Beaches in Vietnam

Three thousand kilometres of coast running north to south through several climates at once, and the country's length is the planning problem: the north, centre and south have different seasons and there is no month when all three are good. The centre around Da Nang and Hoi An takes typhoons from September to December; the south and Phú Quốc are dry from November to April; and the far north has a cool winter that makes Ha Long a landscape rather than a beach. Coastal erosion is a live issue on the central coast, where upstream dams have cut the sediment supply and several beaches have been lost within twenty years — Cua Dai at Hoi An is the documented case, now held by sandbags and groynes. Phú Quốc in the far south has been built into a resort island within a decade and has the country's clearest water; Côn Đảo, further offshore, has the turtles and a prison-island history. Practically: the coast is served by a north-south rail line and a growing set of airports, beach infrastructure is newer than almost anywhere in the region, and lifeguard cover is limited outside the main city beaches while rip currents on the central beaches are serious.

Each is a different kind: three shores across three beach worlds. Together they account for 14 km of shore. · computed from the 3 records below