Looking for nice beach in the north central area of Vietnam

OK, try this, Ninh Binh, not really like SaPa but pretty nice and not far from Hanoi. For beach in the north how about Vinh? Not popular with foreign tourist, but lots of locals. Also, Uncle Ho was born near Vinh, cultural factoid! Do a search for 'Ninh Binh' and 'Vinh Beaches' on Google Imagines for an idea what they look like. Both places are easy/cheap to get to from Hanoi.

Thanks. I was looking for Ninh Binh too, so I might look at it in more depth.
The annoying thing with google images is that you digit "beach" and it gives you pics of all the beautiful beaches and that is making the choice even more confused :-(
Is there a website anyone can suggest that shows the real pictures with the name of the beach underneath? even on Lonely I search for Vinh and it sends me to Cua Lo Beach, then I go and search for pictures on google and it shows the same gallery of random beaches and don't know which actually are relevant and which not. I seem to be going around in circle.
What about Da Nang area. Is there any such beach around there, crystal water and away from the buildings?

Cua Lo is the beach for Vinh, Hue is like that too, beach is out a ways. The town of Vinh is nothing special, but that's where the airport and bus station are located, so you go to Vinh to get to the Cua Lo beach. Try this Google 'Vinh beaches' you should get some actual photos, a wikitravel article, Tripadvisor reviews, and some other things in the first page of hits. I don't remember the name of the beach I was on, or the name of the hotel, just that seafood was great, prices reasonable, and no big crowds!

You should think more about Halong Bay which is wonderful land in Vietnam with many interesting activities such as cruise, kayaking, swimming... Although Halong is expensive, it's worth to do.
Happy travels!

If you love both culture and beach, you can consider: Lang Co beach (at the foot of Hai Van pass, about 70km far from Hue) - very peaceful, nice beach and a few tourists there with some resorts, for some travellers, it may be a little boring. Another choice is An Bang beach in Hoi An, quite nice, but at sunset you may meet a lot of local people there.
I used to visit Cua Lo beach with some Vietnamese friends, honestly it isn't beautiful: no white sand, no tranquil sea water, no great scenery....The beaches in the North of Vietnam normally aren't so beautiful as those in the central mostly because of geographical conditions (sloping rivers lead to the oceans and bring lots of alluvium)

Lang Co Beach before Danang (but noting around !) or, better, An Bong Beach and the Cham Island in very charming Hoi An (China Bach in Danang is a no-no of huge resorts) ; the beaches of the North are not what yo are looking for (except in Along Bay but it's an expedition all the way to Bai tu Long Bay)

Thanks all. Halong Bay is in my bucket list during my Hanoi stay :-)
I will look at Lang Co beach, as long as the beach is nice and you can do day trips to Hue' and Hoi an, I think that'll do the trick.
An Bong beach, do you mean An Bang? on the coast between Danang and Hoi an?
Thanks all, itinerary is slowly coming to life :-)

Yes, it is An BANG in Hoi An (20 mn bicycle ride from the center of HA)

An Bang is not a crystaline beach, it is rather busy and the sea is rather rough. I saw three europeans get swept out and rescued last week.