The Avani Resort in Quy Nhon, Vietnam is blessed with a spectacular beach and might end up
on your shortlist for your next holiday.
Find out why, coming up.
The Avani originally opened in 2003, south of what is still a relatively unknown beach
town in Vietnam, Quy Nhon.
The coast line might be long, but most of Vietnam’s well known beach resorts are in
Da Nang, Nha Trang or Phu Quoc.
Nestled smack in the center of the country, we have Quy Nhon in Binh Dinh province, famous
for it’s beautifully rugged coastline.
Quy Nhon’s Phu Cat airport is to the north west of the city center- making for an hour
and 20 minute drive south to Bai Dai beach on the edge of Binh Dinh province.
The Avani is located next to its sister property, the newer Anantara Resort which we will also
take a look at in this video.
Avani and Anantara share an entrance which then splits into two separate reception areas.
Originally built in 2003, with it’s most recent renovation in 2012, the Avani was way
way ahead of its time.
18 years later, Quy Nhon is still unknown to most of the world- and I can only imagine
how small of a town it was back in 2003, with Vietnam just welcoming a small fraction of
the foreign visitors it has in recent years.
The entrance and reception area are open air and immediately invite you in with a peak
at the beautiful view of the sea.
Avani is a small hotel chain with a mantra that focuses on a slightly younger crowd and
tries to find a balance between style and function with a laid-back service style.
They currently operate 37 hotels with a further 11 in development- almost half of which will
be in Vietnam.
Avani, along with Anantara, is part of the Minor Hotels Group which is currently in the
process of merging with the much larger NH Hotel group.
Somewhat awkwardly placed in the lobby you’ll find a small sundries shop which then leads
into the primary restaurant for the resort, Tre.
Most of the public areas are in an modern and fresh Indochine style- the rooms though
follow a bit of a different design language.
Leading out from the lobby you’ll immediately notice how well kept the resort grounds are
and of course, the color of the sea.
In this part of Vietnam, the water is typically somewhere between turquoise and jade in color
most of the year.
The rainy season is relatively short, but intense from September until December when
the waters will be murkier.
The temperatures will also most likely be chillier than you’re expecting from November
until March with lows frequently dipping below 70 Fahrenheit or 21 Celsius.
And now, we have my favorite part of this 63 room resort, the massive beach.
End to end, if you’re looking at the beaches of Avani and Anantara combined, it’s almost
700 meters long.
That’s nearly half a mile all for two small resorts with a combined room count under 100.
Note the reason I keep speaking of Anantara is during Covid, the facilities were shared.
The properties are connection on the beach and there’s another path to walk between
the two.
During my stay, the restaurant at Avani was open for dinner- and everyone had breakfast
at Anantara.
Check out the situation before you book if this appeals to you as I assume it’s not
going to last forever.
The buildings with the hotel rooms are three stories high and spill out directly onto the
beach.
There were always some loungers set out, but there were so many small nooks along the beach
that guests tended to find their own private spot for sun bathing or swimming.
The golden sand beaches were truly exceptionally clean and not subject to extreme water level
changes as the tide came in or went out.
One thing I need to point out is, I stayed here in January of 2021- this being just the
sixth resort I ever filmed for a review.
Going into my stay here, I made a mistake with my expectations.
It’s not that they were too high or too low, they were just incorrect.
Because of that, I decided to sit on this review for a while- wait until I saw some
more resorts in what I considered to be the same category before I put together the video.
I never thought it would be almost a year later- but I am glad I waited and I think
the review will be better for it.
The Avani is an 18 year old property.
For a resort in Vietnam, that’s like… ancient.
But through the years Avani has in fact kept its charm and they have done a very good job
of maintaining the grounds and facilities.
The resort’s swimming pool is a decent size perched to overlook the beach below.
There were always loungers setup with towels and the maintenance staff were cleaning it,
along with the hot tub and reflecting pool every morning and evening.
In general, I’d say cleanliness at Avani was well above average during my stay.
Just next door is the pool bar which you will surely find yourself in at some point- since
you need to kinda walk through it to get to all of the rooms.
Drink prices and food prices for that matter were reasonable and definitely on the lower
side of the scale for resort prices.
Now onto the room which is accessed from these outdoor corridors.
I booked a Deluxe Studio but I was upgraded to a Junior Ocean Suite which is a bit larger-
a perk of Hotels.com Gold.
The smaller Studios are located a level above this and while they are a bit smaller, they
have vaulted ceilings and slightly more private balconies- so I think either one is just fine.
The room is open, bright and in great condition for it’s age.
Behind the king size bed is a working desk along with ample closet space.
The mini bar area is stocked with a small selection of snacks and a Nespresso-esque
machine with pods provided from a local Vietnamese coffee company.
If I could change one small thing, I’d upgrade the water on offer, but overall a good offering.
In front of the bed is the living area with a full sized seating area.
The smaller Studio rooms only feature the one chair.
Behind the colorful curtain is the nicely sized bathroom featuring a double basin vanity,
Malin & Goetz products and a rainfall shower with a beautiful view.
The
balcony had fantastic views but was not as private as I would have preferred.
That said though, It was perfectly comfortable to relax out here or enjoy a bit of room service,
which was better than expected.
A few hours later we were off to Tre Restaurant which featured an impressive mix of cuisines
from around the ASEAN nations.
Essentially they had a handful of dishes representing each country and managed to pull everything
off really well.
I had a Singaporean Laksa and Khmer style Beef Curry.
The next morning we go for a short stroll along the beach and head to the Anantara Resort.
The Anantara features a gorgeous beach with much fewer rocks for just about as far as
you can see.
Breakfast was served at Sea, Fire, Salt- a small restaurant overlooking the pool.
The service was semi-a la carte.
Quite a few items such as fruit, yogurts and local dumplings and rice cakes were served
to each table automatically and then you also ordered your main dish off of the menu- and
then there was a nice buffet with more hot dishes, breads, salads and cold cuts.
I will say, I didn’t quite understand that some items would be served automatically,
which is why you will see far more food than necessary on my table.
But it was all well cooked and one of the better quality breakfasts I’ve had in Vietnam
this year.
Now you see what I mean…
And before we get to the Flip Flop Score, let’s take in a quick overview of the Anantara’s
resort areas.
In front of the open air reception is a very neat and tidy lawn leading to the resort’s
pool which also overlooks the beach with the restaurant on the left.
At the time of my booking, the prices for the Villas at Anantara just seemed unnaturally
high, which is why I stuck with the Avani which- especially with access to the Anantara
is a great value.
And now we have The Flip Flop Score.
The room is large, bright and well laid out- and even 9 years after its last renovation
is still in great condition, nines for both.
The service was okay, but there were a few mixups with my reservation and communication
before my arrival was not great, seven out of ten.
The common areas, with the exception of the sundries shop, were well laid out with an
eight and the grounds of both resorts were really well kept and manicured, a solid nine.
Cleanliness as I mentioned before was a stand out at a ten.
The F&B venues were nicely designed but nothing spectacular at an eight out of ten.
The food quality and the amenities- especially with access to Anantara- were above my expectations
with both at a nine out of ten and finally that beach.
That’s the easiest ten out of ten I’ve given in a while.
Overall, a solid 88 out of 100.
Quy Nhon probably isn’t the FIRST place I’d visit in Vietnam, but if you’ve seen
a lot of the country, Binh Dinh province has a lot of local culture and natural beauty
to offer and I’d happily recommend the Avani Quy Nhon.
Thanks for watching, please subscribe and see you in a few days with another video.