For the last two nights we had the opportunity to stay at one of the most amazing 5* resorts located on the Vietnamese coast. An Lam Resort is located close to Nha Trang on beautiful Ninh Van Bay. The first thing you will notice is that Ninh Van Bay is so much more beautiful than any Nha Trang beach! It’s by far one of the best Vietnam resorts.

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When you arrive at An Lam Resort

We arrived at Nha Trang Airport after flying from HCMC with  VietJet Airlines and were greeted by our driver who was waiting to take us on the hour long drive to the An Lam Resort Reception pier. The welcoming party had cold drinks and cool towels ready for our arrival which was really welcome in the heat. From there, the resort is a 15 minute speed boat ride away. We enjoyed our refreshments while our luggage was tagged and loaded on to the speed boat. Next time we saw our luggage was in our own private villa.

When the speed boat arrived at An Lam Resort, we were greeted by Hung, our butler for the duration of our stay. Hung immediately had a rapport with the kids and I knew then that we were in for something really special. There are three levels of service provided by your butler, discreet, private and indulgent. We chose for Hung to be discreet which meant that he only came to the villa when we called him and we were very happy with that level of service.

Our Private Villa

After greeting us Hung took us in his golf cart to our villa. The villas are set facing the beach and access is via swinging gates at the rear of the property. We walked up the path and as I turned to the front of the villa my heart skipped a beat and I was speechless. Number 4, beach front 2 bedroom villa with private plunge pool and private beach. These are the places you read about in the International Travellers Magazine and dream about, never would I have imagined I would be staying in such a beautiful place with my amazing family.

It didn’t stop there, the villa had sliding doors across the front that open on to the plunge pool, the kids were busting to get into the pool and I was busting to take some photos before they trashed the joint!

The main bedroom opened straight on to the plunge pool. A white mosquito net surrounded the bed which had beautiful white linen that was in stark contrast to the dark timber and tiles throughout the villa.  Very oriental and fitting with the natural surrounds. The kids bedroom had a big king size bed also and ensuite. In front of their room was the living area, with TV and mini bar with fully stocked fridge and coffee machine and 6 bottles of filtered water for us to drink.

On the other side of our bedroom was our bathroom with a swing in the middle of the room. How quick were the kids on that swing you ask? Seconds, it was quite the hit as you can imagine! The sliding doors at the back opened to our outdoor bathroom with beautiful stone bath and free standing open shower behind that. For the modest types, there is also a shower located in that bathroom.

I’m not going to describe it any further as the photos do all the talking, it just has a beautiful, lovely ambience about the place. If you are looking for somewhere to relax and enjoy some family time or couple time this is the perfect place. I give it a 100 out of 10!

An Lam Resort has a number of different villa types available, although all villa’s come with a private plunge pool and personal butler throughout your stay.

The An Lam Resort

The pier where you arrive is centre point of activity for the resort. Its where the restaurant is located and just behind the rocks from the pier is the infinity pool. This is all beach front and to either side and into the hills you have 34 villas accommodating couples right up to seven people for larger families, every villa has its own plunge pool including the ones located in the hills. Surprisingly you are unable to see any if the villas from the beach. In fact if you didn’t know the resort was there you would probably miss it all together.

We were here during low season and I’m so happy that we were, as we felt like we were the only people there, we did meet another lovely couple from Sydney and a group of ladies from from the US. The weather was wonderful for our stay, we did get rain on the second night but it was only for a couple of hours around dinner time which we decided to eat at our villa that evening anyway, we sat undercover and watched the rain fall and it was still very warm. There’s no need to go anywhere!  That was the only rain we saw, the rest of the time is was warm and sultry.

We spent our second day around the infinity pool and we had it to ourselves all afternoon. Hung took the kids off to the activity club for a few hours and gave Craig and I some time to ourselves which was wonderful. They did some arts and crafts and came back excited to get back in the pool.

There was also the Fire Bar located behind the restaurant, it has lounges to sit and enjoy your cocktails especially in the evening happy hour between 4pm-6pm. I love that they have a pool table and checkers board which the kids loved. It kept them entertained while we had a drink and chatted with Sue and Len, the couple we met from Sydney. The water feature at the rear of the bar creates a very relaxing atmosphere.

There’s plenty of things to do at the resort other than eating and drinking and lounge by your choice of pool. You can go to the resort gym, take cooking classes, play volleyball or go kayaking. There are a list of activities that you can purchase including a visiting Monkey Island, Yang Bay Waterfall, fishing trips, snorkelling cruise, sunset cruise, private yacht, scuba diving and walking any of the surrounding trails into the mountain located behind the resort. Your butler can organise any other these activities for you on request. We were going to take the kids snorkelling but they wanted to stay at the pool.

How much does it cost?

This resort is top of the range and a current search on the following booking services provided me with the current prices for a mid week stay including breakfast at An Lam Resort (prices quoted are for the 2 bedroom villa that we had):

Agoda: $806 AUD per night (this is with a 30% discount promotion)

Expedia: $2322 AUD per night

Booking.com: $1861 AUD per night

Interesting the price difference, Agoda has always been my go to booking site for Asia so looks like I have been on a good thing! Deciding where to stay in Nha Trang is a big decision but if you have the opportunity to stay in Ninh Van Bay I strongly suggest you take up the opportunity!

Our verdict

Best stay ever, in fact best of all Nha Trang hotels!! We loved everything about An Lam Resort. The staff were amazing with the kids and fantastic in general. You can have the best resort in the world but the experience comes down to the staff and An Lam has the best of both. We will return one day to An Lam Resort, it was the highlight so far of all of our travels. Summed up perfectly by Alannah at 10 years old, she said when we were leaving on the speed boat, ‘its going to be hard to go back to normal life now after experiencing that resort!’ I have to agree with her that is our new level, everything else will be compared to our awesome experience at An Lam Resort.

For kid friendly activities in Nha Trang, you could visit Po Nagar Temples which is a short 5 min ride from the Nha Trang beach foreshore. I noticed Vietnamese Water Puppet Shows are now showing in Nha Trang, we saw ours in HCMC but if you aren’t travelling to one of the bigger cities you could still see them there.

Happy travels, if you get the opportunity to visit An Lam Resort, make sure you do, we hope to return soon!

Sal.

Disclaimer: We had a mutual beneficial arrangement with An Lam Resort, as always my opinions are my own.

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