The first five-star hotel in the Yen Tu Mountain region – a sacred Zen Buddhist site – and the crown jewel of Yen Tu Village, one of Vietnam’s newest tourism destinations. The 133-bedroom retreat takes design cues from the 13th century, resembling an ancient gated temple with a courtyard enshrouded by misty mountains.
Location
In an area most travellers have never heard of (until recently): Yen Tu, a sacred mountain that attracts millions of pilgrims from the Zen Buddhist sect (Trúc Lâm) to its forested, shrine-filled slopes.
With Yen Tu widely unbeknownst to the Western world for centuries, the local tourism powers that be have opened up to international tourism in 2018 with the creation of mountain base-adjacent Yen Tu Village, replete with hostels, cultural centres, restaurants and a luxury hotel (the subject of this review). There are shuttle rides where one can access Yen Tu Mountain’s cable cars and hiking trails within five minutes. It’s a little more than an hour’s drive to Halong Bay.
Style and Character
Designed by hospitality starchitect Bill Bensley. The hotel was meant to evoke a 13th-century ‘temple’ – and the result feels authentically so.
There’s nary a white wall in sight; straight-edged stone corridors inspired by monasteries and beige-hued wall faces made of rice husks prop up the hotel instead. Every detail is deliberate, from the brown handcrafted floor tiles sourced from a northern Vietnamese village to the more contemporary touches of plush, rose-coloured ‘swings’ created from recycled Thai textiles. Interiors-wise, the cavernous lobby and cocktail bar are standouts, their walls slathered in a lavish palette of fuchsia and orange from Asian tapestries and paintings.
Service and Facilities
The mostly local staff are courteous and obliging; everyone greets you with a modest bow and a smile.
There isn’t much to do on the hotel’s premises as it stands, but that should change with the upcoming wellness wing and two swimming pools, all slated to debut in February 2019. In the meantime, guests can partake in yoga lessons and ancient meditation rituals, led by the whirring tune of singing bowls.
- Bar
- Laundry
- Parking
- Restaurant
- Room service
- Wi-Fi
Rooms
There are currently 86 mountain-view rooms (with 47 to be added in early 2019), with first-floor rooms featuring a step-down ‘living room’ area and the double-height second floor rooms with generous balcony space. Bill Bensley’s team bridges 13th century-inspired room design and modern comfort with aplomb: burnt orange burlap and beaten copper adorn the walls; lotus flower references permeate the furnishings alongside traditional incense jars; stuffed rice sacks that signify family wealth are arranged as headboards.
Rooms are without televisions – rare for a five-star hotel in Vietnam – which was a strategic move to maintain the ‘zen’ of the hotel and sacred surroundings. The wet room, with loo in a separate room, has double sinks and own-brand products. I had a few minor room issues (with the ironwood doors’ inability to shield light and malfunctioning Bluetooth speakers) but nothing dire.
Food and Drink
Tho Quang is the hotel’s sole restaurant and serves an extensive buffet breakfast of continental selections and Asian dishes such as phở and sushi; I most enjoyed the local breakfast dish of sticky rice served with caramelised mince pigeon, topped with the umami-rich sweet and sour fish sauce. Like breakfast, dinner leans more vegetarian but there are meat and seafood selections.
The triple-height cocktail bar, Thien Tra, is a stunner in the looks category but a wild card for beverages (at least on my visit). I first ordered a classic Manhattan cocktail that went all wrong – wrong glassware, no cherries, weird flavour, etc. I replaced the order with a Mai Tai, which was familiar-tasting and enjoyable.
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