Con Dao Island is located in the East Sea, about 97 nautical miles from the city of Vung Tau, and is endowed with stunning beaches shaded by evergreen trees, fresh air, clear blue water and primeval forests with a Abundant wildlife flocking to the island’s sandy beaches.
Vietnam tours are famous not only for the beauty of nature, but also for the culture of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people. By traveling to Vietnam, tourists can enjoy the fresh and peaceful air that only Vietnam has. It is really difficult to answer where is the most beautiful and most famous place because all of Vietnam is beautiful. And one of these places of ideas is Con Dao Island. It will be a wonderful trip to Vietnam for tourists when they come to Con Dao Island.
On a travel tour to Con Dao Island, after a 45-minute drive from Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC, tourists will arrive at Co Ong Airport on Con Son Island, the largest of the 16 islands in the district. Con Dao from Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.
The road from the airport to the center of the Con Dao Island district is over 13 km long, and winds around the coast with the sea to the left and the mountains and primeval forest to the right. Strewn along the path are red paper flowers studded with white cherry.
The first impression of downtown Con Dao is a quiet urban area by the sea with clean roads shaded by almond trees and old bang lang trees. There is a lot of new infrastructure with offices, hotels, resorts, restaurants and residential houses that has enlivened the area that used to house the bleak images of the old prison.
There are no taxis or buses, but tourists can take a xe om (mototaxi) for VND300,000 per day to tour the island and the driver will double as their local guide.
Tourists can also rent a motorcycle from VND100,000 to VND120,000 per day or a bicycle at VND30,000 per day if they are feeling adventurous.
There are also canoes with a price of VND5 million and capacity for 20 people. Visitors can stay overnight in resorts, hotels, or camp.
Although partly developed, the island is still sparsely populated, which is ideal for tourists who can appreciate the primitive atmosphere and, of course, the scenery and forget about busy city life for a few days.
Con Dao Island is also famous for the famous prison. In the second half of the 19th century, after invading southern Vietnam, French settlers founded Con Dao Prison, where they imprisoned patriotic prisoners and Vietnam’s political leaders and handled it with brutal aggression.
In the 113 years under French colonialism and invading American forces, more than 20,000 Vietnamese prisoners died in jail and were buried in the Hang Duong Cemetery.
One of the stellar attractions of this region, the Con Dao Archipelago, is slowly gaining attention for its astonishing natural beauty. Con Son, the largest of this chain of 15 islands and islets, is surrounded by beautiful beaches, coral reefs and picturesque bays, and remains partially covered by thick forests. In addition to hiking, snorkeling, and exploring empty coastal roads and deserted beaches, there are excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing.
Con Son Island (with a total area of 20 km2) is also known by its Europeanized Malay name, Iles Poulo Condore (Pulau Kun-dur), which means ‘Pumpkin Island’. Though it looks like some kind of island paradise, Con Son was once hell on earth for the thousands of prisoners who languished in confinement during the French and American regimes.
About 80% of the island chain’s land area is part of Con Dao National Park, which protects Vietnam’s most important sea turtle nesting areas. For the past decade, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) has been working with local rangers on a long-term monitoring program. During the nesting season (May to September), the park establishes ranger stations to rescue threatened nests and move them to the safe haven of hatcheries.
Other interesting marine life around Con Dao includes the dugong, a rare and little-seen marine mammal from the same family as the manatee. Dugongs live as far north as Japan and as far south as the subtropical coasts of Australia. Their numbers have steadily declined and more and more efforts are being made to protect these adorable creatures. The main threats include the development of coastal roads, which causes the destruction of shallow seagrass beds, the staple diet of dugongs.
Con Dao is one of those rare places in Vietnam where there are virtually no structures higher than two stories, and where the traveler experience is almost hassle-free. One of the special things here for the Con Dao sightseeing tour, there is not even a need to haggle at the local market! Due to the relatively high cost and inaccessibility of the islands, mass tourism has fortunately been kept to a minimum.
These days, most of the visitors to Con Son are package tours of former VC soldiers who were imprisoned on the island. The Vietnamese government generously subsidized these walks out of gratitude for their sacrifice. Foreign tourists remain few and far between, although their numbers are increasing.
The driest time to visit Con Dao is from November to February, although the seas are calmer from March to July. The rainy season lasts from June to September, but there are also northeast and southwest monsoons in the fall that can bring strong winds. In November 1997, Typhoon Linda made a number here: 300 fishing boats were lost, reefs were washed away, and forests were washed away. September and October are the hottest months, though even then the island’s cool breezes make Con Dao relatively comfortable compared to Ho Chi Minh City or Vung Tau.