Con Dao Islands 2027: Getting There, Turtles, Prison

Con Dao is a group of 16 islands about 230 km off the coast from Saigon, and you reach it one of two ways: a 40 to 75 minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Con Dao airport (VCS), or a 2 hour 30 minute speedboat from Tran De port in the Mekong Delta. Go for the prison history, the turtles and clear water from April to September. Skip it if you want nightlife.

Everyone stays on Con Son, the one island with a town. It is small enough that after three days you will have ridden most of its roads and eaten in most of its restaurants, which is the point for some people and a deal breaker for others. Since 1 July 2025 the Con Dao islands have been a special zone of Ho Chi Minh City, so older pages that file them under Ba Ria Vung Tau province are out of date.

How to get to Con Dao island

There is no road link, so the choice is a small plane or a long day on a bus and a boat. Prices and timetables below were checked in October 2026.

Flying to Con Dao airport

The runway at Co Ong airport is only about 1,800 m long and cannot take the A320 and A321 jets that fly most Vietnamese domestic routes. That single fact explains the whole problem. The workhorse is the 68-seat ATR-72 turboprop flown by VASCO, the regional arm of Vietnam Airlines' Con Dao route, from Saigon and from Can Tho. Vietjet started direct Hanoi and Saigon flights in April 2025 with smaller regional jets, stopped in mid-October 2025, and came back in December 2025 with two return flights a day on each route.

Few seats means two things. Fares jump in June, July and over Tet, and a full flight is full.

The airport sits at the northern tip of Con Son, about 15 km from town. Allow 20 to 30 minutes by taxi. Many hotels will collect you if asked a day ahead.

Taking the ferry from Tran De

Tran De is on the coast of what used to be Soc Trang province, now part of Can Tho city, and it is a long way from Saigon. The usual way in is an overnight sleeper bus from Mien Tay bus station, arriving before dawn, or the Superdong shuttle from Soc Trang town at about 6:00 to 6:30 am for around 60,000 VND. The boat leaves Tran De once a morning, at 8:00 or 8:30 am depending on the month, and the return leaves Ben Dam on Con Dao at about 1:00 pm.

Ben Dam is at the southern end of Con Son. Budget 15 to 25 minutes and 100,000 to 300,000 VND for the ride into town. Book on the Superdong booking site against an actual dated sailing, and keep the port office number with your ticket.

The ferry makes sense if you are already in the delta, for example after a Mekong Delta tour from Can Tho. From central Saigon, the flight usually wins.

The coast road on Con Son on a clear, breezy day. Wind, not rain, is what cancels the boats. Photo: Luke Dang; Pexels licence.

Con Dao best time to visit, and when the sea is rough

April to July is the sweet spot. The sea is at its calmest, the local dive centre counts March to September as peak season with 15 to 30 m visibility and water at 28 to 30°C, and the first turtles come ashore in April.

From October to February the northeast monsoon blows. Dam Trau beach turns rough, visibility under water drops to 5 to 15 m, and on bad days the harbour closes and no dive or snorkel boat leaves. Ferry cancellations cluster from November to January, usually announced the evening before. Many foreign visitors still come in November and December because the land is dry and warm, often 25 to 30°C, so a December trip works well for the prison sites and the beaches near town, and badly for anything that needs a boat.

Is Con Dao windy? In winter, yes, constantly.

Summer is the domestic high season. Nearly 400,000 people visited in the first half of 2025, mostly Vietnamese, and the plane is the first thing to sell out. Our month by month Vietnam weather guide covers how this fits the rest of the country.

Con Dao prison: what you are actually visiting

The French opened the penal colony on 1 February 1862, and it held prisoners for 113 years, until 1975. By the end of the South Vietnamese period there were 8 camps and 504 tiger cages across the system. Estimates of the people who died here run to about 20,000.

"The prison" is really seven separate sites in and around town, and one ticket covers them: Con Dao Museum, the French tiger cages, the Governor's Palace, Phu Hai prison, Phu Son prison (built 1916), Phu An, and the American tiger cages at Phu Binh, built in 1971. Buy the ticket at the museum, because the prison gates do not sell them. Expect about 50,000 VND, though some 2026 reports quote 40,000 for the prisons plus 20,000 for the museum. Sites open 7:30 to 11:30 am and 1:30 to 5:00 pm, and the two-hour lunch closure catches out anyone who starts at 11.

Start at the museum. The English labelling is thin, but it puts the cells in order before you see them.

A walled yard inside one of the Con Dao prison camps. Plan a full morning; the sites close from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm. Photo: sephylmism; Pexels licence.

Hang Duong Cemetery is free, and the local tourism office lists it open 7:00 am to 9:00 pm. It holds roughly 1,900 graves, only about 700 of them named. The most visited belongs to Vo Thi Sau, executed by French firing squad on 23 January 1952, and her grave is busiest after dark, when Vietnamese pilgrims arrive with flowers, fruit and incense. Go if you are curious, dress as you would for a funeral, cover shoulders and knees, and do not photograph people praying.

