GTHQ Jaunt Journal – Hotel: Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort – Da Nang, Vietnam

GTHQ Jaunt Journal – Hotel: Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort – Da Nang, Vietnam

Location: Bai Bac, Sontra Peninsula, Da Nang, Vietnam; 25 minute drive to airport

When we arrived at Da Nang airport there is a dedicated lounge for Intercontinental guests where they served us tea and snacks. After taking a taxi from the airport, we finally arrived at the luxurious InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort. This is a 5 star and At the reception they greeted us with refreshing ginger tea. Initially they were going to upgrade us but since this was booked as a reward stay they retracted and apologized for the mistake. That being said there are no really bad rooms at this resort.

Location:

It’s a 30min ride from the airport. The resort doesn’t provide a complimentary shuttle to the airport but you can book one separately. Taxis have pretty reasonable prices compared to other countries but still high for south east Asia. We paid about 20 dollars.

The Resort rooms are laid out into 4 separated levels in line on the face of the mountain. The name of the levels are Sea, Earth, Sky and Heaven and each room has a view of the sea. You can move up and down between levels with their private funicular/cable car or ask the staff to pick you up with a golf cart. Sometimes we had to wait a long time for the cart but the property is quite huge.

One remarkable fact is that although we arrived only a few days after a typhoon had destroyed much of the area, the staff worked really hard to have the place restored. We hardly noticed anything out of place and there were only some trees hanging and some had less leaves.

Apartment:

It was a huge and stylish apartment with a big bathroom. This was connected to the master bedroom in 2 ways: one was a normal door and the other was with a wardrobe that you could open through either the bathroom or master bedroom sides. It also had a window which let you listen to the ocean during your rainfall shower (which drained into the wood floor) or your bath (shaped like a conch shell). The large balcony ran along the full length of the master bedroom and was on the ocean side. It was nice and spacious and we enjoyed breakfast here every morning. The room was equipped with a flat ceiling mounted TV.

Food:

There are 3 restaurants on the property. We stayed 3 nights and tried them all.

La Maison 1888: This is partially owned and ran by the 3 Michelin starred chef, Michel Roux and the haute French cuisine certainly matched. The price was extremely reasonable ~120 USD for 2 menus. Our waiter was Italian and after our dinner he introduced us to the chef and the rest of the kitchen staff. There we met Stephanie and Sébastien.

Stephanie knew La Maison in and out and gave us a private tour around each room explaining all the stories and histories behind the decoration and how it became La Maison 1888. The staff was amazing, the service top notch and the food was fantastic.

Citron: You can find all kinds of international cuisine here and it’s also the place which serves breakfast. We had dinner twice here since it was really good, but breakfast was overpriced. The view from the restaurant balcony was amazing. There are various pods that hang on the side of the restaurant jetting out over nothing which gives a feeling of sitting in a hanging vessel.

Barefoot Cafe : the menu here has a more limited choice of food but there were some interesting choices. We opted to try something we never had before: grilled stingray! It was delicious. The waitress came to show us how to wrap the pieces of fish with rice paper. The prices were really reasonable for a resort but high for southeast Asia.

Activities:

There is a modern and well equipped gym with great music. The pool is big and has a beautiful view of the ocean. One section is a whirlpool and next to it is a bar in case you get thirsty. There is always a member of the staff who is ready to get you lemon water right away without asking and prepares your chair with a towel.

For families, there is a big indoor area and playground with nannies that can watch your kids.

The Resort provides a free shuttle to Hoi An which is about 40 minutes away. We enjoyed the little side trip, even if it’s quite touristic.

Experience

A few negatives are that not all the staff spoke English well and at times some couldn’t understand our requests so we had to talk to different people until we got what we wanted. Additionally, there was a new section being built and there was some construction going on. This caused one bar to stay closed since they were still working on it.

However, we truly enjoyed the hospitality and warmth of the staff. The food was great and the prices were mostly reasonable. The management took their time to give us a tour and explain everything in great detail. The properly is uniquely laid out to take advantage of the landscape and mountain side. This is one of the most beautiful, well designed and luxurious resorts we’ve stayed at. Lastly, the funicular is very cool!