Con Dao

• 🌍 Con Dao Airport (VCS  ^IATA). Served by Vietnam Airlines several times per day from Saigon (SGN ^IATA) for €50 one-way (2023). ATR72-500 turboprop services run on this route, so overhead bin space is limited. Depending on your ticket, Vietnam Airlines will allow 10–20 kg free baggage (excess baggage is relatively inexpensive by international standards). Also, depending on the flight, you may be asked to check your carry-on if you also have a personal item. 

Getting there and away:

• The airport is on the far north end of the island and a long way to anywhere else. Arranging a hotel before you get there is best — hotels will provide a minibus to and from the airport (50,000 dong).
• If you have not booked with one of the hotels, simply hop on any of the hotel buses, pay the driver around 50,000 dong and they will take you to town.
• Taxis are available but more expensive than on the mainland.

• 🌍 Con Dao Seaport / Ferry (Ben Dam) (shuttle for 10,000 dong). On the far south end of the island and is a long way from anything else. The Phu quoc express boat operates express service to mainland (4½ hr to Vung Tau) — please check the schedule on their website. 18,000 dong port fee/person for each entry as well as exit, 390,000 dong mainland ferry. (updated Dec 2023)

Con Son Village is small, flat and easily traversed on foot. Because of the intense sun and very little shade on the streets, walking is best left for the morning or evening.

Motorbikes can be easily rented from main hotels and there is relatively little traffic. There has been an enormous increase in the number of motorbikes for rent. Better deals are often found outside of hotels, as the hotels mark up the same bikes you can hire locally. See also Vietnam by motorcycle.

There is only one petrol station on the island and it is only open 07:00-10:30 and 14:00-16:00. Be sure to get a bike with a full tank of gas as there is none available for sale on the streets as in the rest of Vietnam. They are fun to ride, but a drag to push around.

Since many of the spots to visit require riding up some hills, you will be better served by a manual gear one. The light traffic and gentle hills make Con Dao a forgiving place to learn to ride a geared bike.

It is illegal to ride a motorized vehicle without a helmet or a Vietnamese driving license. The local cop, Mr. Tan, really likes to increase his salary at the expense of un-helmeted visitors. Riding without a helmet is illegal and simply foolish with the primitive medical care available here, especially if you are not carrying adequate travel insurance. Evacuation to Bangkok costs US$30,000 paid in advance. This money cannot possibly be raised on the island. Travel here without proper insurance at your own risk!

You maybe able to arrange for your hotel to take you places for a fee, usually about US$70 a day for car and driver, without hotel markup.

Taxis on Con Dao are generally more expensive than vans and buses, and there are as yet no English-speaking drivers, write your destination down before you arrive if you choose to use their service. No reports of overcharging as of yet.

Motorbike taxis are easily found in Con Son Village. As in all of Vietnam most of these guys are hard working and honest, but there are a few scoundrels.

The prisons reached their greatest extent in 1973, with a total of seven camps, as well as a number of outlying buildings. Camps 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are consistently opened to the public. You must start at camp 3 downtown, as this is where tickets are sold; the price is comparable to other public museums in Vietnam. Camp 3 is in the center of Con Son town; coming from Võ Thị Sáu, turn at the t-intersection near the Vietin Bank and the entrance is hard to miss. After visiting Camp 3, the others can be visited in any order you like.

Camp 3 dates to the French colonial era and one can easily spot the French influence in the architecture. This prison contains a chapel in the center, an outdoor auditorium, kitchen and dining area, a mill where hard labor was performed, large group cells, and isolation cells. Here, one can learn about the social lives of prisoners as well as a few famed inmates who were imprisoned in that section.

Camps 1, 4, and 5 are all accessed through one entrance and referred to on signage as the French tiger cages. The French tiger cages can be found adjacent to the museum to the east. A small structure to the right of the drive leading to the parking area and entrance has an exhibition that explains some aspects of the tiger cages (camp 4). The tiger cages are housed in two buildings, the first one reconstructed with mannequins and dioramas, and the second in a state of ruin, ordered destroyed by the Saigon regime after they were exposed in the July 17, 1970 issue of Life Magazine (recommended reading before visiting, available for free on Google Books) by a US congressional team investigating the prison. One may notice a striking similarity between these cells and some of those in the film Papillon. Neighboring camp enclosures can be explored, though they are not as well-maintained; if you do explore, wear long pants and closed-toed shoes to keep the birdox-like grass pricklies and biting red ants off your skin. Unmarked, in the grassy field in the corner of Camp 1, is the spot where Võ Thị Sáu was executed.

Camp 6 is referred to as the American tiger cages. These cells were meant to fulfill the same roll as the French tiger cages, built in 1973 by an American firm after the Saigon regime was pressured to destroy and stop using them. To get there from the French tiger cages, follow the same road east, away from the center of town, and take the first left. The parking area is to the left, opposite another prison camp which is not visitable. The American tiger cages have sixteen structures subdivided into sections by concrete walls. Though less well-maintained, most of the individual cells can be opened and explored. Many have writing on the wall which appear to have been left from former inmates. It is now home to bats.

