THAIest

Mui Ne is known as a resort paradise and famous tourist center of Phan Thiet City, Binh Thuan Province. Mui Ne attracts tourists from all over the world thanks to its sunny climate, white beaches, clear blue sea and the most beautiful coastal roads in Vietnam. This trip itinerary of 3 days 2 nights in Mui Ne will help you plan a short visit to the main attractions in Mui Ne.

Mui Ne Beach

Attraction Highlights:

  • White sand dunes (white lake)
  • Red sand dunes
  • Fairy stream
  • Fishing village

Day 1: Hello Mui Ne

Afternoon: Our trip in Mui Ne started in the afternoon as our bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne departed late. We booked a ticket for the bus at 14:00 but it actually left from Ho Chi Minh at 15:10. The journey took about 5 hours as the distance between these popular tourist destinations in Southern Vietnam is more than 200 km. There are several ways for getting from Ho Chi Minh City to Mui Ne and taking a bus is the most popular one.

Planning to travel on the same route? Read our Itinerary of 4 Days 3 Night in Ho Chi Minh City to make the most out of your trip in the largest city of Vietnam.

Evening: We arrived in Mui Ne after 20:00 and the bus dropped us off right at our hotel. As it was very dark, the conductor even showed us the entrance of our hotel to make sure we are not going to get lost.

After checking in at the hotel, we decided to head out to have a dinner at Dong Vui Food Court. There are many restaurants offering various dishes at this food court complex. After a long day of travelling, this place was like a heaven as it’s a really fun outdoor food court with awesome atmosphere.

Dong Vui Food Court

Overnight: Hotel in Mui Ne: Mui Ne Home Hotel

Day 2: Discovering the most famous tourist attractions in Mui Ne

Morning: There are many interesting things to see and do in Mui Ne. As our time in the resort town was very limited, we focused on visiting the most famous tourist attractions and booked a jeep tour at the tour agency nearby our hotel to witness the sunrise at the sand dunes. The tour started at 04:00 in the morning to ensure that the best moment of sunrise in Mui Ne will be seen.

Jeep Tour

Normally, sand dune tours in Mui Ne have 2 options:

  • Morning tour for sunrise: duration from 04:30 to 08:30
  • Afternoon tour for sunset: duration from 14:00 to 18:00

These tours offer the same route and destinations but different timing. Therefore, for those who are not early birds, booking a sunset tour which starts around 14:00 might be a better option.

As we were taking the morning tour, the driver picked us up from the hotel and departed to White Sand Dunes. It takes about 40 minutes to drive from Ham Tien Beach area to White Sand Dunes.  

White Sand dunes

White Sand Dunes are very impressive but be beware of keeping your money. Once we got there, we had to pay an entrance fee of 15,000 VND per person. The local immediately approached and told us that we have to rent a jeep or ATV because it is too far away to walk and we will miss the sunrise. The jeep costs about 500,000-600,000 VND for 6 persons while the ATV costs 400,000-650,000 for 2 persons for 20 minute ride. The price they offered can be much higher so make sure to negotiate.  We didn't bother with either of these options and just decided to walk up the sand dunes to a different peak for some peaceful spot and nice shots. If you want to have some fun going up and down to the top dunes on the jeep or ATV, just go for it.

At White Sand Dunes, we enjoyed the sandy beach, watched beautiful sunrise and admired the amazing landscape. In the middle of sand dunes, there is also the Lotus Lake. The lotus is the flower that is considered as the symbol of Vietnam. If you are going to the top of the hill looking down, the ponds full blue and pink lotus flowers look very amazing. The driver stopped at this place for 1 hour to have enough time for taking photos.

White Sand Dunes

On the way back, we stopped at Red Sand Dunes. This place is more crowd than White Sand Dunes because it's located only 2 km from Mui Ne. The slopes are also less steep than the ones of White Sand Dunes. The popular activity here is the sand slide as you can rent the plastic sled from locals for about 10,000-20,000 VND per board and have fun. It's like you are surfing on the sand from the top of the hill. We’ve spent here about 30-40 minutes.

Red Sand Dunes

Our next stop was Mui Ne Fishing Village, located at the north end of Mui Ne Bay. The first impression we witnessed is hundreds of multi-colored fishing boats anchored at the harbor. Here you can take magnificent photos of the local people and the beach from a distance. Here you can see the fishermen earning the catch of theirs as well as locals preparing fish and seafood for the marketplace. At the fishing village you actually buy fresh seafood such as squid, crabs, fish for a reasonable price and ask it to be cooked right there.

Mui Ne Fishing Village

The last place we visited was Fairy Stream (also known as Suoi Tien), the small stream running through the middle of red sand dunes. It is like a miniature version of Grand Canyon. You can walk barefoot along the stream. The tour stopped here for 30 minutes but we decided to stay longer and leave the tour as Fairy Stream is within a walking distance from the hotel we were staying at.

Mui Ne Fairy Stream

We got our breakfast at the local restaurant along the stream and got back to the hotel for resting.

Mui Ne Food

For enjoying this tour the most, we would recommend to come in light clothing, comfortable walking shoes and not to forget the sun screen as well as sunglasses.

Afternoon: Our hotel was on the beachside so we decided to spend all the afternoon lazing on sunbeds in the resort.

Mui Ne Beach

Overnight: Hotel in Mui Ne: Mui Ne Home Hotel

Day 3: Leaving Mui Ne

Morning: Breakfast at the local restaurant.

Mui Ne Food

We took Mui Ne public bus to the fresh market near the fishing village to see the local life and try the local food. We also did some shopping for gifts to our family and friends at the place.

Mui Ne Transportation

Afternoon: We came back to check out from the hotel around noon as we were ready for traveling to the next destination.

Our next destination was Dalat which is situated to the south of the Central Highlands and is famous for its cool climate and beautiful scenery.

The distance from Mui Ne to Dalat is about 160 km when traveling between these two destinations by bus. We did a thorough research before choosing the way to travel so you can read our guide on how to get from Mui Ne, Phan Thiet to Dalat.

Find tips & inspiration
Follow us
Join our community
Join the THAIest community of travelers by becoming a member of our Facebook group
We use cookies

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.