Salinda Resort Phu Quoc Island

A name made from two sisters

Salinda is two names joined together: Sandra and Linda, two sisters. When the family built the resort, they wanted a place that felt like home, where guests are looked after as people with their own stories and not just as a room number. Later the word “family” widened into Salinda Family, meaning the people who work here every day.

The resort is in Cửa Lấp hamlet, on Phú Quốc's west coast, facing the open sea of Bãi Trường, where the sun sets straight into the water. Salinda opened in 2014, after eighteen months of building on two and a half hectares, with a total investment of thirty-five million US dollars. It has 121 rooms, suites and villas, and every one has its own balcony or yard. Today the resort is managed by An Cường Company Limited.

A garden standing between the street and the sea

More than seventy percent of Salinda's land is garden. About a hundred kinds of trees and flowers grow in layers, dense enough for native birds and butterflies to settle. A row of tall palms stands between the infinity pool and the sea, filtering some of the salt out of the wind, so the summer breeze reaches the resort cooler and cleaner. In season the garden yields mangoes, coconuts, star apples, plums and bananas, and that fruit is set out on the breakfast buffet.

The stone walls in the resort are Hòa Vang stone, taken from the mountains of central Việt Nam and hand-chiselled in a craft village in Đà Nẵng. The stone absorbs heat, and together with the garden it gives Salinda a small climate of its own. The pool is not treated with industrial chlorine but filtered with ionised salt.

The walkway down to breakfast each morning is hung with paintings: the gallery of Ms Huyền, a co-founder, who since 2014 has worked with the Vietnam Fine Arts Association to show work by young painters and established ones alike. Guests who like a painting can buy it and take it home. The morning tea cup is Bát Tràng ceramic; the souvenirs in the shop include goods from Mekong Quilts, a non-profit that creates jobs for women in difficulty. The resort's Christmas tree is made entirely from driftwood that staff gather along the beach, during their clean-ups of the beach and the roads around the resort.

One wall for every room type

Salinda has eight room types, and each has its own mural telling one beauty of Việt Nam. The Deluxe rooms are 43 m² and sleep three, divided by view. The Deluxe on the ground floor looks onto the front yard and the street; the Deluxe Sea View is on the second floor; the Premium Deluxe Sea View is on the top floor, with TWG tea on the balcony and handmade ceramic art at the head of the bed. The Deluxe Hill View is on a high floor and catches the sunrise over the hill, with a mosaic headboard. The Deluxe Garden View sits in the terraced garden and is more private.

The Garden View Villa is 65 m², with coconut-shell inlay on the bedroom walls and a bathtub looking onto its own lawn. The Sea View Suite is 87 m², with a living room, a dining table and a small kitchen, decorated in the purple of the sunset. The largest is the Pearl Suite Villa, 100 m², named as a tribute to the island's nickname, the pearl of Asia: a four-poster bed set with scallop shells, a marble-floored bathroom with a soaking tub, and the beach and pool only a few steps away.

Breakfast with piano, dinner watching the sunset

The day at Salinda begins with the Sparkling Breakfast: piano music, a glass of sparkling wine and the sea breeze, from 6:30 to 10:30 at the Salinda restaurant. At midday and in the afternoon, Cyan Bar & Sunset Dining sets its tables right beside the pool and the sand, with seafood and light beach-style food at lunch; in the evening it is regional Vietnamese dishes, grills, cocktails and live music as the sun sinks into the sea.

In the evening there are two more restaurants. il Muro Italiano cooks traditional Italian food with the island's seafood. Pakka Indian serves North Indian food, from tandoori to curries, with chef Liladhar in the kitchen. After dinner, High Note Bar has an outdoor terrace, a whisky corner and a cocktail menu named after pieces of music.

The resort's spa is Qi'sense, next to the mango garden. “Qi” is the vital energy that flows through the body in Eastern medicine; the treatments here are massages to keep that energy flowing, with a package for two that includes a bath and a glass of sparkling wine. Next to it is the Qi'nesis gym, looking onto the garden.