7 dive centres in Nha Trang
Our own score, not an average of guest reviews
Seven dive centres, most of them in the tourist quarter: which agency, which boat, which number
Reference photo
Reference photo
Reference photo
Reference photo
Reference photo
Reference photo
- Address
- Five of the seven are in the tourist quarter, around Mạc Đĩnh Chi, Biệt Thự and Trương Định
- Opening hours
- Boats leave in the morning; the season runs March to September, with October to December often cancelled
- Price range
- Mid (100k – 500k)
- Best time to go
- Mornings from March to September, when the water is clearest and the wind has not risen
Overview
Nha Trang is where a lot of Vietnamese divers get their first certificate, for practical reasons: the bay is sheltered, the reefs are shallow, and seven dive centres sit in more or less one neighbourhood. Five of them are within a few hundred metres of each other around Mạc Đĩnh Chi, Biệt Thự and Trương Định, so you can compare them on foot, which is rare at a dive destination.
Ratings will not choose for you: all seven sit between 4.9 and 5.0. Three things actually differ: the agency, the language, and the boat. On agencies, the two common here are PADI and SSI; both certifications are recognised worldwide, so do not let anyone sell you otherwise. What is worth asking is what language the course materials are in and how many students per instructor. On language, these centres serve Russian, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese divers in very different proportions, so ask whether there is an instructor who speaks yours, that is a safety question, not a comfort one.
On boats, the three differ clearly. Sea Star and Nha Trang Diving Club use traditional two-deck wooden boats with a roof and a table: theirs are half- or full-day trips with lunch aboard, and that lunch at LevelUp is rice, braised fish and stir-fried greens covering a timber table. Vietnam Underneath runs a boat with a wide kitting-up deck, tank racks visible along the rail. If you get seasick, ask how long the run to the site takes, most of the sites around Hòn Mun are 30 to 45 minutes from the pier.
The reef is real, but not where most people assume. Swimming and diving around Hòn Mun have been suspended since 27 June 2022, and the four areas the province approved for a trial in June 2024 are elsewhere: north of Hòn Rùa, the Vĩnh Hoà artificial reef, north-east of Trí Nguyên, and the water between Bãi Tranh and Bãi Sỏi. What is down there in this bay: black-and-yellow nudibranchs, coral grouper, anemones with clownfish, blue sea stars, and stands of branching coral still intact. There is also thin reef and murky water. Both are true, because visibility in this bay moves with the season and the site. The good diving runs with the calm sea: March to September, clearest in the morning before the wind gets up. From October to December the sea is rough and trips are cancelled often.
Four questions before booking, and they matter more than price. One: how many divers per instructor? For a try-dive that should be one-to-one or one-to-two. Two: is there an instructor who speaks a language you understand? Three: what is included: the marine park fee, lunch, equipment hire, and underwater photographs are usually extra. Four: what happens if the sea is up? A decent centre postpones or refunds rather than taking you out in swell. The sites themselves around Hòn Mun have their own page, with the marine-park fee and the clear-water season.
In the same family: diving at Hòn Mun for the sites themselves, the four-island tour if you only want to snorkel, and the other water sports: paragliding, flyboard, SUP and fishing.
Some shops, with addresses
Nha Trang Diving Club
Open map →28 Biet Thu, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa
5.0★ Google · 490 reviews28 Biệt Thự, in the middle of the tourist quarter. They shoot underwater more, and better, than the other six: a black-and-yellow nudibranch close up, anemones with clownfish, a run of branching coral still intact, butterflyfish swimming into the lens. They also teach from the beginning, with pool sessions. A two-deck wooden boat, half-day trips upward.
Reference photos from sources on the internet.
Nha Trang Sea Star Diving Center
Open map →48A Mac Dinh Chi, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa
5.0★ Google · 481 reviews48A Mạc Đĩnh Chi. And they show one thing nobody else does: a rack of BCDs and cylinders lined along the veranda, so the kit runs to several divers at once. Their sites hold a wall of barracuda, a coral grouper and a blue sea star; the boat is wooden, with a dining table in the cabin. It is a few dozen metres from Delight Diving, so the two can be compared on one walk.
Reference photos from sources on the internet.
Nha Trang Fun Divers
Open map →35 Truong Dinh, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa
4.9★ Google · 247 reviews35 Trương Định. Their boat is the Vĩnh Xanh 07, registration KH 0478, painted blue, with the name clear along the side, so you can pick it out at the pier. Their sites hold anemones with clownfish and black urchins, and some trips meet pale blue jellyfish drifting near the bottom, which is not something every trip sees. Some days the water is murky, so do not expect clarity every time.
