Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Travel&Dining > Luxury Hotels and Travel
Reload this Page >

Trip report Vietnam: 4 nights Park Hyatt Saigon, 9 nights Amanoi

Trip report Vietnam: 4 nights Park Hyatt Saigon, 9 nights Amanoi

Old Mar 19, 2014, 10:25 am
  #1  
Original Poster
Aman Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: OSL
Posts: 2,145
Trip report Vietnam: 4 nights Park Hyatt Saigon, 9 nights Amanoi

Park Hyatt Saigon, HCM City

Pre arrival service
I booked directly through the internet site which is OK and convenient, but not very personal as you do not get in touch with the hotel directly, just the central reservation system. This means that any requests that I send to them will be answered in a standardised way by someone in the central office. I did, however, manage to get in direct touch with the concierge department and got them to organise pick up and recommend restaurants. They did also recommend an agency for sightseeing, but I was not happy with this agency, so I contacted Amanoi who recommended another agency for this. More about that later.

Arrival
We travelled with Emirates in business class via Dubai and arrived early evening in Ho Chi Minh City. Pick up went very smoothly, we were met in the arrival all by a representative from the hotel and taken to the waiting car where cold towels and water was available. Instead of a limousine type car, we got a van in order to fit in three persons and luggage. Luckily no traffic, so the drive went quickly. When arriving at the hotel, a woman from the reception was waiting for us outside, greeted us by name and took us directly to our suite where the check in formalities were taken care of. A very nice welcome. A bottle of wine, fruit and lovely cookies and snacks were waiting for us together with a welcome card.

Room
We had booked a park suite which consisted of a hall leading into the living area (sofa, table, chair, desk, mini bar, coffee and tea making facilities plus the rollaway bed for our son) from which a door led into the bedroom (pretty hard king size bed, chairs, little table) and from there into wardrobe area with lots of space and the bathroom with double sinks, separate toilet, good shower and a bath tub. Miller Harries toiletries if I remember correctly and lots of extras that one might need (shaving stuff, toothbrush etc.) in a handy box or to be ordered from housekeeping if needed. The room was in the 5th floor, had view to the pool and was very quiet and comfortable. Though the furniture was not the most modern, it all looked new and was more than OK (better than the internet pictures), so I did not really see the need for the renovation that was planned (and cancelled or postponed).

Pool, spa, gym

We enjoyed the pool every day before or after sightseeing. Good pool service where someone would make up the comfortable loungers, serve us water and fruit and come around to take orders if we wanted something else. Nice pool, not very exciting in its layout, but more than good enough. A small restaurant close to pool where we were happy to meet 5khours one day for coffee and some preparation for our Amanoi stay. Sometimes noise from traffic or events taking place nearby, but still an oasis in the middle of the busy city. There is a spa and a gym at the hotel, but we did not use these facilities.

Food
We had excellent breakfasts every morning in the hotel. Light and airy room, a serviced buffet with excellent pastry, different juices, a good choice of cold cuts, cheese, fruit, youghurt etc. in addition to a large menu to order Asian or European/American breakfast specialities. One of the better city hotel breakfasts we have had. In addition we had one lunch at the pool which was OK, but nothing special. All other meals we had outside the hotel, where there is a wide range of very good Vietnamese, Thai, French and Chinese restaurants, many within short walking distance from the PH. Vietnamese food is really very, very tasty. If I should recommend one restaurant, it would be the Hoa Tuc right across the road (less than 2 minutes walk) from the hotel that 5khours recommended to us. We went there the first evening and went back another time as the food was brilliant and the atmosphere (simple, outside seating) very nice as well.

Service
We were positively surprised about the service and found it to be close to what we have experienced at larger FS hotels. We were greeted with name, our preferences remembered and all request were taken care of in a quick and good way. The concierge was very nice and helpful and the butler fixed all room related issues very quickly. Upon checkout, there were some discussion about the bill (they had used higher rates than confirmed for transportation, they had converted invoice to USD using infavourable rates), but this was changed without discussion.

The city and sightseeing
As mentioned, Amanoi put us in touch with an agency (Inside Asia) who organised private sightseeing for us.

