Regent Hotel Entrance Lobby Area
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Ultra – Luxe Hotel in Vietnam
It’s the second Monday of January, and let’s face it, we are all feeling the Winter Blues. The excitement of Christmas, New Year’s, holidays and holiday parties are all over and it’s been cold, wet and dark. We are in the deep, depths of winter, without sun or fun in sight. Travel agencies even coined the term ‘Blue Monday’ to encourage people to start booking holidays to get out of their post-holiday slump and to dream about some faraway sunny spot for their next holiday. Blue Monday is actually next Monday, but my Blue Monday started early this year! So to cheer myself up, instead of future holidays, I’m reviewing past holidays and a fantastic hotel we found over Christmas, that I thought was a hidden gem, until we ran into TWO people we knew there.
The Regent is an ultra luxury, five star hotel in Phu Quoc, a tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand off the coast of Cambodia, which belongs to Vietnam. It’s a 45 minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City airport in South Vietnam. We had been eyeing this hotel for a while, which received rave reviews since it’s opening in 2022. Here I thought that I had found somewhere original to travel to, yet by day 2 I had already run into a friend from my 20s, and by day 5, run into another family who lives in West London. I was impressed that they both had found this off-the-radar hotel. I had already visited Phu Quoc 18 years ago when it was completely deserted and barely had any luxury hotels, so this hotel is a welcome addition.
The Regent Beach
The hotel’s beach, as you can see, is incredibly spacious – unlike the sardine-sunbeds of the South of France – and full of fine, soft sand and picturesque palm trees. Don’t expect translucent waters like in the Indian Ocean or the Andaman sea here, but it is a wonderful spot, with ultimate privacy. The water is warm, but not as clear as other places you can travel to, so if it’s clear water you’re after, you are better off going somewhere else.
Ocean Club Pool at Sunset
The sunsets from the hotel are just about as perfect as they can be, both from the Ocean Club/pool area (above) as well as the Rooftop pool, or from your room. These are postcard-worthy sunsets that competes with the best of the sunsets. I mean, even the palm trees are perfectly situated in my photo.
Main Pool
There are many beautiful pools around the resort: the main family friendly one, the Ocean Club pool, the rooftop pool and the adults only pool, so if you’re a pool lover there are plenty of options. There are also private pools with some of the rooms, but we didn’t really need one since we were always at the Ocean pool or beach, or rooftop pool for the sunsets. Every few hours, you are treated to coconut or strawberry ice cream by the pool attendants. Can I say this is heaven?
There are multiple restaurants around the resort: The main Rice Market which has breakfast and buffets, the sushi Oku which was really delicious, the beach one, which is really relaxed with Fire Shows, and the Ocean Club which we preferred for lunch. Because we were there during the Festive Season, there wasn’t much a la carte, so I would suggest trying some of the restaurants on the island like Camia restaurant because we got tired of set menus every night.
Main Pool with Rice Market at the back – where breakfast is served
The hotel really delivers in service, style and luxury. It is owned by a very rich Vietnamese property developer and I was impressed by the details, the architecture, and the style which can sometimes go wrong in some hotels. It is quite modern/contemporary but yet still imbues warmth and character, which some minimalist hotels can lack. It is run by Regent Hotels, a brand that kind of disappeared but is now being revived by the IHG Group as their ultra-luxe brand, and I have to say that I was impressed. I pretty much liked everything about the hotel.
Sunset from Room which comes with a large living room/terrace
The rooms were all beautiful, huge and well – appointed, with tons of amenities, and all with wonderful sea views. The sunsets were gorgeous from our room and my mother found her happiness at sunset. There are also large villas dotted around which we didn’t try this time but definitely want to try next time. Their sunsets though won’t be as spectacular as ours. There are two bedroom beach villas that I would love to try one day, which literally look like full apartments. The rooms come with everything you could ask for, including free mini bar and snacks, which were obvious winners for the kids: crisps, Haribo, dried fruit, almonds, juices and more were replenished every day. We had interconnected rooms so perfect for a family.
Bedrooms are all luxurious and stylish with nice textures and warm, natural colours
Even though there was no hotel shop, one of the few negatives, you could literally Whatsapp the hotel at any time and ask for anything you want and it would appear: Forget nail clippers? Check! Forgotten tooth brush: check! Glasses cloth? Check! And the best challenge I gave them: I wanted a small Christmas tree for our Xmas celebration. Guess what, they actually brought me a little Xmas plant! This service was some of the best I’ve ever seen. With the room comes 3 items of laundry per person, per day. Another huge plus for Mr. X!
