Tet in Nha Trang & Cam Ranh 2027: What’s Open, What to Expect & Where to Stay
For a few days every year, Nha Trang’s hotels are close to full while most of its family restaurants, markets and street stalls are shut. In 2027 those days begin on Friday 5 February. Here is what stays open during a Tet holiday in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang, how prices move, and where a family of three generations can stay and eat through the holiday.
Tet 2027 Dates and the Days That Matter
Tet 2027 begins on Saturday 6 February, the first day of the Year of the Goat. New Year’s Eve falls on Friday 5 February. The government confirmed the public holiday in October 2026: seven days, from Thursday 4 February to Wednesday 10 February.
The dates move every year because Tet follows the lunar calendar. In 2026 the first day fell on 17 February, eleven days later, which means any plan copied from last year’s calendar lands in the wrong week.
Those seven days do not all feel alike. The week before is the busiest shopping stretch of the year, the first three days of the new year are the quiet core, and by the fourth or fifth day most of Nha Trang is trading again.
Tet 2027 Day by Day
| Date | Lunar day | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 30 January | 23rd of the last month, Kitchen Gods’ Day | Flower festival opens and shops are at their busiest |
| Thu 4 February | 28th of the last month | Public holiday begins, heaviest travel day |
| Fri 5 February | New Year’s Eve | Shops close by mid-afternoon, fireworks at midnight |
| Sat 6 February | First day of the year | Family day and pagoda visits, most local businesses closed |
| Sun 7 and Mon 8 February | Second and third days | Visits to relatives, supermarkets and some restaurants reopen |
| Tue 9 and Wed 10 February | Fourth and fifth days | Markets and shops reopen, holiday ends on the 10th |
| Sat 20 February | First full moon | Pagodas are busy again for one more day |
What Closes and What Stays Open
Nha Trang handles Tet better than most Vietnamese cities because so much of it exists for visitors. The closures are real all the same, and they fall hardest on the small, family-run places that make eating here so good the rest of the year.
Family Restaurants, Markets and Street Food
Family-run restaurants, street stalls and neighbourhood noodle shops start closing on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. Most reopen on the second or third day, and some owners take the full week. Dam Market, Xom Moi Market and the local wet markets go dark over the same days.
That matters most to anyone working through a list of the best restaurants in Nha Trang. The seafood houses and nem nuong shops locals queue for are the ones that send their staff home. Phone ahead for any date between 5 and 8 February.
The exception is the visitor quarter, where most restaurants on Hung Vuong and Nguyen Thien Thuat, the streets behind the central beach, trade straight through, as do hotel and resort dining rooms. Expect smaller teams and slower service, because half the staff have gone back to their home towns.
Supermarkets close for a shorter time than the markets do. In 2026 the big chains shut on the first day only and reopened from the second on shorter hours, around 10:00 to 22:00, and Lotte Mart Nha Trang was fully restocked by the fourth day. Convenience stores in the centre stay open throughout.
Attractions, Malls and Tour Operators
The big sights stay open, and some keep longer hours. Po Nagar Cham Towers is one of them: at Tet 2025 the site stayed open from 06:00 on the last days of the old year right through New Year’s Eve, then ran 06:00 to 21:00 until the fifth day. Entry is about 30,000 VND (about 1 USD).
The National Oceanographic Museum at 1 Cau Da opens daily from 06:00 to 18:00, public holidays included, for 40,000 VND (about 1.50 USD). Thap Ba Hot Spring advertises the same for Tet.
Nha Trang Center on Tran Phu, with its cinema and bowling lanes, opens from 09:00 to 22:00, and the island theme park trades through the holiday. Both are at their fullest from the second day. Boat trips and diving run on thinner schedules while crews are away. Book before New Year’s Eve and reconfirm the day before.
