What to do
What you do here is:
- Scuba diving or snorkeling.
- Dive with professional divers and maybe take certification?
- Nha Trang has hot springs.
- Eat seafood (although you can eat in other cities too, but not fresh ones)

Diving and snorkeling has go out to the island, 40min from Nha Trang. There are two ways you can do if you want to snorkel, you go with a tour boat or with divers (you don’t have to dive). The first one is very cheap and is a good way to visit four islands. The other way is to go out with those who wants to dive and pay little more, but their aim is dive which is you stay at longer there. Check out my tour links later for complete guide.

Hot spring is quite popular for vietnamese. People are traveling from Saigon to Nha Trang sometimes just to get to here. What you do in here is to take a bath in mud, after that you can swim in their swimming pools . It’s often the inhabitants like to go out, most at Tran Phu street, and that is what we did too. By sitting in the hotel is boring, and the city night in Nha Trang is not like in big cities. You walk on the beach at night, couples or teens sit on the sand and talk. Some people do their practice, yoga. There are many cafe bars near the beach, which you can sit there and eat ice cream or have a drink. When i was there in 2005, they did have the night market, a place you can eat many kind foods. The price is not little bit higher if you compare to the restaurants, but i did bought some to taste.

Dam market is a ok place to see if you want to buy reef (hmm…illegal?), fish sauce, or seafood products. Otherwise i don’t know if i can recommend it . Nha Trang also has the Marine Museum, which you can visit it. you can see many fishes, sharks (mini sharks), worth for 30minutes of visit.

Get there
It’s very easy to get to Nha Trang. There are daily buses, open tour bus type, which leave Saigon in the morning and at night. Trains stop by Nha Trang too, if you don’t want to sit on the bus 8hours and hate trains, then you can flight to Nha Trang. Don’t go to Nha Trang in winter, November or December, the storm usually comes to the city and no dive, no tours and only RAIN . Check the weather reports if you still want to go there.

Move around
You can easily walk around the city if you like, but mostly you will stick near the beach, when all hotels and hostels are, where the tour buses stop and you would find restaurants, accommodations easy from there. The taxi is not easy to find as in big cities, but you can ask the hotel to call it. Another way is very cheap and safe, that is take the local buses. Xich lo are available as well. With this bus nr 04 you can reach 4 places for less than 1USD

- This is a ‘tour’ i did a week ago and use the bus nr 04 to reach 1)Bao Dai villas , 2)Ocean Museum, 3) Ponagar/ Thap Ba 4)Hot spring.

Bus nr.04 that goes from Tran Phu - Tran Quang Khai - Nguyet Thien Thuat is the one goes to Ponagar and hot spring. Pay 3000vnd and sit back, until you see the Ponagar (the bus should cross a brigde now) you should wait a the backdoor and the bus driver will let you off nearest stop. From the stop go back to 100m or more and cross the big road. You really can’t miss it. Hot spring is few kilometres away, take Xe Om (max 10.000vnd) or follow the road.

Bus nr 04 that runs from direction Nguyet Thien Thuat - Tran Quang Khai - Tran Phu is the one goes to Bao Dai Villas. Bao Dai villas and Ocean Museum is near to each other. Once you notice the bus ‘climb up’ a road (small mountains 2 sides) then stop the bus at nearest stop and you should be ok to walk back. 10.000vnd for Ocean Museum, 5000vnd for Bao Dai Villas.
By the way, you don’t need a guide!

Place to sleep
You can find hotels in and guest-houses Nguyen Thien Thuat st. (Near SinhCafe office, one street down). The buses always take you to a hotel and of course you don’t have to stay there. It’s just a commission thing that the bus companies do each trip. Here are the streets you can find hotels/guest-houses

Hoang Hoa Tham st.
It’s the street after Nguyen Thien Thuat, there are several hotels (and Karaoke bars). Price should be cheaper than Nguyen Thien Thuat’s area.

Nguyen Thien Thuat st.
As i stayed in Dong Phuong Hotel for 150.000vnd/night, i got a room on third-floor, 2double beds. Near to restaurants and beaches. This building is quite new, they have rooms behind the yard which are less expensive. Ask for those if you want cut down price more.
Guesthouses are in same street here, i think it’s a good place to go to if you travel alone, a dorm is always cheaper than a private room (until you have 2 or more friends than it’s same price for a private room and a dorm/bed)

Hung Vuong st.
Also here you can find nice price and many restaurants, bars. Keep in mind, near beach = higher price. There are also cheap street foods at night.

Tran Quang Khai st.
Most bars and Cafe restaurants. A few hotels at the beginning at the road.

Tue Tinh st.
Not far from backpacker’s area, there are several hotels here that might be an option for you? Although it is not near the restaurants but i would guess it take 5minutes max to walk back to backpacker’s area.

Tran Phu st.
Do i need to say more? The beach is on other side, your hotel is opposite. Big hotels and i mean expensive one are coming soon. From Tue Tinh st, turn right to Tran Phu st. there are also many hotels ( should be normal price to high).

Money
Don’t expect the local taxi or xich lo have changes if you pay in 100dollars bill. Exchange it to Vietnamese Dong(vnd) if possible, only those how deal with foreigners have changes, but you will get vnd in return and i think you will loose some $ there. ATM are available, as well as banks

How safe?
I have to say it’s safer in here then in Saigon. I don’t think you will have some problems at all, keep your money safe as you keep them in other cities. There are quite many people at night in the main streets, bars, restaurants so yes, it’s ok to walk around.