Hon Mun

Hon Mun anchors Vietnam's first marine protected area, designated in 2001, and holds the country's richest reef — surveys credit Nha Trang Bay with roughly 1,500 marine species. Granite boulders and hard coral slopes draw schools of damselfish, butterflyfish and anemonefish, while the sand and rubble between them hide nudibranchs, seahorses, frogfish and moray eels. Madonna Rock adds caverns and swim throughs down to about 30 m, and the Hon Mun Wall drops past snapper and the occasional barracuda. Dry-season water runs clear and warm; the northeast monsoon stirs it up late in the year.