Why Four Seasons Resort the Nam Hai Is Still Winning the Luxury and Spa Game in Hoi An

A holistic sense of wellness guides the overall approach at Four Seasons the Nam Hai, Hoi An, from its food to award-winning spa offerings.

By Shamilee Vellu Published on Jul 17, 2023, 04:41 PM

Why Four Seasons Resort the Nam Hai Is Still Winning the Luxury and Spa Game in Hoi An

A holistic sense of wellness guides the overall approach at this Four Seasons near Hoi An, from its food to award-winning spa offerings. We checked in, sank in, and even ventured out to some of the coolest cultural and awesome eating spots nearby.

ARRIVE AT FOUR SEASONS THE NAM HAI, Hoi An, and you’ll immediately feel long-stored tension begin to drain away. Not only is its winding, greenery-lined driveway a much-welcome change of pace from airport customs, it’s also ideal for setting intentions – to “go slowly, breathe and smile” as celebrated Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, once said. I think the late Nhat Hanh, who was also known as the “father of mindfulness,” might have felt similarly at peace in the tranquil surrounds of The Nam Hai, which, located on a private, kilometre-long stretch of Ha My Beach, was the first international-five-star-standard beach resort in Vietnam and to this day, now in the Four Seasons family, ranks among the best for luxury, location, and wellness and spa.

My villa

One-Bedroom Villa

I stayed in the one-bedroom villa, which at 80 square meters, can comfortably accommodate three adults or two adults with a child. The expansive, private compound contains a bedroom, pool and a separate, pitched-roof pavilion. The bedroom itself is a spacious, well-appointed affair, all cream walls strikingly juxtaposed with onyx-toned furniture, which includes a greenery-facing sitting area and four-poster bed abutting a large bathtub. The swimming pool is set in its own tropical garden and has an outdoor rain shower, while the pavilion contains a seating and dining area, which are ideal for in-room dining experiences or just immersing yourself in the ocean-buffeted sounds of the night.

The spa

Da Nang Spas — “Goodnight Kiss to the Earth” ritual

The jewel in the crown of Four Seasons The Nam Hoi is its superb, multi-awarded The Heart of the Earth Spa, one of this reasons Vietnam’s Da-Nang-to-Hoi-An stretch of sand is such a wellness mecca. Its treatment pavilions “floating” atop a lotus-filled lagoon are the very embodiment of tranquility, and its specialization could well be helping untethered urbanites reconnect. Its Five Elements Bodywork, which it launched last December, seeks to nourish the quintet of earth, wood, fire, metal and water elements in our bodies, helping us feel grounded and healthy. And each evening, guests are invited to calm themselves and remember what they’re grateful for in a “Goodnight Kiss to the Earth” ritual, floating candles on the resort’s lagoon.

The spa’s signature ritual, Nam Hai Earth Song, is designed to align your internal rhythms to the earth’s natural harmonies. First, you’re “cleansed” in the warm, spicy smoke of sustainable Hoi An agarwood, before experiencing a sound and breath ritual, Vietnamese scrub and bath (using resort-grown herbs), a deep-pressure massage incorporating balancing gem-tipped tuning forks and finally, a fully immersive sound bath.

The spa often hosts renowned international wellness practitioners, who offer “deep connection, healing, and expansion,” according to spa manager and resident singing bowl artist Oanh Ngo. Upcoming experts include Raaj Nair, a certified pranic psychotherapist and healer (August 3-15) and Jeannette von Johnsbach (August 17–31), whose Andreas Method helps release deep physical, emotional and spiritual blockages and stimulate self-healing.

Singing bowls attuned to nature
Movement class

I tried the Vietnamese Bodywork & Nam Hai signature scrub, a 90-minute experience involving an antioxidant paste made from Vietnamese ginger and mint along with medium massage pressure to align my back, body and mind. The treatment involves an aromatic salt body scrub using seasonal Nam Hai herbs and the healing sound of crystal singing bowls in the background – each tuned to 432 Hz, what the spa calls the “harmonic intonation of nature”. Afterwards, I felt uncoiled, relieved, content and even able to, for the first time in days, to finally “go slowly, breathe and smile.” Nhat Hanh would have been proud.

What to eat and drink

Cooking Academy Kids Class — Cooking Academy kids class

The Nam Hai itself offers plenty of culinary diversion, much of it centred on the resort’s holistic, sustainable offerings. Glow With Food, for example, is a plant-based menu that focuses on the healing power of naturally colourful ingredients from the resort’s farm and local suppliers. These are available across restaurants and cuisines, and include diverse dishes such as super green pasta, Indian thali, anh xeo chay (vegan Vietnamese pancake) and vegan poke bowl. Guests can also enjoy barbecued seafood on the beach or tour the resort’s herb and vegetable gardens – which grow more than 43 seasonal varieties of culinary plants – then harvest these to cook local dishes like fresh rice paper rolls in the on-site The Nam Hai Cooking Academy.

Barbecued seafood on the beach — Dinging and chillin on the beach

The resort’s coffee and tea are no afterthought either. Conceptualised by Sudhir Dutta, the property’s director of food and beverage, Ethical Cup partners with local suppliers which produce and source their resources ethically. These include premium graded Vietnamese tea leaves (from farms in Lam Dong, Thai Nguyen, and Ha Giang) and coffee beans from Rainforest Alliance-certified farms in the highlands of Vietnam (Da Lat and Dak Lak). My picks? The aww-inducing iced coffee with a frozen coffee teddy bear in it, as well as the ca phe trung, a Hanoi speciality known as “egg coffee” that’s traditionally prepared with strong coffee, egg yolks, sugar and condensed milk.

What to do nearby

UNESCO World Heritage site, Hoi An Ancient Town

While you could easily spend all your time in the resort, with its multitude of restaurants and private beach, excursions are available to nearby UNESCO World Heritage site, Hoi An Ancient Town. This former port city’s roots can be seen in its unique blend of Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Japanese architectural influences, the most well-known of which are its 17th and 18th-century timber frame buildings bathed in a golden-yellow hue. Experiencing its lantern-lit streets and atmospheric temples lining Thu Bon river are musts, as is Four Season’s Foodie Vespa Adventure, where local guides take you on an eating tour on vintage Vespas around the city. The experience starts with cocktails at local favourite, An Bang beach, before doing a whistle-stop circuit of banh xeo (savoury crepes), chicken rice, che thap cam (coconut milk dessert with mixed beans) and Hoi An’s famous white rose dumplings, translucent white dough filled with minced shrimp or pork and then shaped like roses. All of this is washed down with locally brewed beer or rice wine, which resembles water but at 40-percent alcohol-by-volume, is anything but.

There are also opportunities to travel to My Son Sanctuary, an ancient, moss-covered constellation of Champa tower temples which evoke Hindu influences during the fourth to 13th centuries. Hoi An Impression’s “The Real World Performance”, meanwhile, offers brushes with more recent history. Covid has thinned the show’s ranks but its sweeping story, which tells the 400-year-old story of the town across a vast stage (which is flooded with water at one point), hundreds of costumed performers, elaborate props and dramatic lighting is still a spectacle. Also a spectacle: riding in one of Vietnam’s iconic round basket boats, which were allegedly designed to circumvent French taxes — and fluster tourists because they’re near-impossible to steer.