Mui Ne

Great place for kitesurfing and beach life

I remember the first time I visited Mũi Né in 2007. I stayed alone in a bungalow on the beach for 10USD per night. I had to sleep inside a mosquito net and both of my shoes outside the net had attracted cockroaches during the night, which gave me quite a scare in the morning when I put them on... but it was bliss to open the door and be on the beautiful beach seeing the fishermen use their strange circular boats to pull in the catch of the day. Most of the foreign tourists seemed to be kite-surfers, and there were many Vietnamese tourists. I visited the red sand dunes outside town and tried sand sledding, and walked up a soft stream with a very young guide who thought it was hilarious when I got scared of the snake that swam right past us. Wait until we get to the crocodiles, he said.

Fast-forward more than a decade and I have visited Mũi Né probably 10 times with my girlfriend, friends, family and the companies I have worked for. During that time I have seen more and more resorts open, and by now there are pretty much back-to-back resort properties all along the beachside. There are a large amount of restaurants and pubs and plenty of tours to take.

Step by step the place seems to have been invaded by Russian tourists. Signs all over town are in Russian, and sadly I have been unfortunate to see Russians being extremely rude to both locals and other tourists on many occasions.

The restaurants are completely focused on foreign tourists by now, so even though the beach is still beautiful, and I can really enjoy spending a few nights at a resort, I always opt for Phu Quoc Island when wanting that beach getaway in Southern Vietnam nowadays. If you enjoy kite-surfing it still seems like a lot of fun though, and I might give it another try for a few days at the beach in the future.