10 reasons why you should visit Con Dao Islands

The wild beauty of the islands makes many people choose to travel to Con Dao in this March.

In the past, when mentioning Con Dao, people often thought of scary prisons and felt the pain of the nation’s history. But in recent years, people have discovered the pristine and magnificent beauty of the pretty islands in Ba Ria – Vung Tau. And there are plenty of reasons for you to choose Con Dao to be your destination of this March.

1. Con Dao – The paradise on Earth

Voted as one of 10 most beautiful and mysterious archipelagos around the world by famous Travel&Leisure magazine, Con Dao now is being chosen as a paradise for leisure travel and for exploring nature. Just admire the photoes, to some extent, you can feel the beauty that makes your heart flutter then you become restless and want to come there immediately.

2. March is an ideal time to come to Con Dao

Although weather in Con Dao is quite similar to one in Saigon with two seasons: rainy and dry but Con Dao in every season has its own beauty. From March to September is rainy season in Con Dao, but it’s just light rain lasting 30 minutes to 1 hour. After the rain, the scenery of Con Dao will become fresher and cleaner, the weather is milder and it’ll be wonderful if you luckily catch sight of a rainbow. Sea in this season is also calmer, quieter and more comfortable than in dry season.

3. Diving and admiring the coral

As one of the exciting activities in Con Dao, diving is always the first choice of tourist when exploring this place. Con Dao includes a lot of smaller islandsm such as Tai island, Tre island, Trung island, Cau island… having the most beautiful, colorful coral reefs with highest density in Vietnam. Tourists can contact the providers of snorkelling tour as Con Dao Explorer or Rainbow to have necessary equipments and learn diving from professional divers.

4. Fishing in the South China Sea

The sea of Con Dao is in the South China Sea so the species of sea animals are diverse and abundant, promising extremely interesting and bumper fishing trips. The trip starts from the large island, sail to the sea near Con Son bay area, anchor in some places: Tai island, Shark Cape or Bong Lan island. The ideal location most chosen for this activity is Nhat beach near the famous Shark Cape of Con Dao.

The trip averagely lasts around 4-5 hours, the providers even have trips in the evening of the weather is nice and there is need from tourists.

5. Visit Ong Dung forest

This is an exciting place to visit on the island, 3 kilometers away from Con Dao National Park center to the west, with unspoiled natural scenery and clean environment.

This is an ecological tour route to forest, from the center of the Park, visitors can walk or ride motorbikes then climb the mountain to visit the primeval forest of the island. Walking for about 15 minutes in the forest, the tourists have the opportunity to discover many types of perennial trees and thousands of boulders having interesting shapes. Here there are also many animals which only live in Con Dao such as: black squirrel, gecko with wings…

6. Watching the green turtles laying their eggs

Watching the green turtles laying their eggs is such an exciting type of thing to do in Con Dao to experience a quiet night but nervous and unforgettable on Bay Canh island. You will witness the Chelonia mydas sea turtles, which are traditionally known as “vích” or the green turtle, digging a hole to be the eggnests and laying their eggs.

Tourists will be guided how to watch the turtles laying eggs and learn the habits of this type of sea turtle by rangers. It’s not just only that, you also have a chance to let the little turtles go back to the sea with your own hands.

7. Immersing yourself in the sea water on Dam Trau beach

Dam Trau is one of the most beautiful beaches in Con Dao with golden sand, clear blue water and the story of a guy name Cau and his girl Trau (the names of this guy and his girl form “trầu cau”, a traditional thing that the elders in Vietnam usually eat). 4 kilometers away from the center of the town to the northwest, this is an ideal travel destination and camping site which most of travel companies choose when having tours to Con Dao.

With the wide sandy beach, quiet atmosphere and clean environment, the unspoiled feature of this place is very suitable for camping or picnic with your friends.

8. Delicious cuisine

About cuisine, the specialties of Con Dao are very different and attractive, such as: ‘vu nang’ snail, ‘mut hat bang’ (roasted seeds from Malabar almond trees), peanut worms, ‘mam hau’ (fermented oysters)… and countless delicious dishes made with moon crab, shrimp, crab, fish…

9. Traveling and learn about the history

Having a lot of historical monuments has made traveling in Con Dao become more meaningful. These monuments are Con Dao Museum – a place preserving many ancient artifacts and photographs from the French colonial period, Phu Son Prison, Tiger Cages and Hang Duong cemetery.

10. Spiritual tourism

Con Dao now is not the living hell anymore but has become a place for spiritual tourism of many Vietnamese people. Here the two most popular places for spiritual tourism are Ms. Phi Yen Temple and One Mountain Pagoda.

Ms. Phi Yen Temple or also known as An Son Temple connects closely with the story of Ms. Phi Yen, who is the wife of the King Nguyen Anh and mother of the Prince Cai. When being exploited by bad people, because of extreme frustration, she committed suicide at the age of 25. If you have a chance to come here, you will also hear many great stories about this lady from local people.

One Mountain Pagoda was located in the center of the district and is considered the pagoda having the best feng shui in Vietnam. The pagoda was inaugurated in 2011, with its location in the mountain and a great view of sea, mountain, city, An Hai lotus lake.

See more photos of Con Dao:

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You also see more Con Dao Islands travel guide at here.