Nha Trang, Vietnam Port Review - Diamond Princess

April 20, 2009: We had booked a tour for 8 of us that was really fun and interesting. This is a tender port but we had no problems getting tender tickets for the first tender. The tender ride takes only about 10 to 15 minutes. Once you get off the tender (and yes, there are many vendors right at the dock), you walk a short distance to the Oceanographic Museum to meet the guide. It was difficult to understand our guide’s English, but the tour itself was terrific. We had a short tour of the Oceanographic Museum and then boarded our van for a ride through Nha Trang. The beaches and manicured trees are really nice. We boarded a riverboat for our trip down the Cai River, with views of houses on stilts, fishing boats, rice paddies, rickety bridges, before stopping at “coconut island”. The family here chopped off the tops of fresh coconuts and we had coconut milk. Then back on the little boat to visit a family house and have tea and fruit. We also visited a house where they were doing rush mat weaving. You could try your hand at the weaving (but don’t quit your day job). We then visited an orphanage where the children sang a song for us and we handed out candy. I had packed 300 lollipops in my suitcase for this. Priceless pictures of the children! After all that it was time for lunch at a seaside restaurant—included spring rolls, cucumber soup, squid with vegetables, mackeral in tomato sauce, rice, and fresh bananas. Not quite finished with the tour yet! On to the most amazing embroidery workshop/store—here is definitely the place to buy first-class souvenir picture if you need something for your house. Some smaller pictures were $120 to $180 and larger and more complicated pictures were much more. These embroidered pictures of flowers, Vietnam life, or people looked like paintings and were very intricate.

We also visited the PoNagar Temple (about 100 steps up to the temple), with wonderful views of the harbor and fishing boats below. Final stops at the Dam Market for souvenirs and the beach to walk in the sand and take pictures.

For photos of our trip, I posted a link to our photo web site on the Cruise Blog thread.

Highlights: The entire tour

Lowlights: The guide’s English, although this did not spoil the tour, and I applaud anyone who attempts to learn the English language

This sounds just like the tour we took last month on our RCL cruise. I had booked it myself not through the cruiseline. I bought one of the embroidery pictures that is done on the sheer white silk and can be seen from both sides. I love it, I just now wish I had gotten a larger one. We also really enjoyed this stop, our guide though spoke great english.

Your review was very helpful. Thank you. We're trying to decide whether to do the land and boat tour or just the land tour. Right now we've opted for the land tour. Did you speak to anyone who had done the land tour? Were they happy with their choice. When were you scheduled to meet the guide in the morning and about when did they return you to the area where you took the tender back to the ship? Did you have time at the end of the tour to walk around the dock area?

The boat portion of the tour was only about 45 minutes. We actually enjoyed it because it was so hot. The boat takes you to coconut island, around the harbor/fishing boat area, and then to the place where you have a snack. Also you see some of the houses on stilts by the water, a rickety bridge, rice paddy, interesting scenery from the boat. You get on and off the boat at coconut island and the house where you have a snack. I think some of the tours did the reverse of what we did and they did the boat portion at the end. I don't know of anyone who just did the land only portion. The company told us to try to be the first off the ship, which we were. We were on the first tender and met our guide a little after 9am. We were back in plenty of time to walk around. Since you are doing a private excursion, you can tell the company when you want to return to the port. We actually had time to stop at the beach and take pictures. We didn't spend much time at the Dam Market as we were really not looking for souvenirs. I believe the last tender was to leave at 5:30pm (it is only a 10 minute or so tender ride).

micruiser2002 -if you do not mind, who did you use for your tour?

Thank you

Jean

We did the same tour through a company called nha trang river tour website

http://nhatrangrivertour.com/ - we were only six of us and we paid 40usd per person which reduces to 30usd per person if you are over ten people. Excellent value for money and probably the highlight of our cruise. E mail contact is dung pham <phamtandung2002@yahoo.com>

Roger

Roger, Thank you. Jean

We used the same company as Roger (Macro Duck). I think the company had about 7 individual tours that day so they probably had to parcel out the tour guides. It is always luck of the draw as to what guide you get. Our guide was very charming; his English was just difficult to understand.

