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Few Vietnamese cities announce themselves quite as dramatically as Nha Trang. The bay curves in a near-perfect arc, framed by granite headlands and a scatter of islands that sit low on the South China Sea horizon, and the city itself lines up along a long seafront promenade that faces the whole spectacle head-on. It is a resort city in the most unambiguous sense, built around sun, salt water, and the particular pleasure of doing very little with great efficiency.

The promenade, Tran Phu, is the spine of visitor life, running from the port in the south up toward the older residential quarters in the north. Behind it, the grid of streets fills quickly with seafood restaurants, coffee shops, and the kind of low-rise commerce that Vietnamese coastal towns do well. The cathedral, a French colonial structure in grey concrete that manages to look older than it is, sits on a small hill just inland and gives the city an unexpected vertical accent. Further north, the Cham towers of Po Nagar occupy a rocky promontory above the Cai River, a reminder that Nha Trang was a significant centre of the Cham kingdom long before it became a beach destination. The towers date to between the seventh and twelfth centuries and remain an active place of worship.