Where to Go on the First Three Days
| Place | Address | Tet opening | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Po Nagar Cham Towers | 61 Hai Thang Tu | Extended hours, into the evening | About 30,000 VND |
| Long Son Pagoda | 22 Duong 23 Thang 10 | Open, busiest on the first morning | Free |
| National Oceanographic Museum | 1 Cau Da | 06:00 to 18:00 daily | 40,000 VND |
| Thap Ba Hot Spring | 438 Ngo Den | Advertised as open through Tet | Mud bath from 260,000 VND |
| Nha Trang Center | 20 Tran Phu | 09:00 to 22:00 | Free entry |
| Spring Flower Festival | Yen Phi Park | Day and evening until the fifth day | Free |
Banks, ATMs and Cash
Banks close for the whole public holiday, 4 to 10 February in 2027. ATMs keep working but are not refilled as often, and machines in the busiest areas can run empty for a day or two. Withdraw what you need before 4 February, or use the machines in the airport arrivals hall on landing.
Cards work at hotels, resorts and malls. Taxis, pagoda donation boxes and the few stalls that stay open want cash, and so does lucky money if you are handing red envelopes to children. Ride-hailing apps still operate, with fewer drivers and higher fares on the first two days.
Prices, Flights and Getting There During Tet
Tet is the one week when domestic demand sets the price of everything. Two things catch visitors out: the busiest nights come after the first day, not before it, and transport sells out earlier than rooms do.
Room Rates and Holiday Surcharges
Across the seven-day holiday in 2026, lodging in Khanh Hoa averaged just over 83 percent occupancy, and many beachfront hotels and resorts were full from the second day to the fifth. Vietnamese families spend the first day at home, then travel.
For 2027 that points to 7 to 10 February as the tightest nights. Rates for those dates sit at the top of the year, which is the first thing to factor into any Nha Trang travel cost estimate, and the larger villas and suites go before the standard rooms.
Restaurants that stay open commonly add a Tet surcharge of 5 to 20 percent to the bill, and it is usually posted at the door or on the menu. Hotels may apply one to dining, spa and paid activities on the public-holiday dates. Ask for the percentage when you book a table or a treatment so the total is no surprise.
Flights, Trains and Buses Into Cam Ranh
Cam Ranh International Airport handled 774 flights and about 142,700 passengers during Tet week in 2026, with international flights outnumbering domestic ones almost two to one. Airlines put Tet 2027 seats on sale in late August 2026. Flights from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi fill first for 3 to 5 February and for the return on 9 to 11 February.
Vietnam Railways opened Tet sales on 5 September 2026 for travel between 23 January and 25 February 2027, and extra Saigon to Nha Trang trains are planned around 5 to 8 February. Sleeper buses raise fares for the same dates. The full choice of routes is in the guide on how to get to Nha Trang.
From the airport, a taxi to the Bai Dai resorts costs about 5 to 8 USD and one into Nha Trang about 15 to 20 USD in normal weeks. Bus 18 into the city, 60,000 to 74,000 VND (about 2.50 to 3 USD), runs a reduced timetable over the holiday. Avoid arriving on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, when drivers are heading home too.
How Tet Looks on This Coast
Away from the closed shutters, Tet is the most decorated week of the year in Khanh Hoa. Most of what a visitor can join happens at the flower festival, on the waterfront at midnight and in the pagodas on the first morning.
Flower Markets and New Year’s Eve Fireworks
The Nha Trang Spring Flower Festival fills Yen Phi Park, the Children’s Park and parts of Phan Chu Trinh, Pasteur and Ngo Quyen streets with apricot blossom, kumquat trees, orchids and bonsai. In 2026 it ran from the 23rd day of the old lunar year to the fifth day of the new one, with more than 900 displays.
The same lunar dates in 2027 fall on 30 January to 10 February. The city confirms the plan in January. Check before building an evening around it. Flower sellers also line Le Thanh Ton, Thai Nguyen and Le Thanh Phuong streets in the last week of the old year, and prices drop sharply on the final afternoon. The rest of the year’s calendar is in the guide to festivals in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang.
