Quat Lam Beach

For people in northern Vietnam, Quất Lâm is a familiar name. Many generations have come here to swim, eat seafood and rest for a few days before heading home. It is simple, with no frills.

Now Quất Lâm is changing. The beach itself is not what is changing. Everything around it is being arranged anew.

On July 1, 2025, the old town of Quất Lâm stopped being an administrative unit of its own. It merged with two neighboring communes, Giao Phong and Giao Thịnh. Together they became Giao Ninh commune, in Ninh Binh province. On the new map, the place is Quất Lâm beach, in Giao Ninh commune. Call it by the old name, and people there still understand at once.

Quất Lâm is a beach for ordinary people, and there is nothing wrong with that. But now the area wants to add more. It wants to link the beach with wetlands, with coastal craft villages, with the lives of fishing families, and with the food and customs of the region. A beach is meant not only for bathing, but for living alongside a whole stretch of seaside countryside.

In 2024, the old Nam Định province approved a large plan for the Quất Lâm tourist area, covering 250 hectares. It includes a swimming area, a sports area, a golf course and high-end amusements. This is a long-term dream for a whole stretch of coast. For now, Quất Lâm is still taking its first steps, building as it goes.

Over the holiday of April 30 and May 1, 2026, about 10,000 visitors came here to play and swim. That is 10,000 people in just a few days. The figure shows that even while it changes, Quất Lâm is still the name northerners think of whenever they think of the sea.

Quất Lâm has also bent under a storm. In the storm season of 2025, the third storm of the year, named Wipha, came ashore. It battered the western sea wall of the tourist area. The wind and waves of open water have never been a joke for a strip of sandy shore. The people set about rebuilding again, as they have done for generations, each time the sea rages and then returns gentle.

Standing on the beach, a visitor sees two things at once. One is a familiar shore, tied to the memories of many generations of northerners. The other is a land renewing itself, writing the next chapter of its own story.

In the afternoon, as the sun softens, the sea at Quất Lâm turns an orange gold. Children run after the waves, and adults sit beside plates of hot seafood. Laughter mixes with the sound of waves on the shore. It is a plain beach, without frills, yet it stays in the hearts of those who have been there.