HON TAI NORTH

Hon Tai North is an advanced dive site in the waters off Cham Islands (Cu Lao Cham) near Hoi An on Vietnam's central coast — a dramatic underwater location on the northern section of Hon Tai island in the Cu Lao Cham Marine Reserve, one of UNESCO's World Biosphere Reserves and one of the most important marine protected areas in central Vietnam. The Cham Islands diving experience is dramatically different from Nha Trang's busy bay dive scene: accessed from Hoi An or Da Nang on a boat journey that takes divers past the historic harbor and out to the open South China Sea, the Cham Islands offer a more remote, expedition-style diving experience in waters of exceptional clarity and impressive biodiversity. The advanced designation reflects the depth, current patterns, and open-sea character of the Hon Tai North dive — this is exposed, current-influenced diving that rewards experienced divers with encounters unavailable at calmer, more sheltered sites. The underwater topography features dramatic volcanic rock formations creating ledges, overhangs, and caves that concentrate the marine life drawn to structural complexity in open water. Schools of large fish — dog-tooth tuna, Spanish mackerel, and various jack species — stream past in purposeful hunting formations, their presence facilitated by the productive water movement around the island's exposed northern face. Reef sharks — whitetip and grey reef sharks — cruise the deeper sections of the reef with the relaxed confidence of animals at the top of their food web. The coral community at Hon Tai North features the diverse growth forms of Vietnam's central coast reefs: large gorgonians, wire corals in the current-swept zones, and the branching and massive corals of the shallower sections. The Cham Islands diving season runs from approximately May to September.