We had half a day of city sightseeing where we were driven around at oldtimer motorbikes with side cars to see the sights and get a feel of the city life. A very cool way to go on sightseeing that we truly enjoyed. We saw a church, the post office, a palace and the war remnants museum which was fine, but the city is not as interesting with regards to sights as other Asian cities we have visited. However, the travelling on the motor bikes itself was really a highlight. Our guide took us to a local coffee bar where we got to know the delicious Vietnamese coffee (with condensed milk and ice) and showed us the local life. If you want to know all the historical details etc., this is not the sightseeing for you, but if you want to be part of the city, it’s amazing traffic and have a fun afternoon, I highly recommend it.

We also had a one day excursion to the Mekong delta. We did want to see a floating market, but found out that this was not possible without a night away from HCM city, so we opted for a visit to Cai Be which has a tiny floating market and where we toured the Mekong on a nice boat (not like the Boats at Amantaka or Amansara, but very good and private), went in smaller boats at "canals", had lunch in a traditional house and saw life at the Mekong. Nice guide speaking excellent English, very gentle and knowledgeable.

Finally we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels made by Vietcong (1/2 day excursion). We – and especially our 10 year old son – liked this a lot. An amazing place to see. Same guide and driver as day before.

Overall
Having heard varied things about this hotel and about HCM City, I was very positively surprised. I would not call it a charming, must see city, but it was a good place to stay before getting away from it all at Amanoi. 4 nights is not necessary unless you want to go to see sights outside the city as we did, but 1 or 2 nights here is definitely not wrong, much more interesting than for example Manila where "everybody" spend the night before going to Amanpulo.
Musken is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2014, 10:26 am
  #2  
Original Poster
Aman Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: OSL
Posts: 2,145
Amanoi


Pre arrival service
I booked directly and the booking was handled by the Aman Central Reservation in Sri Lanka since the resort was not yet open when I booked. Even though everything worked well, I strongly prefer to be in direct contact with the resort instead of the Sri Lanka Team, and was very happy when the direct contact was established closer to our arrival.

Arrival
We travelled with Vietnam Airlines in business class from Ho Chi Minh City and arrived in the early afternoon. Pick up went very smoothly, we were met in the arrival all by a representative from Amanoi and taken to the waiting car where cold towels and water was available. Given that we are two adults, one child at quite some luggage, Amanoi had suggested to send our luggage with a separate taxi, but we managed to fit in everything. The trip from the airport to the resort took around 1,5 hours. The road was not yet fully finished, but they are getting there. Just another 2 or 3 months now before all the work is done. It was just 20 minutes with really bad road on the way there, and that was already better on the way back. Arriving at Amanoi we were greeted by the resort manager (the GM Susan was away during all of our stay) who showed us the main building. We got a drink and towels and were offered cookies and cakes from the daily tea spread (more about that later). We were then taken to our Pavilion in a buggy where a welcome bottle on ice with a card was there to greet us. The paperwork was done quickly and we were ready to enjoy Amanoi!

Room
We had booked a lake view pavilion with pool and asked for number 28 which has one of the larger private pools (did not see any others, but it was large) and a central location with walking distance to the main building. It was very private and had a view to the lake and the mountains.

The inside of the room has already been described by others and I can add that the reality is much better than the pictures.

Some of the details that we loved most:
- The fantastic rain shower with amazing pressure
- The lighting system and the way it could be dimmed to suit every situation
- The reading lights above the bed
- The fact that the suitcases could be stored away next to the sink so that we hardly saw them (I hate looking at suitcases)
- That it was possible to leave the light in the WC room on while all other lights were turned off (how to find the way in the middle of the night if this is not possible!!!)
- The very efficient air condition which would make the temperature right in just a few minutes
- Super hair dryer, so good that I need to buy a new one at home since I found that mine was very slow now in comparison
- The very private terrace, especially sitting there enjoying the sunset view with the sun mirroring in the lake drinking champagne (the reason why I did not go to the gym as much as I had planned)
- The coffee machine: Good coffee, easy to make, almost not making sounds while making coffee (good since I get up first and do not want to disturb family – though cannot live without my coffee)
- Very comfortable rollaway bed according to my son. We decided to place it in front of the bath tub in the bathroom which worked well.
- Bed very comfortable (not even sure I had or needed the mattress topper) – two different pillows; one suitable for reading when support was needed, one softer for sleeping.

What we liked less:
- The TV! Need to find a solution for this asap. I would go for something similar to Amanruya – or remove the TV altogether
- Some “missed storage space”: There were some spaces that could have been used better, for example under the sink. I thought there was a drawer and a small cupboard which would have been great, but found that one could not open this part of the furniture, it was just just decorations.

