Thanks spylaw4 - hope you enjoy your trip.

In case anyone was also curious, Amanoi recommends Rainbow Divers, which I mentioned above. Unfortunately, it is 2 hours away, and while Amanoi will set up a car transfer, it requires departing the hotel at 5:30am, and likely not returning before sunset (car transfer price of $250++). They also said the diving itself was a bit of a letdown, with healthy reefs but limited sealife to be found.

Considering the distance, it looks like I won't be diving this trip. Oh well, no biggie!

Yes , no biggie . N'oi isn't really the Aman for diving .
For diving in ASEAN Amans , you need to be at Pulo , Wana , even Kila is a stretch .. But & better yet , go on Amaikan to Rajah Ampat

N'oi has other activities to be enjoyed . Just let team know your interests , level of relaxation or otherwise , other end of spectrum ?

spylaw4 , just might see you at N'oi

^ ok

I've just received the 2016 list of activities/excursions. Can anyone comment on:

• Binh Hung Island Floating Restaurant - includes transport by land and sea to restaurant. Order from menu there? Speaks of freshly caught lobster and seafood, al la carte. Is this an evening event or can it be lunch time?
• Vinh Hy Fishing Village Tour (includes tea in a home)
• Dinner at Ong Bay's House in village of Vinh Hy, 5 minutes from Amanoi - how is the food? and experience?

If we do the dinner at Ong Bay's House, do we skip the fishing village tour? or can they be combined? They are both in Vinh Hy.

Here is a map of the property. It shows the various pavilions and villas and identifies their categories.

Not trying to be picky, but I have a feeling that that map, which is the same one as I have, is perhaps a little out of date? There are now a couple of extra categories - Mountain Pavilion & Lake Pavilion. I suppose these are in reality a subdivision of the Pavilion category?

I too would be interested in any comments re Binh Hung.

The fishing village tour is fine but didn't include the tea when we did it. It will depend on the time one goes.

You are correct re Mountain and Lake Pavilions. Just another category for them to play with. Not to worry, however, as those pavilions by the spa are hardly ever allocated. Noi is a wonderful resort, truly sublime. The map, by the way, is still being used throughout the resort.

Inspired by Musken's wonderful report and all the posts in this thread, I organized a trip around a visit to the Amanoi almost a year ago. I have just left this extraordinary property. I won't cover what has already been reviewed so effectively, but will attempt to add some personal experiences.

I booked an ocean pavilion. A plunge pool wasn't important to me; a wonderful water view was. The GM recommended pavilions 7 and 15, and sent me pictures of the view from each. They were very comparable, and I would be happy with either. The Amanoi driver picked us up at our hotel in Nha Trang. After doing a bit of final shopping, we drove the two hours to the resort. Nha Trang is about 45 minutes north of the airport; Amanoi is 1 hour 15 minutes south.

Pavilion 15 - ocean view
Joy and Christy greeted us on arrival as Sean was in the US on a marketing trip. We were taken to our pavilion for check in. I hadn't anticipated all the steep slopes and steps on the property. We had a very steep slope and four sets of steps to our pavilion. It was worth it on arriving. It had a 180 degree panoramic view that stretched from the shores of Vinh Hy well out into the ocean. Our room was above the stunning rocks that are at the entrance to the bay. Incredible. We had a full view down the length of the pavilion, able to see the view from the bed, desk, sitting area, and the shower. There was a sliding door from the shower to the deck. Magnificent. The ocean pavilions have metal railings that do chop the view when sitting down. An ocean pavilion with a pool would not, as the pool serves as the safety barrier.

Activities
We spent a lot of time simply enjoying the view. But when we pried ourselves away, we did each of these:

Walk
My husband took a 90 minute hike with a member of staff. He asked for a map that showed the various hikes suggested, but there was none. For his own safety, I asked him to hike with someone so I would have confidence he would return. They suggested he wait til mid afternoon past the peak heat of the day.

Zodiac tour of water
We saw not only the fishing fleet going in and out, but we saw a number of sightseeing boats. There was nothing about this in our activity book, so we asked if we could be driven to Vinh Hy to take a scheduled trip. We were very surprised after lunch on asking to be taken to the boat landing to learn that the hotel property has a zodiac and we would be taken in it for our tour. I highly recommend this. First, we went up into the bay thru the fishing fleet, by the mussels and clams farming section, and by floating restaurants. It was all fascinating. We then went down the shoreline of the national park. For those familiar with the national parks of southern Utah, Sedona, or Joshua Tree National Park, this shoreline has many similar stunning rocky escarpments. It was fascinating to see some more of the beauty of this park.

