How To Travel To Mui Ne
Get In - By Plane
The nearest airport is in Ho Chi Minh City, which is almost 200 kilometers distant. From there, there are shuttle buses to Mui Ne, or you can take a taxi. You can ask the bus driver to drop you off directly in front of your hotel; given that the main street where the majority of hotels are located is more than 10 kilometers long, this is an excellent option.
Get In - By bus
Most international tourists go through Ham Tien or Mui Ne using an “open tour” bus system running between Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh City. The majority of buses left Ho Chi Minh city between 07:30 and 09:00 (07:30 for Sinh Cafe’s air-conditioned bus) and arrived in Ham Tien and Mui Ne at about 13:00. Buses were leaving Mui Ne and Ham Tien backwards every day either at 14:00 or on second hour after midnight before arriving in Ho Chi Minh City five hours later. Joe’s Café is also ideal for night buses since it operates all night and one never knows when the bus will come in late. After leaving Ho Chi Minh city, there is a gas station where the coach halts often; this store is quite big as well as some kiosks vending fruits, drinks, and snacks.
The buses stop right inside the tourist district of Ham Tien, so taking taxis here would be unnecessary. In both tourists zones of Nha Trang and Saigon tickets are sold at roundabout $5 each way/ ticket (105,000 dong). If you are traveling back from Mui Ne or Ham Tien to Saigon, there may be no seat available on any sleeper buses from Nha Trang. Because passengers do not have allocated seats then you might not sit next to your friends even if they are on the same vehicle let alone being given seats by unscrupulous travel agents. The four of you could share the back of the bus on a mat.
From either destination, Mui Ne can be reached by public transport; but it is difficult to find the bus stops and buses’ schedules for tourists. It’s not worth it unless there is some reason why you cannot leave when the open tour bus goes. The travel agencies act as if they don’t know because there is no money in showing you where to find a public bus. In this case, the main transportation terminal in Phan Thiet is situated at T Văn T, Ph Trinh and a cab from here to your vacation spot might be more expensive than what you paid for your coach ticket from HCMC!
Get In - By train
Every day, one train departs from Ho Chi Minh City at 06:30 to arrive in Phan Thiet after five hours. The return trip leaves Phan Thiet at 13:30. It is quite cheap, 60 thousand dong per person one way ticket (like buses). This station is located in District 3 of Ho Chi Minh City not far from the city center by about three kilometers. The railway station of Phan Thiet is some five kilometers (80,000 dong for a taxi ride there) away from the entrance to the Ham Tien resort strip and taxis are abundant here. Sometimes, this line runs medium-sized buses that travel from the station down to Mui Ne charging passengers 25,000 dong each way. Tickets are sold on-board trains but their availability might be announced only in Vietnamese so you have to be careful to notice people selling tickets.
Sometimes private companies operate private carriages as well as those belonging to state railways. In these latter ones seats are bigger but not luxurious by any means while being more expensive than in the rest. Westerners may find standard cars uncomfortable due to their size which is small, as well as low ceilings and narrow aisles. If they like they put everyone into one coach when there are few passengers and leave another empty before trying to sell the vacant part’s “upgrades”. On holidays every carriage gets packed with people.
In spite of certain conveniences it offers this mode of transportation cannot compete with open-tour bus or even compare favorably with them overall. You will see much more of what goes on along your way without hearing constant honking and witnessing how these drivers change lanes abruptly.
Get In - By taxi
Instead of an open-air bus take a taxi if you want to go from Saigon to Mui Ne(consider taking a taxi instead of taking an open-air bus between Saigon and Mui Ne). The timing of the shuttle bus is not always convenient.One time, a bus was delayed because the driver had made several stops at mediocre places to eat. The usual road trip by taxi will take up four or five hours depending on traffic and cost you between 70 and 100 dollars due to your bargaining ability. They can give advice about this kind of alternative at the airport in Saigon.
The fare for SATSCO from Tan Son Nhut Airport to Mui Ne one way is $100.