At midnight on New Year’s Eve the province set off fireworks at seven sites in 2026. The main ones were April 2 Square on Tran Phu and Hon Tre Island, and the Cam Ranh side had its own displays near the Cam Lam commune centre and in Cam Ranh ward. Streets around the square close to traffic for the evening. The province names the 2027 sites in the weeks before Tet, so check the list before choosing where to watch.
First-Day Visits to Long Son Pagoda and Po Nagar
Visiting a pagoda in the first days of the year is the custom that fills the gap left by closed shops. Long Son Pagoda at 22 Duong 23 Thang 10, founded in 1886, is the city’s main one and free to enter. A 24-metre white Buddha sits on the hill behind the prayer hall, 193 steps up.
Go before 08:00 on the first day, when the incense is thickest and the tour coaches have not arrived. Po Nagar draws a second wave in the evening, when the brick towers are lit and the courtyard hosts dance, music and bai choi singing through the holiday.
Cover shoulders and knees at both sites. They sit near the top of most lists of things to do in Nha Trang at any time of year, and they are at their busiest during Tet.
Greetings, Lucky Money and a Few Courtesies
The greeting to learn is chuc mung nam moi, happy new year, and it is welcome everywhere from the hotel desk to the pagoda gate. Children receive li xi, lucky money in a red envelope. If you want to join in, use crisp new notes in small amounts. The gesture matters more than the amount.
The first visitor to a home on the first morning is thought to set the family’s luck for the year, so do not call on anyone uninvited that day. Dress brightly, keep voices down in pagodas, and be patient with slow service, since the staff are working through their own holiday.
Banh Tet and the Tet Table
The Tet table on this coast centres on banh tet, a log of sticky rice, mung bean and pork wrapped in banana leaf and boiled overnight. It is the southern and central cousin of the square banh chung made in the north, and families slice it cold or fry it for breakfast through the holiday.
Alongside it come pork braised with eggs in coconut water, pickled shallots and trays of candied fruit set out for visitors. Markets sell all of it in the last week of the old year, then close. Buy before New Year’s Eve or eat it where it is served. The wider guide to what to eat in Nha Trang covers the dishes that return once the shops reopen.
A few places where a visitor can taste or buy the Tet staples:
- Alma Garden: Alma Resort Cam Ranh, Bai Dai Beach, Cam Lam
- Spring Flower Festival food stalls: Yen Phi Park, Tran Phu, Nha Trang
- Xom Moi Market: 49 Ngo Gia Tu, Nha Trang
- Dam Market: Phan Boi Chau, Nha Trang
Weather and Sea Conditions in Early February
Early February sits in the dry season. Rain is rare, daytime temperatures run in the mid-20s Celsius, and the sea holds at around 25 to 27 degrees. It is one reason Tet appears in most accounts of the best time to visit Nha Trang.
The north-east wind can still push a swell onto open beaches for a day or two, and red flags go up when it does. On those days a hotel pool is the safer swim, and most children are just as happy in it.
A Day-by-Day Plan for the Holiday
With the closures and the crowds in mind, the week is easy to plan. This plan follows the 2027 calendar and what stayed open in 2026.
New Year’s Eve, Friday 5 February
Spend the morning at the flower festival in Yen Phi Park while the stalls are still full, and eat lunch in town before 14:00, when family kitchens begin to close. Draw cash on the way back.
If the main 2027 display returns to April 2 Square, as it did in 2026, be there by 22:30, since the surrounding streets close to traffic and the seafront fills early. Guests staying on the Cam Ranh peninsula should check whether a display is planned near Cam Lam again, which would save the midnight drive.
The First Day, Saturday 6 February
Start early at Long Son Pagoda or Po Nagar, both open from first light, while the roads are empty and a taxi from the peninsula takes about 40 minutes. By late morning the courtyards are packed.
Plan lunch and dinner where you are staying. This is the day almost nothing local is open, and the best version of it is a long meal, a swim and an early night.
The Second and Third Days
The second and third days of Tet are for indoor sights. The Oceanographic Museum is open from 06:00, Thap Ba Hot Spring makes a slow afternoon, and Nha Trang Center covers a hot midday. Supermarkets reopen on shorter hours and the visitor-quarter restaurants are busy again.
