CaraBeach Retreat Cam Ranh

This is a different proposition from the rest of Bai Dai. Instead of a multi-storey block, CaraBeach is fifty low-rise bungalows of 30–40 m² standing on the sand along about 1.7 km of shore. Step out of the door and you are on the beach. No lift, no lobby.

The grades sort by distance to the water: premium beachfront, twin beachfront, ocean view and garden view. The gap between beachfront and garden is usually significant, so if you spend most of your time on the sand anyway, the garden grade is the sensible saving.

Fifty units means quiet. Quite unlike the four- and five-hundred-room resorts on the same beach. In exchange there is less to eat: CaraBeach House, the Tacerla bistro and a beach bar, so three places rather than the six restaurants at Duyen Ha.

The usual Bai Dai constraints hold: almost nothing to eat outside, and central Nha Trang thirty to forty-five minutes away. With only three places on site, a stay of four or five nights makes it worth asking about board options and a shuttle before booking.

Other places to stay in Bãi Dài and Cam Ranh: Meliá Vinpearl Cam Ranh Beach Resort, The Empyrean Cam Ranh Beach Resort, Duyen Ha Resort Cam Ranh. The beach for this whole strip is Bãi Dài; on the way back to the city, Từ Vân pagoda.