Con dao island

I heard it a beautiful island and these days seeking lack of tourist there resulting affecting local business. The reason may be due to remote location, few transport options and expensive

My friends went there last month, average hotel room was 600k a night and food was expensive. They also said the new ferry was very nice,but seasickness was a big problem die to the speed of the boat. Overall they said the island is very nice and clean.

Thanks.  Two of our VN rels have opted out of the trip already because they're worried about seasickness - even though it's a hydrofoil and theoretically(!) should be smooth sailing.
Does anyone know any good midrange hotels near the beach, perhaps with a swimming pool in case we get unlucky with the weather?

akvap2013 wrote:

I heard it a beautiful island and these days seeking lack of tourist there resulting affecting local business. The reason may be due to remote location, few transport options and expensive

Côn Đảo belongs to Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu but unlike VT, mas tourism has never been the goal for the island.  The 15-year Master Plan, approved a few years ago, is to *very slowly* increase access to the island while still maintaining its unique spirituality and not creating any damage to its natural condition. 

I applaud the unusual but wise move to protect the island from being inundated with inexpensive accommodations and restaurants.  The island cannot handle that, and the locals certainly cannot handle that. 

The quality of life on the island is the best now than it has ever been, so saying the local businesses were affected by the lack of tourists is completely untrue.   The majority of income still comes from its fishing and nước mắm industry, not from tourism.  Even though there are much more tourists now than the island has seen in the last 20 years , you'll not see hotels, especially nhà nghỉ, springing up like mushrooms anytime soon.

Thanks CB - makes a refreshing change, I must say (for someone like me who was living in Nha Trang before it had any real roads and now you can't find the roads anyway, because they're full of tourists!!!).
I've had some advice from a friend who taught English on Con Dao about 12 or 13 years ago, so don't have any high-level expectations, anyway - although the Con Dao Resort looks every bit as modern as anything we've got in Vung Tau!
Another friend has put us onto a place with bungalows, which sounds more like it for us - so we'll check it out.  But if anyone else can recommend mid-range accommodation (family room pref.), near the beach and within reasonable travel distance from the prison and any other 'tourist attractions', we'd love to hear about them.
Also, does anyone have experience (1st or 2nd hand, doesn't matter) about the alleged seasickness problem with the new Con Dao Express hydrofoil?  It certainly looks big enough to give a calm ride, but we know VNs are prone to travel sickness anyway - probably as a result of growing up riding mainly short distances on a motorbike (but I'm no expert!) - and I definitely wouldn't like to be responsible for our 6yo niece (who lived 5-1/2 years in Saigon before coming to stay with us in VT) being traumatised with seasickness for three hours!!!

linhmartin wrote:

I've had some advice from a friend who taught English on Con Dao about 12 or 13 years ago, so don't have any high-level expectations, anyway - although the Con Dao Resort looks every bit as modern as anything we've got in Vung Tau!

Expect away, Martin, because some hotels cost a whole lot more than VT.   Six Senses, for instance, charges between $800 - $1000/night for your family of 2 adults and 1 child, oceanfront and your own private pool.   That's not the most expensive unit, however.  You'll have to pay triple that price to book the best one they have. 

I don't have any recommendation because the 2 times we were there, the family rented a house and shared it with us.

Thanks CB - but I can assure you that we're not Six Senses people, at least not in the travelling budget sense, anyway 

linhmartin wrote:

...Two of our VN rels have opted out of the trip already because they're worried about seasickness - even though it's a hydrofoil and theoretically(!) should be smooth sailing.

Simple cure; painful to some:

Keep your eyes on the horizon.

That means, stow the smartphones and tablets and reading material for the ENTIRE trip.

Don't give children toys which require them to focus on what's in their hands.

Also, don't go to sleep.

Ever notice that drivers don't get "car sick"?

They are the one person in the car scanning the horizon all the time and (hopefully) staying awake, looking at everything except (rarely) their hands.

Thanks OB, all good stuff but maybe a bit difficult for us - our 6yo niece won't be able to see above the walls below the windows on either upper or middle seating decks, and not too sure about moving around the cabin/s from a safety perspective (better to stay in the seats, even without seatbelts, in case of sudden 'turbulence').  That said, I guess we could try and convince her to create her own artificial horizon as the lower window edge.  But for three hours could be a tough ask!
Her usual MO for taxi and bus travel VT-Sgn-VT (couple of hours each way) is sleeping, which seems to work most of the time.  I note it's one of your no-no's and can understand the reasoning, but not sure it'll work in our niece's case(!).
We'll hopefully be able to give her a dose of Dramamine, which we've been told is an over the counter antihistamine supposed to alleviate travel sickness symptoms - but we'll check with a GP first, to make sure it's OK for kids.  If not, I have a strong feeling that she'll go to sleep and we'll just have to deal with it from there.  That said, there's one tactic that we've used with much success on past family bus/van trips, and that's to keep the VN passengers busy - usually by talking amongst themselves.
A case of, "If the cap fits...", I guess 

By way of a "Postscript", I thought perhaps worthwhile mentioning for anyone interested in the Con Dao Express hydrofoil service that it was booked out "months ago" for the May Day holiday by tourist groups from further north (those in the Mekong Delta can catch the Soc Trang-Con Dao service).  Two levels of seating (at and above sea level), with 3 prices: 660k vnd, 880k vnd and (VIP) 1.2M vnd per adult each way.  The Soc Trang service is just a bit more than 300k vnd each way, but not a daily service so potential travellers would need to plan ahead.

Ciambella wrote:

Expect away, Martin, because some hotels cost a whole lot more than VT.   Six Senses, for instance, charges between $800 - $1000/night for your family of 2 adults and 1 child, oceanfront and your own private pool.   That's not the most expensive unit, however.  You'll have to pay triple that price to book the best one they have.

Did I read that right.    Those prices should rather effectively limit the number of visitors.  You can stay in the most expensive hotels in Hawaii for those prices.   

I'll let CB respond re quoted Six Senses prices, but can say we found many cheaper hotels online.  Whether they're available or not is another matter - the CD Express apparently has no trouble filling more than 500 seats per trip!  The booking clerk said it's being actively marketed to tour groups (rather than left to individuals like a normal ferry) - with breakfast at the Muoi Da old ferry terminal restaurant and then straight onto the boat for 8 am departure.

At those ticket prices the boat will be paid off very quickly. I doubt I will bother going there, many other islands around at much cheaper prices.