Scuba Diving In Nha Trang – Is It Worth It?

A review of our experience scuba diving in Nha Trang. Is it worth it?

Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam
Scuba Diving In Nha Trang

From the cenotes of Mexico to the coral gardens in the Ningaloo Reef in Australia, we have been pretty spoilt when it comes to incredible scuba diving.

That doesn’t stop us from wanting to explore as many underwater worlds as possible, even when they don’t have a great reputation for being the best diving destinations.

The beach resort of Nha Trang in Vietnam is one place that never rates too highly on ‘must-visit’ diving lists, but seeing as we had not much else to do there, we thought we would see what was on offer.

We ended up becoming pleasantly surprised with the scuba diving in Nha Trang.

After becoming certified back in 2011 in scuba dive school on the beautiful island of Utila, off the coast of Honduras, we’ve breathed underwater in 7 countries, more than 50 times.

It surprisingly became a massive passion of ours, and is something that we hope to pursue for years to come. For this reason, we don’t mind scuba diving if the visibility is not perfect and the amount of marine life to be found is low.

We love the sensation of being weightless that you get with a scuba dive, and that is enough to draw us beneath the surface.

Check out our new guide to Travel To Vietnam.

Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam

Why Not? Scuba Diving In Nha Trang

We read a few reviews online for scuba diving in Nha Trang, and they didn’t give us much optimism. Reports of over-fishing, coral bleaching, boat pollution and little reef conservation in Nha Trang were rife across the internet.

Despite this, we still wanted to give the scuba dive in Nha Trang a shot.

While we were canyoning in Dalat we met a guy who had recently been diving with Nha Trang Fun Divers and informed us that even if the conditions themselves were pretty bad, they were the best diving shop in town, and definitely worth checking out.

We much prefer to go on word of mouth from people we meet than a dodgy trip advisor review, so we headed straight for Nha Trang Fun Divers as soon as we got to town.

Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam
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Run by Hamit, a cheerful Turkish man, the outfit seemed to be quite professional and we asked to inspect the equipment before signing up.

While not brand new or flawless, the regulators, BCDs, wetsuits, masks, and fins all seemed to be in good condition.

READ MORE: Check out our guide the best watches for diving!

The weather forecast for the next day in Nha Trang was meant to be sunny, so we felt confident in handing over our money to go see what the scuba diving in Nha Trang had to offer.

After a light breakfast, Lesh and I arrived at the store, were escorted into a van, and sent down to the Nha Trang port where our day’s adventures would set off from.

The usual pre-departure briefing took place with some scuba diving basics, and off we went into the South China Sea.

View Boat Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam
The view from our boat at our second dive site in Nha Trang.
View Boat Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam

Our Nha Trang dive master was an affable Vietnamese guy named Anh, who enthusiastically gave us the briefing for our first dive spot, Madonna Rock.

We were feeling pretty excited to jump back in the ocean, as we hadn’t been diving since completing our PADI course, wreck and nitrox specialties back in Koh Tao, Thailand.

Kitted up, we James Bond rolled our way off the boat and into the sea. It was just Lesh and I, teamed up with Anh, so we all felt pretty confident in each other’s skills.

The final ok was given, and we descended down into the warm waters for our Nha Trang scuba dive.

Visibility was a lot better than we had expected in Nha Trang – around 10m – with almost zero current. While there wasn’t an abundance of marine life, the dive was still quite fun as we hit a bottom depth of 20m and slowly started making our way up, floating amongst coral reefs, pinnacles, and rocky outcrops.

We found a few nudibranchs and some other muck life, and even spotted some moray eels, box fish, banner fish and cleaning shrimp.

The highlight for us however was a couple of narrow swim-throughs, and one small cave we explored which has always been a favourite part of diving for me.

We surfaced after 55 minutes with huge smiles on our faces. Despite the bad reports we had heard, this was pretty good!

Swim Through Cave Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam
Taking on a swim-through at Madonna Rock
Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam

We relaxed on the boat for a long surface interval before jumping back in for our second and final dive spot, Mushroom Bay near Nha Trang.

There were no swim-throughs on this one, instead we circled around a few coral heads before following a sandy-bottomed area up to one more reef outcrop.

Marine life in the coral reefs was low on this dive, but like the previous one, there was almost zero current. We spotted some more nudibranchs, a lionfish, lizard fish, and of course more than a few Nemo’s – clown fish.

Lesh and I took this opportunity to really focus on our buoyancy and calm breathing patterns. Anh stayed close by, but for the most part, left us to our own devices.

Constantly checking our dive computers and heading, we started to explore the dive site to see what we could find.

With little to see, we instead decided to do an impromptu underwater photoshoot at the dive site before making our way up for our safety stop.

