A small island with Từ Tôn pagoda, 300 m offshore — you cross on a hand-hauled ferry
A hand-hauled cable ferry — nothing else like it in Nha Trang
A small pagoda alone on an island — properly quiet
Red rock shelves at dawn, extremely photogenic
Go early for good light on the red rock and a calm channel; dress modestly — it is temple ground — and leave something for the person hauling the boat.
Hòn Đỏ is a small rocky island just over 300 metres off the Phạm Văn Đồng shore, with the modest Từ Tôn pagoda set among trees and red rock shelves — the name comes from the colour the stone turns at dawn. To get across you stand on the shore and ring a bell for the boat, then sit in a small ferry hauled over the channel hand over hand on a cable.
That cable crossing is what makes Hòn Đỏ one of the strangest experiences in Nha Trang, and almost no tourist knows about it. The island is completely quiet: surf against the rock shelves, the monks' dragon-fruit garden, and the whole sweep of Phạm Văn Đồng beach looking back towards town.
Come to Nha Trang without eating gỏi cá mai and the trip is not complete
One family, one recipe, nearly 50 years. Fish landed that morning, rolled in rice paper and dipped in a secret fish sauce — the same taste since 1977.
