Hon Tam

Geography

Hon Tam lies in the southern part of Nha Trang Bay, 7 km south east of the city^[1]. Vietnamese Wikipedia gives an area of over 110 ha^[1]; Wikidata gives an elevation of 105 m, the coordinates 12.175833, 109.243889 and the GeoNames identifier 1567213^[2]. The Vietnamese article on the bay counts 19 islands in a bay of 24,965 ha, of which 3,780 ha is island, with Hòn Tre at 3,250 ha the largest and Hòn Nọc at 4 ha the smallest^[3]; Hon Tam is listed among them but its area is not given there^[3].

The name Hòn Tằm means silkworm island, after the shape of the island; the Vietnamese article records the alternative name Thủy Kim Sơn and the reading of the silkworm as a symbol of growth and abundance, and mentions a white mermaid statue among the rocks as the island's emblem^[1].

Resort development

In 2006 Công ty Cổ phần Hòn Tằm biển Nha Trang was established and took over the investment and exploitation of the island^[1]. In 2017 the company signed a contract with Marriott International for a Courtyard by Marriott Nha Trang Hòn Tằm Resort, which opened in early 2020^[1].

On 12 June 2019 the company opened the MerPerle Hòn Tằm Mudbath on the eastern side of the island, a mineral mud bath complex with a total area of 42,000 m² and an investment of 115 billion VND, which the Vietnam Records Organisation recognised as the largest mud bath complex on an island in Vietnam^[4]. The Vietnamese article describes it as laid out like terraced rice fields with group pools, family pools for 10 people and pools for couples, and calls it the first five-star island mud bath in Vietnam^[1].

The 2020 violations

In 2020 the provincial authorities found that the operator had levelled ground and built reinforced concrete structures without a building permit, and had encroached on agricultural land to build a restaurant of nearly 2,500 m²^[1]. The article also records ground deformation of 228 m² adjacent to the water and 172 m² outside the project boundary^[1]. The company was fined a total of 117 million VND^[1].

Administration

Vietnamese Wikipedia places the island in Nha Trang Bay, Khanh Hoa province, without naming its ward^[1]. On 16 June 2025 Resolution 1667/NQ-UBTVQH15 merged the wards of Vạn Thạnh, Lộc Thọ, Vĩnh Nguyên, Tân Tiến and Phước Hòa into a new Nha Trang ward of 47.12 km², which began operating on 1 July 2025^[5][6]; no fetched page states which unit Hon Tam belongs to after the reform. The bay around it was recognised as a national scenic site on 25 March 2005, and its marine protected area, renamed from the Hòn Mun marine protected area on 12 March 2004, covers over 16,000 ha and nine islands^[3].