Merperle Resort, Hon Tam Nha Trang
When I think about South East Asia, I picture beautiful islands with turquoise water and soft sandy beaches. Hon Tam had all that and an amazing resort with a private beach and watersports to enjoy. If you are looking for affordable luxury on a private island, this should be on your to do list in Nha Trang!
Transportation
Hon Tam in Vietnamese means Tam Island. From Nha Trang city, we took a grab to Hon Tam Pier, which took 10 minutes and around 80-90k VND, approximately 4-5 USD. With the rapid escalation of Corona-19 virus spreadinig worldwide, we wore masks whenever we were in crowded places. It can get irritating especially when it’s so hot, but safety comes first in any situation. From Hon Tam pier, we walked into Merperle Resort’s reception and bought our daily sea tour package. They had two options-mud spa package and sea tour pacakge. We were not into trying mud spa as it may be crowded with people where diseases can spread quickly. Hence we went for the sea tour package that included boat transfers to and from Hon Tam, lunch buffet, fruit buffet, access to all resort facilities-outdoor swimming pool, sunbeds, canoes, private beach, gym, restaurant, bars, lockers-from 9AM to 4PM. Because of the virus outbreak, their dance shows were cancelled, which was understandable. This package was 560k VND per head, which is only 24 USD. Extremely cheap! For what you get, I think there isn’t a better deal than this. Most tour packages on Klook or other online websites start from at least 35 USD for a snorkeling tour on a wooden boat, couple hours at the resort, couple hours at another island, etc. But for us spending the whole day at Merperle Hon Tam went by so quick that we wouldn’t have traded it for a busy tour hopping from one island to another.
Things to do
Once we arrived at the jetty, there was a staff from the resort who showed us around the island. He explained where our lunch and snack areas will be, the timings for everything and what we can use for free. The lockers were free with a 100k VND deposit, towels weren’t free-200k VND each (which is too expensive in my opinion)! We didn’t bring our own towels but we also didn’t want to pay for them. So we went to the beach area without renting our towels but the staff there was handing them out for free-how weird! There were millions of photo spots around the resort, and we took a good hour taking pictures here and there. It was so fun just discovering all the cute displays along the beach and absorbing in as much sun as possible.
Too tired of taking pictures? Change into your bikinis and go for a cold swim in this massive swimming pool! There were pretty sunbeds and lounging areas around the pool if you prefer chilling by the poolside. But after a hot photo session we were down for a swim. There was a small jacuzzi next to the pool but we didn’t go in. By far I think this was the biggest swimming pool I’ve seen at a resort that does not have a waterpark. We were the only Asians at the resort except for one or two Vietnamese familes and the rest were Russians. There were Russian boys diving into the pool and girls tanning on the sunbeds, families hanging out by the kiddie pool…it felt more like being in Russia with Vietnamese staff than in Vietnam with Russian guests.
The long private beach was only steps away from the swimming pool, starting from the jetty to all around the island then back to the main jetty. The colors were vibrant and blue, just as I imagined it to be. I couldn’t help but to run into the water and return to that sandy toes, tiny bikinis island life all over again. The sun was hitting me from different angles and I felt nothing but happiness running like a kid on this beautiful beach. We found two empty sunbeds closest to the water and had a long, peaceful tanning session. Again there were only Russians on the beach, but maybe in a different time I assume there could be more Chinese, Koreans or Vietnamese.
To be honest, lunch wasn’t impressive. There weren’t as many options for seafood as the website promised and there were too many hungry Russian families diving for food whenever new plates came in. As much was we were disappointed in lunch, the fruit buffet was also not up to our expectations. There were only three options, although tasty, we were looking forward to various tropical fruits not just three. Maybe calling it a ‘buffet’ was a bit deceiving, but I guess paying 24 USD for all this probably gave it away. Despite the lack of food, we had a blast on the island. After the fruit buffet, we went for jet ski and spent a good 30 minutes driving around Hon Tam. Driving over the waves in that speed gave me thrills and the fact that I could finally drive on my own without someone coaching me made it even more exciting. Renting one jet ski for 15 minutes (2 pax maximum) was 600k VND (25 USD) and parasailing for 2 pax was 1million VND. We originally wanted to go parasailing but it was too windy for that.
Summary
If I ever go back to Nha Trang, I would definitely visit Merperle Hon Tam again. Because of the food I wouldn’t stay for a night but I would do the day visit for sure. I already miss the blissful sensation on the peaceful island. Highly recommend it to those who are staying in Nha Trang city for a couple of nights and are looking for some island resort experience.
-Transportation
Grab: 80-90k from Nha Trang city, 10 minutes per way
Private pick up service: currently unavailable from Merperle Resort
No public transportation
Speed boat: included in the day tour package, 10 minutes per way
-Things to do
Private beach
Kayaking
Jet ski (600k VND/jet ski/15 minutes)
Parasailing (1 million VND/2 people)
Lunch & Fruit buffet
Swimming pool
*conversion rate: 10k VND to 0.4 USD approximately
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