Side Trips

Budget tourists rave about Jungle Beach. Run by a Canadian expat, the place is eco-friendly, basic living at beachside. Jungle Beach -- a quiet, rustic homestay -- is located 60km (37 miles) north of Nha Trang by road. There are three rooms in a longhouse and nine basic cabanas made of bamboo catay and thatch (lots of guests even sleep out in the hotel looking up at the open sky -- under a mosquito net, of course). This is for folks who like living close to the land -- real close to the land -- in a low-luxe alternative to the more comfortable Whale Island . Rooms have shared bathrooms. Food, included in the affordable rate, is home-cooked and all you can eat (though not drink; you have to pay for your own booze). They offer trekking trips right from the cabana site, or you can just hang out in a hammock or on the beach. Rooms, including meals, are 250,000 VND ($17/£9.40) per day/night. Contact them by phone at tel. 058/622-384 (mobile phone tel. 091/429-144) or e-mail Syl at syl@dng.vnn.vn. Make a reservation and they can help you get to the beach. On your own, expect to pay about 300,000 VND ($20/£11) by car from Nha Trang (100,000 VND/$6.65/£3.70 by motorbike). You can also ask tourist or local buses from Hoi An or Nha Trang to drop you off at Doc Let, and from there get a ride with a motorbike taxi driver for just 50,000 VND ($3.35/£1.85).

If you ever wanted to be a castaway on a little coconut island, here's your chance. Thanks to great new roads, Whale Island is just a few hours' drive north from Nha Trang and a 10-minute boat ride offshore. Set in the crook of a long peninsula, not far from the easternmost point in Vietnam, Whale Island is surrounded by tranquil waters year-round, and but for a few small fishing villages, you have the place to yourself. The island has just one all-inclusive resort, the brainchild of a longtime French expatriate and his Vietnamese wife who've been attracting their own small contingent of mostly expatriate clientele for some 7 years now. The idea is to get away from it all, and to frolic on the beach or explore the underwater life on good scuba trips sponsored by the island's exclusive operator, Rainbow Divers. You can also take good hikes around the island, and there are sailboats and canoes for rent.

Word has it that Whale Island was the auspicious site where scuba co-inventor and famous aquanaut Jacques Cousteau, while on assignment as part of a scientific mapping expedition, witnessed pearl divers staying underwater for what seemed an eternity and saw that they were using tubes from the surface. This experience inspired him to create, along with a team of scientists and engineers, the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus system that we rely on now. Maybe you'll find your own inspirations on Whale Island.

Leaving Nha Trang early in the morning on one of the resort's shuttles (included in the package), the road north takes you through some scenic areas, along low-lying rice lands spotted with Chinese tombs and white egrets flying overhead. Near the coast, pass by miles and miles of fish farms and rows of rickety stilt houses lining salt flats. As the road approaches the end of the peninsula adjacent to Whale Island, you pass along a spit of high windswept dunes and a high beach buffeted by massive crashing waves -- very dynamic.

Diving is shallow coral diving, and visibility is not spectacular but comparable to areas off of Nha Trang. The area has been ravaged by dynamite fishermen, but isolated dive sites, most near Hon Mun Island, mean you won't be crowded by big groups and there are good chances of seeing big fish, sting rays, and even whale sharks in the right season. Dive season is from November to February.

The nearby fishing villages are also worth a visit when snorkeling, and there are some great little trails all over the island that lead to secluded beaches, all well marked with signs and paint splotches on the exposed rock areas.

The transfer to the island costs $40 (£22). Subtract that from the rack rates listed if coming with your own wheels.