The woman at the hotel was really friendly and helpful and when we mentioned our next destination was Hoi An via the train, she offered to sort our train tickets for us to which we gladly accepted to avoid the hassle!
Nha Trang itself is a real beach destination, unlike Mui Ne it has been receiving tourism for a lot longer so is a lot more built up. As a result, there's a superb selection of places to eat and drink there, by far the best range we've seen so far in Vietnam. The beach itself is relatively clean and the sea is a little cool, but when your used to the English channel then it's positively balmy! There's a real beachfront vibe here too, with parks just off the promenade and watersports on offer.
We had 1.5 days in Nha Trang (half due to travelling from Da Lat) and the first day was spent getting our bearings, lazing on the beach and then relaxing in the hotel before some cheap eats.
The 2nd day was what we'd been looking forward to; we'd booked a boat trip to see 4 of the surrounding islands.
We set off with the sea mist still rising and our first stop was the worst - a tiny island where all there was to see was an aquarium. Annoyingly the price to enter wasn't included in our boat ticket price so we decided against going in and sat outside until it was time to leave.
The next island we didn't set foot on but we went to the diving village alongside it and did some snorkeling as there was a mini reef there. Not much other than some very little fish and one or two sea snakes but it was still nice to be in the lovely blue sea and especially to jump off the roof of the boat (something I always have to do!).
The next stop was a fishing village off another island where they had little enclosures for fish they'd caught that you could also eat if you chose. There were lobsters, cuttlefish, squid (hate those things with a passion!), little sharks, boxfish and more. It was great to see these fish up close and we watched as a squid was taken out to be someones dinner - I would pity it usually as it inked everywhere to avoid being caught, but as mentioned I hate squids so I had no sympathy I'm afraid, otherwise I'd feel very sorry for it.
We then had a veritable feast on board the boat and a French couple next to us almost ate their body weight in spring rolls and omelets. Afterwards we were all put on another boat to join another tour for 'happy hour' and that's when things kicked up a notch...
All of a sudden there was a live band playing in front of us, beer flowing and people getting up to sing from different countries (what did the English sing? Wonderwall of course!), the party had truly started! After a while we came to another island and loads of us jumped off the boat to join one of the crew in the sea who had set up a bar on his rubber ring! So we all swam in the sea drinking cocktails (massive measures too) and soaked up the rays before getting back on board and heading to the last island where we just sat on the beach for an hour or so.
We headed back to port having had a great time, although thankfully we weren't as worse for wear as most. We had to be up ridiculously early the next day to get the train for Da Nang so we decided to have an early dinner and drinks to keep the party going in the hope we'd sleep easily. It certainly worked, after more cocktails, beers, mains and pudding, we slept soundly when we eventually went to bed.
In all, Nha Trang has the vibe that anyone can enjoy, you could come here as a family and enjoy the beaches, you can also come here with friends and party your ass off (if you're after something Ibiza-esque, then you'll love it here). Due to our schedule our stay was short but sweet, but we definitely thoroughly enjoyed it here and would've gladly spent more time here.
Next up: a simple matter of a 5:30am train for over 8 hours to Da Nang and then a coach to the historical city of Hoi An for some ancient culture.
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