I have long wanted to visit and explore Vietnam, especially the northern part, but it transpired that my first visit to Vietnam would be to a beach resort in the central part of the country, close to the holiday destination of Nha Trang, on the South China Sea (or, depending on your politics, the East Vietnam Sea). Basically we wanted some R&R after our tour of China, which we anticipated would be hectic and tiring.

This was also to be our first taste of the highly regarded Six Senses brand, as we chose to stay at Six Senses Ninh Van Bay.  I made the booking through American Express because they offered the same room rates plus some extra benefits, at $723+tax/night B&B for a Beachfront Villa.  The resort was offering a “sweet sixteen” promotion of a complimentary ‘Experience’ each day, for guests staying longer than 5 nights. For our 11 night stay we were invited to choose 11 ‘Experiences’ in advance, and they put an itinerary together for us.

We were met at Cam Ranh/Nha Trang International airport by a charming Six Senses representative and then driven in a Ford Transit-Type minibus to Six Senses’ jetty, a little over an hour away in afternoon rush-hour traffic. At the jetty was an air-conditioned lounge to wait in before we boarded a fast boat for a 10 minute crossing to the resort.  Because of the boat transfer Six Senses Ninh Van Bay feels like it’s on an island, but it’s actually near the end of a narrow, secluded peninsula without road access. Cold water and dried fruit nibbles are provided both in the lounge and on the boat.

We were warmly greeted at the resort jetty by a selection of staff including the GM, Ateeb, one of his managers, Viet, and our GEM (Guest Experience Manager) Tao, whose role is also sometimes called “Butler”.  The first wonderful thing Ateeb and Viet did for us was to arrange for swimming shorts, sun cream and a resort-branded polo shirt each to be brought to our villa, because China Southern had left our luggage in China!  (Next day Viet actually took a boat to town to get us deodorant and to try to get me my much-needed daily medications – fantastic service!)

Our two-floored Beach Pool Villa (No. 20) was very close to the jetty and wonderfully spacious and well equipped. Upstairs was a large area, fully open to the elements, with sofas, a coffee machine and mini-bar, and a fantastic view over our private garden and pool to the beach and the ocean.  Downstairs we had two large air-conditioned rooms – the bathing/dressing room with chest of drawers, open wardrobe, two sinks, a toilet, shower room and a free standing wooden bathtub. Full height windows had a door leading to the back garden in which was an outdoor shower.  Then there was the bedroom featuring a superking bed with the fattest mattress ever – it was unbelievably comfortable – and in the evening turn-down they draped a white mosquito net from its ‘posts’.  The bedroom had a TV, a work desk, good aircon, a daybed, lots of windows and doors to the front garden.  The garden had a terrace with 2 loungers and our own private pool, surrounded by sand. There were trees and shrubbery providing full privacy screening and a sandy pathway directly onto to the beach and the calm ocean, where two private deck chairs sat.  Our first impression was that we were truly in paradise!

The resort is spread over a large area interconnected by sandy tracks. A call to reception would summon an electric buggy to take us where we wanted, and there were also two bicycles for us to use, with wooden “BPV20” number plates. I was told that repeat guests get their names written on the bike plates, which is sweet.  100m from our villa was one of the resort’s dining areas, which they named “Dining by the Pool” because it was a large open pavilion next to the communal swimming pool. Adjacent was an open kitchen and a closed, air-conditioned room which offered a wide selection of home-made ice creams and sorbets throughout the day at no charge.  That space led onto a communal beach area with sun loungers, next to the bar area named “Drinks by the Beach” so refreshments were always on hand.

Each morning breakfast was served in the open restaurant they call “Dining by the Bay” – a grand wooden structure floating above granite boulders in the middle of the crescent shaped bay. The breakfast offering was very good quality and immense! Some live, open cooking stations prepared hot food, including Asian favourites and waffles, there was a fresh juice bar, and an air-conditioned room containing cereals, yogurt, freshly cut fruits and cold meats.  Barrista coffee, teas and of course food were brought to the table by delightful staff, with mixed abilities in English.  Our favourite waiter was Nguy who was so sweet and spoke excellent English. Sitting at our table, looking out over the bay, enjoying good food was just a perfect start to each day for us.

