From coast to the host

The recently opened Anantara Mui Ne is set on the beach of the same name, awash with surfers and kite surfers lured by the winds off the South China Sea. The elegantly designed resort comprises some 89 villas, suites and rooms set around a huge, central slate-grey pool around which are ponds strewn with lily pads and lofty palms.

Spacious rooms can seem a little dark with heavy Vietnamese black basalt and dark beams used overly but the proportions are generous and the pretty, private gardens charming. Pool villas have rain showers in tropical gardens (not good for the prudish).

The French-Vietnamese executive chef Alain Nguyen deftly turns out delectable buttery pastries and baguettes (if you have room after the crepes, waffles, noodles and tropical fruit) not to mention delicate fine dining dishes in the L'Amien restaurant, half of which spills out on to a deck bordered by a lotus pond. The beachside restaurant, Thung, overlooks the circular bamboo fishing boats after which it is named.

Nearby are unexpectedly Sahara-like dunes — both red and white (images of women wearing conical straw hats Nòn La balancing bamboo shoulder poles in the dunes line the hotel walls) and sleepy Mui Ne fishing village where blue-painted boats bob in the tide. Further up is Phan Thiet, famed for its fish sauce production.

The hushed spa doles out treatments using Thai influences but using local products such as dragonfruit and vanilla. After treatments a tray of fruit and yogurts with vanilla is laid out. An aptly elegant touch. Anantara.com

Cleveland Collection has seven nights from £1,435pp B&B including two nights at Fusion Maia, two at Fusion Alya (full-board) and three at Anantara Mui Ne with economy flights (domestic and international) with Vietnam Airlines and private transfers, clevelandcollection.co.uk