Intermediate Vietnam
Con Dao
A remote archipelago with Vietnam's most important sea turtle nesting beaches
An archipelago of sixteen islands less than a hundred kilometers from the Mekong Delta, protected as a national park and marked by a harsh history as a penal colony. Underwater, it has the country's best-preserved reefs and Vietnam's most important sea turtle nesting beaches.
In this profile you'll find why Con Dao is better preserved than the rest of the country, when the diveable season falls -- it's short -- what you'll see, what the conditions are like, and what level a remote, lightly developed destination demands.
It's the best diving in Vietnam and proof of what isolation and real protection can achieve, in a country where the rest of the coast is under intense pressure.
Geography and access
The archipelago is made up of sixteen islands and islets in the South China Sea, far from the Vietnamese mainland coast, and the whole area is designated a terrestrial and marine national park.
That remoteness and that protected status explain the difference from the rest of the country: less runoff, less intensive fishing, and less coastal development.
The seabed combines hard coral reefs in good condition, rocky bottoms, seagrass meadows, and sand, with generally moderate depths.
The archipelago's seagrass meadows are the dugong's habitat and support one of the country's most significant populations, though encounters are very rare.
Access is by domestic flight from southern Vietnam or a ferry ride of several hours. Dive infrastructure is small, and operations depend heavily on the season.
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