Sand boarders and sunset watchers on the Red Sand Dunes Mui Ne

Mũi Né Sand Dunes

When planning our Vietnam itinerary we never thought of stopping off at a beachy place. Vietnam and beaches never really seemed to go together in our minds but it turns out the country has it all: over 3,000 Kilometres of coastline, highlands with mountains that saw snow this last winter, beautiful countryside and scorching, bustling cities. So, we left Hoi An on a Vietnamese ‘VIP’ sleeper bus to explore the beaches of Mũi Né.

Sunset over Mui Ne Beach

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After another journey from hell – about 20 hours of cramped, stinky travel and waiting around – we stumbled off our sleeper bus as close to our guesthouse as we possibly could. Luckily it wasn’t too difficult to find and had a pretty decent view of the sunset over Mũi Né Beach that evening too.

There’s not a huge amount of things to do in Mũi Né Vietnam, especially if you’re from anywhere other than Russia; there seem to be more Russians than any other nationality here and there are many bars and restaurants lining the sandy one-street town catering for that market – I guess it must be where the Russians go for their Vietnam holidays. Since we arrived early in the afternoon we were able to spend the rest of the day checking out what was on offer; it became clear that all you can really do is join a tour of the sand dunes and the fishing village, so that’s what we did!

Mui Ne Fishing Village

Sand Dunes of Mũi Né Vietnam

There are two main sites for sand dunes around Mũi Né; the White Sand Dunes, and the Yellow/Red Sand Dunes (the more rain there is the redder the dunes look, if it’s dry then they appear yellow). Before the sand dunes though we stopped off to see the fishing village, then we got about 40 minutes on each of the dunes. I remember as a child visiting the Dune du Pilat on the west coast of France with my family; if you’ve ever been there then you’ll find that the Mũi Né White Sand Dune is very similar in that they are tourist hotspots, with a tough hot and sweaty climb to the top. The Red Sand Dune is smaller and easier to visit as it’s closer to Mũi Né and just as touristy. Here are some of our pics of the day:

The White Sand Dunes

White Sand Dunes, Mui Ne

We had to get some jumping shots in:

Jumping Shot! Amy on White Sand Dunes

Jumping Shot! Andrew on White Sand Dunes

The Red Sand Dunes

Amy on the Red Sand Dunes

Local kids were renting out their plastic sheets as boards to slide down the sand dunes:

Sand boarders and sunset seekers on the Red Sand Dunes Mui Ne

Yet another beautiful sunset:

Watching sunset on the Red Sand Dunes

Mũi Né Sand Dunes, Vietnam, Pinterest Pin

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We paid about £4 each for our Sand Dunes half-day trip, you can easily find a tour to join from any of the travel agencies in the town.

14 Comments
  • Matt Baker
    Posted at 10:27h, 02 April Reply

    The Sand dunes look fun, can’t beat a good jumping photo. We didn’t get to Mui Ne but Nha Trang was similar from the sounds of it (but maybe not as pretty – and it had a few more built up and tacky tourist resorts). It definitely had all of the Russian Tourists anyway. Bizarre when you’re not expecting it!

    • Amy
      Posted at 11:03h, 02 April Reply

      Thanks for the comment Matt. We didn’t make it to Nha Trang (except in passing) so couldn’t really compare. The sand dunes were pretty fun yeah. And you’re right, it was the fact that we weren’t expecting so many Russians that it was odd. 🙂

  • The Guy
    Posted at 16:49h, 03 April Reply

    Sliding down the sand dunes looks like a lot of fun.

    Maybe it is a big Asian thing for the Russians? I remember visiting Sanya on Hainan island a few years ago and the place was almost overrun with Russians, felt a bit like Crimea!

    • Amy
      Posted at 04:49h, 04 April Reply

      Ha! I have no idea why Mui Ne was so popular with Russians; all the restaurant menus were in Russian and catered to Russian tastes and the touts tried to greet us in Russian. It was bizarre! I’ve never seen sand dunes before so I found it pretty amazing.

  • James Long
    Posted at 04:37h, 04 April Reply

    We never made it there Amy. Will be good to see parts of Vietnam we missed in that first month long visit. The Russian spread is everywhere, we’ve seen them congregate in numerous places. On the southern Thailand islands there was loads, although not in the majority. None here in Central America but I can see why for more than the obvious reasons.

    • Andrew
      Posted at 04:52h, 04 April Reply

      There’s so much to see in Vietnam James, there will be loads you missed on your first trip! 🙂
      I have to say that if I was from Russia, I would probably try to go somewhere hot and sunny too! I guess the Americas are too far but the Thai islands are just far enough.

  • Rob
    Posted at 15:55h, 05 April Reply

    Wow you two have had more than your fair share of rubbish journeys! Still it looks well worth it for the sand dunes, lovely pics!

    • Andrew
      Posted at 06:11h, 06 April Reply

      We have indeed Rob! I didn’t mention it in the post but our backpacks in the luggage compartment managed to get soaked through too! The sand dunes were great though, worth seeing for sure. 🙂

  • Patti
    Posted at 22:47h, 06 April Reply

    That first photo of the sunset and palm trees is spectacular! I love, love, love the sand dunes and especially the jump shots, so much fun! Abi and I visited a similar place on our USA road trip, but the sand is as white as snow. I’ve marked it in the comment luv so you can see the pictures and compare dunes – although I’m too old for jump shots. I’d probably fall and break my ankle! 😉

    • Andrew
      Posted at 10:20h, 07 April Reply

      Thanks Patti, we’d simply arrived, had a little nap, then woken up to see that sunset! The great thing about sand is the soft landing while doing the jump shots too, minimal fractures! :p

  • Hitch-Hikers Handbook
    Posted at 20:42h, 15 April Reply

    Lovely photos, guys!
    If you like photography, we would like to invite you to participate in the next edition of our Travel Photography Competition. Every week we publish 3 winning shots on our website and write a nice bio with a link to the photographers’ websites/FB/Flickr pages.
    Find more details here: http://hitchhikershandbook.com/your-contributions/travel-photography/
    Happy travels!

    • Amy
      Posted at 15:05h, 16 April Reply

      Thanks for the invite; tomorrow we are flying out to the Philippines where we’re volunteering and will have very little internet. We will definitely look into your competition once we’re back online though 🙂

  • Ly Ha
    Posted at 05:07h, 23 January Reply

    Thank you for your post. My friends have been traveled to Mui Ne Sand Dunes. She talk with me that she use jeep car to go to Mui Ne. And she show image for us. I love Mui Ne Sand Dunes, Fairy Stream, … Thank you for your content.

    • Andrew Wyatt
      Posted at 17:40h, 23 January Reply

      Thanks for your comment, I’m glad you and your friends liked it!

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