A windy weekend on Vietnam's sandy south coast at The Anam Mui Ne - review

Beyond the towering sand dunes of southern Vietnam, Mui Ne is a great destination for a long weekend. Carolynne Dear flew down to check out the beachfront Anam Mui Ne

The Anam Mui Ne review - Mui Ne is famous for wind, sand and sea

The landscape starts to change a good few miles before you reach Mui Ne. At first there’s the odd battered sign at the roadside advertising desert surfing and 4WD dune trips. Then great humps of cream and red-hued sand begin to appear, golden grains scattering onto the tarmac as you wind your way past. And then, at the peak of an incline, the South China Sea stretches before you.

Turning a bend, our car passes a couple of hotels and enter a dusty high street lined with surf shops, bars, 7/11s and, rather incongruously, Swiss restaurants. And then we’re swinging left into the hotel courtyard and staff are rushing to greet us.

Wind, sand and sea is how the Vietnamese tourism board sums up Mui Ne. Once just another sleepy fishing village, the town rose to prominence in 1995 when thousands of tourists arrived to witness a solar eclipse. And things have never been the same since. A handful of international hotels now have a foothold in the area and there’s talk of nearby Phan Than military airport opening for civilian travel, although when, nobody seems quite sure. Possibly next year, a hotel employee suggests. 

The Anam Mui Ne review - the hotel is a decadent beachside retreat in a sandy town

So what’s the pull? Monsoon winds pummell the town’s five-mile beach throughout the year, the southwest monsoon from June to September, with the northeast monsoon taking over for the remainder of the year. As a result, Mui Ne has become something of a Southeast Asian watersports mecca. During my stay, the winds built up in the early afternoon, at which point myriad kite surfers appeared, soaring over the breakers, their kites bright pops of colour against the horizon. The beach itself is scattered with surf shacks and beach bars, rough wooden sheds rather than polished water sports bases and beachside diners. It feels laid back, rugged, off the beaten track. And it seems many visitors have travelled here to take on the surf, not just to sip cocktails in boujee beach clubs. As well as overseas tourists, the spot is a popular weekend getaway for Ho Chi Minh City urbanites.

The Anam Mui Ne

I’m staying at Anam Mui Ne, which opened in 2023 to great acclaim and is one of the small handful of luxury beachfront properties in the town. The Anam Group is an independently owned and operated duo of luxury hotels led by Vietnamese hotelier, Pham Van Hien. The flagship property, Anam Cam Ranh, opened in 2017 as the first five-star colonial beach resort in Cam Ranh, located around a three-hour drive north of the Mui Ne property. 

In both resorts the group has made a fine job of meshing local heritage with high-end luxury. At Mui Ne, the resort is filled with artwork, both canvases and sculptures, by local Cham community artists. All of it is for sale, which lends the property something of a gallery feel. 

The Anam Mui Ne review - the picture perfect resort pool

The vast lobby where I’m welcomed with tea and chat with the general manager opens onto a hotel pool which stretches to palm tree-lined hotel lawns that roll eventually to the beach and ocean in the distance. At the far end of the property, just off the beach, is a further pool, surrounded by the neatly kept, grassy lawns. 

Accommodation

I am hosted in the presidential suite no less, a vast suite of rooms with views out to the bobbing kitesurfers. All the accommodation at The Anam Mui Ne is beautifully designed and furnished, the floors spread with the hotel’s signature Indochine-style tiles. Beds are draped with fine Irish cotton linens and bathrooms are fitted with claw-foot tubs and White Company amenities. There’s a variety of configurations, including family-friendly interconnecting rooms. Along with the rooms and suites, there are also seven secluded pool suites situated by the lawns in the hotel’s lush gardens. 

Facilities include two spas, the main venue with an expansive treatment menu and the second, a smaller, beachside venue offering ‘mini treatments’. My favoured spot quickly becomes a sun lounger by the beachside pool, entertained, when I look up from my book, by the charming children of a group of young French families from Ho Chi Minh, dads eagerly waiting for the wind to pick up for an afternoon of kitesurfing, mums shepherding their numerous offspring from children’s club, to pool, to lunch terrace. There are delightful squeals as the youngsters chase each other around the lawns, adorned with the masks they’ve crafted at the morning kids’ club session. The indoor and outdoor kids’ club opens daily for children up to 12 years with a variety of activities, under fours must be accompanied by an adult.

The Anam Mui Ne review - The Indochine restaurant serves a tasty buffet breakfast

A fine buffet breakfast is served at The Indochine restaurant, but my favourite dining spot is the beachside Lang Viet Restaurant & Bar, conjuring delicious lunchtime-light Vietnamese salads, noodles and rolls. I enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail or two at The Saigon bar, which is also just off the beach. Upstairs is a fun games room with table football and ping pong. 

Off-roading

If you’re feeling adventurous, the hotel can arrange trips to the local dunes or a half-day jeep tour covering Mui Ne's main attractions, including the dunes, Bau Trang lake, Fairy Stream and waterfall and Mui Ne fishing village. The beach is great for a stroll or to try your hand at kitesurfing at one of the numerous watersport shacks, but due to the wind it’s not a suitable swimming beach for young children.

All in all, The Anam Mui Ne is ideal for a long weekend. There are so far no firm dates as to the opening of the local airport, but the hotel can arrange transfers from either Ho Chi Minh City or its sister property in Cam Ranh, which I can attest is an extremely smooth journey following the recent opening of an expressway linking Cam Ranh Bay to the south.

My last night was spent enjoying a cocktail in the lobby, gazing out over the pool and ocean as the ever-delightful French children played cards together. There’s nothing like a little old school charm and Anam Mui Ne has it in spades.

How to get there

Fly into Ho Chi Minh and arrange for a hotel pick-up. The drive will take a couple of hours so don't forget ipads for the kids! anammuine.com

Asia Family Traveller was a guest of The Anam Mui Ne. This feature first appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Asia Family Traveller, click here to read.