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Vung Tau

also known as Vũng Tàu, Bãi Sau, Back Beach

beginner-friendlylow crowds

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

On this page

Wind
- Month by month
Forecast
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
- Rescue
Hazards
Rules & access
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Vung Tau has no other spot on this map within 40 km of it. straight-line distance

SeasonJan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Nov, Decthe months riders and schools name How windy15-16 ktmixed Launchhugeaccess rules on record, below Watermixed30°C in summer · 8 things riders flag LevelBeginner to intermediatewith a caveat, in the Level section

Schoolsnone named here

From the airport150 minHo Chi Minh City (SGN)

When it fills in

Builds through the morning and is usually strongest in the early afternoon - a session that starts at 18 kt can be at 24 kt by 2pm

Vung Tau is a weekend beach city about two hours from Ho Chi Minh City, and the kiting is on Bai Sau, the long open beach on the seaward side of the peninsula. The town end is chop, sunbeds and swimmers.

The spot proper is the far northeast end, 13 to 14 km along the sand, where the beach runs into a river mouth and low water opens up sandbanks and knee-to-waist riding.

The season is the northeast monsoon, roughly mid-November to late April, strongest in February and March, when daily peaks average about 15 knots; 8 to 20 knots covers most sessions. It is moderate wind, lighter than Mui Ne and much lighter than Phan Rang, which is why this reads as a learning and progression spot rather than a performance one.

Tide matters more here than wind: about 2.5 metres between the day's high and low, and the run out to the river and back only works near low water. One small school in town, no rescue boat, and on most days nobody else on the sand.

The wind

locals call it Northeast monsoon (gió mùa Đông Bắc)

Direction

cross-on

Kite sizes

4567891011121314151617

metres · typical quiver highlighted

Character

mixed

fills in: Builds through the morning and is usually strongest in the early afternoon - a session that starts at 18 kt can be at 24 kt by 2pm

Typical strength

8-20 in season, occasionally 35-40 in a squall; daily peaks average 15-16 kt in February and March

Steady rather than strong. Through the northeast monsoon a daily peak above 12 kt comes on two days out of three, but hard days are rare. February and March are the strongest months.

October is the weakest and the least directional, sitting between the two monsoons with no prevailing direction at all.

Mid-November to the end of April is the settled window: dry, low humidity, small seas, gentle breeze. May to October is the southwest monsoon and the rain, with the flow lighter and swung round to the southwest; the school runs then only when the forecast allows.

Also on record

10-12 in February and March, 7-9 in the September-October low

The quiver, in words

Teaching is done on an 11 m. For a 75-85 kg rider the season's 8-20 knots means a 12 m on the common 10-14 knot days, 9-10 m at 15-18, and 7-8 m on the 18-25 knot afternoons at the river end.The bigger sizes are indicative, read off the wind range; 6-8 m matches what has actually been ridden there.

Direction to shore

Cross-onshore, arriving from the left as you face the water. The sand runs southwest to northeast, so the shore looks out to about 139 degrees and the season's E to ENE flow comes in at a slant: due east is the more onshore of the two, ENE is close to sideshore.Taken off the beach line on the map rather than from a local account.

Dominant direction

E to ENE from November to April; SW from June to September, when it is lighter

Forecast

Month by month

Jan, riders' month83
Feb, riders' month99
Mar, riders' month90
Apr, riders' month61
May68
Jun67
Jul82
Aug87
Sep81
Oct56
Nov, riders' month78
Dec, riders' month60

per cent of the month at force 4 or more

Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Nov, Dec.

15Jan28°
17Feb28°
16Mar28°
13Apr31°
13May32°
12Jun31°
15Jul30°
14Aug30°
14Sep30°
12Oct31°
14Nov30°
13Dec29°

avg knots per month · water °C below · season highlighted

Month	Force 4+	Knots	From	Air	Water
Jan	83%	15 kt	E	26.2°C	27.8°C
Feb	99%	17.4 kt	E	27°C	27.7°C
Mar	90%	16.2 kt	E	27.3°C	28°C
Apr	61%	12.8 kt	SE	29°C	30.6°C
May	68%	12.7 kt	WSW	29°C	31.5°C
Jun	67%	12.4 kt	WSW	28.4°C	30.9°C
Jul	82%	14.6 kt	WSW	27.6°C	30°C
Aug	87%	13.9 kt	WSW	27.9°C	30.3°C
Sep	81%	14.2 kt	WSW	27.3°C	29.9°C
Oct	56%	11.5 kt	E	27.1°C	30.6°C
Nov	78%	13.7 kt	E	27.4°C	30.1°C
Dec	60%	12.6 kt	E	26.8°C	28.8°C

modelled

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

Modelled from weather reanalysis on a 10–25 km grid (2022-2024), not a ground station: reliable for trade and synoptic winds, understates thermal sea breezes and valley winds. The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

ERA5 reanalysis grid point (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical weather API — ECMWF ERA5/ERA5-Land reanalysis, not a ground station · 2022-2024

The water

Type

mixed

Standing depth

Waist deep and less over the sandbanks at the northeast end near the river mouth; a channel roughly 30-40 m wide runs deeper close in there. The main beach in town shelves normally and is not a standing spot.

