Getting to Mui Ne
The closest international airport to Mui Ne is Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)
airport. The easiest and fastest way to Mui Ne by taxi, about 4.5 hours,
and probably cheaper than you think. We can arrange this for you with a couple of
days notice. There is nothing quite as reassuring, when arriving in a strange country
for the first time, as a smiley man holding up a sign with your name on it when
you come out of the arrivals hall, who then ushers you into the back seat of an
aircon taxi!
The other alternatives are to head into Saigon city centre and get a bus or a train
to Mui Ne. For either of those options you'll need to take a taxi from the airport.
Insider tip: Turn left as you walk out of the arrivals building and ignore all the
touts hassling you to take a fixed price taxi - at the end of the pickup lane you
can find a meter taxi, which will cost you half the price - around 100,000VND ($5USD).
For a bus to Mui Ne, get a taxi to Pham Ngu Lao - pronounced Fam
(as in 'dam') Noo (as in 'Sue') Lao (as in 'cow') - the main backpacker/tourist
area in District 1. There you'll find dozens of travel agencies who will sell you
a bus ticket to Mui Ne for about 100,000VND ($5USD). Buses leave at around 8am,
midday, 3pm and 8pm - if the agency you choose can't offer you a bus at one of those
times, try another agency. The journey will take 5-6 hours. If you have to overnight
in Saigon, there are plenty of cheap hotels in the same area.
Travelling by train will almost certainly involve a night in Saigon
as the train to Phan Thiet (the closest station to Mui Ne) leaves once a day at
7am. You will need to buy your ticket the day before to be sure of a seat, although
if you turn up at the station at 5.30am, you're in with a fair chance of getting
a ticket. Tickets are around 120,000VND (6USD) and the journey takes around 5.5
hours. When you get to Phan Thiet, you'll have no problem finding a meter taxi to
take you to Mui Ne, for about 180,000VND ($9USD). So, not the most direct way to
Mui Ne, but much more relaxing than the bus - and you can enjoy a few beers and
a pho bo (beef noodle soup) in the 1940s style restaurant car - we love it!
If you're coming from other places in Vietnam, drop us a line and we'll give you
the heads up on the best way to do it.