Con Dao Islands, Vietnam

Six Senses Con Dao

Price per night from$909.16

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD909.16), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Vietnamese tropical treat

Setting

Mangroves, sea and sand

Six Senses Con Dao hotel in Vietnam is the kind of hotel that will have you tearing up your passport and nailing down your beach towel: why would you ever want to leave your private villa with its own pool on one of the world’s most beautiful beaches? Further draws to distract you from a life back home are the two excellent restaurants, the award-winning, whisper-quiet spa, and the tempting aquatic adventures.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A 30-minute foot massage for two

Facilities

Photos Six Senses Con Dao facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Fifty suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability and a charge. Earliest check-in, 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £831.75 ($1,050), including tax at 15.5 per cent.

More details

Rates usually include buffet breakfast and WiFi. Return airport transfers in the hotel's van (with other guests) will also be included (just give the hotel at least two days' notice of your arrival time).

Also

Have you ever wondered what happens to the golf balls that go astray on the driving range, especially those which end up in ponds, tributaries and pristine water features? Well, you can now rest easy. Six Senses Con Dao uses golf balls which biodegrade within 48 hours of being submerged in water to reveal an inner nutty core of fish food. No longer will fish swim for cover from white balls of death. In fact, they may even thank you for having ‘overshot’ after a couple of glasses of gourmet wheat beer. Experience the thrill of a driving range without responsibility. Aside from a few designated areas, the hotel has a strict no-smoking policy.

At the hotel

Beach, spa, butler service, bikes to borrow, library, stash of CDs and DVDs, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV, DVD player, iPod dock, espresso machine, minibar, wine fridge, Six Senses bath products.

Our favourite rooms

For uninterrupted ocean views from your bath tub, book an Beachfront Duplex Pool Villa. Honeymooners seeking privacy will love the Ocean View Duplex Pool Villas, which have amazing vistas but aren’t overlooked by other guests. These villas are set on the second row back from the beach; 205 is particularly secluded and romantic.

Poolside

Forget crowding around a communal swimming pool: here, you’ve got a massive private beach with resident crabs and sweeping views of the snap-worthy islands. Each villa has its own private pool, too. If you are feeling sociable, there’s a peaceful curved pool below the Market Place. Palm and mahogany trees provide shade, and signature-green sunloungers are clustered around the water. Have pizzas made to order and brought to your lounger, or cool down with a cocktail, fresh juice or ice-cream.

Spa

The Lo Voi mountains loom behind the spa, which has three outdoor treatment salas, four indoor treatment rooms, a Thai therapy room, a yoga and meditation area and a juice bar.

Packing tips

Sun hat; big shades; cocktail-coloured swimwear.

Also

The hotel sells ‘crystal water’ (mineral water), and puts profits towards building a mineral water supply for the children at Con Dao primary school, so that they have clean water for drinking and cooking.

Children

Very, very welcome. Cots can be added at no extra cost and every villa has a sofa-bed. Extra beds for ages 6-11 can be added for US$62 per night (breakfast and transfers included). Babysitting must be booked a day in advance, and costs from US$12 an hour.

Best for

All ages.

Recommended rooms

If you’ve got a tiny tot in tow, book one of the villas closest to the Market Place, so there’ll be less traipsing around with a pram: Villa 501, an Oceanfront Villa, is next to all the facilities centred around the Market Place, so would be ideal.

Crèche

None, but there’s a kids club for older kids called Sense of Laughter. This is open every day from 9am until 5pm for little Smiths aged between four and 12.

Activities

Centrally located in the Market Place, Sense of Laughter kids club offers a vast range of activities, many of which are tied to the local area and encourage children to learn about Vietnam. Example sessions include kite design, paper-lantern workshops and visits to local schools. There’s a focus on cookery – pizza-making classes and smoothie-making sessions – as well as on outdoor activities: body boarding and learning to snorkel in the main pool.

Swimming pool

Each villa has its own pool, and of course there’s the beach, where children will love chasing the resident crabs and building sand castles. If they want to make friends, there’s also a main pool by the Market Place, which is supervised by lifeguards.

Meals

Parents planning a trip here will be pleased to hear that there's a children's menu for under-12s; little Smiths under six eat for free. High chairs, kids cutlery and plates are available at the restaurants, and there's an ice cream and sorbet menu with more than 20 flavours to choose from.

Babysitting

Book babysitting a day ahead (around US$12 an hour, though this increases late at night).

No need to pack

Don’t weigh luggage down with toys and games – villas have board games and you can buy toys and other extras from the shop in the Market Place.

Also

Each villa can accommodate one child under 12, after that, additional beds are USD62 per night for those aged 6 to 11.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel sells ‘crystal water’ (mineral water), and puts profits towards building a mineral water supply for the children at Con Dao primary school, so that they have clean water for drinking and cooking.

Food and Drink

Photos Six Senses Con Dao food and drink

Top Table

You’ll get a sea breeze wherever you sit, but the views are indisputably best from the deck, which is lit with lanterns and fairy lights at night.

