4 experiences in Con Dao should try once in a lifetime: Worth the money

Diving to see the most beautiful coral reefs in Vietnam

An extremely interesting experience in Con Dao that you should not miss is snorkeling. With its location off the southern coast of Ba Ria – Vung Tau province , Con Dao will make you ecstatic not only by the dreamy blue sea water, wonderful peaceful and pristine natural scenery, but also by the “secrets” hidden deep under the sea water. 

 

Coral in Con Dao is quite rich with many kinds of words: coral in branch form, slab form, block form, table form with various colors and shapes. Among them, there are many types listed in the list. Vietnam’s Red Book. You can enjoy swimming, watching the colorful and attractive coral reefs under the sea.
 

On the other hand, Con Dao is a place where the sea level is not too deep, so diving to see corals in Con Dao is not too difficult. Even for those of you who don’t know how to swim, scuba diving is easy with guidance. 
 

However, to explore the undersea world, you need to prepare the best health and spirit. And especially pay attention to preserving the landscape, absolutely do not arbitrarily touch or break coral to protect the natural landscape.

A few places for you to dive and see coral in Con Dao are Hon Tai, Bay Canh Island, Con Son Bay, Tai Islet, Cau Islet. The best time is from about March to September.
 

Watch turtles lay eggs at night

The summer days of July every year is the time when sea turtles lay eggs, in which there are about hundreds of individuals, including sea turtles living around Con Dao and some individuals moving from neighboring waters such as Phu Quoc, Phu Quoc, and Phu Quoc. Quy, Phu Quoc, Truong Sa, Palawan island (Philippines), Pahang island (Malaysia), Nautura island (Indonesia).
 

On the ideal large white sand beach at Bay Canh island and a few in Tre Lon island, Cau island, Tai island, Duong beach, Bang beach, Ong Dung beach, Ong Cuong beach, Dat Tham beach, sea turtles caught The first to lay eggs when it is completely dark and the tide begins to rise.
 

In the dim, dim space of flashlights, you may have to stay up all night to see firsthand how the mother turtles gradually approach the sand fan, dig holes to prepare to lay eggs, and then about 2 hours later, they cover the nest, then into the sea.
 

Visitors to Con Dao will be able to see the unique nests of this sea turtle. With each turtle in the breeding period, it can lay from 2 to 5 eggs and each nest has from 50 to 100 eggs. Besides, visitors can also work with rangers and volunteers to move the eggs to a safe place and have very interesting experiences in Con Dao .
 

Soft, round turtle eggs like golf balls will fit in the palm of your hand. Cherishing each egg containing the tiny life of this endangered sea turtle, visitors to Con Dao will be happy and have indescribable emotions.
 

After a period of incubation in the hole, the little turtles appear to be very cute and lovely and visitors can even release the baby turtles to the sea by themselves. This journey of discovery will surely bring visitors interesting experiences in Con Dao and useful lessons about sea turtles. 
 

Fishing in the open sea in Con Dao

Con Dao is located in a sea with a lot of seafood, so much so that “fishers” often say that “when you go to Con Dao, you don’t want to go fishing elsewhere”. This experience in Con Dao usually starts from January to October of the solar calendar, the favorite place of Con Dao fishermen is Con Son Bay.
 

There are 2 types of fishing here: professional fishing and fun fishing. You can join a long amateur fishing trip at sea with the end of a few dozen to a few hundred kilograms of fish.

In contrast, the duration of a “fishing for fun” trip only lasts from 1 session to 1 day, but you can still catch cobia more than 4kg, pompano or red grouper more than 2kg because as mentioned, Seafood is an available and always abundant resource of Con Dao. 
 

This Con Dao experience always gives you a very different feeling from Nha Trang or Phu Quoc: the fish are often surprisingly large.

In addition, some visitors also test their courage with shark fishing. The ideal place for this hobby is Nhat beach, located on the top of Love. The best time to go shark fishing is when night falls.
 

Visiting attractive tourist spots in Con Dao

One of the experiences in Con Dao that you definitely cannot ignore is visiting the attractive tourist attractions in Con Dao.

Con Dao Prison: The first point to visit, you should visit according to Con Dao travel experience is Con Dao Prison. Coming here, you will understand a lot more about the heroic past of the nation and understand why Con Dao used to be called “Hell on Earth” instead of “Earth Heaven” as it is today.
 

An Hai Beach: Only 10 minutes walk from the center, surrounded by mountains, so the sea is very calm, calm, small waves, clear blue water and quite warm.
 

