Coast of Vietnam

[TonyGP]

As far as I can make out, there are not a lot of cruisers visiting the northern coast of south Vietnam. Maybe I am just not looking in the right places.
I have a yearning to return to places like DaNang and Hue, China Beach etc.
Are there any people on this forum that have sailed the coast and would like to share some info?

[svrevelations]

Originally Posted by TonyGP

As far as I can make out, there are not a lot of cruisers visiting the northern coast of south Vietnam. Maybe I am just not looking in the right places.
I have a yearning to return to places like DaNang and Hue, China Beach etc.
Are there any people on this forum that have sailed the coast and would like to share some info?

We are still years away before we get there - so I have no personal info. However, you might want to order the South East Asia Pilot book - Southeast Asia Pilot - the definitive cruising guide for the Andaman Sea...and more

[Saleen411]

Originally Posted by TonyGP

As far as I can make out, there are not a lot of cruisers visiting the northern coast of south Vietnam. Maybe I am just not looking in the right places.
I have a yearning to return to places like DaNang and Hue, China Beach etc.
Are there any people on this forum that have sailed the coast and would like to share some info?

Haven't cruised but have spent over 7 years traveling there.

I REALLY like Vietnam....been to Hanoi, Halong Bay, DaNang, Hue, Nha Trang, Vung Tau and of course HCMC, which EVERYBODY calls Saigon.

Tourism has REALLY taken off...LOTS of back packers, Chinese and Russians. My favorite town is Nha Trang.

Food is terrific and people are VERY friendly.

All of my veteran friends that have gone back are REALLY glad they did.

This is OLD news which I found from an old post FWIW....have no idea if anything has changed....

Jan 2008
If you revisit the story you may see it is somewhat different to your recollection
Vietnam Revisited | Cruising World

You are treated as a commercial vessel, not allowed to cruise and from recent enquiries I made, you will be made to take on a pilot and pay associated fees just like a commercial ship and forced to stay at the commercial ship docking area.
When you leave port you must have departure and destination "Commercial" port listed, no stopping and no deviation from route for sightseeing is allowed.

[TonyGP]

Many thanks to both of you, I have ordered the SE Asia Pilot, looking forward to its arrival. The article by Jack Van Ommen makes very interesting reading. On the face of it, it seems that Vietnam is still not ready for us, hopefully this situation improves in a hurry, at my age, I'm running out of time.

[AiniA]

When we entered the Pacific we investigated going to China and Vietnam and found no good news. In Vietnam there was one area of coast (80 miles are so, but forget where) that allowed cruising as we know it. It also had charter vessels. We made a land visit to southern China and Vietnam in December and January this year and visited a marina in Sanya on Hainan Island. A very helpful lady there told us that it would cost thousands of dollars to visit that marina (mainly government fees but the marina itself was quite expensive and very fancy). From there you could only go to the next marina and you would face the same thousands (I think it was something like $3k) in charges. You are only allowed to go to marinas and cannot anchor anywhere. It is a shame since it would be a fascinating area to visit. One last thought, she said there was no suggestion that things were changing in spite of the fact that the Chinese sailing community (yes, there is one) is trying hard to get reforms.

[Andrew Grace]

Originally Posted by Revelations

We are still years away before we get there - so I have no personal info. However, you might want to order the South East Asia Pilot book - Southeast Asia Pilot - the definitive cruising guide for the Andaman Sea...and more

I was there in January this year , basically it's nearly impossible to cruise in Vietnam, while the guide book is helpful it's the beaurocratic officials that make cruising impossible , we needed to apply for a permit just to travel down HCM river and then another each day we had to test sail in Vung Tau, and were forced to anchor in large sea shipping port anchorages.....crazy

Sorry but Vietnam is probable the worst place for boating at the moment,

Go to Indonesia , 10000 better and they have just removed a lot of their red tape making cruising there very easy now

[Andrew Grace]

Originally Posted by Revelations

We are still years away before we get there - so I have no personal info. However, you might want to order the South East Asia Pilot book - Southeast Asia Pilot - the definitive cruising guide for the Andaman Sea...and more

I was there in January this year , basically it's nearly impossible to cruise in Vietnam, while the guide book is helpful it's the beaurocratic officials that make cruising impossible , we needed to apply for a permit just to travel down HCM river and then another each day we had to test sail in Vung Tau, and were forced to anchor in large sea shipping port anchorages.....crazy

Sorry but Vietnam is probable the worst place for boating at the moment,

Go to Indonesia , 10,000 better for boating and they have just removed a lot of their red tape making cruising there very easy now