A few years ago I was tasked to scout the area south of the Cam Ranh Airport as well as the bay area and neighboring Ninh Thuan province. The goals were to find spots where a beach resort/hotel could be established on an unspoiled beach with white sand and pristine, crystal clear water.
After first doing some google earth reconnaissance I contacted the local Authorities in Phan Rang and arranged a trip along the construction site of the coastal road (which is now open to the public).
There were some truly breathtaking places there and I went for test swims, snorkeling and climbed around to take photos.
While the waters were really beautiful, unfortunately it seemed that dynamite fishing has killed of all the reefs around there, so I had to tick the box “not suitable for diving/snorkeling”.
The two beaches I found the most beautiful are called “Binh Tien Beach” and “Vịnh Vĩnh Hy Bay”.
At Binh Tien it seemed as the construction of a mega resort had came to a halt (the Binh Tien Intercontinental Casino & Resort). The Vinh Vinh Hy Bay is quite nice, though it had a bit too much Vodka on the menus for my taste. One resort was under construction there too.
I can recommend to anyone to go and visit these places to see it before it gets spoiled. However, I would only spend a days trip or maximum one night since there's nothing to do and not too much to see.
Anyway, while I did see some beaches which seemed potentially suitable for a beach resort, I had to finally file my report and state that this entire beach stretch is an absolute no-go for any investors.
I came to this conclusion after doing a more in-depth research on the area. To my amazement, the local authorities in Phan Rang/Ninh Thuan are intending/hoping to develop the province into an environmental friendly holiday destination with a lot of nature and natural reserve areas where tourists can go hiking and so on. Then came the shock, they said “it will even have 2 nuclear reactors here very soon, so tourists can enjoy the view of modern technology next to paradise beaches”…
Obviously I can't tell any investor that it is potentially a prosperous location if 2 and maybe even a third NPP will be built there soon.
Nevertheless, the article in today's papers brought back memories and I thought I'd share with y'all.
Beautiful unspoiled beaches in Ninh Thuan http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/travel … thuan.html
Here a link showing a map of all planned NPP's in VN, including the 2 in Ninh Thuan, note, 2 plants are confirmed and a third one in Binh Tien is “tentative” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_energy_in_Vietnam
5* Intercontinental Binh Tien Resort http://vnre.reic.vn/2009/10/intercontin … esort.htmlhttp://www.watg.com/index.cfm/page/inte … en-resort/