Ly Son Island is a hidden gem in Vietnam completely off the beaten path. Few tourists venture here because, usually, everybody stays on land. Besides Phu Quoc, I would say that all islands in Vietnam are kinda unknown to tourists. I found Ly Son Island by searching on Google Maps for dots of land around Hoi An haha. This is many times how I find spots to visit- by searching the map on satellite mode.
How to get to Ly Son Island HERE!
There isn’t much on the web about this place and it feels like the only foreigners venturing here are expats. This island was a total discovery. I was not sure about what I would find, I only have seen enough beautiful beach pictures to convince me to go there. I’m so happy I decided to do so. This island is much more beautiful than I was expecting and it exceeded my expectations, for real!
The island is small, but not small enough to discover on foot. So, renting a motorbike is absolutely needed. There are no taxis or whatever here. Just these buggie cars that I’m not sure how to book.
Anyway, on my first day on the island I had an afternoon to explore so I walked to some spots nearby.
Dien Tho Phat Mau Ly Son
My first stop was Dien Tho Phat Mau Ly Son a Cao Dai temple that looks stunning in its location. While walking there I came across the fishing area where lots of boats are docked and people seemed to not see foreigners a lot. You know a place is not touristy when everybody is shouting “hellos”, especially children. Sad is when they ask you for money just because you are a foreigner. I hate when this happens and I instantly feel like a walking money bag. Sometimes I wonder if they are genuinely nice or if they want something extra. Anyway. It is sad because someone taught these kids that foreigners mean money because they were simply playing happily and once they saw me they stretched their hands. Takes the smile away from my face instantly.
Anyway, I knew people were staring as I walked along the very empty street. If not many foreigners are seen there, even fewer are seen walking along the streets haha.
There was a fishy smell along the way, and dirty water was common. Trash was constantly seen… I will not romanticize it. The island’s natural beauty is stunning, but the beaches are very dirty, most of them. There is trash everywhere. What a pity!
So I walked to this big colorful temple that belongs to this Vietnamese religion called Cao Dai. This is a religion invented in Vietnam and let’s say kinda recent. From my understanding, it mixes ideas from all the other already existing religions. Therefore, you will only see these temples in Vietnam. They are super colorful and beautiful! I love them! This one had a hill behind it and was surrounded by garlic fields and a cemetery. The scene looks pretty to look at. If you have never seen a Cao Dai temple, they are worth a check.
Cong To Vo
The temple isn’t far from Cong To Vo, a popular attraction on Ly Son Island. It is a rock arch by the beach. Not sure why it is an attraction but yeah! It is not that big or impressive, but nearby is a stretch of beach that has beautiful clear waters. This place gets pretty crowded at sunset time. People taking pictures, but also people filling bags of sand… I don’t know what is going on here but I have never seen so many people at the same time collecting bags and bags of sand from the beach. No idea what are they doing with all this sand, but it was a very common sight on Ly Son Island.
From the arch, I kept going to the further end of the beach across this beautiful triangular rock formation covered in green. What a beautiful landscape here. Pity the beach was so dirty. I literally found a stinky pile of trash floating there, so nasty OMG. This part of the island was the dirtiest I have seen. The beach is filled with trash, such a pity because the views are gorgeous.
Chua Duc
Just next to this triangular rock is another temple but a Buddhist one this time. There is a giant lady Buddha statue and it is possible to climb behind it to the top of the hill and therefore have amazing views of the surroundings. The beach looks much better from up there and several shades of blue are seen. Pretty!!
On the next day, I explored Ly Son Island by motorbike. I rented it at my homestay. They charged 150K dong for an automatic motorbike and 100K for a manual one. I have never ridden a manual one, so I went for the automatic. Later on this trip, I had to learn how to ride a manual one after all haaaa.
So I started my day early, and the first place I headed to was this beach that was supposed to be the best on the island.
Hang Cau Beach
So I drove my motorbike all the way to Hang Cau. The streets on Ly Son Island are good, there is no traffic and riding is chill and pleasant. Love riding in spots like this.
