Vung Tau: The future beach district of Ho Chi Minh City

Vung Tau is a city in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in the Southeast region of Vietnam. The city is the hub for Vietnam’s oil and gas industry, and it’s the easiest beach destination to get to from Ho Chi Minh City.

I have been part-time based in Ho Chi Minh City for many years, and I have been a regular visitor to Vung Tau. This construction report is from my visits in December 2024 and February 2025.

Vung Tau overview

Vung Tau sometimes feels like it’s on the cusp of breaking out, but it remains a provincial city in outlook. Despite being in one of the wealthiest provinces in Vietnam, Vung Tau still doesn’t have a McDonald’s or Starbucks like the beach cities of Nha Trang and Da Nang. Many of the domestic chains have also overlooked Vung Tau.

What holds Vung Tau back is that the main beach isn’t as good as the beaches of Nha Trang and Da Nang. Both of those cities get plenty of visitors from Hanoi, but Hanoians aren’t flying to Saigon just to go to Vung Tau.

Vung Tau’s tourism industry is sustained by weekend visitors from Saigon. I have seen how quiet Vung Tau is during the week, and then see it transform into a bustling city with traffic jams caused by weekend visitors from Saigon.

There have been some ambitious development plans for Vung Tau, but the biggest change in Vung Tau’s fortunes might be from the planned mergers of provinces.

City and province mergers

The biggest news story of the year for Vung Tau is the planned mergers of provinces and cities. It was unclear when I visited what would happen to the province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. I met two local friends, and they said that they heard that Ba Ria-Vung Tau would be merged with neighbouring Dong Nai province. It has now been announced that Ba Ria-Vung Tau province and Binh Duong province will merge with Ho Chi Minh City.

This Wikimedia map shows Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding provinces that make up the Ho Chi Minh City Metropolitan Area.

This merger means that Ho Chi Minh City will have beachfront districts. In addition to the beaches of Vung Tau City, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province also includes the Ho Tram – Binh Chau sea resort route, so this is a massive expansion for Ho Chi Minh City.

I will be writing more about the provincial mergers once they are completed.

Front Beach development

Front Beach is a small beach next to the historic city centre. Here are the most notable projects in this area.

The Doubletree hotel project has already redefined the view of the Front Beach. There are only a few international hotel brands here, so this Hilton brand will elevate Vung Tau’s status.

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