Quy Nhon
The central coast’s quiet city — empty beaches, thousand-year-old Cham towers, and seafood for the price of a coffee back home.
Quy Nhon is what a Vietnamese beach town looked like before the high-rises arrived — and somehow still does. Set on a curving bay roughly midway between Da Nang and Nha Trang, it has long sandy beaches with hardly anyone on them, a working fishing harbour, brick-red Cham temple towers older than Angkor, and some of the best-value seafood on the coast. For years it was the city the buses simply drove past; it is now turning up on every “under-the-radar Vietnam” list for 2026, which means the time to go is roughly now, before the rest of the coast catches up.
Is Quy Nhon worth visiting?
Yes — if you want a beach city that is genuinely uncrowded. Quy Nhon trades nightlife and big resorts for empty sand, ancient Cham towers, cheap seafood and a slow local pace. It is the calmer alternative to Nha Trang or Da Nang, ideal for a few unhurried days rather than a packed itinerary.
The beaches
The coast around Quy Nhon is the draw, and the best of it is still quiet. A few favourites:
- Ky Co — a turquoise cove tucked under cliffs on the Nhon Ly peninsula, reached by a short coracle or speedboat hop. The clear, shallow water is the closest thing to a postcard here.
- Bai Xep — a tiny fishing village a few kilometres south, with a clutch of low-key guesthouses, a crescent of sand, and round bamboo coracle boats hauled up between the rocks. The reason many travellers end up staying longer than planned.
- Quy Hoa — a peaceful curve of beach beside a leprosy-hospital campus turned pine-shaded garden, oddly serene and almost always empty.
- Eo Gio — not a beach but a wind-carved cliff “gateway” on the same peninsula, with a walkway around the headland and big open-sea views, best at sunset.
The ancient Cham towers
Long before Vietnam reached this far south, this was the heart of the Hindu kingdom of Champa, and its brick towers still stand on the hills around the city. The Banh It towers — a cluster of four crowning a rise just outside town — are the highlight, glowing terracotta at sunset with rice fields below. The twin Thap Doi towers sit right in the city, easy to reach on foot or by motorbike. They are roughly a thousand years old, beautifully built without mortar, and rarely busy.
Seafood, coracles and the working coast
Quy Nhon eats well and cheaply. The seafood comes straight off the boats — grilled squid, clams in lemongrass, snails, and the local speciality banh xeo tom nhay (crispy pancakes with “jumping” fresh shrimp). Eat where the locals do, on plastic stools near the harbour or along the beach road, and a feast costs very little. The round bamboo coracle boats you see everywhere are not a tourist gimmick: they are how fishermen reach the bigger boats anchored offshore, and a paddle out in one is half the fun of Bai Xep and Ky Co.
Quy Nhon vs Nha Trang and Da Nang
If Nha Trang is the package-resort coast and Da Nang the fast-growing beach metropolis, Quy Nhon is the quiet third option — less developed, less crowded, more local. You give up the nightlife, big-brand hotels and direct international flights; you get empty beaches, lower prices and a town that still feels like itself. It pairs naturally with the old port of Hoi An up the coast for travellers working their way down central Vietnam.
How to get to Quy Nhon
Quy Nhon sits on the central coast, about midway between Da Nang and Nha Trang, and is easiest reached by air or rail:
- By air — Phu Cat Airport (about 30 km north of the city) has domestic flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; a shuttle or taxi covers the last stretch into town.
- By train — the north–south Reunification railway stops at Dieu Tri, a few kilometres outside the city, with services from Da Nang, Hue and Nha Trang. The slow coastal run is part of the pleasure.
- By road — long-distance and sleeper buses connect Quy Nhon with Nha Trang, Hoi An and beyond along Highway 1.
Best time to visit
Aim for the dry season, roughly February to August, when the bay is calm, the sea is clear and the beach days are reliable. The wetter, choppier months run September to December, with the heaviest rain and occasional storms in the autumn — fine for the towers and the food, less so for swimming.
Where Quy Nhon fits in a Vietnam trip
Quy Nhon is the quiet, beachy pause on a central-coast run — a couple of slow days between the bigger stops. String it with Hoi An and Da Nang to the north, or use it as a gentle landfall before heading on south. For the wider picture, see the Vietnam destinations index and the Vietnam maps.
Photography for Quy Nhon is on the way; for now this page runs text-only so nothing loads broken.