This beach is absolutely gorgeous from above OMG! I was not expecting this at all. The whole surrounding area seen from the top of the hill is just stunning! I was not prepared for it haha.
The beach itself is very pretty. Has nice colored waters, and tall rock formations surrounding it providing much-needed shade. There was a swing and a few restaurants nearby. Further from the beautiful rocks the beach is not as clean anymore, but still beautiful from above.
Cot Co To Quoc Dao Ly Son
I kept going higher on my way to Cot Co To Quoc Dao Ly Son, a sort of pilar with a Vietnamese flag, but that was not the interesting point. On the way to this spot, you will see the most beautiful landscape the island has to offer. Countless shades of blue that the ocean reveals, and you can see the coral formations, crystal clear water, and a waterfall just there on the cliff, falling straight to an inaccessible beach WOW! What a stunner honestly. This place was able to blow me away. I’m a sucket for shades of blue haha. This type of landscape will have me all the time, even though there is no way this can beat the Great Barrier Reef from above. I stayed on the cliff for a long time admiring what was around me. I was truly surprised and impressed with the view. The pictures can’t tell it all.
Highest Point on the island
From this absolute stunner, I intended to keep going until the street ended, as high as one can be on the island, where one seems to have a great view of the countless garlic fields on Ly Son Island and the old volcanic crater. But, I was stopped by a military man waving his arms indicating I couldn’t go any further! What? I was so disappointed! The place seemed to have one of the best views of the island and it was a military base. It was not the 1st time this happened to me in Vietnam though. In Nam Du island the same occurred. The highest and best view of the island belonged to a military base. The same seems to happen here or I was simply unlucky. I don’t know. The truth is that I couldn’t proceed. So I went back to the pilar. There should be a way to get a nice view around this place… I noticed a cow path. There were lots of cows around munching on the grass and I followed this dirt path into the bush to find a beautiful and new view of the island! Woah, so nice here. I think people don’t follow this path unfortunately cause the view here is really cool! I could see some of the garlic fields and more beaches with stunning shades of blue too! The ocean around this island is really beautiful!
I tried to follow this path even further so I could look into the volcanic crater, but at some point, there was this huge scary cow in the middle of the path. It was frightening though. I followed the dirt path until the ground was too muddy and looked like a stampede of cows had passed by. It didn’t look like any humans were walking there so I gave up on following it. Those cows weren’t scared, I had one chasing me for a bit, so nop, I don’t want this confrontation to happen and I confess I was a bit scared too.
Nui Thoi Loi
So, on to my next point: Nui Thoi Loi. This is another viewpoint to another side of Ly Son Island. Among all these viewpoints, I could almost get a 360º view of the island. This viewpoint- Nui Thoi Loi offers a sight of another part I didn’t see before. From here you can actually see a volcanic crater filled with water. You can walk around, but the crater is not amazing whatsoever. On the other hand, the view of the ocean and villages down there is beautiful and worth it. Such a beautiful island wow.
I visited this island during the Tet holiday, and I’m not sure if because of that, but I didn’t see many eating spots. After all these views I went to try to find a place to eat and I found a really nice spot by the ocean. The nicest spot I have seen to hang out for a drink for example. Unfortunately, the food offer wasn’t much and I had to go for instant noodles haaaa again. Whatever. The place is super colorful and also provides accommodation. I saw several foreigners that were staying in those rooms. They weren’t the cheapest though but a very nice option to stay a few nights on the island to be fair. This place is called Homestay Ca phe Huy Nguyen and I came back another day for sunset. So chilled!
I also found another cute spot by the ocean and a net over the water that was pretty chill. It is called Nha Be Cafe Seaview. Nice views around it.
But there were still more things I wanted to see on the island so I kept on exploring on my motorbike. I think at the end of my time on Ly Son Island I saw everything that was seenable.
So Ly Son Island has 2 volcanic craters. The one I mentioned before is the biggest one, but there is a smaller and apparently older one. It is not very perceptible that it is a volcano crater though. It is only clear from above.