Pools, beaches
We spent most of our days at the beach club, but personally I loved the cliff pool even more because of the beautiful view and tranquillity up there. The loungers (same loungers everywhere, including in pavilions) look quite hard and uncomfortable, but are actually much better that one would think. I do enjoy loungers with a thicker mat on top even more, though. We had wonderful weather all days with clear blue sky and no clouds and just a comfortable breeze (except two days where the wind was stronger). This meant that the need for shade was high. The umbrellas worked well, and at the beach club there is also the natural shade of the beach club building to protect us from the strong sun. We went for walks at the beach to swim, but did not use the loungers there. Many others did, though, so nothing wrong with them, just we prefer closeness to pool and facilities. Beach is nice, but does not come close to Amanpulo or Amanpuri. The sand is not as fine, the sea not as turquoise and I personally also need some palm trees or similar to call a beach my dream beach and the flora here is very dry with just low vegetation. They also still need to do more work in cleaning up at regular intervals as the waves bring in garbage. Some nice seashells to be found. Husband and son went out with hobie cat and paddle boat a couple of times, but as I said, we preferred to lounge around the pool. We did not paddle over to the 2nd beach, but went one day to the 3rd beach (reachable from main building – 10 minutes walk) to have a picnic (see under activities) and found it very tranquil with some beautiful rocks that reminded me a bit of the Seychelles, but the sand was not as good as main beach and the waves stronger so no swimming that day. Service at pools/main beach included water which was refreshed several times during the day day and sometimes smoothies or a small taste of a juice. In addition the team would be ready to take drinks and food orders whenever we wanted something. The service is better at the beach club (always someone to make sure we had what we needed, at cliff pool we were alone occasionally, especially early morning), but we often had the cliff pool for ourselves which was wonderful as well. Toilets and changing rooms/showers were good, tough a bit too cold because of the air conditioning. Water in sea and pools warm enough for staying longer times in the pool without moving around, but not as warm as in the typical tropical destinations where it is not colder at night. For food at beach/pool, see the food heading. You need a buggy to get back from the beach club, and we soon learnt to ask for one before packing our things to avoid having to wait as it takes some minutes for the buggies to drive down from the main building.

spa, gym, tennis
The gym is large and airy with a nice view, but as said here before, Amanpuri beats everything with regards to gym. I found all the equipment I needed, water, towels and fresh fruit. I found it too hot in the gym, as the sliding doors to the lake were left open, but I guess someone would have made sure to close them if I would have asked. Tennis courts were fine according to husband and son. They played every day between 17 and 18 hrs which was good (shade, not too hot etc.) Drinks and equipment available at tennis courts + ball boys. I had two massages and one after sun treatment in the spa, all three fine. I enjoyed the spa pavilions, but found the spa reception to be less tranquil compared to others – maybe because everyone going to and from the the gym, including waiting for buggies when returning, needed to pass through there as well.

Food
Generally: The food is very good, the prices (both food and drinks) much lower than at other Amanresorts I have been to and the portions very large. There is also lots of choice, so no worries about food!

Breakfast can be had in room or in the main restaurants, lunch in room, at beach club or in main restaurant (also possible at cliff pool, but very warm there, so not really recommended unless one is too lazy to move), the NOT TO MISS tea (best ever for any Aman, maybe due to French pastry chef, lots of choice and new yummy cakes and desserts every day) in the main building (or we had delivery to the room a few times) and evening meal in room or in main restaurant. All locations have different menus; Beach club lunch light fare both International and Asian, main restaurant International and Vietnamese choices both for breakfast (exceptionally much choice for an Aman) and dinner. In addition there would always be a today’s speciality for dinner and of course the possibility of ordering off the menu which we did a couple of times as well (excellent Mexican food one evening, the food that 5khours mentioned as the best he had at another evening). No special dinners or special locations for dinner (bale or similar). Service was quick and friendly, no mistakes. Mungo the F&B manager that we met at Amanpulo was always there to check if everything was OK.

Since we were there 9 nights, I would have preferred another venue for eating at night, like there is at for example Amanpulo. There are many places to sit at the main building at Amanoi (inside with aircon, outside at terrasse, under roof or at the bar), but after 9 nights it does get the same in the end. Another restaurant somewhere else would have been nice, maybe with Spanish food (tapas etc.) like the Amanpulo beach club.

