02The story

01

InterContinental Danang is not a beach resort with a view; it is a hillside built as a set. Bill Bensley designed the whole of it, black against white against the green of Son Tra Peninsula, and arranged it in tiers down to the beach, connected by the Nam Tram funicular so that even going for a swim involves a small journey.

The theatre is not confined to the architecture. Citron sends its dining booths out over the slope, and La Maison 1888 answers in French, formally. The accommodation climbs the slope with the buildings, and the choice is less about size than about height above the water. Da Nang is close, the forest is closer, and Mi Sol Spa slows everything down when the day calls for it.

02

A resort in tiers

The setting is a wooded cove on Son Tra Peninsula, well outside Da Nang, with forest above and the sea below. Bensley stacked the resort up the hillside instead of spreading it along the shore, so each level looks over the one beneath it and the funicular becomes the spine of the place. The effect is theatrical without being absurd: a resort that reveals itself in stages and gives the walk between breakfast and the beach something to look at.

03

Height is the real choice

The accommodation runs from ocean-view rooms to terrace suites, penthouses and villas, and the meaningful variable is altitude. Low down, the beach is a short walk and the sea is loud. Higher up, the cove opens out and the resort arranges itself below like a model of itself. Vietnamese references run through the interiors, sharpened by the same black-and-white contrast that governs the buildings, so the rooms belong to the architecture instead of apologising for it.

04

Dinner under a conical hat

Citron is the reason the resort photographs the way it does. Its outdoor booths borrow the shape of the Vietnamese conical hat and hang above the slope, a table in each, with the coast falling away underneath and regional Vietnamese cooking arriving course by course. La Maison 1888 makes the opposite case, French and formal, elsewhere in the resort. The pairing is the point: a hotel with a sense of humour that takes its kitchens entirely seriously.

03Highlights

What sets it apart.

The signature moment

Dusk, and the Nam Tram climbs back through the trees with the sea dropping away behind it. At Citron the booths are lit from within, each one holding a single table above the slope, and the forest closes over the last of the light while the first dishes arrive.

01Wooded cove on Son Tra Peninsula
02Designed throughout by Bill Bensley
03Nam Tram funicular
04Conical dining booths at Citron
05Suites, penthouses and villas

04IHG Destined

Here, as a preferred guest.

01
Breakfast for two, every morning
Breakfast for two each morning, at the hotel’s own table: the first privilege of the day and the one most worth taking slowly.Breakfast with the harbour, the Croisette or the lagoon in view, first morning to last.
02
A hotel credit to spend
A credit held in your name at the hotel, to spend as the stay suggests: a table, a treatment, an evening at the bar.A credit for the beach club, the spa or dinner, wherever the route has reached.
03
A room above your booking
An upgrade to the category above, so the room you return to each evening outranks the one on the confirmation.A category above the one reserved, harbour side, sea side or garden side asked for first.
04
An earlier arrival
Check-in before the house’s usual hour: the overnight flight lands, the car draws up and the first day begins in your room.The room ready for the morning that follows an overnight flight or a dawn seaplane.
05
A later departure
Check-out after the house’s usual hour, so the last morning is spent as the first was: at the table, by the pool or simply in the room.Check-out held back for a final beach-club lunch or one more look at the harbour.
06
Known before you arrive
VIP recognition as a guest of the house: your preferences and the occasion known to the hotel before the door is opened for you.Every house on the route hears who is coming, and why, from us in advance.
07
Offers for preferred guests
The offers a programme keeps for its own preferred guests, extended to a Dip Needle booking and shown beside the rate for your dates.Destined offers for each hotel and your dates, set beside the rate in the proposal.