We were recently at both resorts. Six Senses is a brand that is not often discussed here (except by those who only seem to say ‘too rustic’). I will not give a full review of Amano’i, because I think that’s already been pretty well covered, but I will make some commentary on it and will compare the two resorts.

Six Senses resorts ARE rustic (or at least they have been, up until the ownership change) and Con Dao, while not as rustic as the Ninh Van Bay property (which we stayed at years ago), still falls into this category.

I had reserved the resorts through DavidO. And of course he was fantastic, as always. After the initial reservation was made, we began communicating directly with the GM, who was always very responsive and accommodating. We even cancelled the reservation at one point and then later reinstated it after the original rate was no longer available (the new rate was higher because it was closer to the arrival date) – and the resort was kind enough to still give us the original rate (and this is also probably due to David, so thanks are appropriate there as well).

Getting to the resort is not hard. From HCMC, it’s really a 1 hour flight to Con Dao airport. And once you land, it’s a short 10 minute drive from the airport to the resort. I believe the only carrier making this flight is Vietnam Airlines and it seems like the resort has some days ‘reserved’ so that while the flights do not appear on the VA website, they are available through the resort. We actually made all of our internal Vietnam flight arrangements through the resort and were very happy with their service there as well.

Location

The location of the resort is really fantastic. The combination of the green hills in back of you and the beach/ocean in front of you really make the location feel amazingly secluded and very ‘classic tropical beach’. Even though the main town on the island is really just next to the resort, you would never know it. And the beach – honestly, this is the reason to come here. I have to say it’s probably nicer than any other beach I’ve experienced in SE Asia – certainly nicer than anything in Indonesia, Malaysia or Thailand (including the beach at Amanpuri). I’ve not been to Amanpulo, so cannot compare there. The beach here was not as nice as those in Maldives / Seychelles, but close. We normally enjoy going into the ocean, but tend to hang out more in the pool. Here, the ocean water was so nice, we found ourselves hanging out in it for hours at a time. But the private pool was also very nice (and cooler than the ocean).

Room

We were in a 2 bedroom villa with a huge pool (and another, smaller, useless pool that we really didn’t understand). These villas are right on the beach, but raised 10-12 feet up so that those walking on the beach have a limited view into your villa. I thought everything was very well designed and the villa was huge. Yes, everything is made of wood, which does add to the ‘rustic’ feel, but the lines are clean and the villas were very open, bright and airy. Overall, it was not too rustic for us. Privacy was excellent as both of your neighbors are actually quite far away from you due to the size of the villa.

We did have one major issue with the A/C in our villa breaking during our stay. And it was handled pretty poorly, in my opinion. We ended up having to move to another villa, which was not a huge deal. What was more of an irritant was a full day of people coming into the villa, looking at the A/C and pronouncing it ‘fixed’, when it really wasn’t. But I do have to say that they tried very hard to resolve the issue. My hunch is that things got to the point that they did because they didn’t want to upset us by telling us we had to move, not knowing that having them trying to fix it (and failing) over an 8 hour time period was much more irritating to us than a move would have been (especially since we ended up having to move anyway).

Certainly, the 2 bedroom villa was not inexpensive, but I found it a very good value for the money paid. The private space and the fact that all of that space was directly on a beautiful and secluded beach was really well worth it.

Dining

Food was OK, but not great. Breakfast (with cold items buffet style and hot items ordered off the menu) was fantastic. Lunch and dinner were less successful in the main restaurant. We stuck to Vietnamese dishes and we really only eat vegetarian and sometimes fish/seafood. While nothing was bad, nor was it really memorable. I was expecting Vietnamese dishes that were better than my local Vietnamese restaurant and this didn’t happen. Their ‘Vietnamese Kitchen’ dining venue was closed during our time there, so maybe the ‘good’ Vietnamese food comes from there. We did have the in villa BBQ one night. Normally, I find these things to be a way to charge a ridiculous sum of money to present you with too much poorly prepared food. But here it was a pleasant surprise and I’m glad we did it. Overall, we found room service food for lunch/dinner to actually be better than the food at the main restaurant. Food, overall, was very inexpensive for this category of resort.

Service

Service across the resort was good, but somewhat reserved. English was not a problem for anyone we encountered, but at the same time, we found them very hesitant to engage in any kind of conversation. This is a resort where each villa gets a ‘butler’ and ours was very attentive (but not TOO attentive, which can sometimes be an issue). I think Six Senses generally does the butler thing pretty well. Housekeeping was wonderful, the villa was always very clean. Morning cleaning was always done while we were at breakfast.

Amenities

The facilities were adequate, but not amazing. The main pool was very underwhelming and we never used it; gym was small, but well equipped (and cool!) and the spa was quite nice. Spa treatments were excellent and very well priced. For us, the ‘rustic’ feel was much more noticeable in the common areas than it was in the villa itself.

Activities

We had intended to do a lot of activities while here (I understand the scuba/snorkeling is excellent), but ended up doing almost nothing, apart from a few spa treatments. Being in and around the villa area and in the ocean was just so fantastic and relaxing that it was hard to tear ourselves away from that (and so we didn’t).

Weather

One final note about the weather: Here, May (which is when we were there) is the start of the ‘calm’ season. The winds die down and the water is calm. The only rain we had was in the evening and the winds were nonexistent (almost to the point where you were wishing for a breeze). I mention it because the weather is much more windy between December – April, which I think would make the beach (and the whole resort) much less pleasant.