The Nam Hai

Super-cool designer villas on the palm-fringed sands of White China Beach

OK, so you need a healthy bank account to check in here, but the wildly swanky villas are temples of contemporary cool, making this a slice of paradise on the silky sands of White China Beach. The Nam Hai is a design hotel, a fact you will acknowledge within 30 seconds of arrival as the view from reception shows a half-kilometre avenue of swimming pools and reflecting ponds tumbling down to the sea. Restaurants and bars overlook it all, and a line of high palm trees flank the last pool like a platoon of soldiers standing to attention.

Summon a porter and you'll be whisked off to your wonderland villa. Some have their own pools, all open onto a horseshoe of sand that runs down to the South China Sea. Inside you find effortless elegance: showers in private gardens, deep eggshell baths, super-cool tented beds on raised platforms, a wall of glass that opens onto a private terrace. Hoi An and My Son are both close, so try as hard as you can to prise yourself away. There’s a spa that appears to be floating in the water, too.

Highs

• The villas are the last word in shipwreck chic
• The infinity swimming pool overlooking the ocean is hard to beat, as are the private pools belonging to each Pool Villa
• Hoi An (a quaint town with world-class tailoring and a beautiful French quarter) and My Son (the former capital of the Champa Kingdom) are divine. Both are UNESCO sites
• There's 1 km of private beach on your doorstep

Lows

• People tend to cocoon themselves in their villas; this isn’t the most social place
• You're 10km from Hoi An, but there’s a free shuttle bus to help you get there
• The rainy season overlaps with Christmas
• It's shockingly expensive but if you can afford it, you won't regret it