i recently spent 5 nts in vung tao. a resort type area about a 2 hr drive from saigon. taxi from sgn was 800,000 dong and i told the driver i'd give him a good tip if he drove safe and sane (i paid 1,000,000 with tip, about $65USD). i took a girl from sgn with me.

two main areas in vung tao, front beach and back beach. front beach is a cove/harbor (no real beach) and the back beach is a long, sand beach (but not real nice/clean). i stayed in the front beach area and was glad that i did. while back beach had the real beach, it was quite windy both times i visited and didn't quite have the restaurant/bar scene of front beach.

strolling around the town in the front beach area was nice. could walk from one side to the other in about 15 minutes. i stayed at the Hai Yen hotel at 8 Le Loi. no internet site or email. i just dropped in here. i had to book two rooms, one for me, one for the gal. cost for both was 550,000 dong (about $35USD). the big room had a nice view, like the lihn in sgn, looked out over a vacant lot to the water/harbor. the lady at the front desk says they are likely to renovate the place sometime this year. the inside of the rooms was not real nice but no bugs and can't complain for the price (no internet, restaurant, pool, etc..).

there are lady bars like the one's i described in my sgn trip report from sept 07. most of them are near the palace hotel which is on one end of the front beach area. others are on the opposite end of the harbor near the hai yen. i looked into a few of these and the talent seemed the same as saigon. never took any out though. i stuck with the one i brought.

i was told by the staff at hai yen that the rex and palace hotel also require the two room thing but you only get one room. they just charge another $30US and act like you have a second room.
these two properties are much nicer than the hai yen and i think they run about $50US.

restaurants: Pho 24 (noodles), good morning vietnam (mainly italian), and whispers (large western menu, white table cloth) were my main dining selections. there was a nice open air, upstairs bar (2nd floor) that had a decent view of the harbor/sunset. near my hotel on le loi. i think it was part of the pacific hotel but not positive. several of the girly bars were on the side street next to this bar.

i had hoped to go to nha trang but the plane couldn't land due to weather. limited to visual landings at the airport. i tried two days in a row. both times had to return to sgn.

so took vung tao as a second choice. fairly quiet place but it was a nice change from the city. will try for nha trang next time.

i paid my gal $50/day and $20 of that went to her bar.