Once Lesh and I got back to the boat we talked about how the last dive had probably been the most relaxing dive we had ever done.

With decent visibility, a sandy bottom, no current, and controlled breathing patterns, we really could just focus on the simple act of diving without searching for other members of a dive group or desperately trying to find SOMETHING to see. It was an incredible day of Nha Trang scuba diving.

Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam
Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam

We demolished a large Vietnamese lunch on the way back to Nha Trang, and chatted to the other divers on the boat. Besides one local lady doing her open-water (who panicked at 2m on her first dive), everyone had the same experience as us. Relaxing, pleasant, and better than expected.

Scuba diving in Nha Trang was definitely not something we had really expect to take part in when we entered Vietnam. But despite contrary reports, we were quite happy with how good the conditions were in Nha Trang.

This is not the Red Sea or Palau, but that didn’t matter. The enjoyment from simply diving is enough for us, and anything else is a bonus. As it turns out, scuba diving in Nha Trang brought far more than we had expected.

Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam
View Boat Scuba Diving In Nha Trang Vietnam
Lesh and Jazza taking an underwater selfie to celebrate their 50th dive.
About the Author - Alesha and Jarryd

Hey! We are Alesha and Jarryd, the award-winning writers and professional photographers behind this blog. We have been travelling the world together since 2008, with a passion for adventure travel and sustainable tourism. Through our stories and images we promote exciting off-the-beaten-path destinations and fascinating cultures as we go. As one of the world's leading travel journalists, our content and adventures have been featured by National Geographic, Lonely Planet, CNN, BBC, Forbes, Business Insider, Washington Post, Yahoo!, BuzzFeed, Channel 7, Channel 10, ABC, The Guardian, and plenty other publications. Follow our journey in real time on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

17 thoughts on “Scuba Diving In Nha Trang – Is It Worth It?”

  1. Sounds like you had an awesome time!! I’m trying to mop up as much SEA dive sites before I travel further out. What boat did they bring you out in?

    • Thats’s awesome. How are you going with the diving? It was a wooden local boat. Big enough for maybe 15 people with space for their gear and dive gear. Happy diving Colin.

  2. Love the article, it came up first on google. We’re getting ready to head to Nha Trang in a couple weeks and will definitely reach out to the NT Fun Divers as our guides. Overall great job with your site by the way. We’re just starting a blog which is VERY new but think you have a great style. Check us out at brokegirltravels.com. Looking forward to seeing more from you two!

    • Hope you had a great trip and your diving was awesome. We will definitely will check your site out. Happy travels Chelsea.

  3. It’s a good idea to put some more practical info, like how much did you pay for what and where exactly to find a place. Otherwise thank you. I’m in Vietnam now and I’m looking for a blogger who provide practical information. 🙂

    • Hi Elena, Glad you are looking to go diving in Nha Trang. We took the prices out of this article as we went diving back in 2015. Prices may have changed. Do contact the dive companies for prices, that would be your best shot. I am sure they will be able to help you. Happy travels

  4. Hella Alesha and Jarryd, Thanks for sharing your experiences of scuba diving in Nha Trang, Vietnam. It seems that Nha Trang is one of the most beautiful places in the world to dive. Keep sharing.

    • Thank you for reading

  5. Man I love to read this. I’m on 19 dives so far and I also think that the act of diving just by itself, is the greatest feeling on earth. It’s meditation. Thinking about all these basic things under water like simply how to breath and how to move with least effort is already amazing and for me every fish or nudibranch I find under water is a bonus. Well I mean diving with Manta Rays on Nusa Lembongan was pretty impressive just for the Mantas but in general diving is just crazy.

    • So awesome Danny. That’s great you are into diving. We agree. Everything underwater is amazing from tiny to large. We love checking out the coral too. Hope you have lots more great dives.

  6. This is very useful information about of scuba diving. I liked this post. Thanks for sharing.

    • Glad you liked our post. Thanks

  7. Thank you for your candid review of your diving experience. And I am happy that you enjoyed it. However, I can tell you that you can easily raise the bar for future dives and expectations. If your future travels take you anywhere near Bali, I would highly recommend you take the high speed morning ferry and do some absolutely spectacular dives in the area of Nusa Lembongan. World Diving Lembongan top notch.

    • Thank you for your tip David. We would love to do more scuba diving in Bali. The diving looking amazing there. One day we will get there. Happy travels

  8. Thank you for the great and informative article!

    • Glad we could help Camilla. 🙂

  9. we got plan of visiting Nha Trang this April. I heard that Sailing Club Divers is really good. Do you recommend ? Could you give your view on Sailing Club Divers?
    thanks in advance

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