4. Vietnam resorts around Nha Trang, Ninh Van Bay

Nha Trang is a short flight south of Danang on a Vietnam Airlines A320. The airport is tight with carry-on baggage so be careful with your art purchases and hand-carry items. Foreigners are usually left alone, airport staff venting their ire instead on hapless Vietnamese travellers. The town actually looks like a seaside resort with a long breezy marine drive dotted with palm trees. There are public beach areas with nice thatch-palm umbrellas and endless views.

En route to Nha Trang is the spread out Diamond Bay Resort & Spa, a collection of bungalows and low-rise blocks with hotel-style rooms and free Wi-Fi. The semi-detached bungalows are neat but not upscale.

The Miss Universe contestants have passed through and, capitalising on this, the bungalows are each named after a world beauty. I got to meet Miss Mauritius who turned out to be something of a plain Jane.

There are two to four bungalows per unit with a shared porch. Inside 61sq m rooms find red ceramic tile floors, a TV, a notebook-size safe, a sunken bathtub and shower set below a skylight.

The 37sq m hotel rooms are contemporary with multi-pin electric sockets, a work desk, bathtub with shower, safe, and a balcony looking onto trees and hills.

It’s neat but underwhelming, especially as there is no great reason to stop here. The resort lacks a natural beach though it offers a blazing artificial white sand stretch with kayaks and a huge sunny pool. Its main claim to fame is the 18-hole golf course, the first in this area. There is a driving range too.

Nha Trang is a bit like the Pattaya of yore, minus the sleaze, the drug-laced transvestite nipples, the sanitation problems, the crime, the bars, the neon and badgering trinket vendors.Diving is popular, if unexceptional, in Nha Trang and, spa treatment. There is some amount of commerce in town though much of this bustle is around the big shipyards near Cam Ranh Bay.

One of the biggest and flashiest hotels on the Vietnam beach scene is the 485-room Vinpearl Resort & Spa megaresort. Cable-cars dangling from high wires cross to the private island with its amusement park and rides while the resort runs fast boat ferries at regular intervals from a dedicated pier. It takes 10 minutes to cross. This humongous all-in-one playground boasts a 600-guest Grand Ballroom, bars, nightclub, vast swimming pools, spa, marina, tennis and diving. The resort complex is on a grand scale. The place may not appeal to all tastes but as an all-inclusive, private, Club-Med-meets-Universal-Studios sort of escape, it will find its fans.

From the Vinpearl jetty on the island, a trolley bus carts you up a low hill and down the other side to the resort itself, set in two wings – the Deluxe Building and the Executive Building (with larger rooms and more classic upscale facilities). Both five-storey wings look onto the 5,700sq m free-form swimming pool. On the far side is a bar and cafe area with chairs on a timber deck below which is an arcing beach within a small bay.

The Deluxe Room is spacious enough with wooden floors, a sitting area with sofa and two chairs, a writing desk, WiFi and Broadband, and a white-linen bed with cream runner. In the bathroom is a tub, a separate shower cubicle and a separate spare toilet. Expect coffee and tea-making facilities and a HUGE safe. There is the Vincharm Spa on site to take care of any muscle distress, a kids’ club for smaller guests, luxury shopping, and water sports and beach games from archery and billiards to cycling, diving, aerobics, gym, snorkelling and parasailing. This is a popular MICE venue and Vietnam conference hotel given its secluded location and range of facilities but it is also a family-friendly resort with lots of fun activities for children.

Heightening senses as well as buoying prices is the wonderful Evason Ana Mandara & Six Senses Spa. As would be expected, this beautiful garden property features aSix Senses Spa set in its own private enclave at one end of the property. There are treatment rooms for couples with sunken Jacuzzis. Choose a package or go a la carte. If you're not warm enough by the beach, head for the sauna and herbal steam, then ponder the spelling and pronunciation of words like kinesiology. The spa is airy and bright with pleasing garden features.

