The Hoi An Hotel You’ll Struggle to Leave: Four Seasons The Nam Hai
Hoi An is the kind of destination that encourages you to get out and explore. There are lantern-lit streets to wander, coffee shops to discover, tailors to visit and some of Vietnam's best food seemingly waiting around every corner.
The only problem when staying at Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai? You may find yourself struggling to leave the hotel.
Set along a beautiful stretch of Vietnam's central coastline, Four Seasons Nam Hai is one of those resorts that feels like a destination in its own right. Think private villas hidden amongst thousands of palm trees, three striking swimming pools leading towards the sea, exceptional restaurants, an award-winning spa and enough activities to easily fill several days.
Yet Hoi An Ancient Town remains close enough to dip into whenever you want, giving you the best of both worlds: the energy and culture of one of Vietnam's most beautiful destinations alongside a resort that makes slowing down incredibly easy. Not to mention, Four Seasons offer a complimentary shuttle throughout the day to head into the town centre.
We spent three nights here, splitting our time between long afternoons by the pool, incredible food, spa treatments and experiences that introduced us to another side of Hoi An.
Table of contents 📝
Pools, Beach & Resort Life
First Impressions & Setting
Four Seasons The Nam Hai feels impressive from the moment you arrive, but not in the traditional grand-hotel sense. Instead, everything opens towards the landscape.
The resort unfolds across beautifully manicured grounds filled with tropical greenery and seemingly endless palms, with villas dotted discreetly throughout. Pathways lead towards the beach, bicycles quietly pass you by and, at the centre of it all, three cascading swimming pools draw your eye towards the ocean.
Despite the scale of the property, it never feels overwhelming. There's an enormous sense of space, with enough room to find your own quiet corner even when the resort is busy.
Getting around is part of the fun too. Bicycles are available for guests, and an afternoon cycle beneath the palms quickly became one of our favourite ways to explore the property.
It's polished in the way you'd expect from Four Seasons, but the atmosphere remains wonderfully relaxed.
The Villas
The villas at Four Seasons Nam Hai feel less like traditional hotel rooms and more like private little homes dotted amongst the resort's tropical gardens.
Inside, the design is understated and elegant, with dark woods, neutral tones and subtle Vietnamese influences creating a space that feels distinctly connected to the destination. Everything centres around comfort, with generous living areas and thoughtful details that make returning to the villa after a day in the sun feel like part of the experience.
There's also a wonderful sense of privacy. Surrounded by gardens and palms, the villas feel tucked away from the rest of the resort, despite the pools, beach and restaurants being only moments away.
It's the kind of room that makes doing absolutely nothing feel like a perfectly reasonable way to spend an afternoon.
Pools, Beach & Resort Life
If there's one image that defines Four Seasons The Nam Hai, it's undoubtedly the pools.
Three striking tiers of water stretch towards the coastline, framed by palms and manicured gardens, creating one of the most beautiful pool settings we experienced in Vietnam.
Days here have a wonderfully unhurried rhythm. Find a lounger, order a drink and alternate between the pool and the sea whenever the mood takes you. There are plenty of activities if sitting still isn't your thing. Guests can join complimentary experiences including Grounding Yoga, Pranayama Meditation, seashell art workshops and cooking experiences, or simply borrow a bicycle and explore the grounds at their own pace.
What I particularly loved is that the resort never makes you feel as though you should be doing something. There's enough happening to keep you occupied for days, but absolutely no guilt in spending an entire afternoon beside the pool instead.
Dining
Dining was one of the biggest highlights of our stay and another reason Four Seasons Nam Hai feels like somewhere you could happily remain for several days without leaving.
Breakfast is served at Café Nam Hai, where mornings begin with an extensive selection before inevitably drifting into another slow day around the resort.
For Vietnamese cuisine, La Sen offers a more contemporary interpretation of the country's culinary heritage. Traditional flavours and local ingredients are presented with a refined edge, creating dishes that feel rooted in Vietnam while still fitting naturally within the Four Seasons setting. We returned here during our stay for both dinner and lunch.
Sol & Sao provides a much more relaxed setting. By day, it's somewhere to stop for coffee, gelato and coconut-inspired drinks; as the sun begins to disappear, the atmosphere shifts towards cocktails and Vietnamese tapas. It's particularly lovely in the late afternoon when the heat begins to soften and the resort starts transitioning into evening.
Our most memorable dining experience, however, was NAYUU. We began with a guided sake discovery, tasting four distinctive styles of Japanese sake, each paired with a seasonal bite. It was a lovely introduction to the evening and gave us a much greater appreciation for the differences between each style.
From there, we moved into dinner and NAYUU's refined Japanese omakase experience. Intimate, beautifully presented and centred around the chef's selection, it offered a complete contrast to our Vietnamese meals elsewhere in the resort and quickly became one of the standout dinners of the trip.
Heart of the Earth Spa
The hotel may not position itself solely as a wellness retreat, but wellness is beautifully integrated into the resort experience. Heart of the Earth Spa sits around a peaceful lagoon and feels completely removed from the rest of the property. The setting alone encourages you to slow down before a treatment has even begun.
We experienced the Nam Hai Vietnamese Bodywork, a 60-minute treatment using traditional healing techniques and medium pressure to encourage relaxation and restore balance. After several days travelling through Asia, it was exactly what we needed.
One of the loveliest touches, however, happens at the end of the day. We joined the spa's A Goodnight Kiss to the Earth, a short evening ritual where guests write a love letter to the Earth before setting it afloat on the spa lagoon. Simple and beautifully executed, it was one of those small Four Seasons touches that stayed with us long after the experience itself.
Experiencing Local Life
By Jack Tran Tours via Four Seasons
As tempting as it is to spend the entire stay beside the pool, Four Seasons The Nam Hai makes it remarkably easy to experience the area beyond the resort. One of the standout excursions is the Fishing Village & Basket Boat Tour, which takes guests along the Cua Dai River and into a local fishing community.
Here, the experience becomes much more hands-on. You learn about traditional fishing practices directly from locals before climbing into one of Vietnam's instantly recognisable bamboo basket boats and attempting to paddle it yourself. There's even a basket boat race before returning to the main boat for a Vietnamese lunch. It's fun, occasionally chaotic and a great way to see a side of Hoi An that feels completely different from the Ancient Town.
Back at the resort, cultural experiences continue throughout the day, from dumpling-making at the Nam Hai Cooking Academy to meditation and creative workshops.
Rather than simply placing you beside Hoi An, the resort makes an effort to bring elements of Vietnamese culture into the stay itself.
Final Thoughts
Four Seasons The Nam Hai is the kind of hotel that makes you reconsider how much sightseeing you actually need to do.
There's simply so much to enjoy within the resort itself. Mornings can begin with yoga or a long breakfast, afternoons disappear beside the pools or at Heart of the Earth Spa, and evenings revolve around cocktails and some genuinely excellent dining.
Yet what prevents it from feeling like an isolated beach resort is its connection to Hoi An. You can be wandering through the Ancient Town one afternoon, exploring a fishing village the next morning and back beside the infinity pool with a drink in hand a few hours later.
For travellers who want to experience Hoi An but still want their hotel to feel like a genuine holiday, it's a particularly compelling combination. Beautiful, spacious and effortlessly polished, Four Seasons The Nam Hai gives you the best of both versions of Vietnam: the one you go out to discover and the one you don't want to leave.
Book your next stay at Four Seasons The Nam Hai, Hoi An by visiting: fourseasons.com/hoian
This stay was gently offered by Four Seasons All views and opinions here are as usual my own.
Comments