Six Senses Ninh Van Bay is so silently embedded into the lush greenery of this boot-like curve of the peninsula that creates the bay, that you have to squint to make it out from the private boat as you take the twenty-minute trip across.
Closer to the shore, a long crescent of sand reveals itself, and nearer still, you can see Six Senses Ninh Van Bay is bookended by pool villas that cling to and merge with monolithic granite rocks. It feels like an island escape. And with the only access by boat, it kind of is. It’s a sublime, serene place to start our series of city escapes in Vietnam.
Six Senses Ninh Van Bay Rocks
In fact, staying in the Rock Villa at the northern end of the resort, a speed boat whisks you from the main pier, Bond-style, around the headland, and deposits you at the steps to the secluded three-bedroom villa. The pilot digs the wheel sharply around, sending an arc of sea spray into the air for extra espionage-movie effect as the boat swings into the villa’s dock.
It’s one of 62-villas at Six Senses Ninh Van Bay. And pedaling around on a bicycle, which the staff have thoughtfully labeled with each guest’s name, you start to believe that this invisible retreat really does also span 62-hectares.
All that space helps Six Senses Ninh Van Bay to achieve the balancing act of romantic getaway, family vacation resort, and health retreat all at the same time. There’s a breathtaking, intimate restaurant on the rocks. And nearby, ensconced in lush foliage is a tennis court. There’s a jungle gym with a testing circuit of tire pushes, a pair of battle ropes tied to a tree, and monkey bars. And beside that is a badminton court and 5-a-side football pitch. And perched up above the resort, there’s a spa, and a gym with sweeping views of the bay.
Handily, to navigate it all, guests at Six Senses Ninh Van Bay get a dedicated GEM, or guest experience manager, to curate their stay a swipe and a tap of WhatsApp or Zalo away.
That Syncing Feeling
It’s a blissful physical detachment from civilization. The bright lights of Nha Trang glimmer from way across the bay at night, as a reminder of the gaudy, downtown beachfront you’ve escaped from. And a family of black-shanked douc langurs, indigenous only to Eastern Cambodia and Southern Vietnam, looking down cautiously from a tree on the Hon Heo mountainside behind is a reminder of where you’ve escaped to.
Thanks to preservation efforts, the black-shanked douc langur community, which remains endangered, is slowly growing. And Six Senses Ninh Van Bay even has an on-site biologist, who busies himself curating wildlife and conservation experiences, and studying the langurs – what they eat (19 varieties of plants) and what they do (gravitate towards the tall trees beside granite rocks, where they love to eat wild pineapples).
So, Six Senses Ninh Van Bay doesn’t only sync with the surroundings physically, but this sheltered resort also syncs with the community and its habitat through conservation, sustainability – there are 800 solar panels powering the resort in an expansive organic garden that fuels Six Senses Ninh Van Bay’s Dining By The Bay menu – and social projects including outreach with scholarships for students across the bay in Nha Trang. Plus, Six Senses holistic wellness program helps you reconnect with yourself too.
Disconnect To Reconnect
As the sun sets, and you watch the boats bob in the bay from your beachfront villa balcony, or from up on the mountainside from your hilltop pool villa, the stresses naturally evaporate.
But at Six Senses Ninh Van Bay they amplify that with state-of-the-art wellness programs – there’s an in-depth wellness screening, detox programs, pranayama, arial yoga and sound healing sessions – and the encouragement to reconnect with loved ones, with designated WiFi-free zones and curated daily programs of family activities (families are even given a Polaroid camera to record the moments for posterity – or as a reminder, once they’re back home, that they should do all this more often).
Checks And Balances
The wellness screening checks stress levels, body composition, metabolism, oxygen distribution, and heart function and circulation. But as you hypnotically watch the water running down from the mountainside in the wooden cabin where the screening takes place over the consultant’s shoulder (Anna is a former anesthesia technician who worked in hospitals before pursuing the path of preventive medicine) you suspect the calming view might reveal an unrealistically low level of stress.
Anyway, the seven-page report details a holistic path to a healthier lifestyle – better sleep, improved diet – with useful takeaways to adopt at Six Senses and when normal life resumes.
There’s another room dedicated to ‘biohacking’ with fast-recovery compression boots and hypervolt muscle relief – both of which come in handy if you’ve taken one of the hikes around the resort like the one that passes through steep jungle and over the ridge and down towards the natural lake that provides the resort with its water.
And at Dining By The Pool, one of five dining locations at Six Senses Ninh Van Bay, they nudge you towards plant-based cuisine.
However, in the interest of balance, and you need an alcoholic beverage to finish off the day, at Dining By The Bay, they’ve curated some of our favorite locally-made gins – like Song Cai and Lady Triệu – into a signature gin and tonic menu. Six Senses Ninh Van Bay does, after all, cater to all kinds of people.