Good Morning Vietnam! Fruit and Coffee by the pool…
There was also an activity schedule for adults that my daughters loved. They have sadly grown out of the kids club – which by the way is amazing – so it was great that they could partake in the adult activities: Kite making, candle making, canvas painting, Vovinam martial arts, etc…Ok, so my kids were the only ones to take advantage of the activities, but it was great to have them on offer. Mr. X also had enough to do with Pilates, Yoga and Boxing, all complimentary. There was a coastal bike ride that we couldn’t do sadly because it was full so book that in advance! In addition, there was beach volleyball, basketball, beach tennis, paddle all available on the beach. (Just don’t bother with the pearl farm visit which essentially was a pearl shop!)
Island hopping to the An Thoi Archipelago
Phu Quoc island has been slowly developed in the past 20 years. When I first went, only 1 luxury hotel existed. Now, there are quite a few, but the Regent is by far the best one. Unfortunately, island developments, as we all know, can be hit or miss. On Phu Quoc, there are some great developments like the Regent, just as there are some not-so-nice ones. There are many what they call ‘ghost towns’ which are unfinished towns all around the island. Our tour guide explained that it was Vietnamese mafia parking their money and never finishing the developments. Other funny developments are ‘the Venice’ of Phu Quoc which is a village designed like Venice, or the tower of Pisa. For Europeans, it really is quite a funny sight to come all the way to Asia to get replicas, but I guess it’s a bit like Las Vegas. One of the families we ran into didn’t love the island, but they went scuba diving, which I wouldn’t have recommended, unfortunately there’s not much to see.
We did enjoy snorkelling around the islands at the south tip of Phu Quoc. The water there was really clear, and it definitely felt like we were castaways. There is a hotel catamaran you can take, which I would recommend to avoid the crowded tourist boats (although there were some with slides which we were dying to try). We took a small semi-private boat to a semi-deserted island (picture above) which was gorgeous where we had a beach picnic with a very entertaining tour guide who kept calling Mr. X Tom Cruise.
Feeding Capybaras at the Phu Quoc Safari & Zoo
What my kids loved the most though, was the Phu Quoc Safari, so if you have young children or animal-loving kids (like mine), you have to go. It’s really rather impressive, with large grounds for animals to roam around in. There is a safari park that you go through in a bus where you can see tons of white rhinos, which are going extinct, so it is impressive they have 44 white rhinos. A good sign of health and that they are happy is that they are making babies. There are also Bengal tigers, Asiatic bears, zebras, baby zebras, Antelopes and many giraffes.
I was most excited by the Giraffe restaurant, where you can feed giraffes while you have lunch. I no longer need to go to the Giraffe hotel in Nairobi to pet and feed giraffes! I’ve already done it in Phu Quoc! My kids also loved feeding the Capybaras, which are a really popular animal at the moment. Feeding parakeets and holding macaws was also fun, so there’s lots of interactivity with the animals which is great. For younger kids, there is the option of Zoo Keeper for the day, which we sadly couldn’t do because my kids are too old now.
My friend, the friendly giraffe
We got to pet everything from giraffes to elephants to parrots to capybaras and tapirs. The giraffes were so friendly, I was literally hugging a giraffe! There were also wild monkeys running around the zoo, but we were explicitly told not to pet or feed them, as they can get quite aggressive and steal your hat or phone!
Elephants saying hello
We were three generations travelling together, so as you can imagine, it wasn’t always smooth sailing coordinating tweens to seventy year olds, but what an amazing trip for both my kids and my mother. The hotel was fantastic and everyone enjoyed the activities we did. There was even an inflatable water park next door that the kids loved.
It wasn’t my first time to Vietnam, and Phu Quoc wouldn’t necessarily be the first place I would choose to go to, because there isn’t much culture (go to Hoi An/Halong/Saigon/Hanoi first), but if you’re on your fifth trip in, this hotel is incredibly affordable, especially away from the high season. You get so much for your money, it’s a third of any hotel in the Caribbean or Thailand or the Indian Ocean at the same luxury level at the same time of year, so I would definitely go back for that reason. So for those looking for ultimate luxury for reasonable prices, just go and try it out.
Sunset from the Rooftop Pool
The sunsets, the hotel, the food, the service, were all impeccable so for the hotel alone, I would go back in a heartbeat. The staff also made it so worth it, everyone was just so friendly and nice, you can’t even drop anything without someone running to catch it for you. It is far to go just for a stand-alone trip, but if you combine it with a sight-seeing trip beforehand, it’s a perfect place to wind down, feel pampered and just relax… One of my kids asked if we could extend our trip for a few more days. Or just not come back home at all. I get what she means.
xx
NHYM
NHYM LUXURY TRAVEL & WELLNESS COLLECTION 