Dinner at Ong Bey's House
A private dinner was prepared for us at a home owned by a retired doctor in Vinh Hy. The family provides the courtyard and the dining room. Amanoi provides the chef, the waiter, the food, the dishes, and the lanterns. We had a five course meal prepared over 3 charcoal burners. It was fascinating to see the food being prepared. It was all good, especially the sea bass cooked between lemongrass skewers. We were given a special drink of sugar cane juice and lemongrass. We don't drink alcohol, and really appreciated being given something other than sodas, iced tea, and water.

Random Comments
I wrote to the GM about two weeks before arrival, asking about the ginger beer my husband had enjoyed so much at Amanjiwo. Joy comes from there and know how to make it. Little did we know it takes a week of preparation. It was a great kindness.

I recommend the passionfruit souffle at dinner. Delicious.

Complimentary afternoon tea open faced Vietnamese sandwiches were delicious. Although you are meant to eat them in the central pavilion between 3:30 and 4:30, staff happily brought them to our room.

Read the ipad list of food offerings throughout the property when coming to the resort. It was very helpful to have alternatives in mind to request other than what we saw at that specific venue.

We really enjoyed a new hire, an American Vietnamese young woman. She ended up at Amanoi because her mother's family lives in Vinh Hy. It was great to have someone with whom we could have an easy conversation and interesting to learn a bit about local life.

Our trip
Although our return to Vietnam was prompted by visiting the Amanoi, we wanted to do more. I get restless at any individual property after 2 or 3 nights, so organized our trip as follows. We have been to Vietnam several times, and I chose to focus on a circuit in the south that was very easy logistically.

Arrival - Ho Chi Minh, Park Hyatt Saigon
2 nights - Ana Mandara Dalat - suite
2 nights - Ana Mandara Evason Nha Trang - beachfront junior suite, top category
2 nights - Amanoi (would have been happy to have had one more night here)
Departure - Ho Chi Minh, Park Hyatt Saigon

Here is some information from our first visit to Dalat. There's plenty to do to stay busy for two days. It's a lot of fun to tour in the hotel's 1932 Citroen convertible. While not a luxury hotel, our suite was very comfortable and service was superb.

We went by hotel car to Nha Trang. It is roughly a 3 hour drive down the mountain, much of it very scenic. We had lunch at Nha Trang Xua, in the country a few km before Nha Trang, set between a lily pond and rice paddies. The hotel is not truly a luxury hotel, but it is a wonderful experience to sit on our deck with loungers below in own little garden, and then a few steps down onto the beach. Again, service was superb. The GM is a German lady who has been there for six months.

There is some interesting sightseeing in Nha Trang, such as the Po Nagar Temple Complex. More important to me is that this is the best place I have found to shop for ostrich/crocodile/snake products. High quality leather purses are half the price of those found in Ho Chi Minh.

Amanoi was obviously the high point with its stunning property and its exquisite service. It was perfectly placed at the end of the trip.

fantastic details, as always! and new information for noi
good to hear about the "Trekking in the National Park"
was "A sunrise breakfast picnic at Goga Peak" listed yet?

great service!

noi low season starts may 8th (FHR 4th nt free through may)
this is repeat of free night offer, under the new aman corporate

Review sounds awesome! Did you see any stargazing activities? It was mentioned off the cuff but don't remember seeing it in activity guide?

Who wants to bet on 4th night free being extended past May? .

Sunrise breakfast is listed in the brochure that they sent me. Add-on to Goga Peak 'trek' @ 1050000VND ++per person max 5. Whether it is E.O the Goga trek is not clear, at least to me!

My thanks to SanDiego1K for the further up-to-date details. Aaahh - the Jiwo gingerbeer - so delicious. Now - I wonder if........

Some (poor quality) pictures. The first picture is from the GM of the view from Paviliion 7. Thereafter, views are from our pavilion 15, both inside the room and on the deck. The narrow water view is thru the shower room. It opens both to the bathroom and to the deck. Then there are pictures of the cliff pool and the yoga pavilion, boats in the Vinh Hy harbor, breakfast, and afternoon Vietnamese cakes. The final picture is of their amazing passionfruit souffle.

GM plans to order a telescope but has yet to do so.

Thanks, Carol. You may have been disappointed with your photographs, but I thought they were great as was your summary.

Whoever recommended us to Pavilion 15 - many many thanks! Superb privacy and views.
Now here and joined by some fearsome breezes!