Ho Tram and Ho Coc Beaches

A long stretch of fine yellow sand runs along the water. Behind it stands a row of deep green casuarinas, and beyond them a primary forest of more than 10,000 hectares lies close to the shore. This is the shoreline of Hồ Tràm and Hồ Cốc. Since July 1, 2025, it has also been a beach inside the city limits of Ho Chi Minh City.

A beach within Saigon's own borders. After Bà Rịa Vũng Tàu province merged into Ho Chi Minh City, this coast became the new Hồ Tràm commune. It covers more than 94 square kilometers and is home to about 52,000 people. From here, people of Saigon no longer have to go to another province to find the sea. The sea is already inside it.

Before that, Hồ Tràm and Hồ Cốc were two folk names for two neighboring stretches of coast. Both names begin with Hồ, the word for lake, yet there is no freshwater lake here at all. They are only place names, given after the lay of the sandy land along the shore.

Hồ Tràm lies to the south. Its beach is wide, its waves are sometimes strong, and resorts stand thick along it. Among them is The Grand Hồ Tràm Strip, a complex with an 18-hole golf course drawn up by the Australian designer Greg Norman, along with a casino and a five-star hotel. Across the whole commune, 41 tourism projects have been approved, and 12 of them are already running on about 295 hectares.

Hồ Cốc lies to the north, some 10 to 15 kilometers from Hồ Tràm. It has fewer resorts, a thicker belt of casuarinas, and waves that are usually gentler. Hồ Cốc also borders one of the most remarkable nature reserves in southern Vietnam.

This is the Bình Châu Phước Bửu Nature Reserve, which spreads over 10,537 hectares. The forest was first set aside in 1978 as a protected national forest. In 1984 it was officially recognized as a nature reserve. Inside live 732 species of plants and 205 species of vertebrate animals. The forest is closed, semi-deciduous, and moist, a tropical kind where only some of the trees shed their leaves. It is typical of Vietnam's southeast, and few places still keep it so whole.

Many rare species here are listed in the Vietnam Red Book, among them cẩm lai Bà Rịa and gõ đỏ. The list goes on with gõ mật and giáng hương. Others are bình linh nghệ and dầu cát. This is not a planted forest or a park. It is natural forest under protection.

That is what makes this stretch of coast rare. In Vietnam, there are not many places where a person can stand on white sand, look across the road, and see primary forest right there. Hồ Cốc is one of them.

The sea is calmest from November to April. The air is cooler, the waves are quieter, and the water is clear. From May on, the rainy season begins, the Southwest wind blows in, and the waves rise much higher and stronger.

The food along this coast is a pleasure of its own. There is boiled ghẹ crab dipped in salt, pepper and lime, and grilled squid with chili salt, full of aroma. There are ốc len snails stir-fried with coconut, rich and creamy. All of it is eaten right beside the water.

What makes this coast hard to forget is that three very different worlds lie along one short road. There is the wide stretch of sand, and the deep green primary forest. There is also the Bình Châu hot mineral spring, steaming in the middle of the forest, only about 6 kilometers away. In the afternoon, after a whole day in the sea, a soak in warm mineral water under the trees melts the tiredness away.

On one side, the sound of waves. On the other, the old forest breathing out cool vapor. Far off, a drift of warm mineral steam rises. Hồ Tràm and Hồ Cốc are where sea, forest and hot spring meet, right beside the city.