Choi Quan Sat Gieng Tien 2
So I made my way to this viewpoint marked on the map Choi Quan Sat Gieng Tien 2. To get there I rode among the garlic fields and they looked gorgeous. So many!! Feels like everyone on this island is dedicated to growing garlic.
This garlic is special. It is famous and expensive and people who grow it don’t usually consume it because it is expensive so more worth selling. They inclusively have a garlic salad with Ly Son garlic and garlic wine that is supposed to be very good for health. I actually bought a small bottle of this garlic wine, but I honestly couldn’t handle it so I gave it to a friend. It stinks and the taste is not one I enjoy haha. I tried the garlic salad too and it was absolutely yummy. So delicious!! Worth a try. It is something typical of Ly Son Island only.
The island is so good for garlic growth due to its volcanic origin. It gives another characteristic to the garlic grown here and that’s why it is supposed to be so good. Soil here is great for growing it.
Anyway, I followed my GPS to the viewpoint, but it led me to a very steep narrow dirt path that looked sketchy and scary to ride honestly. I decided to leave the motorbike right where this path started and proceed on foot, even though it was a 20-minute walk. In fact, this is a dirt path going up the old volcano, so it makes sense it isn’t a proper street. I was glad I decided to leave my motorbike behind even though the path wasn’t that terrible to ride on. Still, the walk here is nice, quiet, peaceful, and silent, lots of butterflies, so I enjoyed it. Plus, I could have a sneak peek down to the garlic fields in several spots.
This path then turns into a walking path that is absolutely abandoned God knows for how long. The plants absolutely took over and I could barely see the floor at some point with all the tall grass around me. Plants are desperate to spread their seeds here haha! Never in my life was I covered in seeds like this. I had literally hundreds of spiky seeds clinging to my socks, dress, bag, everywhere OMG! It was such work and trouble to get rid of all those sticky seeds!! And painful too! They were spiky and were hurting me so many they were! I thought for a while if I should keep going because obviously, no one was walking in this area even though there were actually 2 distinct viewpoint facilities. I decided to go all the way to the last one to finally have a nice view. And the view was indeed nice and worth the trouble. I could see fields and more fields of garlic, some big Buddha Statue in the distance, and the sea! What a pleasant view. Absolutely zero noise. What a quiet place! I was glad I decided to proceed. It is quite a view indeed and different from the ones I had before of Ly Son Island.
From here I decided to go to a beach I haven’t seen from below and that I saw while on one of the day’s viewpoints. The beach was not amazing at dusk, the watercolors lost their splendor and the place was just average. But, on the way to the beach, I had more nice views of the garlic fields around me from a cemetery.
Cemetery
I decided to call it a day. It was a long and great day filled with exciting views. But this wasn’t all I have seen on Ly Son Island.
On the next day, I decided to visit the small island nearby. That was a half-day program, so I had another afternoon to explore Ly Son Island.
Fortunately, I met a guy who was also doing this trip and we ended up hanging out the rest of the day and he took me to a beach I had skipped during my exploring. I was so glad he showed me this beach because It would definitely have gone unnoticed if not him. And the beach is stunning!
Chua Hang
On the map, this beach is not even marked. It doesn’t even look like there is a beach in there honestly. Basically, the beach is in front of this temple Chua Hang. It is tucked among a cliff that gives it its charm. The temple itself is not something to explore but that statue gives this beach its distinctiveness. The water colors are gorgeous and the beach is actually clean! I think this was the cleanest beach I saw on the island, and if not this guy I wouldn’t have seen it! So lucky! The beach loses sunlight very early as its location is opposite of sunset. There were some people surfing here- surprise!
The beach is quiet and beautiful, there were some locals selling drinks and seashells. Oh No! Haha I confess I couldn’t resist and I bought a nautilus.
And this was all I saw on Ly Son Island itself. The island is so beautiful and I do think it was worth it for me. Of course, I have seen better but I live in Vietnam, and finding such an unexpected place fills my joy. I loved it. Beautiful, quiet with nice welcoming people!
Check out what I’ve seen on Dao Be island, the small island near Ly Son Island that can be seen in the distance and was worth a visit too.
