How To Travel To Nha Trang
Get In - By Plane
Flights on domestic airlines are available from Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh, Da Nang, Hanoi and Haiphong starting at 250000 dong. Internationally the city has links with Seoul, South Korea and a number of major Chinese cities.
Cam Ranh town, Cam Ranh International Airport (30 km S from Nha Trang).
If you take a metered taxi it will cost you around 100000 dong more than the fixed rate of 250000 dong between the airport and downtown areas.
A cheaper alternative is taking the airport bus that goes directly into town. Buses belonging to different companies ply this route just outside the gate of the airport. The shuttle bus runs in reverse two hours prior to each scheduled flight. Additionally, expensive and midrange hotels may also have free airport shuttles.
For the adventurous traveler take a short taxi ride down to one of Cam Ranh’s bus stops in order to board buses headed for Nha Trang (40000 VNDone way-about an hour). Orange are both bus stops as well as buses themselves which are orange too.
Get In - By Train
Nha Trang is one of the stations along the main rail line between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. If you want to get a soft-sleeper, which is the topmost class offered on Vietnamese trains, book your train ticket straightly at the railway station as soon as possible. It is likely that if this ticket is booked through a private travel agent, then instead of getting a soft sleeper, you will have to pay for a hard one; this will be known only when you are already in the train and it’s past time for changes. This is one of the usual scams in Vietnam. Four berths are required by soft sleepers while six berths are needed by hard sleeper. You can sit comfortably on the lower bed in a 4 berth room but in case it’s 6 berth room, one must be quite short to sit up straight.
In addition to this, SNT trains (that run from Saigon to Nha Trang) may not be as fast as SE ones but they have cars of similar quality. The TN trains are not recommended because they operate at slow speeds with old and dirty cars.
There’s however no need for a sleeper since SE trains from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang takes between 6-8 hours (often delayed), while cushioned seats in an air-conditioned car go for 190k VND, soft seats cost around 310k VND and soft sleepers approximately 500kVND (2012). There are two SEs daily and two SEs overnight. Going by SNT costs $535,000 per person and lasts over nine hours till nightfall (2012) from Ho Chi Minh City to Nha Trang. Because sights along this way pale compared with those further north where overnight travelling would be preferred due to its affordably priced nature.
Railway station (one kilometer north of city center).
Get In - By Bus
Almost all long-distance sleeper buses terminate at Nha Trang. They will leave from Hoi An (10–12 hours, VND200,000; with sleeper buses running in the morning and night); Ho Chi Minh City; (12 hours). Sleeper buses typically drop people on roadside near tourist attractions. From there, a hotel that is necessary is a short distance walk or $2 cab fare.
Da Lat also has hourly buses (three to four hours, VND120,000, departures are from 07:00 to 15:00) and a few from Qui Nhon (6 hr, VND115,000 at 07:30, 08:30, 13:00 and 15:30), Mui Ne among others.
Bus station (west of the centre by a ten-minute walk).
Get In - By Car
For approximately one million dong a day, one can book modern air-conditioned private car rentals with drivers. Renting a car usually goes up in price at holiday times, especially around Tet (Vietnamese New Year). Use the services of auto rental agencies to reserve it ahead of time to avoid paying exorbitant fees.