Tides

Mixed semidiurnal with a big daily inequality: two highs and two lows, but only one of the lows drops far enough to matter. Across 7-13 September 2026 the first low of the day sat between 1.2 m and 3.0 m while the second fell to 0.4-1.1 m, with the highs at 3.1-3.6 m.A normal day gives about 2.5 m between the highest and lowest water and a spring day about 3 m. The sandbanks at the river end only open around the day's deep low, so the window is once a day, not twice.

Temperature

30°C summer · 27°C winter

Wetsuit

None. The water sits around 27C in the January-March kite season and near 30C the rest of the year.

Currents

The river mouth at the northeast end moves water, and fishing traps and stake palisades stand in the shallows around it. Rip currents show up on the open beach at times, which is why swimming is confined to buoyed zones.

28–32°C water

Two spots on one beach. The town section is chop with a small shore break. The far northeast end, where Bai Sau meets a river mouth, dries to sandbanks at low water and gives real flat riding, and low tide uncovers an outer bank running more than a kilometre.

Your level

beginnerintermediatenot for advanceds here

A learning and progression spot. Flat shallow water at the river end, a broad beach with room to walk a kite, moderate wind and small waves. It is lighter than Mui Ne and much lighter than Phan Rang, so a rider chasing power or size will be undergunned most days.

Ratings up to expert circulate; nothing found supports them.

The scene

What riders come here for

learningfreerideflat waterdownwinders

A domestic weekend-beach city, not a kite town. One small school, a handful of riders, and the rest of the beach given over to swimmers, sunbeds and seafood. The town end fills on weekends and around Tet, 30 April and 2 September, when rooms go two weeks ahead.

Walk northeast and it empties; at the river you are usually the only one there.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

No school names this spot

Nobody has been recorded teaching or running a boat here.

On your own

Room to launch: huge

access rules on record

Somewhere else

No neighbour on record

No other spot in the atlas sits within reach of this one.

Rescue

+84 939 752 215

The school covers its own lessons and nothing else. No rescue boat. Municipal beach cover applies to the buoyed swimming zone in town, not to the empty northeast end, where you can be alone for kilometres. The school's number, +84 939 752 215, is the only local contact worth carrying.

Launch

Bai Sau runs along the seaward side of the peninsula and widens a long way at low tide. The town end - Thuy Van road, hotels, sunbeds, swimmers - is where the school works.The spot proper is the far northeast end, where the sand meets the Cua Lap estuary and the sandbanks form; measured on the map that is 13.8 km from the town beach on a bearing of about 049. Most people ride a motorbike along the sand to get there at low tide; the inland road route is awkward.

Space

huge

Hazards riders report 8

shared beach with swimmers and other water-sports traffic at Back Beach
Swimmers and beach traffic at the town end
Jet skis and rented craft in the town section
Fishing traps and stake palisades in the shallows near the river mouth
A rising tide can cut off the ride back along the sand from the river spot - go and return near low water
Rip currents on the open beach at times; swimming is restricted to buoyed zones for that reason
Squalls can push the wind well above 20 kt with little warning
No rescue boat and no phone-a-friend at the far end of the beach

Rules & access

Bathing on Bai Sau is restricted to the buoy-marked safe zones, and currents running away from the shore show up at times (2026). No kitesurf-specific municipal or provincial rule was located, and no designated kite zone or permit requirement was found; treat the swimming zones as off limits and ride away from them.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Rider tips

Ride northeast to the river mouth for the flat water; the town section is chop, swimmers and rented jet skis.
Go out on a falling tide and be back before the water covers the sand. People get stranded doing it the other way round.
Aim for February and March. October is the weakest month and has no prevailing direction at all, sitting between the two monsoons.
Wind builds through the morning, so plan the session for the early afternoon.
The school rents gear and repairs kites, and that is the only kit support in town, so bring spares if you are fussy about your setup.
Only one of the day's two lows drops far enough to uncover the sandbanks. Work out which one before you plan the run.

Getting there

Airport

Tan Son Nhat, Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)

Route

Buses leave Ho Chi Minh City all day down Highway 51: 2 to 2.5 hours, 100,000-150,000 VND a ticket (2026). Driving is about 101 km and closer to 1h40 clear of traffic, then Thuy Van road runs along Bai Sau.Since the 2025 administrative reorganisation Vung Tau is a ward of Ho Chi Minh City rather than the capital of its own province.

Transfer

150 min

Cost level

Low. Domestic-holiday pricing, with a spike over Tet and the national holidays.

Staying

Hotels and guesthouses line Thuy Van road along Bai Sau, from cheap rooms up to mid-range resorts. Rooms sell out around two weeks ahead for Tet, 30 April and 2 September.

No-wind days

Front Beach (Bai Truoc), Bai Dau and Bai Dua on the sheltered western side of the peninsula, seafood along the front, and a run up the coast to Ho Coc and Ho Tram.

Photos

coastal panorama from Vung Tau lighthouse — Damian Vo / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

alternate angle of the coast from the lighthouse — Damian Vo / CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

FAQ

How do you get there?

Vung Tau is a seaside resort city about two hours from Ho Chi Minh City, and historically Vietnam's original beach-resort town.

What beaches are used?

Back Beach (Bãi Sau) is the main long sandy beach, alongside Front Beach, Strawberry Beach and Pineapple Beach.

Are there hazards?

Back Beach is shared with swimmers and other water-sports traffic such as parasailing and canoeing.

Last updated: August 2026