What tour operator did you use in Vietnam? Did you take an independent tour or a ship's shore excursion?

Thanks

Park Cruiser

See my post above nhatrang rivertour - website link included above. Private tour half the cost of Princess.

Roger

April 20, 2009: We had booked a tour for 8 of us that was really fun and interesting. This is a tender port but we had no problems getting tender tickets for the first tender. The tender ride takes only about 10 to 15 minutes. Once you get off the tender (and yes, there are many vendors right at the dock), you walk a short distance to the Oceanographic Museum to meet the guide. It was difficult to understand our guide’s English, but the tour itself was terrific. We had a short tour of the Oceanographic Museum and then boarded our van for a ride through Nha Trang. The beaches and manicured trees are really nice. We boarded a riverboat for our trip down the Cai River, with views of houses on stilts, fishing boats, rice paddies, rickety bridges, before stopping at “coconut island”. The family here chopped off the tops of fresh coconuts and we had coconut milk. Then back on the little boat to visit a family house and have tea and fruit. We also visited a house where they were doing rush mat weaving. You could try your hand at the weaving (but don’t quit your day job). We then visited an orphanage where the children sang a song for us and we handed out candy. I had packed 300 lollipops in my suitcase for this. Priceless pictures of the children! After all that it was time for lunch at a seaside restaurant—included spring rolls, cucumber soup, squid with vegetables, mackeral in tomato sauce, rice, and fresh bananas. Not quite finished with the tour yet! On to the most amazing embroidery workshop/store—here is definitely the place to buy first-class souvenir picture if you need something for your house. Some smaller pictures were $120 to $180 and larger and more complicated pictures were much more. These embroidered pictures of flowers, Vietnam life, or people looked like paintings and were very intricate.

 

We also visited the PoNagar Temple (about 100 steps up to the temple), with wonderful views of the harbor and fishing boats below. Final stops at the Dam Market for souvenirs and the beach to walk in the sand and take pictures.

 

For photos of our trip, I posted a link to our photo web site on the Cruise Blog thread.

 

Highlights: The entire tour

Lowlights: The guide’s English, although this did not spoil the tour, and I applaud anyone who attempts to learn the English language

Is Nha Trang the sort of place you can just get off the ship and find a local guide who could take you around? Taxi?? I appreciate that a lack of English may be a problem.

How far is the town itself from where the cruise ship docks?

Thanks for your help - you have been fantastic.

Beryl

Is Nha Trang the sort of place you can just get off the ship and find a local guide who could take you around? Taxi?? I appreciate that a lack of English may be a problem.

 

How far is the town itself from where the cruise ship docks?

 

Thanks for your help - you have been fantastic.

 

Beryl

Beryl: Hopefully someone else will answer you about finding local transportation. The tender leaves you off very close to some shops and the Oceanographic Museum. There are vendors there selling postcards, hats, etc., as well as vendors right at the dock selling most everything. However, I'm not sure about taxis. Lack of English might be a big problem unless you had a map of places and you could perhaps point to where you want to go to. If you want to see anything of Nha Trang, you really need some sort of transportation as many of the sites are some distance from the port. Also, the city of Nha Trang is rather spread out, as far as I could tell from the van ride. I never explored local transportation because we knew we were going to do a tour. Sorry but I'm not going to be a lot of help on this one...Fran

Hi Fran, that actually was a great help. We will go with the company you went with!

Thanks again for everything.