Is Con Dao haunted? You will hear ghost stories at the hotel. Take them as part of how the island remembers its dead.

After two mornings of cells and graves, most people want a day outdoors. If central Vietnam is on the same trip, Phong Nha's cave country is a 2-day contrast to all this.

Sea turtles on Con Dao: the 2025 rules

Green turtles nest on the Con Dao islands from about April to October, with the peak from July to September. A female lays about 80 eggs on average, sometimes more than 200, usually between 10 pm and midnight depending on the tide, and the eggs hatch 45 to 60 days later. Most come ashore on the big sandy beach of Bay Canh, an islet off the east coast of Con Son.

In August 2025 Con Dao National Park tightened how this works. Turtle watching is allowed at six sites only: Bay Canh, Bai Duong, Hon Cau, Hon Tai, Hon Tre Lon and Dat Tham beach. Each nesting site takes a maximum of 50 visitors a night, split into groups of about 10, between 6 pm and 6 am. Hatchling releases run in two 15-minute slots, 6:45 to 7:00 am and 7:15 to 7:30 am, with up to 100 people per site.

That cap is why you book ahead in July and August; overflow is moved to another beach or night. The park's ecotourism office handles registration on 0983 830 669 (Zalo and WhatsApp), and hotels can book it for you. Packaged overnight trips to Bay Canh are advertised from about 5.7 million VND per person with park fees included.

The overnight on Bay Canh is basic. You may wait hours in the dark, and on some nights no turtle comes. Rangers, not outside guides, run the beach. No torches, no flash, no touching, and take every scrap of plastic back to Con Son.

Con Dao snorkeling and diving

The reefs around the islands hold about 360 coral species across roughly 1,700 hectares, which is why Con Dao diving has a reputation out of proportion to its two dive shops. Both are PADI centres. Con Dao Dive Center, running since 2013, publishes its 2026 prices with tax and marine park fees included:

Cheaper group snorkel tours to Bay Canh, Hon Cau and Hon Tai start at about 900,000 VND, and Ong Dung beach, 4 km from town plus a short forest path, is the best snorkeling you can reach from the shore. Ask where the boat is going before you pay. On a windy day a cheap trip simply goes to whichever bay is sheltered.

Weak swimmers should ask for a buoyancy vest that fits. If you dive, put at least 18 hours between your last dive and the flight home, the standard guideline after more than one dive, which in practice means no diving on your final day.

The same headland under cloud. On days like this the dive boats pick the most sheltered bay or stay in. Photo: Khoa Nguyen; Pexels licence.

Beaches and walks on Con Son

An Hai is 1 km from the centre and calmest in the morning. Lo Voi, 2 km out, has rocks underfoot. Dam Trau, 14 km away beside the airport, is the one people photograph, with a curve of sand and planes landing over the water, and it gets rough from October to February. None of these beaches has a lifeguard.

The national park covers most of Con Son's hills. Trails such as the 2 km path to Ong Dung and the 3 km Bamboo Lagoon walk need a free registration at the ranger booth before you set off, and some close for part of the summer. Carry 1.5 litres of water each and be out before dark.

Casuarina trees line much of the Con Son shore. Grey skies like this are typical of the windy season. Photo: [Tycho] talk, http://shansov.net; CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo: Tycho, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Con Dao or Phu Quoc?

Con Dao for history, turtles and empty roads; Phu Quoc for resorts, night markets and far more flights. There is no direct flight or ferry between the two; every route goes through Tan Son Nhat in Saigon. Our Phu Quoc island travel guide covers the bigger island.

Is Con Dao expensive? The rooms are not. Homestays start around $20 a night and mid-range hotels in town around $25 to $60. Getting there, the boat trips and the few foreigner bars, which charge Saigon prices, are what cost money. Two fun dives alone cost 3.6 million VND, about $140. For cheaper island ideas, see the budget islands in Vietnam guide.

Three nights covers the prisons, one boat day and the beaches. Four gives you a spare day for the boat trip the wind cancels.

If you want somewhere even quieter, Phu Quy island off Phan Thiet is another ferry-only trip, from a different port, so do not try to combine the two on one loop.

A stream and stone weir inside Con Dao National Park, which covers most of Con Son's hills. Photo: [Tycho] talk, http://shansov.net; CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo: Tycho, CC BY-SA 3.0.

From the Con Dao islands to Phong Nha

From Con Dao you fly back to Saigon, then on to Dong Hoi, the airport for Phong Nha's caves and jungle. Because a December ferry or a full ATR can cost you a day, leave a spare night in Saigon or Dong Hoi before a trek with a fixed start.

Our gentlest overnight is Ma Da Valley Jungle Camping: 2 days, 1 night, 5,175,000 VND, from age 9, for people with little hiking background. You walk 300 m into Elephant Cave, camp beside Ma Da lake and swim through Tra Ang cave the next day. Cancel 7 days out and the refund is 100%, which matters if the island leg is weather dependent.

Book your hotel in Phong Nha town once the Con Dao return flight is confirmed.