Tam Giang Lagoon

The largest lagoon system in Southeast Asia, a watery world of fish weirs, sampans and floating villages north of Hue, famous above all for its sunsets.

The Tam Giang–Cau Hai lagoon system stretches some 70 kilometres behind the coastal dunes north and east of Hue, covering over 20,000 hectares of brackish water where several rivers, including the Perfume River, meet the sea. It sustains tens of thousands of people in fishing villages along its shores, and the water is patterned with no sao, V-shaped bamboo fish weirs that funnel the catch into nets. Boats leave from Con Toc jetty or Ngu My Thanh village, where an early-morning fish market on the water is a highlight, and drift among the weirs, duck farms and mangrove patches while local boatmen explain how the lagoon is worked. Most visitors time their trip for late afternoon: the flat expanse of water turns copper and violet as the sun drops behind the Truong Son mountains, a spectacle that has become one of the most photographed in central Vietnam. It is about 30 minutes from the city by car or motorbike.