Island · Van Ninh
Hon Ong
Hòn Ông
Hòn Ông, called Whale Island in English and đảo Cá Voi in Vietnamese, is an island in Vân Phong Bay, in the north of Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam[1]. Wikidata places it at 12.650278, 109.397222[2]. Vietnam Coracle gives its size as 800 m at the widest and 1.2 km at the longest[3]. Báo Khánh Hòa states that no one lives on the island apart from a single resort covering about 2 ha[1].
The provincial paper gives two explanations of the name: seen from above the island resembles the head of a whale, and whales formerly appeared in the waters around it[1]. The Whale Island Resort was founded in the late 1990s by a French-Vietnamese couple and has just over 30 rooms[3]; the resort itself lists 31 bungalows[4]. The island lay in Vạn Thạnh commune of Vạn Ninh district[1][3] and since 1 July 2025 in Đại Lãnh commune[7].
Geography
Hon Ong lies in Vân Phong Bay, which Vietnamese Wikipedia gives as about 150,000 ha with an entrance 17 km wide and an average depth of 22 m, and whose islands the article lists as including Hòn Lớn, Hòn Ông and Hòn Bịp[5]. Wikidata records the island at 12.650278, 109.397222 with the GeoNames identifier 1571635[2]. Vietnam Coracle describes it as 800 m across at its widest and 1.2 km at its longest[3].
The resort's own site lists nearby places, without saying how it measures them, as Đầm Môn market 3 km, the easternmost point of the Vietnamese mainland 15 km and Nha Trang 95 km[4]; Báo Khánh Hòa gives nearly 100 km from Nha Trang to the port on Vân Phong Bay and over 15 minutes by boat from there[1]; Vietnam Coracle gives 110 km from Nha Trang to Đầm Môn port and about 15 minutes by boat[3]. The three cannot be the same measurement: Đầm Môn lies between Nha Trang and the island, so a distance to the island should be the longer, yet the resort's 95 km is shorter than Vietnam Coracle's 110 km to the port.
The name
Báo Khánh Hòa explains the name in two ways: viewed from above the island resembles the head of a giant whale, which is why local people call it đảo Cá Voi (whale island), and whales formerly appeared in the surrounding waters[1]. The resort's site connects the name to the fishermen's veneration of the whale[4]. No dated record of a whale sighting at the island was found.
The resort
The Whale Island Resort is the only occupation of the island; Báo Khánh Hòa describes over 30 guest houses built of bamboo and thatch on a site of about 2 ha, with the rest of the island left as forest, and states that there are no residents[1]. Vietnam Coracle dates its founding to the late 1990s by a French-Vietnamese couple and counts just over 30 rooms along the beach and hillside[3]. The resort's site lists 31 bungalows in six categories, 14 of them with sea views, and gives its address as Đầm Môn village, Đại Lãnh commune[4].
Administration
The island belonged to Vạn Thạnh commune of Vạn Ninh district[1][3], a district of 550 km² and 134,820 people in 2017 that was dissolved on 16 June 2025[6]. Resolution 1667/NQ-UBTVQH15 of 16 June 2025, in force from the day it was passed, merged Vạn Thạnh, Vạn Thọ and Đại Lãnh into a new Đại Lãnh commune, which began operating on 1 July 2025[7], the commune the resort now gives in its address[4].
Questions and answers
Sources
Every figure in this article is cited to one of these pages, listed in order of first use, with the date it was read.
See also
- Van Phong BayBay
- Hon LonIsland
- Diep Son IslandIsland
- Mui DoiCape
- Binh Ba IslandIsland
- Binh Hung IslandIsland