By Rupali Dean
Art Deco style meets 21st century extravagance at Ana Mandara Villas Dalat Resort and Spa, spaced across a gently sloping hillside dotted with trees and gardens, and just ten minutes from the city. Come for the arresting surreal views, ever-innovative food and downtime at the historical French Villas.
From an ancient group of rotting structures, the pine-covered, seven hectare estate on Dalat’s outskirts has been renovated into an appealingly gorgeous sanctuary. Today, it is a charming hideaway while preserving genuine and immaculate architectural ethics. Arriving at Dalat is quite something: a car whisks you from the airport to the lobby in quaint style. From up here, the pine forests spread out dramatically before you, backdropped by the Central Highlands.
Conflicting to what one might anticipate, very little French colonial-era architecture endures in Vietnam. However, the period looks replete with a fleet of beautiful 1930’s Citroens, bizarre town and pretty rural views create a bucolic and almost surreal out of time feeling. It hasn’t disoriented an iota of its original character. That said, there are understated affirmations to avant-gardism, too, in newly re-explained Art Deco motifs, luxurious fabrics and bespoke wood furnishings. Delicately amalgamated into its rolling panorama of swanky pine trees, the resort is intentionally aimed to offer the cosiness of home.
Hotel
With an antiquity of approximately a hundred years, Ana Mandara’s background lies in the grandeur of the foregone epoch. The reminiscence of the owners emanates gracefully out of the designs that trail the traditional and French-inspired style integrating old-style Vietnamese structure ideas.
The resort is made up of seventeen restored French Villas, boasting a common library, dining room (replica of the initial 20th century French salons, well-appointed with vintage furniture such as gramophones with an assortment of 78-rpm records, longcase clocks, candelabrum in tallying to bookshelves, canvases and portraits), open-air terrace and kitchen with a wine cellar that duals up as the vital mini-bar.
Room
Each of the villas has its individual exclusive story, and if you are looking to add an historic site or two to your Dalat bucket list, you have come to the right spot. The Photographers’ Villa for example was built in the 1920s, amid the upsurge of postcard art, and it has flawlessly well looked after its original charm. The Architects’ Villa happens to be amongst the first constructed by French settlers, also notable as one that epitomises the graceful exquisiteness of 19th-century French architecture.
The sleek, light-filled rooms in the villas fuse Art Deco designs with contemporary comfort; featuring sash windows, vintage switches, high ceiling fans, luxurious antique fabrics, bespoke wooden floors and unique period collectables. Some of the attractively tiled bathrooms have showers, others claw foot bath tubs. More luxurious still is the one and only Bellevue Suite with a beautiful balcony offering breath-taking views of the lush pine forest.
Food and drink
Le Petit, located at the centre of the resort near the pool, features both indoor and alfresco dining. The restaurant villa endured the outcome of the American war in attractive upright shape. Beautifully lit in the evenings, it has the original ebony dark staircase on either side of the fireplace and ornamentation matching the panache of the edifice. The stairs take you to an undisturbed wine cellar, sited in the loft, and a wine bar with a counter made from homegrown timber and a top-notch range of wines.
The French colonists who once patronised Dalat, and who appreciated good food and wine, would have loved this. You should definitely enrol in a cooking class where the executive chef takes you to pick premium local produce from the market, followed by a class on Vietnamese fare and lunch along with a glass of wine from the unique rooftop wine cellar. If you love picnics, ask the hotel to tailor make one for you.
To do
For those wishing to keep up with their training routines, on offer is a fitness room with cardio machines, and exercise apparatus. For gentler movement, early morning yoga classes are presented at the poolside, and this is Dalat’s first hotel to have a swimming pool.
The spa, in the same villa with a sweeping view across Dalat, offers a large variety of massages and other treatments for recovery subsequently. Essential oils are garnered from native ingredients from Dalat, and the treatments are paired with specifically curated menus for those with distinctive dietary requirements or possibly for those looking for a detox.
In a nutshell
Dalat is an erstwhile French settler town, and while much of the ambience has been swamped by a bustling town and substantial amounts of Vietnamese kitsch, Ana Mandara has done an amazing job with preserving and fixing Dalat’s momentous past to design a picturesque mountain sanctuary within sauntering distance to the town.
Minute niceties like chocolates and incense sticks with turn-down service add a distinctive touch to the stay. Here, eternal design syndicates with idyllic privacy, crafting space and liberty for visitors to appreciate time with loved ones, share unexpected experiences and make precious memories.
Factbox
The Bellevue suite costs around £205 for a night.
Address: Ana Mandara Villas Dalat, Le Lai St., Ward 5, Lam Dong, Dalat, 67000, Vietnam.
Phone: 02633555888
Website: anamandara-resort.com
Photography courtesy of Ana Mandara Villas Dalat Resort and Spa.