One of the best Nha Trang resorts by a mile, Evason occupies a prime stretch of beach. Unlike its competitors, it is set on the beach side of the road with a tall hedgerow “curtain” to shield guests from prying eyes. Ana Mandara runs long rather than deep, along the promenade drive – with a hilly backdrop – making it a brief skip from villa to beach. The cottages are roomy, the largest being the 65sq m Beachfront Ana Mandara Suite with private walled garden and four-poster bed.

Expect a flat-screen TV, DVD player, gauzy mosquito net, wooden furniture, almirah, work desk with two multi-pin electrical sockets, a bathtub with a window looking onto garden and free WiFi. Villa bathrooms have been extended to include sunken bathtubs with rain showers and twin vanities featuring beaten silver metal wash bowls.

The complex has two swimming pools (one deep enough for diving lessons), tennis courts and a super romantic dining spot on a wooden jetty, right above the sea. Sort out your "I dos" here under a full moon.

Its top-drawer sibling Six Senses Ninh Van Bay is on a neighbouring island, a 15-minute boat ride from a jetty up the coast. This resort features just 58 pool villas looking onto an arcing bay and pristine sand. This is rustic chic at its best with good use of natural wood to create villa designs in harmony with nature.

Expect lots of hand-tooled wood displaying various shades and grain, thatch roofs, timber floors, bamboo four posters and white netting, extensive latticework screens to keep out excessive sun but let in the sea breezes, wooden bathtubs, open-view verandahs, driftwood tables and sensuously sculpted swimming pools perched on promontories. This is a honeymoon idyll with service, style and a great spa. Mark this down. It is indeed one of the best Vietnam luxury resorts. And it will humble your wallet with a US$600-plus price tag.

New kid on the block is the 279-room InterContinental Nha Trang (15 March 2014), a contemporary construct with plenty of natural light splashing across cool stone interiors and grey cubist rock-cut sculptures and tables. Rooms are spacious, airy and bright with lively blue bed runners offsetting cool flat-tone pastel interiors. Find a patterned carpet and silver-grey cushions atop a plump white bed facing a humungous flat-screen television. Breezy balconies serve up uninterrupted - and very welcome - views of Nha Trang Bay.

Expect an iron and ironing board, fast internet access, a DVD player, a work desk (with adapter plugs) and a soaking tub to end, or start, the day. For small corporate meetings and the like there are seven function rooms with 11,895sq m of event space. As with other hotels on the Nha Trang strip, you need to cross the main road to access the sand.

Opened mid-March 2010, the 280-room Sheraton Nha Trang Hotel & Spa is a modern high-rise construct with some attractive features not least of all the stunning sixth floor infinity pool that sails off into the blue horizon with its sunken loungers catching the best of the midday sun. This is a breezy and panoramic setting for tanning or reading a good book. You’ll be blown away.

Literally. Hold on for dear life if the wind is up. A kids’ club caters for typhoon tykes leaving adults unencumbered to enjoy Shine Spa and its nine treatment rooms guilt-free.

For meeting planners and business travellers there is 1,600sq m of function space while the Sheraton Club floors offer access to the Club Lounge. The 33sq m Club Ocean View Rooms with pale mustard-yellow walls are minimalist, spacious, bright and welcoming in an understated way. A cheeky glass partition looks onto the bathtub while at the other end of the room light spills in from a triangular balcony where spectacular views can be had. There is a long working desk with multi-pin sockets, a 37-inch flat-screen television, and a laptop-size safe.

Expect an iron and ironing board too in the sliding-door cabinet. Unlike at most resorts on the block, WiFi or Broadband here will set you back US$12 per day but as partial compensation, the high-ceiling beige marble lobby offers Link@Sheraton work stations with complimentary Internet access.

And to get that grey matter working, the Connexions bar (leading to the beach street) serves up martinis by the litre. This is a contemporary address, not out of the ordinary, but it succeeds at making a bright statement without unduly contorting its hotel chassis to do the hula. This high-rise works.

The five-star Sunrise Beach Nha Trang Beach Hotel & Spa on the tree-lined esplanade overlooking Nha Trang Bay has 120 guestrooms and suites. Close to the beach and in the heart of the city, the resort is conveniently located a 40-minute drive from Cam Ranh Airport. Done up in faux-colonial style, the hotel is surprisingly pleasant with service to match. There is an annexe as well.

