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| North of Nha Trang |
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| Tide Hotel Our Balcony Sth |
It is only a 45 minute flight from Saigon Airport to Nha Trang’s Cam Ranh Airport. Unfortunately the Vietnam military took over the airport area close to town and the new Cam Ranh airport 35k to the south serves Nha Trang.
We were headed to the Tide Hotel which is another 5k or so further on North of Nha Trang city and the main tourist area. We deliberately selected a hotel out of town away from most of the hustle and bustle.
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| Tide Hotel Our Balcony East |
It is a 40klm taxi ride from the Airport to the hotel and should cost between 180,000 – 270,000 dong ($9 – $13.50) however if you ask to have the meter on the metered fare will be much higher our meter was reading 430,000 dong when the driver pulled up two doors down from the hotel (a sure sign something was not right). Our reseach and the online avice by the Tide hotel had wised us up to this scam. Trish and I already had a plan should the driver not pull up at the hotel door. Trish would get out and go to the hotel reception and I would slowly unload the luggage. It worked a treat Owen and Mai (the hotel owners) came out immediately and sorted out the correct taxi fare while we went into the Hotel.
Throughout our stay Owen, Mai, Tram, and Laun of the Tide Hotel were very helpful and we felt very at home and comfortable there. We found the Tide hotel a great place to stay. We had a 2nd floor air-conditioned front room with a balcony overlooking the beach. Hotel rate is about A$13.00 per night!!!
First afternoon was one of rest and sitting on the balcony , watching the world go by and enjoying the view.
There are many local restaurant’s nearby predominately serving fresh seafood which is brought in from the fishing boats and fish traps in round wicker boats onto the beach in front of the hotel.
Be warned that most of the eating places in this area do not have any menus in English. We did find one recommended by Owen the owner of the Tide hotel only a short walk away that he had translated the menu for. Just like Thailand everywhere we ate had one thing in common – great food and cheap too!!
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| Tide Hotel Room |
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| Nha Trang North |
Hotel Review for Trip Advisor
We chose to return to Darwin Via Vietnam to ‘check it out’ We used trip advisor a lot and booked this hotel in Nah Trang based on the reviews. It was just what we were after out of town a little and right on the beach with an ocean view from the balcony. It was better than we expected and lives up to the high reviews posted here. Owen, Mai, Tram, and Laun are
friendly and made us feel at home as soon as we arrived by helping us with the taxi driver and making sure we only paid the appropriate fare. Please see the ‘taxi’ link on their webpage we found it very helpful.
friendly and made us feel at home as soon as we arrived by helping us with the taxi driver and making sure we only paid the appropriate fare. Please see the ‘taxi’ link on their webpage we found it very helpful.
There had been torrential rain before we arrived and there is some water staining on the walls from the bricks but this is really a minor cosmetic issue and did not bother us at all. Sitting on the balcony looking over the beach watching the world go by more than made up for it!!
We found the room comfortable the aircon is quiet works great and hot and cold water in the bathroom. There is also a small fridge and free wifi in the room .
The bus which stops outside the hotel cost 15c or a cab ride into town is only a couple of dollars.
The food is great near the hotel and cheap. Be warned there is not much English spoken here and many do not have menus in English. Next time we will be better prepared and learn some of the names of some of the dishes.
As the balconies are above the road on the ocean side there can be some traffic noise in peak periods and into the early evening. Using the horn here is just part of normal driving! It did quieten down later in the evening and did not disturb our sleep. It does start up again in the early morning though.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and will be going back as soon as we can