Dress Code

Castaway cool: wooden jewellery; linen; white to show off that tan.

Hotel restaurant

By the Beach: the name says it all. The relaxed wave-spying main restaurant is decorated in pretty shades of mangrove-green, with tables set up on the deck and in an open-air dining room that suits families and lovebirds equally well (although dinners overlooking the moonlit sea have marry-me-scenes written all over them). Expect unpretentious Vietnamese cuisine – chicken, peanut and onion salad; seafood stir-fry; pho ga (chicken noodle soup) – and European options: chicken, liver and mushroom parfait, for example. There’s also Vietnamese by the Market, where local Miss Lan prepares traditional dishes cooked to her family recipes (don’t leave without having hot pot). The dining room is housed in one of the Market Place’s open shop fronts, and mimics a traditional Vietnamese restaurant: kitchen at the back; bowls and baskets overflowing with weird and wonderful produce. Last but not least, Deli’cious, the Tuscan-style deli, serves light lunches, salads, sandwiches and snacks, to eat in or take away. Garlic and hams hang from the ceilings; you’ll feel like you’ve been transported to a little Italian village shop.

Hotel bar

Bar by the Market has a comprehensive drinks menu – 13 pages and counting. Choose a bottle or glass or two of wine, a classic cocktail (between 5pm and 7pm, the bar holds No Rush Hour, with two-for-one tipples), or cool down with a non-alcoholic milkshake or sorbet frosty.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7am to 10.30am; lunch from 11.30am to 3.30pm and dinner is dished up from 7pm to 10.30pm.

Room service

The hotel offers an imaginative ‘in-villa dining’ service from 7am until midnight, including drinks, light meals and local snacks such as home-made taro or vegetable crisps. If you want your wine fridge pre-stocked with bottles, call ahead.

Location

Photos Six Senses Con Dao location
Address
Six Senses Con Dao
Dat Doc Beach, Con Dao District, Ba Ria Vung Tau Province
Vũng Tàu
Vietnam

Six Senses Con Dao sits on Con Son, one of 16 islands in the Con Dao archipelago in southern Vietnam. Set on its own private stretch of beach, it has views of evergreen forests and the other jungle-clad islands dotting the East Vietnamese Sea.

Planes

The closest airport is tiny Con Dao, 5km away (a 20-minute ride to Six Senses, in the hotel's car). Direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) are offered by Vietnam Air Services Company. Ho Chi Minh City is the closest international airport; it's a 45-minute flight from here to Con Dao. Please note that the property offers a free round-trip transfer to and from Con Son Airport. Guests who wish to make use of this service, must advise arrival and departure flight details at the time of booking. The property can assist you with domestic air-ticket purchases. You will have priority check in procedure at domestic terminal and Domestic VIP lounge access at Ho Chi Minh City Tan Son Nhat airport. If you wish to make use of this service, kindly contact the resort's reservations department at least 10 days prior to arrival.

Automobiles

Don’t even picture yourself in a 4x4 – the island is tiny and unspoiled; instead, the hotel will lend you bikes and maps.

Worth getting out of bed for

Make the most of the menu of watersports on offer here: ask staff to arrange diving trips and snorkelling sessions. You can take a boat trip to the nearby islands, if you want to swap the hotel’s beach for an undiscovered expanse of golden sand. Guests can also go on guided hikes and treks, heritage excursions and learn the basics of Vietnamese cooking.

Local restaurants

Just the hotel’s – this is an unspoiled island, after all – but luckily you’ve two to choose from, plus Six Senses' little Italian café. If you're feeling adventurous, borrow bikes and cycle to the village (staff will give you maps for the 20-minute ride) where you can buy an iced Vietnamese coffee from one of the little local stores.

Reviews

Photos Six Senses Con Dao reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this idyllic boutique hotel and shaken the sand out of their bags, a full account of their Vietnamese luxury beach break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick snapshot peek inside Six Senses Con Dao on Con Dao Islands…

Shaking an amorous little beach crab off your stretched-out, sun-kissed foot is probably the most strenuous thing you’ll have to do during a stay at this tropical island getaway, on Con Son Island. Of course, if you’re in the mood for further activity, you can go hiking or snorkelling, body-boarding or village-visiting, but if we were your doctor, we’d prescribe you a week or two on Six Senses’ 1.5km beach: as fine a stretch of sparkling sand as we’ve ever laid eyes on.

This hotel could feel pretty smug, if it wanted, but it’s far too good-hearted for that. Its extensive charms include two impressive restaurants, including one run by Miss Lan, who will have you making authentic Vietnamese cuisine before you can say ‘pho ga’; a spa that will spoil you, and spacious, seductive wooden villas with their own pool and an attentive butler at your call. From the delicious buffet breakfasts (try a Vietnamcino with your charcuterie, eggs and fresh fruit) to romantic moonlit dinners – and with a lot of beachside lounging in between – expect to feel fabulous . Parents: be warned, kids will riot rather than leave.

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Price per night from $909.16