Book any restaurant outside your hotel by phone, and expect the Tet surcharge on the bill.
The Fourth and Fifth Days
Markets and street stalls come back, boat trips return to a full timetable, and the city is at its liveliest. These are also the fullest nights in the hotels. The flower festival closes on the evening of the fifth day, 10 February. Leave that last walk for the cooler hour after dinner.
A Three-Generation Tet Stay on Bai Dai Beach
Tet travel in Vietnam is family travel: grandparents, parents and children under one roof, with every meal eaten together. Alma Resort Cam Ranh is laid out for that kind of group, across 30 beachfront hectares on Bai Dai Beach, about 8 km from Cam Ranh International Airport and 40 minutes south of central Nha Trang.
Readers of Holidays With Kids (HWK) magazine voted it Best Family Resort in Vietnam in the 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards, the latest in a run of first places. The resort has also published its own Tet programme in recent years, most recently six days of events from 16 to 21 February 2026.
For three generations, the 3 Bedrooms Villa, Private Pool, Ocean View is the room to look at first. Its 214 sqm take up to six guests in three bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, full-length bath and rain shower, so grandparents, parents and teenagers each have a room of their own.
The shared space is what makes it work for Tet. A living room with a sofa and a large dining table opens onto a private infinity pool and an outdoor table facing the sea. In 2026 the resort served a Floating Tet Breakfast on that pool, so the first meal of the year arrived without anyone dressing for a restaurant.
One mini pantry serves the whole villa, with a Nespresso machine, kettle and fridge. It is where the banh tet bought at the market the day before gets sliced on the first morning, and where the early risers make coffee while the house sleeps.
Families who prefer to be higher up can take the 3 Bedroom Suite with Terrace Panoramic Ocean View instead. Across 165 sqm it gives each of its three bedrooms an en suite bathroom with a rainfall shower, and the terrace looks straight out over the East Sea, the natural place to gather at sunset.
Two Rooms for a Family Tet
| Room | Size | Bedrooms | Outdoor space | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Bedrooms Villa, Private Pool, Ocean View | 214 sqm | 3, each en suite | Private infinity pool and dining terrace | Families who want their own pool and meals at the villa |
| 3 Bedroom Suite with Terrace Panoramic Ocean View | 165 sqm | 3, each en suite | Terrace over the East Sea | Groups who want the wider view from the towers |
The resort also puts on its own celebrations for the holiday. In 2026 a Tet Village went up in the grounds, where guests put on ao dai, painted conical hats, made lanterns and lucky red envelopes, and helped wrap and cook banh chung, with dragon dances moving through the week.
Much of that craft continues after the holiday at the Creative Workshops, open daily from 10:00 to 16:00. Conical hat painting costs from 150,000 VND (about 6 USD), lantern making 450,000 VND (about 17 USD) and ao dai rental 300,000 VND for adults (about 12 USD), so children can finish what they started on New Year’s Day.
Younger guests had their own timetable in 2026, from a Design Your Ao Dai workshop and face painting to Tet films at the cinema. The Kid’s Club takes children under 10 from 09:00 to 20:00, with an adult alongside anyone under seven, among trampolines, ball pits and climbing frames.
On ordinary afternoons the Kids’ Classes fill the gap between lunch and the pool. Cupcake decorating runs on Mondays and Thursdays at 14:30 and pizza making on Wednesdays at 15:30, each 350,000 VND (about 13 USD) a child, which leaves the grandparents a quiet hour.
Food is where a resort Tet differs most from a city one. Alma Garden laid on a traditional Vietnamese Tet breakfast buffet in 2026, and its usual breakfast runs 06:30 to 10:30 with vegetables from the resort’s partner farm in Dalat. It is one of 14 dining venues on site, none of which depend on a market being open.
The same room handles the big family dinner without anyone choosing from a menu. Its dinner buffet starts at 17:30 with live cooking stations, at 980,000 VND per adult (about 38 USD) with drinks included, half price for children aged 7 to 12 and 25 percent off for guests staying at the resort.