Deluxe Rooms offer carpet underfoot for a change, a balcony with massive sea views and a Jacuzzi for some configurations, hair dryer, boxy TV alas, a compact bathing area with just a glass shower cubicle, classical silk lampshades, a small desk with mirror and free Wi-Fi and Broadband. This is perhaps a Nha Trang specialty but the in-room safe is of micro proportions.

No getting large electronic equipment into this box. Wraparound views from the 10th floor Sky Lounge are terrific and you can sit in deep chairs by the breezy balcony perusing the circular pool below – ringed by Roman columns for some reason. There is a beauty salon and spa and the hotel can rustle up meetings for up to 150 guests. An interesting choice if you prefer a functional modern beach hotel to a villa.

The four-star Hotel Novotel Nha Trang takes a stab at contemporary chic but doesn’t entirely succeed. It is housed in a compact high-rise along the marine drive, set away from the beach like the rest. It is neat nevertheless and the rooms are smart with purple cushions and sea-facing balconies with flat-screen TVs and complimentary Internet. There are iMac stations in the lobby should you have forgotten your laptop.

For those on a tighter budget, the 201-room Yasaka Saigon Nhatrang Resort Hotel & Spa is a stone's throw away, also on the marine drive. Here hotel-style rooms with overly ornate interiors run at around US$75 a night with huge discounts off season. If it's raining, bargain, bargain, bargain. Another good value and fairly cheap Nha Trang hotel is the Nha Trang Lodge Hotel with standard and superior rooms in twin or queen configurations. Plain but clean and uncluttered and with floral bedspreads and large box TV sets to make you feel at home. For some food action try the stylish Sailing Club Nha Trang (Tel: [84-58] 352-4628, www.sailingclubvietnam.com) that transforms from restaurant to beach bar to nightclub depending on the time of day.

A 60-minute drive north from Nha Trang on the beach at Ninh Phuoc Village are the lowrise tile roofs and brick-wall rooms of the Wild Beach resort & Spa all set into the hillside. The style is rustic, if not blotto wet and wild, and there is ample stretch space over 70 acres of garden. The resort is sited on a long strip of white sand. This is an informal hangout with beach volleyball, biking, snorkelling, jogging and kayaking.

On Ninh Van Bay's scenic coast with its rocky outcroppings, a deliciously stylish and disarmingly rustic-chic retreat from An Lam Villas Ninh Van Bay. A range of cottages work their way down the slope to the beach and a timbered patio deck hosting a pool with breezy sea views. A thatch-roof Lagoon Villa serves up a living room and lounge opening onto a lagoon deck with plunge pool. Expect WiFi, mini-bar, in-room safe, hairdryer, aircon in the bedroom, and open views. There are 35 villas in all with smaller units facing the hill and three larger An Lam Lagoon Villas with rich wood finish, large glass window frontage and neat interiors. No dearth of activities here. Start with scuba diving and snorkelling and move on to to the resort spa for a range of wellness workouts. A well regarded stylish and contemporary escape, a tad pricey from about US$255 up depending on unit size.

The four-hour drive from Nha Trang to Phan Thiet is on an excellent two-lane highway with little traffic, hard shoulders and smooth black-top all the way. The countryside erupts in unbelievable shades of green during the rains.

The road passes paddy fields, quaint farmhouses, cows, dogs, chickens, geese and the ubiquitous policemen who specialise in setting sudden speed traps for unwary motorists. This makes progress unpredictable, if adventurous. At many places there is not a road sign to be seen for miles yet "tea money" is being earned by the bushel by hard-working men in uniform.

About a half hour south of Cam Ranh, the hills recede, yielding views of vast golden fields and patchwork green. This really is a lovely drive. You won't be behind the wheel as foreigners aren't really encouraged to wander the roads so sit back and take it all in. Make sure the driving is during daylight hours as nightfall significantly increases your chances of meeting chickens (and a procession of beasts, humans and vehicles) that suddenly decide to cross the road. The Nha Trang area has some of the better beaches of Vietnam though the sand is sometimes a touch more coarse than at Phan Thiet and Mui Ne.