Service
With the exception of some language issues that they are working on (English training), the service if excellent. Everyone eager to please and always smiling. Remembering of preferences could still improve, but the team is really good already, so shortly after opening. They are further than other Amans that we have visited shortly after opening and will soon be up to full Aman standard. If there would be language issues, there would always be someone from management nearby to assist.
Housekeeping came to freshen up our room more or less every time we left our pavilion with full service when we had breakfast and dinners, and everything was always cleaned to our satisfaction.
What was not yet there, was the personal interaction chatting about things also with junior personnel that we know from other Amans. This is a language issue and will improve.
Lots of security personnel at the large resort made us feel very safe and taken care of. I have never seen security that visible at other Amans, maybe you see them more here as the resort is so huge and they have to watch everywhere? Did not ask.
Senior management always around during meal- or tea times to check if everything was OK, suggest things etc.

Activities
This is not an Aman where there is a lot of cultural activities nearby. We saw quite a lot in HCM City, and just wanted to relax most of the time, so for us it was OK also for such a long stay. We did, however, go on two outings.

Firstly we went to see the Vinh Hy Bay fishing village nearby and another small village in the mountains plus a Buddhist temple. The villages were almost never visited by tourists from abroad, so it was definitely authentic, but except from some simple houses, not really much to see. The temple was nice, but nothing new if one has seen many before. The whole trip can be done in just one hour or two, so it is nice for a change. Our guide did her very best for us all the time and told us many things about daily life, but will be better when English skills improve. After seeing the two villages, we went to have lunch at a floating restaurants some kilometres (20 minutes drive) from Vinh Hy Village, towards airport. That lunch is what we will remember most from our Vietnam holiday!! One need to go with a local boat out to the restaurant (just a few minutes). Arriving there, we chose our fish and lobster and a diver went into the water to catch our lunch for us. The food was then cooked at a very simple outside kitchen and served with local sauces and Vietnamese salad and herbs. So fresh, so delicious. Our drinks was brought from Aman and our guide assisted us all the time in choosing the food and preparation, telling us how to eat it etc. We had grilled lobster and a pink fish steamed with herbs eaten with local salad and herbs. What made this meal extra special was that the restaurant was full of locals enjoying their day off with their families. Full tables of locals having their lunch, throwing the empty drink boxes and sea shells/garbage etc. on the ground after eating (that was what you were supposed to do – it was cleaned up after they left the tables) and then taking a nap in between the table afterwards. Just fantastic. Maybe not for everyone, but for us a very memorable outing!

Another day we were going out with a boat. Amanoi does not have their own boats, but it is possible to go out snorkelling and looking at the coast with a guide from Amanoi plus someone from Amanoi to assist with snorkelling in one of the boats belonging to the national park authorities. The boat is absolutely OK, with a glass bottom so that one can see the corals etc. without going into the water, but of course no Aman boat and service. We were driven to the fishing village to board the boat, and started seeing some clouds already going there. As the weather had been good all other days, we did not think much about it, but after just hour on sea, the waves were getting bigger and we had to return. Not possible to snorkel, not possible to get us to a nice beach for picnic etc. However, we got to see some of the beautiful coast and Amanoi from the water, and were brought directly to the Amanoi beach club where we departed. After some relaxing there, we went up to the main building and met our guide again. She took us to the “beach 3” around 10 minutes walk down (and a bit longer back up again) where she and the team set up the picnic lunch for us. I believe we were the first guests to have a picnic there, and had a very nice time. Found a very good spot to set up the picnic and enjoyed ourselves a lot. Some more work (think Amanpulo picnic at the sandbank setup) and this might be a real hit, but I recommend it also in the simpler form that they offer today. Normally nice snorkelling from this beach, but it was not possible to go into the water at all for us because of wind and waves.

Kids
My son is almost too old now to really be able to judge suitability for kids, but I can add the following that we experienced ourselves or saw:
- Saw families with small kids and teenagers there
- High chairs available
- Kids menu available
- Kids activities at beach available, but did not see them take place, also read about painting and cooking for kids
- Our villa not particularly kids friendly given the large pool directly next to terrace, but maybe they have other villas that can be child proofed
- Possible to put extra bed in bathroom, but design wise it does not look very nice of course with a bed next to the bath tub
- Main building pretty child proof
- Beach not really a building sand castles type beach and also not very shallow
- Pool at beach very suitable for kids as it is shallow at one end
- Cliff pool less children friendly

Our son is now at an age where he joins our activities, reads, plays with his iPad, plays tennis and enjoy water, swimming and activities related to this. No need for kids programme. He was, however, allowed to join the kitchen team one day to see how they worked and to participate in both baking and making Vietnamese food that we were served for lunch. He liked that a lot, and we enjoyed the lunch!

