Trip to Phu Quoc - November 2014
Review of Salinda Resort in Phu Quoc, Vietnam

For once I will start by with the conclusion – after staying at the island for 6 days and driving around I have come to the conclusion that Salinda Phu Quoc Island Resort and Spa has to be the best resort and hotel on the island. But this does not mean that it is perfect – in the following review I will give my view of what is great and what is not so great.
We booked the resort as it looked like the best resort on Phu Quoc and because it was brand new – it was actually not open yet when we booked it. You can read more about our stay at the island in this Phu Quoc trip report.

We were picked up from the airport by the resort (it was complimentary) and the drive to the hotel only took like 10 minutes. The lobby area is quite impressive as the car took us up a ramp to the lobby and there is a large fountain in the middle. We were offered to sit in a sofa while they fixed the check in and we were also offered a cold towel and 4 different shots of fruit juice. We got room number 205 and this is a standard room with a hill view. As the resort seemed quite empty we were almost a bit disappointed that we were not upgraded to a better room.

We were a bit surprised to see that we had been given a twin bed and not a king-size bed – as far as I can tell from the booking process it is not really possible to choose this and I think it can create a bit of confusion from arriving guests. The first night we spent on our separate queens size beds but the next day when we mentioned this in the reception they turned the two beds into a huge XXL kingsize beds that was firm but very comfortable and the pillows came in various sizes and firmness.

The room itself looked modern on entry – after all it is only a few weeks since it opened. There were large white tiles on the floor and the walls were painted in light colors. One of the walls had vague marks on the walls and it looked like water or moisture had been running down the wall at some stage. Behind the bed there were some colorful mosaic vases and they were a nice touch to the neutral colors on the walls in the room. The room featured a 40ish inch flat screen TV that included a lot of channels in good quality and the TV also include info about the island, weather forecast etc. The TV did seem to be vulnerable to bad weather so when the weather turned bad the TV image/sound and internet would be bad but I guess that is something that is expected on an island. The desk below the TV included a water boiler with coffee and tea but also a fridge for various drinks – there were also a lot of bottles of liquor on the desk that were for sale. As usual the prices of beer and soft drinks were quite horrendous compared to prices at the local grocery store. One example is a 333 beer that you can buy at the liqueur store for 10.000 VND (50 US Cent) while it costs 75.000 USD in the hotel minibar (3.50 USD).

The room has a balcony with a couple of chairs and a small table – but also a rack that could be used to hang up e.g. wet swimwear.
There are lots of sockets for electricity and most of them had an international socket and that is convenient as you normally need to charge various gadgets when traveling. The only challenge was that some of the appliances that we used (e.g. an iron) had a Vietnamese plug so we had to use an adapter to get it into the international sockets. The wifi was free and it was an open network and hence it was not necessary to enter a username and password and that is very convenient. There was also good coverage in the room, pool, restaurant etc – excellent in other words.
The room also featured an orange lounge sofa and there was a small table on each side of the bed. The wardrobe was standard in size but only include 4-5 hangers and that is not enough of course, But we sent some items to pressing and they were returned the same day. The wardrobe also contains a safe but no iron and ironing board. When we asked for one it took quite some time to get it and it was not a very high end iron.

The bathroom is also quite beautiful with tiles, a large shower corner and a number of amenities by the sink. I would have liked to see more space around the sink to put down the toiletry bags and it would have been great with more shelves and hooks - there was actually only one hook in the bathroom. The shower features either a large rain forest shower head or a hand held shower head with various settings. In the shower there was a shampoo, bath gel and conditioner in containers that would be refilled – the products seemed to be of good quality. Again I would have liked to see more space for various products like razor, shave cream etc. We got two bottles of water everyday but they did not seem too fuzzy about this and we got more when they did the turndown service at night.

Outside the resort can boast about a large pool, pool bar and beach front access. We had lunch in the pool bar and had great fish and chips and there was even a live band to keep us company. The staff was polite and ready to take our order at any time. The pool is large and there are lots of sun beds that you can use and you can even find sun beds on the beach.
The entertainment area of the hotel contains a spa, a gym, baby sitting facilities, business center and a great bar called Salinda lounge with a grand piano and with live music from time to time. Unfortunately we were quite alone in the bar most of the time. The Salinda lounge also featured a cigar room where you could buy and smoke cigars.
There are also two pool tables in this area. On the beach you can rent a two man kayak for 10 USD for 30 minutes and there are bikes that you can loan for free.

The breakfast was great – it is not totally over the top but it contains a good selection of all that you need. Good and fresh orange juice, a variety of coffee (try the Vietnamese coffee – it is excellent) but also cereal, bread, an egg station, a noodle station and fruit. There were some issues during breakfast – e.g. there were not signs on all the dishes to start with, some communication problems etc but in general the breakfast was excellent.
The location of the hotel might not be perfect. It is located about 5 km outside the town and night market. But it is very easy to get a taxi in the area and they all ran on meter.

Conclusion
As I said to start with, it is hard to not give this resort 5 out of 5 stars as it seems to be the most complete, modern resort on the island – it actually seems to be in a league of its own. And I guess that they are taking a bit of advantage of this. One of the things I find annoying is that because you pay a lot of the room (I think we paid 400 USD per night) it means that you can also pay a lot of the food and drinks at the resort. But it feels a bit like a rip off when you have to pay 75.000 VND for a coke that you can get for 20.000 VND at the bar across the road or even less at the local grocery store.
We had dinner one night at the restaurant and we were basically alone there. I ordered a chicken dish (chicken breast fillet with basil polenta) but when I got the food served it was a different chicken dish that was served (chicken breast, mushroom and spring onion). I’m not sure who this happened but I assume that it was communication problems.

All in all a beautiful but expensive resort with a great pool, beach access, restaurant, bar etc. If money is not an issue I don’t think you have to look any further for a resort in Phu Quoc. You can read more about Salinda Phu Quoc Island Resort and Spa on their homepage. Feel free to get in touch with me on gardkarlsen@hotmail.com if you have any questions.