view of beach and sea.
The beach itself (accessed via steps from the pool area) is decent enough to sit on for a few minutes but is at its narrowest in this part of town and is punctuated with concrete groynes. The sea is warm but quite dirty, with some rubbish washing in to the shoreline. It’s fine for a quick morning swim to wake yourself up.
Our room was interesting. Labelled as a family room, it was compact, with just enough space to fit two double beds and a small seating area. The ensuite bathroom was a similar proposition, with just enough room for a toilet, shower and sink. It certainly had quite a quirky feel to it, with pictures on the wall and a shared balcony outside (with a limited view of the sea).
Breakfast wasn’t included in the room rate so we had to battle to get served in the mornings. When it was available, it was quite good compared to Vietnam standards and you could choose from noodle or eggs and bread, with tea, fruit, and coffee or juice.
You can see there’s a cool place lurking here, but we can’t really recommend the hotel for families due to the loud music and the tired space needing investment. If they’re able to increase the staffing levels and decrease the sound levels, it’d no doubt quickly get some way back to its former glory.
Other accommodation options in Mui Ne
Mui Ne specialises in midrange accommodation options, with many resorts lining the main road. They’re often much of a muchness.
At the higher-end, The Cliff Resort and Residences (from £85 per night), is located right on the surfing beach we mentioned above, but tucked away at the quieter side. It has a private beach area, swimming pool, water sports and great dining.
If you’re looking for something slightly more affordable, the midrange Full Moon Beach Resort (from £30 per night), is next to Joe’s Cafe but more upmarket. There’s an inviting pool (larger than next door) and tidy rooms set around the gardens overlooking the sea. The onsite restaurant serves meals and the atmosphere is more relaxed in the evening, with professional staff always on hand.
Final thoughts on visiting Mui Ne
Mui Ne was a funny place and our opinion of it has ebbed and flowed since we departed on the sleeper bus to Dalat. There’s no question that, aside from the peak-season around December and January, many businesses are struggling, and the town has taken on a rundown feel in many places.
Having said that, in pockets, there are lovely places to eat and patches of beach to relax on. It’s also a rarity to find sand dunes in Southeast Asia and the surfing/kitesurfing opportunities will be a welcome option for many travelling families.
Perhaps the conflict comes from its reputation as a beach town. There is a beach, but there are many better places to enjoy beach time in Southeast Asia in general, and Vietnam in particular. It does get busier at weekends with domestic visitors from HCMC, and over the December-March period with international visitors, when the town apparently smartens itself up and is more welcoming.
In spite of everything, we came to look back on our visit with fondness. Despite many rough edges, Mui Ne definitely makes for a memorable stop on any Vietnam family itinerary.
You may also like to read:
Visiting Ho Chi Minh City with kids
Riding a Vietnam sleeper train: what to expect and how to book
10 day South Vietnam itinerary