For years the honest answer at the shop to “should I ride out to Cua Dai Beach?” was no — the sea had eaten the sand and the beach was a line of sandbags. That answer has changed. A long engineering project put the sand back, and the strip in front of the old resorts is a real beach again. This guide covers the ride from our shop, what the beach is like now, when to swim, what things cost, where the seafood is, and how Cua Dai compares with An Bang and Ha My.

What Cua Dai Beach is like in 2026

Cua Dai Beach sits in Cam An, east of the Old Town, where the Thu Bon meets the sea. It was famous enough to make lists of Asia’s best beaches, then it began disappearing: through the 2010s the shoreline retreated so badly that hotels stacked sandbags where sunbeds used to be, and for a long stretch there was simply nothing left to lie on.

The fix was slow and expensive. A submerged breakwater more than 2.3 km long was built between June 2020 and September 2024 at a cost of around 550 billion dong, and more than 100,000 m³ of sand dredged from the Cua Dai channel was pumped back behind it. The result is a beach strip over 100 metres wide in the protected section — real sand, wide enough for the beach clubs to put out loungers again. A second phase covering the remaining 5.2 km of coast, funded at about 42 million euros, is scheduled to finish in 2026.

So what you get today is a beach in recovery rather than a postcard: a broad, genuinely usable strip in front of the resorts, and other stretches still fenced with sandbags and machinery where the next phase of work is going in. Come knowing that, and Cua Dai Beach is a good, uncrowded swim close to town. Come expecting an untouched tropical shoreline and you will be disappointed.

Riding to Cua Dai Beach from Hoi An

From our shop at 84 Phan Chau Trinh it is 5.9 km, about 15 minutes, measured on Google Maps: head east on Cua Dai road and keep going until the road ends at the sea. There is nothing to navigate — one straight road, flat the whole way, no hills and no highway. It is the easiest beach run in Hoi An, which is why we hand it to nervous first-time riders.

• Which bike: anything. A 5.9 km run is nothing for an electric bike, and no licence is needed for our electric models.
• Bicycle: realistic too — around 25 to 30 minutes each way on flat road, best done early morning or late afternoon.
• The vehicle-free hours do not apply here. The Old Town closes to motorbikes from 9:00 to 11:00 and 15:00 to 21:30, but Cua Dai road is outside the protected zone, so you can ride out at any hour.
• Coming from An Bang: the two beaches are joined by the coastal road, roughly ten minutes apart.

If you are staying out towards the beach already, we deliver to the hotel — see our bikes and prices. Riders staying in the Old Town can leave the bike with us for free while they walk the streets, then pick it up for the beach run.

Swimming at Cua Dai Beach: season, currents and safety

The swimming window at Cua Dai Beach is March to September, when the sea is calm and the water is clearest; some guides stretch it to April–October. Either way, the season you avoid is the same: from October to February the monsoon rolls in, the surf turns rough and this coast takes the brunt of the storms that caused the erosion in the first place.

Two things to respect even in season. This is a river mouth, so currents near the channel are stronger than they look and the water can turn cloudy after rain upstream. And the submerged breakwater sits offshore — swim inside the sheltered strip rather than striking out towards the line where the waves break over the structure.

Parking, sunbeds and what things cost at Cua Dai Beach

There is no entrance fee for the beach itself. Beyond that, be aware that Cua Dai Beach has no single published price list — access runs through beach clubs, restaurants and hotel frontages, each setting its own terms. Ask before you sit down and you will avoid every argument people complain about online.

Seafood near Cua Dai Beach and where to eat

The strip along Cua Dai road towards Cua Dai Beach is a working seafood row: tanks out front, plastic chairs, whole fish and prawns priced by weight. Frequently listed names include Bao Han at 17 Cua Dai, A Roi at 12 Cua Dai and Nhu Bau on Au Co — we have not eaten our way through all of them and do not take commission from any, so treat that as a starting point rather than a ranking.

Two habits worth keeping anywhere on this coast: ask the price per kilo and have the fish weighed in front of you, and check whether the beach loungers come with the meal. Both questions take ten seconds and remove the only real complaint tourists have about eating here.

The sea took this beach away and engineering handed it back — ordinary, rebuilt, and half empty on a weekday morning.

Cua Dai, An Bang or Ha My?

Three beaches sit within a short ride of the Old Town, and they are genuinely different. Distances below are measured from our shop.

Our usual advice: An Bang if you want the social beach day, Cua Dai Beach if you want a swim and a proper seafood lunch without a crowd, and Ha My if the point is to get away from everyone.

Cua Dai port and the Cham Islands boats

Do not confuse Cua Dai Beach with the port. Cua Dai port is 8.9 km from our shop, about 21 minutes — a few kilometres beyond the beach — and it is where the speedboats leave for the Cham Islands, roughly 30 minutes offshore. Riders often plan to combine the two in one morning and discover the boat left at 8:00.

Bikes do not go to the island, so you park at the port and ride back to it afterwards. Almost every seat is sold as part of a day-tour package, which needs booking ahead — the details are in our Cham Islands guide. We rent bikes; we do not run the boats or the island tours, so book those with an operator and use us to get to the pier.

Best time of day at Cua Dai Beach, and photos

Sunrise is the reason to set an alarm here: this coast faces east, so the sun comes straight out of the sea, the fishing boats are still working and the sand is empty. Late afternoon is the swimming hour — the heat drops, the light goes gold and the beach clubs fill up.

Midday at Cua Dai Beach is the one time to skip, both for the glare in photos and because there is little natural shade on a rebuilt beach. If you want the fishing scene instead, the boats and round basket boats come in early; night squid-fishing trips run from the harbour in the evening, typically between about 17:00 and 22:00.

Pair Cua Dai Beach with the coconut forest or the Old Town

• Bay Mau coconut forest — Cam Thanh is on the way back, so basket boats in the morning and the beach after lunch is an easy loop.
• An Bang Beach — ten minutes up the coastal road if you want to compare the two in one afternoon.
• Hoi An Market — back in town, and the cheaper lunch if the seafood row looks pricey.
• The Old Town sights — park with us and walk them in the morning, then ride out to the beach when the heat builds.

Cua Dai Beach: frequently asked questions