An Lam Retreats Ninh Van Bay

The main issue with the resort is the restaurant. While the food is ok (but not amazing) it is awfully overpriced. We splashed out on our final evening by getting the private dining setup on the jetty (around 35) which was lovely, but then to end up paying 175 for a meal for two with one cocktail and one glass of wine each is excessive. For that price youd expect Michelin star quality food and unfortunately this didnt cut it for quality and especially service. As an example, one of the glasses of wine we were served tasted like rancid port, we informed the waiter that the bottle had been open for too long and upon checking it she told us itd been open for 20 days. Thats an OK mistake to make in a cheap and cheerful restaurant but when youre paying top dollar you expect more. The staff at times were a little overbearing - when Im in the middle of eating I dont want to be interrupted to be upsold spa treatments. The villas do not by default have keys you can lock them with which we found a bit unsettling but we had no issues. But due to the rustic design the inside was not sealed from outside so there were plenty of geckos in the room at night, whose loud croaks would wake us up each night! Also while we were staying there was renovation work being done to the pool area installing new decking which a) we werent told about and b) werent apologised for. Work started at 7am and also woke us up as it was right outside our villa and in a normal 5-star hotel youd expect some kind of apology for the inconvenience at least if not also a token of goodwill in a free cocktail or something similar. Ultimately this hotel lacks the polish youd expect from a true 5-star resort but if you come prepared to accommodate for that then its perfectly fine. And make sure youre ready to overpay for food as there arent really any other options!

A little too expensive considering other luxus hotels in Vietnam and the poor quality of the sea. The resort is very clean, but if you walk on the beach on the left or right side of the resort, you can find a lot of dirty on the beach or on the jungles (old plastic bottle, shopping bags, old boxes et cetera). The resort shold take care of the environment also around the resort and request and ask the lifeguards who spend most of the day looking at their mobile phones to clean the beach a little further away from where hotel guests bathe. In the sea immediately in front of the three beach villas, it is unfortunately not possible to bathe well because there are many shallow rocks that prevent swimming: this should be communicated when booking. In addition, the sea is not blue or light green as it appears in the photos (perhaps the sea is like this during other seasons) but dark green and in the afternoon murky and with no visibility. We spent 4 days in this beautiful resort.