Review: Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort Part 1

After our stay at the Intercontinental Hanoi, we were very excited to check out the Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, as all the reviews we’d read about it had been positive. It literally won the number one resort in the world! We were especially excited, as our highly anticipated trip to Halong Bay had been cancelled because of bad weather.

Initially we were planning on staying two nights, one with the third of my free IHG nights, and one on points (category 9 – 50k IHG points per night). I had to scramble, and paid $280 for a third night, which in retrospect was a bargain.

We flew from Hanoi – Danang on a cheap Vietjet flight (found on Skyscanner), and arrived around dinner time. Of note, this resort has two lounges at the airport, an arrival and a departure lounge! The arrival lounge was small with only bottles of water, and I forgot to take pictures. The departure lounge is much more sumptous, and I”ll review it in my next post. The cab ride to the resort from the airport took about an hour and was around $25 USD. There are free shuttles to and from central Danang, but not the airport, and we were hungry.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a very imposing foyer with twin fire sconses:

The welcome lobby was gorgeous, and we were greeted by several young smiling attendants, who took our luggage and directed us to the front desk.

There is a large gorgeous fountain, and the lobby is spacious with huge couches:

It was chilly when we arrived, in the 50s, and hot tea was served:

We were greeted as IHG Platinum members, thanked for our loyalty, and told that we’d be escorted to our room by golf cart. I inquired about walking, but they were genuinely concerned as it’d been raining, and it was also dark out. We accepted the golf cart ride, down a long, windy pathway. It was sprinkling, but fortunately, the sides are covered with see-through plastic. We came to a three-story villa, and were led down the steps to our room. We opened it and were greeted by a huge foyer:

(this picture doesn’t do it justice)

and a very pleasant smell. The hotel uses Harnn amenities, the smell of which I love! It reminds me of a Thai massage. Walking around the middle partition, we came to our bedroom:

 

The bed and pillows were incredibly comfortable, and slippers and robes were laid out for us. A rollaway bed was brought for my son. Many bottles of water were available complimentary, and outlets were easily reachable for charging (two criteria of mine for a good hotel stay). I’m sure the TV channels were good, but we honestly never turned it on.

The door beyond goes out to an enormous porch, overlooking the bay (when it’s clear out). The porch had large patio furniture, and an 8 person table on the end, which I wish we could’ve used, but unfortunately it rained pretty much the whole time we were there. I’ve included a stock photo of what it’s supposed to look like when it’s sunny out:

The bathroom was breathtaking:

You can’t tell from the photo, but next to the bathtub is an overhead shower. The tub was cavernous, and absolutely perfect for soaking in. This is what I want my dream home bathroom to look like! There was a separate room for a toilet:

Unfortunately breakfast was not included on our free night or our points night, only on the paid night. Looking at the in-room dining menu, a full breakfast was about the same as the breakfast buffet, and we wouldn’t have to wait for the golf cart to come pick us up, so we went with that. Within 30 minutes of my call, a huge feast was set upon our bench:

 

It was delicious and filling, and we ordered it both mornings we did not have the complimentary breakfast. We even had an invited but not unwelcome guest during our meals:

We had more dragonfruit than we knew what to do with, so we tossed it on the porch, and made an instant friend!

I can’t say enough about the beauty of the resort, even though it rained almost the whole time we were there, and was too chilly to go in the ocean. A view from the pool:

My son enjoying the swing outside the salon:

You of course have to take a ride on the skytrain:

Another view of the main pool (of note there are several pools, none heated though):

 

 

 

I somehow managed to forget to take a picture of the beach and ocean, although to be fair, it was stormy and miserable, so it’s probably a better idea to get some google images of the beach.

The first night we arrived, we went to the resorts main restaurant, Citron. The food is good, although overpriced. Also, the breakfast buffet is here:

 

At times of nicer weather, the outside dining is available on these outside tables, but they were closed when we were there:

Dining and drinks are also available at Long Bar, which looks out over the ocean:

They have very cool hanging chairs:

Next to Long Bar is the gym, and the very cool Kid’s Club, which our 5 year old adored:

The lovely girls there will watch the kid free of charge anytime from 8am to 8pm, which was clutch when we made dinner reservations at La Maison 1888, which is their “fancy” restaurant, and doesn’t allow children, and which I will be reviewing in the upcoming post.

The only negatives I can say about this resort are the long wait times for golf carts when you call for them; we mostly just walked or used the skytrain. It is also very isolated on the peninsula, so you’re a captive audience. We did take advantage of the free shuttle to take us to downtown Danang, but it was at least 45 minutes each way. Also, everything there is pretty expensive. To me, the whole experience was otherworldly though, and it was worth it.

This resort is the bomb! We will definitely be coming back here, next time during the summer when it’s guaranteed to be nicer weather!