Reference photos from sources on the internet.
Delight Diving
Open map →39 Mac Dinh Chi, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa
5.0★ Google · 123 reviews39 Mạc Đĩnh Chi, across from Sea Star. This is a place used to first-time divers: one instructor holding station beside one customer, in the pool and on the reef. Underwater there are anemones with clownfish, a red sea star, and dense small fish over a shallow patch of reef. An unusually memorable phone number, 0777 777 074.
Reference photos from sources on the internet.
Diving Academy LevelUp
Open map →64/8 Tran Phu, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa
5.0★ Google · 101 reviews64/8 Trần Phú, inside the grounds of the Phố Biển hotel. The only one of the seven that serves lunch on the boat, and that meal is better than you would expect: rice, braised fish, stir-fried greens and beans covering a timber table. Theirs is a full day with a meal in it. The office has a wall mural of turtles and rays and a mannequin in dive kit. The underwater shots are of sites at the foot of rock islands, at moderate depth.
Reference photos from sources on the internet.
Vietnam Diving and Training
Open map →Vinh Diem Thuong, western Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa
4.9★ Google · 85 reviewsVĩnh Điềm Thượng in the west. The only centre outside the tourist quarter, and that matters less to them than it might: most of their work is pool sessions and skills checks in shallow water. This is a place weighted towards training rather than selling day trips to passing visitors. If you mean to take a certification course rather than a single try-dive, it is worth the call.
Reference photos from sources on the internet.
Vietnam Underneath
Open map →Group 14 Ngoc Thao, Con Ngoc Thao, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa
5.0★ Google · 41 reviewsCồn Ngọc Thảo, an islet in the Cái river north of the centre. Their dive site has the finest branching coral of all seven: a slope of ivory Acropora covering a rock face, intact rather than broken down. That is meaningful evidence that the reef here is not all gone. Their boat has a wide deck for kitting up, with tank racks along the rail. Slightly off the tourist quarter but still in the city.
Reference photos from sources on the internet.
Addresses come from each shop's own Google Maps listing, and the Open map button opens that shop's pin rather than running a search. 18 shops on the site have no listing we could confirm, so they have no button: the address lookup returned a different business, and a button that points at the wrong place is worse than none. A Google score appears only when Maps carries both the score and the number of reviews — a bare average cannot be weighed, so this page leaves it out. Street-food stalls change hours and close without telling anyone; call ahead if you are travelling across town.
What's included
- Five of the seven are within walking distance of each other
- Two agencies, PADI and SSI, both recognised worldwide
- A two-deck wooden boat with lunch aboard is the standard trip
- The season is March to September; October to December is often cancelled
Practical tips
- Ask the diver-to-instructor ratio, a try-dive should be one-to-one
- Ask whether an instructor speaks your language, this is a safety question
- Ask whether the marine-park fee, lunch and gear hire are included
- If the sea is up, postpone, do not let anyone take you out in swell
Frequently asked
Can I dive if I cannot swim?
A try-dive with an instructor one-to-one is possible, because you are not swimming on your own, but say so when you book rather than hiding it. A certification course includes a swim assessment, so that one needs basic swimming.
PADI or SSI — which is better?
Both are recognised internationally, and a card from one is accepted at the other's centres. Do not let anyone sell you otherwise. What is worth asking is the language of the materials, the class size, and who exactly will be teaching you.
When is the best season to dive in Nha Trang?
March to September, when the sea is calm and the water clearest, and within the day, the morning before the wind rises. From October to December the sea is rough and trips are cancelled often, so if you are travelling then, do not put the dive on the last day of your trip.
This page also appears in
More in this category
Diving at Hon Mun
Rating: 4.6 / 5 — Our own score, not an average of guest reviewsThe bay's most famous dive site, and it is closed. Where the four permitted areas are
Islands in the bayCheap (under 100k)
Water sports
Rating: 4.6 / 5 — Our own score, not an average of guest reviewsParagliding off a hillside, flyboard at the marina, sunrise SUP, and a fishing boat
City centreMid (100k – 500k)
The Vinpearl cable car
Rating: 4.5 / 5 — Our own score, not an average of guest reviewsThe world's longest sea cable car. 3 km over the bay, and its towers lit at night
Islands in the bayMid (100k – 500k)