In the evenings ‘Dining by the Bay’ always serves an a la carte menu and on some evenings they have themed dinner buffets too. ‘Dining by the Pool’ is only open some evenings, usually for themed nights, such as a barbecue.  Our favourite dinner spot was “Dining by the Rocks”, a wood and glass pavilion high up above the rocks at one end of the bay.  “Fine dining” European-style food put together by the resort’s Executive Head Chef Andrew (a warm and friendly Australian) was excellent, but this restaurant only opens a few nights a week because of the challenges of fully staffing it.  It can be tough getting a table, so you need to request it promptly with your GEM, who will show you a menu and ask you to order the day before (to avoid wastage).  BTW you need to be able to climb about 100 steps to get to Dining by the Rocks.

For the most exclusive of dinners, a couple, a family or a small group of friends can eat from a special set menu in the resort’s Wine Cave.  It’s a wonderfully romantic rock cave close to Dining by the Bay, crammed with wine racks, where you’re served by your own personal waiter who leaves you alone to eat and chat.  When we arrived we found the table (literally a slice of a tree) decorated with rose petals and candles. (This special meal, including a wine flight, was included in my package – one of the benefits of my booking through Amex.)

As I mentioned earlier, every day we had a complimentary “Experience”.  This included massages and a “wellness consultation” in the spa, a picnic lunch, a snorkelling trip, a late afternoon cocktail boat trip, guided yoga and meditation, a Vietnamese cookery class and a water-ski lesson. We actually converted our waterskiing into what they called “fun tube”, where you sit in a rubber dinghy being pulled around the bay by a speedboat!  Often just half hour events, some Experiences were better than others, and if they’re not included in your package you can purchase them during your stay.  The “fun tube” was terrific fun and the cookery class was very good (and tasty). The snorkelling trip was disappointing because the most exciting thing we saw was a troupe of monkeys on the rocks, and I cut my hand on barnacles on the side of the boat.

You might be thinking “what fun they had” but the truth is that I became quite bored after about 5 days. I’d booked Six Senses Ninh Van Bay because of its isolation within an undisturbed jungly area, and for the coral in their bay which is lauded on their website, so I envisaged taking walks in the forests to encounter wildlife, and snorkelling in the bay, and I’d hoped the resort would have a resident naturalist or marine biologist to guide us in our wildlife encounters. But there was no expert wildlife guidance (no-one even knew what type of monkeys we saw), the corals in the bay had been devastated by a Cat5 Typhoon last November, and hiking in the rocky and hilly forest proved to be beyond my physical abilities.  I’m not much interested in ‘sunbathing’. That’s why I got bored. I was even reluctant to take walks along the bay’s beach because some (not all) of the sand was too coarse for my embarrassingly delicate feet!

But that’s just (Autistic Spectrum) me. I know that total relaxation is many people’s dream of a holiday. And I must add that despite the damage to the coral there was still a good selection of tropical fish to admire when snorkelling – but no anemones and no clown fish.  But on the positive there were no big biting fish, or jellyfish either and the visibility was fine.  When snorkelling off the beach we found there was only a small window each day when the tide was high enough to give us a decent, safe depth to swim above the corals and rocks.

Unfortunately my autistic boredom caused me to start noticing some ‘negatives’ at Six Senses Ninh Van Bay: I was particularly irritated by poor housekeeping in and outside our villa.  On five occasions I killed roaches in the bathroom, and even though I mentioned it to our GEM I don’t believe the room was sprayed with insecticide while we were in residence. The lack of spraying undoubtedly also led to an infestation of tiny ants on and around the work desk.  It was alarming to see them crawling over and into my MacBook, and hugely frustrating when, overnight, they took to the box of petit fours “Dining by the Rocks” had given us to take away the evening before.

