Experience an idyllic blend of riverside relaxation and Anantara luxury, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on your doorstep, and beautiful beach life just a short bicycle or boat ride away. Scenically positioned on the banks of the Thu Bon River, Anantara Hoi An Resort in Vietnam is a charming boutique retreat in the historic port town of Hoi An. Designed with French, Dutch, Chinese and Japanese influences that reveal Hoi An’s fascinating cultural diversity, split level rooms and suites open onto porches with comfortable daybeds, overlooking the river or a garden courtyard. With the addition of the daily cruise option for guests, LuxeGetaways loves the ability for guests to have an authentic, localized experience when visiting such a unique destination.
The Anantara Hoi An Resort Experience:
Delve into Vietnamese culture with language, lantern making and cookery classes. Savor authentic local dishes and popular world flavors in elegant and casual settings beside the river. Meet up at the heritage inspired wine bar for an atmospheric view of Hoi An’s street life. Or laze by the pool and let their amazing staff bring an exotic cocktail to your sun bed.
Follow in the footsteps of the merchants who once traded their precious goods by immersing yourself in the town’s colonial architecture, vibrant artistic and handicraft scenes, and romantic café culture. Capture vivid snapshots of local life aboard a scenic river cruise. The Hoi An hotel is the ideal starting point from which to venture further afield and discover the region’s magnificent natural beauty and ancient cultural sites.
The Daily Cruise Experience:
This daily one-hour cruise departs from the French colonial-inspired Anantara Hoi An Resort, and invites travelers to explore the contemporary appeal of an age-old icon. The five-kilometre journey sets off downstream under the Cam Nam Bridge, skirts the fabled Ancient Town and its markets and then proceeds upstream along Cam Kim Island and Kim Bong carpentry village. The boat turns at Cam Nam Island and moves downstream again past the Thanh Nam fishing village, wrapping up at Anantara’s riverside dock.
The cruise offers sweeping prospects of the locals’ fascinating way of life on a river that fueled Hoi An’s rise in the 17th and 18th centuries as a powerful trade link between Europe, China, India and Japan. When the river silted up at the end of the 18th century, dooming international trade, the merchant vessels decamped for deeper harbors, leaving the river to the sampans and coracles that ply its waters today.
Anantara’s cruising vessel is a quaint, lantern-decorated boat, fashioned by talented local carpenters at Kim Bong village. Like Hoi An itself, its design draws inspiration from its varied historical traditions, including techniques practiced by the Cham, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Europeans. Steeped in the beautifully-preserved former trading port’s history, the Thu Bon is central to the entire Hoi An experience and explains why one of Vietnam’s most culturally rich and sought-after destinations is the way it is today.
The cruises depart at 10.30am and 2.30pm daily, including the sunset cruise departing at 4.30pm, are available to Anantara Hoi An Resort’s guests and start at 8 USD ++ (180,000 VND ++) per person (minimum two persons required). If you make it to Anantara Hoi An, you now have another localized experience waiting for you — if you do make it, let us know what you think…