For the meal that marks the year, Atlantis served Tet set menus beside the sea in 2026. Chef Nguyen Bao Tung picks the day’s catch from the restaurant’s own live tanks. The Alma Seafood Platter, 955,000 VND (about 37 USD), puts oysters, clams, scallops, cobia, tiger prawns and squid in the middle of the table with green chili salt.
For the afternoon there is Alma Lounge, which built a Vietnamese Tet afternoon tea around sweet and savoury holiday specialities in 2026. The resident pianist plays through the afternoon, and it is an easy place for three generations to sit together.
Once the children are asleep, The American Lounge & Bar opens from 17:00 to midnight. It mixed Tet cocktails in 2026 next to its house Mango Sticky Rice ‘Xoi Xoai’, 250,000 VND (about 10 USD), made with tequila, mango puree, coconut sticky rice syrup and lime.
Le Spa marked the new year in 2026 with a 110-minute Receive & Relax ritual: a 30-minute body scrub, a 50-minute massage and a 30-minute facial, taken in one of 13 treatment villas named after Vietnamese flowers. It makes a thoughtful new year gift for parents or grandparents.
After dark, The Alma Show brought music and dance to the open-air Amphitheater near the entrance gate, where the evening programme usually runs from 20:00. A buggy can take tired children back to the villa afterwards.
Between all of it sit the 12 pools and Splash Water Park, open 10:00 to 18:00 with a lazy river, wave pool, kids’ pool and family slides at no charge. February sun is gentle enough for a full day there, and a float costs 100,000 VND (about 4 USD) an hour.
The 2027 programme is normally announced in January, and the details above describe 2026, so treat them as a guide to the shape of the week. A few things to settle when booking a Tet holiday in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang at any resort:
- Which nights you need: 7 to 10 February are the tightest, and three-bedroom units go first
- Whether your rate includes breakfast and any Tet dinner, and which restaurants need a reservation
- The public-holiday surcharge on dining, spa and paid activities for your dates
- Airport pick-up time, since drivers are scarce on New Year’s Eve and the first day
- Currency exchange, which the 24-hour Front Desk handles if you arrive without dong
Prices above are approximate at 26,000 VND to the US dollar and change with the season, so confirm current rates and the 2027 Tet schedule with the resort before booking.
Conclusion
A Tet holiday in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang goes smoothly with three things in mind: sort out cash and transport before 4 February, expect three quiet days from New Year’s Eve, and book early for the busiest nights, which begin on the second day. Dates, hours and prices here are approximate and set afresh each year. Reconfirm them before you travel.
For a family that wants the holiday without the closed doors, Alma Resort Cam Ranh stays open through Tet, and in 2026 its restaurants, pools and Kid’s Club ran through the whole holiday. Ask about the 2027 programme when you reserve a three-bedroom villa, then spend the first morning of the Year of the Goat at your own pool.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Tet in 2027?
Tet 2027 starts on Saturday 6 February, with New Year’s Eve on Friday 5 February. The public holiday in Vietnam runs from Thursday 4 to Wednesday 10 February.
Is everything closed in Nha Trang during Tet?
No. Family restaurants, markets and small shops close for about three days from New Year’s Eve, and banks close for the whole public holiday, while malls, pagodas and the main sights stay open. Resorts keep running too: Alma Resort Cam Ranh kept its restaurants open and ran a six-day Tet programme in 2026.
Is Tet a good time to visit Nha Trang?
It suits travellers who want dry weather and a festive mood and who book early. Expect peak prices, full flights and fewer local places to eat for the first three days.
How far ahead should I book for Tet?
Book rooms and flights two to three months ahead, by November for a February Tet. Three-bedroom villas, like those at Alma Resort Cam Ranh, are the first to sell out.
Do restaurants charge more during Tet?
Many of those that stay open add a surcharge of 5 to 20 percent to the bill. Ask before ordering, and expect taxis and ride-hailing to cost more as well.