I became very fed up of Housekeeping leaving the doors dividing the open and air-conditioned parts of the villa, open, which meant cool air was being lost and flying insects could gain access to our bedroom.  Most distressing of all was when I discovered that Housekeeping had thrown the contents of an ashtray into the bushes in our front garden, by the pool!  I actually invited the GM to witness this, so hopefully the issue will have been resolved by the time you go there!

In general I felt the appearance of both back and front gardens could have been greatly enhanced if Housekeeping kept them tidier, by picking up fallen leaves.

My final Housekeeping compliant is that the bowl of fruit in the room on our arrival wasn’t refreshed or replenished over the 11 night stay.  I don’t know if this was a Housekeeping error, or a miserly management policy!

The Six Senses group is renowned for the spas at its resorts, and we made several visits to the spa at Six Senses Ninh Van Bay.  There’s a spectacular entrance, with huge granite blocks as stepping stones across a big water feature leading to a reception area where you’re offered cold or warm ginger tea, other drinks and dried fruits. Then you get taken through the bush to one of several treatment ‘huts’, each of which has two tables if a ‘couples’ massage is what you’re looking for.  We found that massages delivered by key named staff were superior to those from ‘general staff’.  A visiting Thai practitioner and the resident Indian doctor, Dr James, were both very good therapists. We also booked the Thai man (called Nunt) to come to our villa one morning to teach us Tai Chi on our upstairs veranda, which was an excellent ‘workout’.  BTW just before we left we learned that the spa was closing in September for a “significant” upgrade.  They’ll be treating guests in a large guest villa until it reopens at the end fo the year.

The only thing I didn’t like about the spa was that at times we felt too pressurised to book up a range of treatments.  Our free ‘Experience’ “wellness consultation” lasted about 5 minutes and quickly led into a $100 “Wellness Screening” which in turn led to a range of paid for therapies designed to address your personal ailments.  The “Screening” involved placing hands and feet on metal plates and some wires stuck to the head, and a computer programme. I wasn’t clear about the scientific basis for this test, but it did correctly identify issues I was already aware of (I need to exercise more!).

In conjunction with the group’s resorts worldwide, Six Senses Ninh Van Bay is putting a lot of effort into sustainability, and we learned about it all on a very interesting tour of the organic gardens with their Sustainability Manager.  As well as organic fruit and veg being grown for the kitchen, we saw solar panels, a water treatment facility and a still which they use to obtain essential oils from plants such as lemongrass.  One sustainability initiative which really impressed me was finding that all drinks straws at the resort are made of bamboo.

We were very impressed and comforted that the resort has on-site nurses available 24/7. We called upon their services to clean and dress the wounds Mr A sustained when he came off his bicycle!  I met several guests who’d had a similar fate, so I think it would be a good idea for the management to look into how they can keep all the sandy tracks in a more cycle-friendly condition.  BTW the resort offers smaller bikes for kids.

Overall I thought Six Senses Ninh Van Bay was a good destination holiday resort, just not as good as I was anticipating.  My personal hopes for frequent wildlife encounters and good snorkelling were not met, and as a consequence I found myself getting bored with the ‘same old routine’ on an 11 night stay.  That’s just my personal ‘thing’.  The resort is attractively laid out, in its lovely location and its villas are pretty impressive.  I was particularly impressed with the GM, Ateeb, who was a very visible and approachable, hands on manager who very clearly wanted his guests to have the best memories possible.   With hundreds of hotel rooms opening in the Nha Trang area, staff recruitment and retention is becoming a challenge, but notwithstanding this I hope Ateeb is able to improve the work of his Housekeeping team, which I found to be very disappointing.  Food was good – well sourced, well cooked and well presented; my only suggestion for improvement would be to add more of a Vietnamese twist to the fine dining menus at Dining by the Rocks.

All the weathered wood used for the buildings is attractive, informal and conducive to holiday relaxation.  But there’s a fine line between ‘shabby chic’ and shabby, which any hotel needs to keep on top of. 8/10