The Small, River-front Anantara Hội An Does Hội An Right

The Anantara Hoi An is on the water. This is important. Hoi An is built among a whole mesh or rivers, tributaries, and inlets, but relatively few of the places to stay are right on the water. Waterfront property is mostly kept for public spaces. It’s one of the things that makes Hoi An the exceptional tourist town that it is, but it means rooms directly looking over or onto the really pretty romantic waters are rare.

(Photo Credit: Anantara / Minor Hotels)

The Anantara Hoi An is also small. This is also important. And another reason Hoi An is the exceptional tourist town that it is. There are no huge hotel developments in or around Hoi An. This may be because Hoi An has developed as an international tourist town slowly and reasonably. Or it may be because that’s the way Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, the Polish urban planner who had a large hand in restoring the ancient town - one of the few largely untouched by war - to its ancient glory back in the 90s intended. There’s a statue in his honour in the centre of the old town, a testament to just how seriously people here take the state their town is in.

(Photo Credit: Anantara / Minor Hotels)

But the property is big enough to have nice grounds, a shallow put picturesque pool around which to lounge, a small but efficient gym, and the sort of lovely lush foliage mid-coast Vietnam is so perfectly suited to.

The effect is to create a connected oasis. The grounds are self-contained, pleasant and peaceful to stroll around in, but it’s in a good neighbourhood, an easy walk or easier motorbike ride to both the old town and the equally charming new town, and it’s just a couple of steps down to one of the best stretches of riverwalk in town.

(Photo Credit: Anantara / Minor Hotels)

The staff are friendly without being solicitous, there’s a hotel car to take you around and, maybe the biggest selling point of all, they have their own dedicated luxury train running between Hoi An and Quy Nhon a few hours down the coast. It sounds great, but I wasn’t able to get a seat, so I can’t tell you much more about it than that, though I did visit Quy Nhon twice and can report it’s an undervisited seaside town with excellent seafood, good hotels and one of the best cocktail bars in Vietnam, and so well worth the visit, whether you can get a seat on this train or not.

(Photo Credit: Bert Archer)

The food in town is uniformly excellent, especially in the new town, so I wouldn’t bother too much with the kitchen here, which is the case with most luxury hotels in Southeast Asia. The best food in Vietnam, as in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Singapore, is best cooked simply, and best eaten from a cart or on a little plastic stool set up in a storefront.

To learn more about this property, please visit www.anantara.com/en/hoi-an

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