The Vibe
Built on a stunning two-mile beach at Lang Co in central Vietnam, this eco-friendly luxury resort is part of the Laguna development, which includes the Angsana hotel and an 18-hole golf course designed by Sir Nick Faldo.
It is around an hour’s drive from Da Nang Airport.
Style
Each individual villa is set in beautiful tropical gardens. They all have their own private pools and some have walled gardens ensuring total seclusion. Villas are either lagoon-facing, beach-facing or on the hilltop, with breathtaking views across the bay.
The beds are huge and rooms are kitted out with restful dark wood interiors. There’s even a pillow menu with five choices.
The attention to detail is shown in each villa’s custom painted artwork. Even the tea-bag packets have little messages on the back – the chamomile is “as calming as a breeze through fresh linen’’.
Food & Drink
For a special night out try the Saffron Thai tasting menu restaurant, which is a signature feature of all Banyan Tree hotels. For a relaxed beachfront lunch the Mediterranean-influenced Azure restaurant serves great pasta, pizza and salads, while the Water Court is perfect for traditional Vietnamese style food.
There’s also a swish cocktail bar with a great range of Vietnamese-inspired drinks. You can also book to have dinner cooked for you on the beach, which is about as romantic as it gets.
Activities
There are early morning yoga classes to get you loosened up for the day. The beauty of this hotel is it shares facilities with the huge Angsana hotel next door.
So there’s a gym, the golf course and water sports including paddle-boarding, kayaking, surfing and jet-skiing. You can also try paper lotus flower-making or take a Vietnamese cooking course.
The hotel also likes to show guests the local area – you can try fishing from a traditional bamboo basket boat on a visit to a local village or even go to a nearby school to teach English to the kids.
The Spa
Banyan Tree hotels are renowned for their spas. Therapists have to go through an intensive training programme to make the grade and it shows in the quality of the treatments.
I went for a deep tissue massage and it relaxed muscles I didn’t even know I had.
What to do
There are three Unesco World Heritage sites within easy reach of the hotel. The Imperial city of Hue was the capital of Vietnam until 1945 and is packed with palaces and pagodas and was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam war.
The beautiful old town of Hoi An was once a key centre of the spice trade and has influences from China, Japan, Vietnam and the French colonialists.
My Son is a group of Hindu temple ruins built between the 4th and 14th centuries.
Much was destroyed by US carpet-bombing during the war, but some impressive parts are left.