Beryl

Beryl: Hopefully someone else will answer you about finding local transportation. The tender leaves you off very close to some shops and the Oceanographic Museum. There are vendors there selling postcards, hats, etc., as well as vendors right at the dock selling most everything. However, I'm not sure about taxis. Lack of English might be a big problem unless you had a map of places and you could perhaps point to where you want to go to. If you want to see anything of Nha Trang, you really need some sort of transportation as many of the sites are some distance from the port. Also, the city of Nha Trang is rather spread out, as far as I could tell from the van ride. I never explored local transportation because we knew we were going to do a tour. Sorry but I'm not going to be a lot of help on this one...Fran

hi, 2 years ago we took the bicycle rickshaw trip.$5 dollars per hour to all the major tourists sights.our bikers spoke fairly good english.we saw the most weird and wonderful sights and had such agreat time.the final cost was about $15 each and we threw a big tip in asitwas such great entertainment wemat just repeat it again this trip

That sounds fun. We leave for our cruise in 2 weeks and trying to find a tour.

Did you book the rickshaw ahead of time online or when you got there? Were they at the dock. Also did they take US money?

We visited Nha Trang last month and after much research we booked a tour with Owen Bell. He is a Canadian living in Nha Trang. We were a party of 4 and traveled in his 8 seat SUV. The day was very memorable and highly recommended.

The tour was very similar to option 1 on this page http://www.homestaynhatrang.com/tours-and-attractions/ except the Cotadel and waterfall were replaced with a beautiful temple and the ancient Cham towers.

Cost was USD$40 pr person if 4 people.

Contact Owen via his details in the link above if interested.

Do not use cyclos or trishaws in Vietnam unless they have been organised in advance and part of a organised tour. The last post about using them was 2009 and now well out of date.

Just go to Trip Advisor Vietnam and read the horror stories etc about using cyclos - particularly in Saigon but the same applies to other cities in Vietnam

Is Nha Trang the sort of place you can just get off the ship and find a local guide who could take you around? Taxi?? I appreciate that a lack of English may be a problem.

 

How far is the town itself from where the cruise ship docks?

 

We were there last month on Golden Princess. The tender ride was about 15 minutes but it takes you to a port location that is quite a distance from the main part of the town. There is a small market at the port, the museum mentioned earlier, but not a lot else. There was a free shuttle bus which took you into the town, about 3-4 blocks from the big markets. The bus ride was another 15-20 minutes. You may have to wait up to 15 minutes for the next shuttle bus into town, so it could take close to 45 minutes to get there. There were taxis touting for business at the hotel where the shuttle bus stopped.

Thank you for the suggestions and advice too.

We will be arriving in Nha Trang in October and are still deciding what to do. The private tour interest me though, better than what RCL had offered, cheaper too.

We were there last month on Golden Princess. The tender ride was about 15 minutes but it takes you to a port location that is quite a distance from the main part of the town. There is a small market at the port, the museum mentioned earlier, but not a lot else. There was a free shuttle bus which took you into the town, about 3-4 blocks from the big markets. The bus ride was another 15-20 minutes. You may have to wait up to 15 minutes for the next shuttle bus into town, so it could take close to 45 minutes to get there. There were taxis touting for business at the hotel where the shuttle bus stopped.

Did you have to get Vietnam Visa? I plan to book a cruise starting in Japan to Australia (Diamond Princess). It will have two port of calls in Vietnam (Nha Trang and Pho My). I hold a U.S. passport.

Thank you.

Did you have to get Vietnam Visa? I plan to book a cruise starting in Japan to Australia (Diamond Princess). It will have two port of calls in Vietnam (Nha Trang and Pho My). I hold a U.S. passport.

 

Thank you.

Yes...I answered this on your other post about our experience....Your cruiseline should do the Vietnam visa's onboard for you at a better rate than what you would have to pay doing it yourself pre-cruise.

Yes...I answered this on your other post about our experience....Your cruiseline should do the Vietnam visa's onboard for you at a better rate than what you would have to pay doing it yourself pre-cruise.

Thank you. Now I only need to get the Australia visa and the Indonesia visa (our cruise port is not one of the visa exempted entry port).