Should you go scuba diving in Nha Trang Vietnam?
As soon as I got my PADI Open water certificate, I wanted to scuba dive in every place I travelled to. Having come from the Philippines where the diving in pretty incredible, I knew finding a place around Asia that would blow me away was going to be hard. None the less, I told Tom who I was traveling with at that time that I would spend an extra couple of days in Nha Trang scuba diving.
Choosing a Scuba Dive School in Nha Trang
There are literally loads of dive schools in Nha Trang. This small beach town is littered with dive shops, all willing to cut you a good deal. After much research online, I decided to go with Rainbow Divers. The guy in the shop was very helpful and were willing to give me a good deal. After talking to them for a while, I was ready to get myself on a boat to experience the underwater marine life of Nha Trang.
Insider Tip: Based from experience, before settling on a dive school, here are a couple of questions you should ask or things you should do:
- Inspect equipment
- Check reviews online or get personal recommendations
- Find out their student to dive master ratio
- Ask how many people will be on the boat and what level your dive buddy will be (Tom and I were once paired with beginner divers so we weren’t able to see as much during that dive!)
Read: Diving Spots in Asia That Will Blow You Away
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Scuba Dive Sites in Nha Trang
Madonna Rock
My dive instructor, Duc was a tiny Vietnamese man who was nothing but lovely. He gave relatively concise briefing and made me feel safe underwater. Together with another person, we started swimming around the area. As soon as I hit the water though, I was cold! We began navigating around the area and saw some interesting marine life. Nothing mind blowing though! Apart from the water being cold, we had almost perfect conditions with an average visibility of 10m. There were some signs of coral bleaching and damage, but generally had a variety of marine life around. We did a couple of swim throughs which was nice, as well as a short visit to a small cave. This was pretty cool for me as it reminded me of the large caves and crevices that I explored while diving in Coron, Palawan.
Mama Hanh Beach
Our next dive site had a visibility of about 8m. This dive site has shallow coral gardens and a slopping reef. I saw a couple of Nemo’s (clownfish), lionfish, and some nudi branches. According to my dive master, this dive site was often used for Open Water training due to the large sandy area. There, I found both hard and soft corals, as well as many small reef fish.
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My Experience Scuba Diving in Nha Trang
Although I was generally unimpressed as I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, it was still a great feeling to be out on a boat in in the open sea. Similar to some reports, I did see some coral damage, but with that being said, there was plenty of interesting marine life to see. I went there around July and found the water rather cold. Overall, the folks at Rainbow Divers organized the trip for me pretty well. They were organized and professional throughout the whole day.
The cherry on top of everything? As soon as I got back to the dive school, there was a free BBQ for staff and guests. Now I’m pretty sure that doesn’t happen most of the time, but I was sure darn happy it happened when I was there! We all know diving is expensive, so in my opinion, if you have cash to spare, go for it. Even if you don’t see anything amazing, being able to dive in a different spot is still pretty sweet. However, if strapped for cash, you can definitely skip out on this one.
You are better off saving your money for better places like dive spots in the Philippines or for diving in Komodo National Park (the diving there was UNBELIEVABLE!!!)
