Vung Tau tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 11:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Asia/Ho Chi Minh local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Sun 03 May (range 2.8m). Last neap on Sat 02 May. Next neap on Fri 08 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Vung Tau sits at the tip of a stubby peninsula projecting into the South China Sea, 125 kilometres southeast of Ho Chi Minh City by road, at the mouth of the Saigon River. The geographic position explains almost everything about what the city is: the maritime gateway to the Mekong-delta hinterland and, for a century and a half, the access point for whoever controlled the river. The French called it Cap Saint-Jacques and made it a hill station and beach resort for Saigon colonists. The petroleum industry made it an offshore oil base from the late 1980s. Today it runs both in parallel — supply vessels and crew boats operating out of the deep-water port alongside families from Ho Chi Minh City arriving by the hourly hydrofoil service for a weekend at the beach. The tidal regime at Vung Tau is one of the defining features of the South China Sea coast. The South China Sea produces a mixed, predominantly diurnal tide across southern Vietnam: on many days there is one major high water and one major low water per 24-hour cycle, with a secondary smaller high and low that may be less than half the height of the primary. Spring range at Vung Tau is 3.0 to 3.5 metres — substantial enough that the distinction between high and low tide is visually dramatic on any beach. The diurnal inequality means the daily pattern is asymmetric: one high is clearly dominant, one low is clearly deeper, and the secondary oscillations are sometimes so suppressed they barely interrupt the gentle slope of the tide curve between the main events. The peninsula divides into two distinct coastal faces. Back Beach (Bãi Sau) runs along the open South China Sea side, facing southeast into the main swell and wind fetch. With a 3.0 to 3.5 metre tidal range, the beach character changes substantially through the tidal cycle — wide sand flats exposed at low water, much of the sand submerged at high. Swimmers need to check the state of tide before committing to a session; at high water the beach can be narrow, wave energy concentrated at the seawall, and the current around the headland at the northern end is strong enough to require attention. At low water the same beach opens to a broad, firm-sand expanse suitable for walking, ball games, and wading in the shallows at the retreating edge. Front Beach (Bãi Trước) on the western side of the peninsula faces into the sheltered approaches of the Saigon River and the Cần Giờ Channel. The exposure is different: less open-ocean swell, more river traffic, and the large tidal range is visible in the way the foreshore changes state. Front Beach is the older resort beach, lined with promenade restaurants, and it sees the ferry and hydrofoil traffic that connects Vung Tau to Ho Chi Minh City's Bạch Đằng pier. The hydrofoils run on a fixed schedule that ignores tidal state — the high tidal range means the pier access needs to account for the water level, and the floating pontoon design of the hydrofoil terminals is partly a response to the 3-metre swing. The offshore petroleum industry based at Vung Tau operates continuously regardless of tidal state, but tidal current does matter for crew boat operations in the approaches to the offshore rigs. The Saigon River mouth tidal current is significant — the combination of river flow and tidal forcing creates a strong ebb through the channel between the Vung Tau peninsula and the Cần Giờ mangrove coast, and the flood tide pushes upstream with enough force to reverse the surface flow. Fishing boats working the river mouth time their trips around the ebb and flood; the productive zone for fishing is typically at or just after the turn of the tide in either direction, when baitfish concentrate in the current transition. Kayakers and small boat operators need to treat the tidal current seriously. The combination of 3-metre range and the channelled flow through the peninsula approaches can produce currents of 2 to 3 knots at midtide — manageable in calm conditions but demanding against the flow, and potentially hazardous if combined with commercial vessel wake. The route around the peninsula tip, past the Christ the King statue at 32 metres above sea level on the headland, involves the strongest current and is best timed for slack water near high tide. The water around Back Beach is cleaner during the northeast monsoon season (November to April) when offshore winds push the river plume away from the peninsula. During the southwest monsoon (May to October) the Mekong and Saigon River outflow can push turbid water toward the open coast, and heavy rain events cloud the sea for several days. The tidal range at these times affects beach conditions differently: a large low tide exposes sand that has been under sediment-laden water, while the high tide brings in whatever the current is carrying offshore. Tide predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model — typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height, model-derived, not a local gauge. For Vung Tau's 3.0 to 3.5 metre spring range, the height uncertainty is proportionally modest — under 10 percent. The timing margin matters more: a 45-minute error on a rapidly falling tide can mean arriving at a beach access point that has already drained. The official Vietnamese tide authority is the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (Trung tâm Dự báo Khí tượng Thủy văn Quốc gia), which publishes tide tables for major Vietnamese ports including Vung Tau.