Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai

Three swimming pools step down towards Ha My Beach, each a level below the last, with the open sea beyond. The resort behind them opened as The Nam Hai in 2007, on the coast between Da Nang and the old trading port of Hoi An, and has been run by Four Seasons since 2016 as Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai. Its 100 villas stand in rows parallel to the sand, the work of the French architect Reda Amalou, who took the traditional Vietnamese garden house as his model and set it beside the sea.

History

The Nam Hai opened under GHM, the Singapore-based hotel group behind The Chedi brand, at a time when the beach south of Da Nang had very few hotels. Its architecture drew attention from the start, and it became one of the reference resorts of Vietnam's central coast. The long shoreline between Da Nang and Hoi An has since filled with resorts and golf courses. In 2016 Four Seasons took over management, refurbished the villas and public areas, and added the programmes its guests expect, including a children's club and cooking classes.

Architecture and design

Amalou, of the Paris practice AW², based the villas on the garden house of central Vietnam, with its raised central platform and its rooms opening onto a walled garden. Interiors by the Indonesian designer Jaya Ibrahim continued that logic. In each villa a raised platform holds the bed and the living area, framed by dark timber and lacquer, so the space is divided without walls. The three tiered pools on the beach are the signature image, and their geometry is repeated in the reflecting pools and in the spa pavilions set on water. Palms and lawns between the rows of villas keep the plan open towards the sea.

Rooms and suites

Accommodation is in villas. One-bedroom villas sit in rows behind the beach, most with sea views from the platform. Larger pool villas, with several bedrooms and private pools, suit families and groups travelling together and have their own garden walls for privacy.

Dining

Vietnamese cooking is the core of the kitchen, with a strong showing of the dishes of the central region, among them cao lau and mi quang, the noodle dishes of Hoi An and Quang Nam. A beach restaurant and a bar complete the offer. Cooking classes take guests to a local market and back to the kitchen, a format that suits a region with such a distinct food culture.

Wellness

The spa is built as a group of pavilions over a pond, reached by wooden walkways. Treatments draw on Vietnamese and wider Asian traditions. The resort also has a fitness centre, yoga and a programme of activities on the beach, and the tiered pools leave plenty of room for lengths in the morning.

Weddings and events

The resort hosts weddings on the beach and on its lawns, and has meeting rooms for corporate groups. Larger parties usually take a block of villas, and dinners can be staged around the tiered pools.

Location

Ha My Beach lies on the long stretch of sand running south from Da Nang. Hoi An's old town, inscribed by UNESCO in 1999 for its merchant houses, assembly halls and Japanese Covered Bridge, is about 15 minutes by car. Da Nang International Airport is 30 to 40 minutes north. My Son, the Cham sanctuary added to the UNESCO list in the same year, is about an hour inland, and Hue lies a day trip away over the Hai Van Pass. As a luxury resort near Hoi An, The Nam Hai combines a quiet beach with easy access to the town, which most visitors reach in the late afternoon, when the lanterns come on along the river.