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An Lam Retreats
Ninh Van Bay
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THE STAY
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The short answer
At a glance
The pool faces east, which nobody tells you
A boat-access, adults-only villa retreat on Vietnam’s south-central coast, for couples who want to be unreachable.
The thing I remember is the moment the engine cut. You land at Cam Ranh, drive an hour up the coast to a small jetty on the mainland, and then there is a boat for fifteen minutes across Ninh Van Bay, and somewhere in the middle of that crossing the noise of Vietnam just stops. No road comes in here. There is no way to arrive by car and no way to leave by one, and I had not realised how much I wanted that until it happened.
It is about sixty kilometres north of Nha Trang, which sounds close and is not – from the city it is a twenty-minute drive to the jetty and then the same boat. An Lam includes the transfers, and you should take them, because the alternatives are limited and overpriced.
What the isolation buys you is water. I have snorkelled a lot of Vietnam and I have not seen clarity like this outside Phu Quoc – the bay is barely developed, there are large boulders along the private beach, and on a still morning you can see straight down. Six Senses is the other property on this bay, and between them that is the entire development. That is the whole proposition.
The Vibe
Secluded & Private, Barefoot Luxury
An Lam means something close to “peaceful forest,” and the property is built on that idea rather than on a view – thirty-seven villas threaded into the hillside and the rocks rather than lined up along a beach. It is adults only, which is unusual in Vietnam and entirely deliberate, and it is also pet friendly, which is even more unusual.
The scale is the point. Thirty-seven villas on a bay with no road means that at any given moment there are perhaps sixty people on the property, most of them in their own pools, and the public spaces are frequently empty. I walked the grounds at eight in the morning on both days and met nobody.
Every villa has its own, and you will use it hourly
Timber, stone and a mosquito net you actually want
The bathroom is closer to a spa than a bathroom
Where the afternoon goes
Thirty-seven villas threaded into the hillside
Bay View Pool Villa, and I would book the same category again.
The space is generous and the design does the thing good tropical architecture does – timber, stone, a lot of glass, and the outside brought in so thoroughly that you stop registering where the room ends. The bathroom is closer to a spa than a bathroom. But the villa is really about the terrace and the pool.
The private infinity pool faces the sunrise, not the sunset, which is the opposite of what you expect and much better than you expect. I swam at six on both mornings with the bay going pink and no sound at all, and that is the thing I would go back for. At night the same pool is where you stargaze, because there is almost no light pollution on this bay.
Two small details that tell you who is running the place: a phin filter, Vietnamese coffee and condensed milk set up in the villa, so you make it yourself the proper way rather than being brought a cafetiere; and a mini fridge restocked daily with soft drinks and snacks at no charge. The butler service is genuine rather than ceremonial – mine anticipated things I had not thought to ask for.
No road comes in here
Detail, everywhere, done properly
Peaceful forest, which is what the name means
Nihil hic deest: neque cibus, neque vinum, neque amor.
This is the split verdict, and it is worth being precise about.
Breakfast is excellent and included. A cooked-to-order station that runs from pho to banh xeo, which is a much better range than the usual eggs-and-pancakes, plus a proper spread that changed each day. A welcome drink and a fruit platter on arrival. On a property where you are captive, a serious breakfast matters more than it would elsewhere, and they understand that.
Dinner does not keep up. The dinner menu was limited and could be a great deal better. The seafood is fresh and the Vietnamese dishes are competent, and it is more expensive than the mainland as you would expect – but for a property at this rate, on a bay you cannot leave after three in the afternoon, the evening offering is thin. In-villa dining is lovely for a lazy night and does not solve it.
If you are staying three nights or more, this is the thing to raise with them before you arrive.
The wellness here is mostly free and mostly outdoors, which I liked. Morning yoga is complimentary and runs in the open air; kayaking around the bay is complimentary too and is the single best thing to do on the property – the light at seven in the morning on that water is extraordinary and there is nobody else out.
There is a main infinity pool with a panoramic view of the bay, for when you want to be somewhere other than your own, and bicycles for getting around. Nature walks on the hillside, snorkelling straight off the private beach among the boulders, and a spa.
And the thing nobody lists as an amenity: it is very, very quiet. Adults only, thirty-seven villas, no road. The quiet is the treatment.
Dinner, and the boat. The dinner menu is limited and uninspired relative to everything else here, and because there is one complimentary mainland shuttle a day – out at nine, back at three – you cannot simply go and eat somewhere else. Those two facts compound each other. On a two-night stay it is a shrug. On a week it would be a real constraint, and I would want it fixed before I booked a week.
- Privacy
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- Honeymoons
The six o’clock swim in your own pool. It faces east, the bay goes through about four colours in twenty minutes, and you will have the only version of the view there is.
Then the complimentary kayak, straight afterwards, before breakfast. The water is at its flattest and clearest first thing, the boulders along the shore are worth paddling out to look back from, and it is the best photography on the property by a distance.
And make the coffee yourself with the phin filter in the villa rather than ordering it. It takes four minutes and it is the most Vietnamese thing in the room.
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.”
Book three nights minimum. I had two and wished I had more – the first is spent arriving and the boat timings eat into the last.
The mainland shuttle runs once daily, nine until three. If you want Nha Trang, that is your window, and it is the only one.
Transfers are included – use them. Cam Ranh (CXR) is the airport; allow an hour to the jetty plus fifteen minutes on the water.
Adults only. Pets welcome, which almost nothing in this category allows.
Best water clarity is March to September. I went in November, in the shoulder, and had excellent weather and much better rates.
value added perks
with booking with Coco Tran:
- Daily Breakfast for Two, Per Bedroom
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- Welcome Amenity
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- Hotel Credit: USD 100
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- One Category Room Upgrade at Time of Arrival, Based on Availability
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- Early Check-In/Late Check-Out, Based on Availability
An Lam does one thing extremely well: it makes you unreachable, comfortably, at a price that would not get you close to this in Thailand or the Maldives. Thirty-seven villas, no road, your own pool pointed at the sunrise, and water clear enough to justify the whole journey.
Who it is not for: anyone who wants to come and go, anyone who needs variety at dinner, and anyone travelling with children, since it does not take them. If you want a base for exploring Nha Trang and the coast, this is the wrong property and the one boat a day will drive you mad.
For a honeymoon or a proper disappearing week with a kitchen conversation had in advance, it is one of the best-value luxury stays in Southeast Asia. I paid $625 a night in shoulder season and it was worth it.