Overall
We had nine very relaxing days and loved it at Amanoi. However, for me Amanpulo is still the beach paradise of the Amans. This has much to do with vegetation (palm trees etc.) and also the quality of the beach itself and the closeness to the sea at Amanpulo. What I also preferred at Amanpulo was the choice of restaurants, as said above.

Still I highly recommend Amanoi for a relaxing beach vacation, maybe especially after sightseeing in Laos/Cambodia which we did in October last year.

Last edited by Musken; Mar 21, 2014 at 7:57 am
Musken is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2014, 2:17 pm
  #3  
Aman 5+ BadgeFour Seasons Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Programs: UA1K, *G & Wife of UA1K MM
Posts: 3,430
Originally Posted by Musken
Reserved for Amanoi



Not sure when I get time to write up my review, but if you have specific questions in the meantime, feel free!
Oh man, what a tease!!!! Need more....

I love Vietnamese coffee. A coworker introduced me to it and I have to admit wondering if the Vietnamese actually drink coffee that way. It's nice to hear the sweetened condensed milk part is authentic.
Ericka is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2014, 2:35 pm
  #4  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Here, there you know how it goes.
Posts: 1,518
The VN Coffee at Amanoi is FANTASTIC. Like crack. I had a couple each day.
aa213bb is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2014, 3:52 pm
  #5  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: London
Posts: 3,439
Great trip report so far. We also ate in Hoa Tuc a couple of times and really enjoyed the food and the ambiance.

With regard to service in Vietnam we found it excellent everywhere we stayed.
quitecontrary is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2014, 6:04 pm
  #6  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 246
looking forward for your Amanoi report! will be there in 2 weeks, super excited
halibahs is offline  
Old Mar 19, 2014, 6:46 pm
  #7  
ABG
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Canada
Programs: Virtuoso TA, Four Seasons Pref Partner, Rosewood Elite TA, Ritz Carlton STARS TA
Posts: 4,724
Surprised EK doesn't have chauffeur drive in SGN
ABG is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2014, 12:04 am
  #8  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: France
Posts: 971
Originally Posted by Ericka
Oh man, what a tease!!!! Need more....
+1
Musken knows how to make all of us panting
I will connect every 2 hours hoping & praying
Pierre&Cdric is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2014, 2:36 am
  #9  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,068
Originally Posted by Pierre&Cdric
+1
Musken knows how to make all of us panting
I will connect every 2 hours hoping & praying
+ 2! I will be there in 5 days.
Londonjetsetter is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2014, 4:55 am
  #10  
Four Seasons Contributor BadgeAman Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: New York City
Posts: 408
Originally Posted by Londonjetsetter
+ 2! I will be there in 5 days.
+3
I will be there for Easter.
Groombridge is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2014, 5:06 am
  #11  
Original Poster
Aman Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: OSL
Posts: 2,145
Originally Posted by ABG
Surprised EK doesn't have chauffeur drive in SGN
They might very well have. Forgot about it being part of the service.
Musken is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2014, 5:07 am
  #12  
Original Poster
Aman Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: OSL
Posts: 2,145
And I will do my best to finish the review for you as soon as I find time. Promise.
Musken is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2014, 6:11 am
  #13  
Aman Contributor BadgeBanyan Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 751
Originally Posted by Groombridge
+3
I will be there for Easter.
+4. There in May.

Thanks for the trip report so far Musken and am very much looking forward to the rest.
xracer is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2014, 6:54 am
  #14  
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: CX DM
Posts: 125
Originally Posted by xracer
+4. There in May.

Thanks for the trip report so far Musken and am very much looking forward to the rest.
+5

We are departing on this exact trip (only shorter) tomorrow morning
Altocumulus is offline  
Old Mar 20, 2014, 9:43 am
  #15  
Original Poster
Aman Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: OSL
Posts: 2,145
OK OK OK. I have worked all afternoon for you and have added my Amanoi TR in post two of this thread. Sorry for mistakes etc. in the rush. Hope you like it. And hope that the ones of you that will visit soon will follow up with TR and comments as well to compare and see development.
Musken is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.