Valentine’s Day at Vinpearl Land

What a day!!

Just across the bay from where we are staying is Hon Tre Island, home to the amazing Vinpearl Land - a combination luxury resort, mini Disneyland, Splashdown Park, Seaworld/Aquarium, Butchart Gardens, San Diego zoo - and a white sand beach to boot! There is definitely something for everyone at this place!

We started today’s adventure around 9:30 with a cab ride down to the cable car which takes you over to Vinpearl Land. The cables stretch over 3.3 kms of water to get to the island in enclosed gondolas - this used to be the longest of its kind in Vietnam, but has since been superseded by a newer system on the island of Pho Quoc. The ride takes about 12 minutes and the views are spectacular! Some of the reviews we had read were not positive about the park - overcrowding, long line ups, expensive, etc., but either we hit a really good day, or the reviewers had bad days, as our experience was awesome! Our tickets to get into the park cost around $33 CAD each (helps to be over 60 and get the senior’s discount 😜) and that included everything (except any food or drinks we wanted to buy) - rides, water park, zoo, gardens, and the huge Ferris wheel!

Our first stop was at the Alpine Coaster - a bobsled type ride all the way up the mountain (chug chug) and back down again (wheeeee)! So much fun! Saw the bumper car ride, so had to try that!! Next, we walked around looking at some of the beautiful buildings, then went to the aquarium- fish, snakes, reptiles, and a great underwater walk through tube with all kinds of sea life swimming alongside us and over our heads. Our next stop was the huge Sky Wheel (which lights up at night, and we can see across the bay from our hotel room). It is the largest in Vietnam at 120 metres tall, and rated amongst the top 10 in the world. The views from the top are spectacular, looking over all of Nha Trang and the surrounding islands. The Vinpearl area is undergoing a lot of development and we saw lots of new resorts and building going on from the top of the wheel.

We had some lunch, then went on the Mine Adventure ride, which is almost identical to Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland. (We enjoyed this one so much, we went back for two more rides after - one after dark, which was interesting!). There was a dolphin show next to the aquarium at 2pm, so we watched that, then headed for the zoo, where they have have everything from lions and tigers and bears (oh my) to camels, giraffes, ostriches, zebras and antelopes - and some cool monkeys swinging through the trees. In the same area are some amazing gardens, both outdoor and in large domed buildings - everything from Japanese gardens, to winter flowers, African plants, rose gardens and a temperate garden. We walked back down the hill to have a look at the huge water park (so many water slides, a lazy river, wave pool and tubing slides), and at the lovely beach, where we rested and had refreshments. After going on the old fashioned carousel, and “Big Thunder” one more time, we stopped to enjoy some of the lights that come on at night, then decided it was time to head back to the cable car for the ride back to Nha Trang. The towers that connect the cables were fashioned after the Eiffel Tower and look so pretty at night! After an amazing day, we took a cab back to the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, and are exhausted - a day we will never forget though!Read more