New Year’s Day: is celebrated with fireworks, dancing, eating and general festivities.

Tet (Lunar New Year Celebration): sees the whole city decorated with lights, garlands and signs. The streets are lined with flower vendors. Coffee shops and restaurants stay open all night.

Vietnam Fun Cup: is held in the first half of February and focuses on water sports, mainly kite boarding and windsurfing competitions. The races generally begin in front of Jibes restaurant on the beach.

Binh Thuan International Dragon Boat Racing Festival: is held at the end of April on the Ca Ty River with a 1km and a 3km race.

Liberation Day: is held on 30 April. This is the day when Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) fell to Hanoi in 1975. It is a public holiday commemorated nationwide.

Labour Day: is celebrated all over the country, with parades, fireworks and feasts. It is also a national holiday.

Ho Chi Minh’s Birthday: held on 19 May, this is another excuse to celebrate and sees a national holiday throughout the country.

Traditional Culture Festival of Fisherman’s Associations: is held in the first week of August in Binh Thuan province and features traditional rites and customs of fishermen.

Vietnam Open Golf Championship: is held at the end of August in the spectacular setting of the Ocean Dunes Golf Club in Phan Thiet.

National Day: falls on 2 September and commemorates the speech of Ho Chi Minh in 1945.

Binh Thuan Provincial Liberation: is a public holiday and celebrates the liberation of the province on 19 April.

Binh Thuan Tourism Festival: is held in Phan Thiet city at the end of October. Lanterns and airships will be released into the night sky at Mui Ne and Hon Rom beaches. There are also traditional music performances and local delicacies to sample.

Christmas: is the second biggest holiday celebration in Phan Thiet after Tet New Year. In the week of Christmas, which leads up to Tet, restaurants and cafés stay open late and locals take the opportunity to enjoy life until the early hours with their friends. This is a great time to be in Phan Thiet, with the city lit up by lights and decorations and many merry pageants being held.

Trung Nguyen (Feast of the Wandering Souls and Hungry Ghosts): is held on the full moon of the seventh lunar month. In honour of the dead, food is put out in temples to provide for the hungry spirits that wander the earth on this day. Paper money is burnt to support the praying for forgiveness.

Mid-Autumn Festival: also goes by the name of Moon Festival and is a festival of Chinese origin going back more than 3,000 years. The Festival falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. Many different kinds of moon cakes are eaten.

Nghinh Ong Celebration: falls on the 16th to 18th of the 8th lunar month. It is celebrated at the Ong Pagoda to pay tribute to the whales. Flower garlands are put up around this lovely pagoda during the festival. Traditional theatre and music performances are also on offer.

Mbang Kite Festival (Cham New Year): is held during the eighth and ninth lunar month, usually kicking off at the Cham Towers. The festival pays tribute to local spirits and heroes. Visitors can listen to music and poems, as well as play games and join in other kinds of entertainment.

Dinh Thay Festival: is held on the 15th and 16th of the 10th lunar month. At the Magician’s Temple in Ham Tan, the festival commemorates the death of a magician and his wife, who healed the local residents of illness. Activities include getting tattoos, praying and getting your fortune told.