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Nha Trang, Vietnam: Having the monsoon-season promenade entirely to ourselves

Nha Trang in December 2025: monsoon-grey skies, a nearly empty seafront square and the lotus-shaped Tram Huong Tower rising all to ourselves.

December 2025 gave us Nha Trang in its moody off-season colours, and honestly, we didn't mind. Monsoon season means dramatic skies and famous landmarks with nobody else in the frame.

Nha Trang in winter, when this coast looks nothing like the brochure. Watch on YouTube

Winter isn't the Vietnam most people picture, and this stretch of the south central coast is where that lands hardest. The sky comes in low off the sea, the beach empties out, and the whole place slows to something much quieter than the summer version. We weren't expecting it either, which is more or less the point of the film.

Inga and Dileep standing in front of the white lotus-bud shaped Tram Huong Tower on Nha Trang's seafront square under heavy grey clouds
The Tram Huong Tower, a lotus bud on the seafront, with December clouds handling the set design.

Photos from Nha Trang

One day in the middle of December 2025, from the arrivals hall at Cam Ranh to the seafront in the afternoon. Grey the whole way through, and quiet in a way this coast usually isn't.

Passengers with backpacks walking through the arrivals doors at Cam Ranh airport beneath large yellow letters reading Welcome to Cam Ranh
Cam Ranh, the airport for Nha Trang, and about forty minutes of coast road still to go.
Inga in sunglasses raising a tall red fruit drink at a rattan seating area under a parasol, a bright green juice in the foreground
Nobody competing for the good seats, so we took our time over two very large drinks.
Dileep in a straw trilby and Inga toasting green and red drinks across a rattan table set with small plates, palm trees behind them
Lunch on the seafront under the palms. Off-season means you get the whole terrace.
Inga sitting on a white wooden bench framed by an arch of red berries and frosted pine branches, with the grey sea and a distant headland behind
Frosted pine and fake snow, thirty degrees, and a monsoon sea behind it. December in Vietnam is a mood.
Inga standing alone on the wide empty plaza in front of the white lotus-shaped Tram Huong Tower under a flat grey sky
The whole plaza, all of it, entirely ours. In July there would be a queue for this spot.

Bring a light jacket, keep your expectations of a tan modest, and enjoy having the promenade to yourself.

One more from that beachfront lunch

Somewhere between the drinks and the walk up to the tower, this landed on the table: noodle soup in one bowl, and a second bowl of herbs, beansprouts, lime and crispy bits to tip into it at your own pace. Chilli and sauce came in their own little saucers, because of course they did.

Inga in sunglasses holding chopsticks above a bowl of noodle soup, a second bowl of fresh herbs, beansprouts and lime beside it, with a garden gazebo and white parasol behind her
Assembly required, which is half the pleasure. The weather made no difference to this part at all.

The films from Cam Ranh airport

Cam Ranh has two lounges worth knowing about if you fly in or out on a pass. We filmed both, and each has its own story.