Outlying prison buildings - a few prison buildings, ruins more accurately, lie on the outskirts of town in all directions. Heading east from the town center on the corner of Nguyễn Chí Thanh and Nguyễn Văn Cừ, on the way to the airport, lies Sở Lò Vôi, a lime kiln where prisoners carried out forced labor as well as a prison across the street.

The Cow Pens and Pig Sty lie on Võ Thị Sáu, just after the intersection with Nguyễ Văn Linh. The cow pens are on the right and the pig sty to the left; these structures are prisons named after their resemblance to cow pens and pig sties.

Sở Muối is located on the coastal road to Ben Dam, right at an intersection near the entrance to a Buddhist temple. The ruins are simple and were once large cells.

Sở Rẫy is a former plantation where prisoners carried out forced labor. Only accessible by trail; for directions, see section “suggested hikes” under Côn Đảo National Park.

Before visiting the trails of the park, it is necessary to first stop at the ticket office. To get to the ticket office, follow Võ Thị Sáu St. out of town; the road turns and eventually forks. Follow the fork up the hill and eventually you will find a small structure from where you can buy a day ticket for 60,000 đong (as of Feb 2018). The office is across the road from an historical site with a marker, the ruins of Ma Thien Lanh Bridge which many prisoners died building.

• Con Dao is part of a maritime and national park and is made up of 16 or so islands. The islands are mostly rugged and still have a lot of original forest cover and associated flora and fauna. The most famous indigenous animal is the dugong or sea cow although it is rarely seen. Several species of rare squirrels and apes are found here and there is an important breeding program for turtles on Bay Canh Island, near Con Dao Island.
• The islands have very nice beaches, great swimming, and snorkelling opportunities (however snorkelling on the main island is generally only good in one area accessible from May-Oct) and have a very relaxed, colonial feel to them. Con Dao is a nice antidote to the crowded cities.
• Rain forest hikes can be booked through the national park Office. Some hikes require a guide. Some of the trails are unmarked, so having a native guide is useful. There is good information available on the island for self-guided hikes and most of the rangers only speak Vietnamese.

Suggested hikes

1. Hang Đức Mẹ (short and easy; ~500 m uphill on stone pathway and steps) - Hang Đức Mẹ is a small grotto with a statue of the Virgin Mary. To get there, drive uphill past the ticket office and past a few driveways that lead to park structures, parking at the first roadside parking area marked by a sign and a path leading into the woods. Follow the path which eventually forks and turn right (the turn will be obvious from signs). Ascend the stairs to reach the grotto; the left fork is longer and leads to a beach.
2. Ông Đụng Beach (short and easy; ~500 m downhill on stone path with steps) - To get to the entrance to this trail, continue past the entrance to Hang Đức Mẹ and park at the second roadside parking area (continuing farther will lead to a dead end). Descend the steps and you will soon reach the beach; though on the smaller and rockier side, it is peaceful and seldom crowded with trees for shade and some swings on the shore, as well as a ranger station and bathrooms. Also opportunities to encounter some of the local monkeys.
3. Sở Rẫy (moderately strenuous; a bit over a kilometer up a steep hill and rougher trail) - The trail to Sở Rẫy is harder to find than others, but rewarding as at the time lies an abandoned colonial plantation once worked by prisoners and an observation tower with excellent views of Côn Sơn town and the sea. To find the trail entrance from the town, head down Võ Thị Sáu as if you were going to the park office, but instead of taking the uphill fork to the right, continue on the level road to the left (Huỳnh Thúc Kháng). Keeping going and watch on your right for a sign tucked between a residence and an automotive business; it is easy to miss! If you are coming from the park office, take the sharp left at the bottom of the hill to reach this road, You may also come from the direction of Miếu An Sơn temple, in which case you simply turn left from the parking lot and watch to your left for the sign (though the sign is considerably harder to spot from this direction). The trail first goes between two properties and can be at first hard to follow as some of the vegetation grows quite freely and the trail sometimes seems to go on top of a low wall. Soon, however, the trail becomes clear as it enters the forest. It is an uneven trail, but well-marked with informative signs along the way. You will soon find a steep, rocky trail; watch your step here! At the top of the hill lies Sở Rẫy, the plantation's ruins straight ahead and the observation tower down a short path to the right. There are few interpretive signs, but the old buildings can be fun to explore.

• The park guides will generally shepherd you though the woods, stop and have a few shots of whiskey with their buddies, then shepherd you back to get home in time to have a nap. The trails are seeing much more traffic now, and only the hike to the far north bay, Dam Tre, requires a guide and awareness of the tides.
• Watch out for the strong wind that can whip up at any time at the southernmost point of the island near Nhat Beach. Several visitors have not heeded warnings and have been injured by the strong gusts that can be found there.

Crime is almost non-existent. It is said to be the only place in Vietnam where bicycles and motorcycles are left outside the house at night.

However common sense must prevail, hotel rooms do get pilfered when left unlocked, people get very complacent here as it does feel, and is so safe.