Con Dao Islands voted among most beautiful beaches in Southeast Asia.
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Getting there requires some effort, with visitors clocking-in at the park office before beginning a four-mile hike to the beach. Once you reach the shore, however, you are met with a beautiful (and most likely completely secluded) crescent-shaped bay.
The 16 islets are situated off the south-eastern coast of Vietnam. Altogether, the islands have a total land area of about 75 square kilometres. Con Dao has great potential for tourism development, with 200 kilometres of coastline and dozens of beautiful beaches, pure blue water, and colourful coral reefs.
Last year, Con Dao Islands have been listed among the best secret islands on Earth by Travel + Leisure magazine.
The US-based magazine praised the archipelago, which is 110 miles off Vietnam’s southeastern coast, for its sheer granite cliffs bordering deserted beaches and crystal-blue water, and its superb seafood dishes. It recommended tourists to visit remote spots like the spectacular Dam Tre Bay lagoon or a French-era lighthouse on Bay Canh Island’s eastern tip.
Con Dao Islands welcomed more than 240,000 tourists in 2017, up 46% from last year. This included more than 31,000 foreign tourists. The beautiful islands earned over VND1.1 trillion (US$51.3 million) from tourism, increasing 45% on-year, according to the Con Dao People’s Committee.
Under the master plan to develop Con Dao into a tourism hotspot by 2030, the island will become an ecological, cultural, and historical tourist destination of regional and international stature.
By 2030, the plan aims to attract more than 300,000 tourists annually, of whom foreign tourists should account for 20%. The local authorities will focus on attracting domestic tourists from big cities, and foreign tourists from Japan, China, South Korea, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, among others, to fulfil this target, according to the Con Dao People’s Committee.
