Long Beach Resort

+ Wonderful experience !

Long Beach Ancient Village- Phu Quoc Vietnam Jan 19-24, 2008
Just returned from a trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
The Long Beach Ancient Village resort on Phu Quoc exceeded our expectations. It has been in a sort of 'soft opening" mode for a period of time, and we were reluctant to book- even though I was in touch with their very capable manger Christy Gonzalez over a period of months prior to making the reservation through an agent in HCMC(Saigon). The property is very large with 9 beautiful brick/stone buildings and hand carved woods throughout. Several other buildings are being finished.There are many different koi ponds with lilly pads, tea houses, etc. betweeen the present accommodations,that make it feel very much like a village. There were however- never more than 8 guests or so- making it feel very peacful and serene.
Inside the rooms and suites are very spacious with beautiful hand carved wood doors, ceilngs, etc.. All amenities you would expect from a 4-5 star hotel anywhere- but keeping in mind that Phu Quoc is not well known, makes it startling.
The combination of Phillipine,and Vietnamese staff was very appropriate- and the service was really 6 star. No one could do enough for us- and we really felt in good hands. Christy and her
front desk staff( Grace was very kind- and extremely capable) just made the experience wonderful.
As mentioned - it is not complete- Palapas are being completed on the soft , clean sand beach ,where one walks to over a bridge from the beautiful pool ,past hundreds of tall pale pink lotus flowers. All the landscaping was well thought out- and is well cared for.
I could not recommend this property more highly- and when it is completed later this year- I am sure it will be 5 star bright- and full of guests. Hurry and get there now. It's a short inexpensive flight from HCMC- and having seen other 4-5 star properties on the island- it would be a mistake to not go to Long Beach Ancient Village.
Dolores and Wally Bujalski
Victor, New York- USA

+ It's not completed yet !

Due for completion “early 2008” Ancient Village will provide long awaited competition for La Veranda in the five-star category. A change of ownership now sees an extensive upgrade taking place to the front building. The rest of this 111-room development has already taken shape. This seems to be a ‘spare no expense’ project led by some folks who love wood and have an eye for detail. Expensive imported timbers are everywhere, often intricately carved. The wooden tubs in the bathrooms are a triumph. Most of the two-storey development have rooms organised around their own courtyards and tasteful ponds. All this wood makes it a tad dark, and some could argue that this is a little Asia-by-numbers in its styling. Despite confusion over the ”soft opening”, MySherpa is confident that this will be a wonderful place when completed. Apart from everything else, it’s got its own brewery. How can it be bad? MySherpa will definitely be staying as soon as the doors open. |

+ An overpriced building site!

This place is a building site yet rather cynically it's room charges match those of a fully functioning five star resort. Avoid unless you get a substantial discount on their current quoted prices of $160 (which is very high for Vietnam). They will tell you there is no disturbance from building but beware. Unless of course you want to be surrounded by saws and hammering at the pool and beach and have nowhere comfortable to sit. Or if you want to be woken at 5am by building noise. Avoid this construction zone.