The red sand
Coloured by iron oxide.
Dragfyre — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Martin Fisch — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Benoît Prieur — CC0
The Red Sand Dunes, or Doi Cat Bay, the flying dunes, are hills of red and pink sand beside the road near the Mui Ne fishing village, the closest dunes to the hotels and the easiest to reach. Their colour comes from iron oxides in the sand, and the wind changes their shape from day to day, which is how they got their name. Visitors climb barefoot for the view of the sea and the fishing boats in the bay, and local children rent out plastic sheets for sliding down the slopes. It is busiest at sunset, when the light turns the sand orange. An hour or so is enough, and it is often combined with the nearby Fairy Stream and fishing village in one outing. The sand gets very hot at midday, so go in the morning or late afternoon.
Coloured by iron oxide.
On plastic sheets.
And the fishing boats.
On the coast road near Mui Ne village
The red dunes are small, close to Mui Ne village and free; the white dunes at Bau Trang are far larger, about an hour away, and usually explored by vehicle.