☰Lang Co Beach

Seafood is the reason to eat in Lang Co. The lagoon produces oysters, mussels and crab almost year-round, and the sea brings in prawns, squid and reef fish. Pick a place along the village strip or right on the sand, point at the tank, and let the kitchen do the rest.

Lobster (tom hum) is the local boast — the bay is one of the few places in Vietnam where commercial lobster farming works. Expect to pay considerably more than for other shellfish, but the quality is excellent. Steamed with ginger and spring onion is the local preparation. Most restaurants also do banh khoai (turmeric crepe) and bun bo Hue if you want a break from seafood.

Lang Co sits roughly halfway between Hue (60 km north) and Da Nang (35 km south). Most travellers arrive on the train or by road from either city.

Trains running the Reunification Line stop at Lang Co station several times a day, with a particularly scenic stretch as the track skirts the lagoon and climbs toward the Hai Van Pass. By road, take Highway 1A; you can either pass through the Hai Van Tunnel (faster, less interesting) or drive over the top of the pass (slower, spectacular). Buses between Hue and Da Nang also stop in the village on request.

Lang Co is a beach stop, not a busy resort. The pleasures here are simple: walking the sand, eating prawns by the water, and using the village as a base for the Hai Van Pass and Bach Ma National Park inland.

March to August is the season — warm sun, clear water, calm seas. May and June see the longest hours of daylight and the best snorkelling visibility.

September to November is the typhoon window, when storms can wash up from the South China Sea and leave the beach grey and rough. December to February is the cool, drizzly half of the central Vietnamese year — fine for the road trip over the Hai Van Pass, less appealing if you came for the sea.