Simona's birthday trip to Vietnam
Both Simona and I don't like to make a big fuzz of our birthdays so we typically enjoy to take a few days off and go on a short trip. This year, we decided to go to Vietnam for Simona's birthday; more specifically we went to Hoi An / Da Nang area. As we wanted to get different types of experiences, we stayed at three different locations and they all had their unique charms.
The locations:
Vedana Lagoon resort & spa:
The guys picked us up from the Da Nang airport and we arrived about 1.5hrs later in the most romantic and scenic resort you can imagine. We stayed in what is called an Aqua Bungalow, which is a little house standing on stilts in the sea. You reach it via a 20 meters boardwalk. It has one giant bedroom, a big bathroom and a large veranda. The windows and veranda are facing the sea thus offering great views and privacy at the same time. The bungalows are quite far apart from each other so you really feel very comfortable. The resort provides each bungalow with bicycles to explore the surroundings or simply to reach the Restaurant and Spa more comfortably.
Dinner was very good, with a nice selection of Vietnamese dishes. The breakfast buffet was quite good and I especially enjoyed the selection of fresh fruits as well as the Pho.
Simona also went to the Spa for a message and was quite happy with the service.
We really recommend that you check out their website to get more inspiration.
Banyan Tree Lang Co
After two nights, we moved to the Banyan Tree resort in Lang Co, which is about a 45 minutes drive away from the Vedana resort. The drive takes your along the cost line and offers very scenic views. once your arrive, you sign in and then the staff will bring you to your villa on a little golf cart. The whole resort consists of individual villas that each come with a private pool, which offers amazing privacy. The villas are beautiful and the staff is super friendly and professional - kind of what you would expect from a Banyan Tree resort.
One of the highlights for each hotel stay for me is the breakfast buffet. For me this is almost more important than the room itself. And I would say that the breakfast buffet was only okay. I definitely have had better ones and was expecting more for the room rate. On the upside though, they offered free flow of champagne, which some of the guests really appreciated and gave their best to get their money's worth.
The hotel offers you a choice of various restaurants but you also have the possibility to get the staff to arrange for a BBQ next to your pool. We opted for that option and I must say it was a very nice experience. The food was good and the staff was very professional.
La Residencia Hotel & Spa, Hoi An
Our last stop took us to the city of Hoi An itself. Hoi An is a very well-preserved Ancient Town, cut through with canals. and its architecture is a mix of eras and styles from Chinese shophouses and temples to colorful French colonial buildings and a famous Japanese Covered Bridge. Hoi An offers an amazing variety of restaurants and shoppers find a vast array of souvenirs and talored clothes.
We stayed at L Residencia, which we chose mainly for its central location. The rooms are decorated in a French style, which makes them quite interesting.
We had one of our dinners at THE MARKET restaurant / foodcourt which offers lots of choices of local dishes. Make sure you try the silk worm salad.
All in all, I can only recommend to everyone to go to Hoi An and the Da Nang region and spend a few nights there. There are lot of resorts that will offer you different experiences and it is up to you to choose what you want to go for.
Below is a little slideshow, capturing some of our special moments during this trip:
