Originally we planned to stay at the Goda Boutique Hotel, halfway between town and the beach. However, as we were packing for our trip we noticed the weather looked like it was going to be cloudy for our time in Hoi An, so we changed to an in-town hotel and choose the Lantana Boutique Hotel Hoi An. This change worked out well for us, as it let us walk into the old town in three minutes instead of a 15-minute bicycle ride.
We emailed the hotel to arrange an airport pickup in advance, as we had heard about quite a few taxi scams in Vietnam. Even after our baggage delays our driver was still waiting for us, and we made the ~40 min drive along the coastal route.
Upon arrival, the Lantana staff grabbed our bags and we were directed to seats in the lobby with a welcome drink and towels. Reception explained the hotel, services, and gave some advice about town. Impressively, many staff members knew our name by that afternoon! They offered us an upgrade for an $10 extra a night (with balcony) which we declined. I’m glad we did as the view wouldn’t have been worth it, and our room was just fine. We were given the key card to our room a few minutes later, followed by our bags shortly after that.
Our deluxe room was large with a desk, a good size closet (it could have use a few more hangars, but we never asked), and extra chair. The queen bed was fairly firm as is typical in Asia. One wall had a big window that we had open most of the time we were there – there were lots of rooster and motorbike action in the neighborhood behind us, but we couldn’t hear it when the windows were closed.
our view over the rooftops
Breakfast was included and there was always a seat for us no matter what time we came down. Buffet items included four juices, several fresh fruits (passion fruit!), cheese and meats, fried rice, pastries, etc., plus a cook station for omelets and noodles. Leandra appreciated the bottomless strong Vietnamese coffee! Overall a good offering, and the staff were helpful – if you put bread in the toaster they would offer to bring it to you at your seat.
On Saturday we took the free shuttle to An Bang beach. The drive was about 15 minutes, and the staff member guided us to the correct beach “club” where we had free chairs. The weather was rather cloudy and windy, so the beach was mostly empty. We walked a bit, found some shells, and read our books. On a side note, the cocktails were probably the best we had in Vietnam – Eric tried the walking zombie, a mix of lemon, orange, pineapple and passion fruit, while Leandra had a very minty mojito. By noon lots of clouds were building, so we returned on the pre-timed shuttle.
shuttle drop-off, our beach was about 200 yards down the path
An Bang beach, a little chilly and cloudy but still sandy
That evening we tried the happy hour at the hotel, which was disappointing. The drinks were quite small with a lot of ice – thankfully they were buy one, get one free. The cocktail peanuts were nice though.
Leandra also tried out the spa with a manicure and pedicure, but her experience was poor. Leandra: When I had booked the spa treatment, the receptionist was trying to get me to come earlier in the day but we had our final fitting at the tailors so the timing wouldn’t work. When I arrived at 6pm, the manicurist was clearly waiting to go home. She was polite enough but sloppy with the nail polish application, even pulling the toe separators off my feet in such a hurry that the polish smeared and she had to redo three nails. I wasn’t sure why I couldn’t just sit there for five minutes and let my feet dry? The whole experience felt very rushed. Immediately afterwards she had her coat on and was gone. Clearly they were trying to accommodate me but frankly I would have just skipped it even for the $15 price tag.
Our last night we had some loud Karaoke going on in alley down the street on Saturday… Glad our windows are good! Oddly (and thankfully), it stopped exactly at 9:45pm.
Overall we liked the location of the Lantana, and we would recommend it as a base for Hoi An.