Let me start this by saying I'm a beach bigot.

The Amanoi property faces on to the South China Sea (or East Sea to be PC in Vietnam) and wraps around into Vinh Hy bay. There are really three beaches on the property. The main beach is on a small cove off the Vinh Hy bay. There is also another very small beach, which I call Beach 2, located in another even smaller cove off the bay, and a third Beach (Beach 3), located in a larger cove, which faces directly onto the South China Sea.

The South China Sea is very calm with almost no waves, although I gather it can have some waves depending on the weather. The Bay is even calmer with only a very light chop in windy conditons, and the coves off the bay are calmer still. So this is not the place to go for boogie boarding or riding the waves. The water temperature is warm but not hot..... perfect to my way of thinking. (Note, however, I spent a fair amount of time at Lake Michigan growing up so my idea of perfect water temperature may be a little different than other people.) That said, you can spend a long time in the water without getting in the least chilled. The water is very clean, much cleaner than Phuket or Bali, but there is some, but not a lot, of litter (plastic bottles and wrappers) that I assume gets discarded from the fishing boats. Also when the wind comes up, the chop stirs up the bottom creating a little turbidity and reducing visibility.... but still very, very clean.

You get to the main beach by buggy and it's about a 5 minute downhill ride from the Central Pavilion and most of the guest pavilions. There is no public access to the beach. It's located in a small cove, with high steep rocky hills on either end. It's a beautiful setting. The beach itself is probably 25 or 30 meters wide. The sand nearer the ocean is a very nice coral sand. The sand further from the ocean is coarser, probably as a result of runoff from the mountains. The ocean drops off steadily so it's over your head by the time you get 20 to 30 meters into the water. It gets deep quickly enough so it wouldn't be a good place to leave small children in the water without some very proximate supervision.

Along the entire beach the first 3 to 5 meters of ocean bottom is all sandy. Along parts of the beach the sandy bottom extends further out, but for most of the beach the sandy bottom turns into broken coral and shells. It's been ground down and smooth enough so you can walk on it, but it's not as nice as a sandy bottom.


Shot of the main beach

When I first arrived there was a fair amount of litter and driftwood on the beach and none of the beach furniture had arrived so that was bit of a disappointment. They cleaned up the beach today and it looks much nicer, but there is still a fair bit of broken coral and shells on beach. The beach would look even better if they raked that up as well. I assume they will. I also think it would be possible to very easily dredge up some of the broken coral and shell on the ocean bottom and either cart it off or run it through a crusher/grinder. If they did this, it would go from being a good beach to a great beach. Not as nice a Pulo but certainly on par with Puri. It's a really beautiful setting.

They also have some Hobie cats, kayaks and paddle boards and I understand there are some windsurfers and zodiacs on order. As I said, it's not a beach for riding the waves, but there is plenty of fun stuff to do. Also because of the water temperature and calm water, it's a great beach for swimming. Much nicer than doing laps in a pool.

The Beach Club is also located on the Main Beach. It's a really nice facility with showers, a restaurant and a great infinity pool overlooking the bay. The pool has a large area that is only about 20 cm deep, which is a great place for lounging in the water. The water temperature is perfect in the morning but a little warm by the afternoon. The only thing I would change is to perhaps put a few shrubs and bushes in between the pool and beach. Overall it has a very nice vibe. The only knock on the Beach Club is that the indoor shower/changing rooms are a little spartan.


View of the Beach Club pool

The main beach faces mainly east so gets it gets a lot of sun directly in your face starting very early in the morning. It's a bit too sunny for my taste, but by mid-afternoon it's ideal and the light on the rocks and cliffs is just beautiful.

From the main beach, you can kayak over to Beach 2 and Beach 3. I kayaked over to Beach 3 first along with Richard who's running recreation. (Some of you may know him from Pulo. He's a great guy and always a lot of fun.) It takes about 20 to 25 minutes so you need to be somewhat fit. You can also walk down to Beach 3 from the Central Hall. It takes about 10 minutes. There's a fair amount of vertical but it's a fairly easy walk and very scenic. For those of you who are familiar with Kila, there's more vertical at Amanoi but it seems easier than going up and down the stairs at Kila. Once they get the zodiacs, it will be much more accessible for small kids and older guests.

The beach at Beach 3 is not as nice as the main beach....not as much sand but I understand they'll be putting in some platforms and beach chairs so it should be a nice spot. The snorkeling off Beach 3 is quite good. There's a lot of coral and lot of interesting fish. The only problem is that with all the fishing and no fish feeding tourists until now, the fish are a bit reticent.

They kayak trip from the main beach to Beach 3 runs along rocky cliffs. It's very beautiful and we saw quite a few herons as well as a White Bellied Sea Eagle.... a majestic bird with a 7 foot wingspan. On the way back, we explored a bit and paddled into some small caves in the cliffs. Just before getting back to the main beach we paddled into Beach 2. It's only accessible by boat and is a gem of a beach..... very small but extremely beautiful. The ocean off Beach 2 is almost perfectly still and the ocean bottom just off the beach is sandy and very shallow so you can just sit in the ocean and totally forget about civilization. It's an easy 5 minute paddle from the main beach. A perfect spot to get away from everything and everyone. (Also a great spot for kids to play in the ocean.)

In addition to the pool at the Beach Club, there is another pool at the Central Pavilion called the Cliff Pool. It's not as iconic as the Kila pool, but to my way of thinking more beautiful. The views are different in every direction and part of the pool is surrounded by trees and huge rocks. It's spectacular and at the same time incredibly serene. You could spend your whole time here at the Cliff Pool and you'd be completely happy.


The Cliff Pool

Bottom line, there's still some work to be done on the beaches, but if they do it right they'll have some of the best beaches in Asia.