Dat Doc Beach: Created by canyons that go deep into the coast. The beach is quite small and quiet, suitable for couples or people who like quiet beaches.
 

Ong Dung primeval forest is home to nearly 300 typical flora and fauna from the North and South and many rare products such as swiftlets, tortoiseshells, sea cucumbers, etc.
 

Bay Canh Island: This is the second largest island among 16 islands in the Con Dao archipelago. The whole island is covered with primeval rainforest and especially, here you can participate in scuba diving to see extremely interesting corals.
 

Dam Tre Bay: Surrounded by mangrove forests, at Dam Tre, visitors can not only take a boat to explore these forests but also watch nests and snorkeling to see corals.
 

Con Dao Museum: Coming to the museum, you have the opportunity to learn the history of Con Dao’s formation through artifacts, antiquities, pictures and documents from the French colonial period to the present.
 

An Hai Lake: People on this archipelago depend on their main source of fresh water supply from An Hai Lake. This is also one of the famous tourist attractions in Con Dao . Not only serving the living needs of the people, thanks to the favor from nature, An Hai lake also has charming scenery. Coming here, visitors have the opportunity to challenge conquering the majestic Holy Mountain.
 

Enjoy Con Dao cuisine

It will be remiss if you skip this next Con Dao experience. The dishes here have bold flavors of the sunny and windy sea, with unforgettable aftertaste in the hearts of visitors.

Moon Crab

This crab is named “moon” probably because on their back they have characteristic round spots like the moon. Most of the crabs on the island are caught from the sea and brought up to sell. So you can rest assured that when you buy crabs, you will always get fresh and delicious crabs.
 

Moon crab can be cooked in many ways such as boiled, steamed, hot pot, fried with tamarind, etc. You can enjoy moon crab dishes at many shops in Con Dao. If you want to buy fresh crab, you can buy it at markets, restaurants or hotels for from 270,000 to 400,000 VND per kilogram depending on the size of the crab.
 

Oyster porridge

Oyster porridge is cooked from fresh oysters, with genuine rice grains, mixed with moderate seasoning spices, sprinkled with fragrant fried dried onions, a bowl of thick oyster porridge can stop anyone’s mind from flying. Who with the perfect rich flavor. Not only delicious, oyster porridge is also very beneficial for health, supplementing substances such as zinc, protein, and vitamins.
 

Oyster porridge is quite popular in Con Dao because of its unforgettable taste that makes many tourists “addicted”. You can enjoy this specialty of Con Dao at the coastal shops with very soft price: 30,000 VND a bowl.

One sun mackerel

One-sun mackerel in Con Dao is a special dish, different from other types of mackerel. Con Dao mackerel is washed with sea water or salt water after being caught and then dried in the sun. Therefore, Con Dao mackerel does not have a fishy smell like fresh fish, it is not dry due to many times of sun exposure, but it also has a natural salty taste from the sea.
 

Coming to Con Dao, you will enjoy many delicious dishes made from mackerel. In particular, the dish that attracts the most diners is mackerel braised in tomato sauce, served with fragrant white rice. You can buy fish at many markets and supermarkets in Con Dao for from 200,000 to 500,000 VND/kg.
 

Her breast snail

This snail is not only attractive from the outside but also has an attractive taste inside. In the past, dishes made from snails could only be enjoyed by kings. Later, her breast snail became a daily dish of people going to the sea.
 

Her breast snails have many ways of cooking from baking, stir-frying, salads or mixed dishes, but the most delicious is still boiled snails. This dish is usually eaten with salt, pepper, and lemon. Snail meat is crispy, sweet, not too fatty like other snails, and not too tough like clams and oysters, and it’s just right to eat.
 

Red Lobster

Red lobster is known as the king of seafood in Con Dao. Unlike other lobster varieties, Con Dao red lobster is not that big, but the meat is tough, sweet and firm. It is said that red lobster cannot be farmed but can only be caught from the wild.
 

Therefore, to be able to enjoy red lobster, you have to spend a large amount of money not only because this food is nutritious but also because of the catching and processing stages.
 

Lobster meat is not only delicious, but along its spine and head, there is a layer of extremely nutritious yellow brick. This layer of bricks is even thicker every winter. Red lobster can be processed into many delicious dishes such as sushi, steamed, salad or porridge.

It is true that there is a different Con Dao, so excited through the above activities, isn’t it? It is true that people say that going to Con Dao will never get bored. Because if a day doesn’t like being gentle and relaxing anymore, you can still change the wind with a lot of experiences in Con Dao . Wish you have an enjoyable trip in this lovely land.