Everyone knows about Vietnam’s most popular beach spots along the coast – Mui Ne, Nha Trang, Hoi An and Da Nang are routinely featured on travel sites from around the world and are part of most standard trips in the country.
Along with Phu Quoc, they are the go-to escapes for many visitors, both from overseas and people living within Vietnam.
As a result these locations can get very busy, and mass-scale resort development is completely transforming areas like the coastal strip between Da Nang and Hoi An or Phu Quoc’s west coast.
Ho Tram, with its 14 kilometers of powdery white-sand beach just north of Vung Tau, offers something of a reprieve from the crowds. There are a handful of large developments already in place, and several more on the way, but this strip still feels more like a sleepy fishing village than a bustling tourism boomtown.
“Ho Tram will become the foremost resort destination for weekenders from Ho Chi Minh City, with a variety of projects at different price points under way,” Timo Schmidt, head of International Residential Sales and Leasing at Savills HCMC, predicted in October of last year.
An aerial view of the fast-developing Ho Tram strip. Sanctuary sits front and center.
Sanctuary Residential Resort Community, which now features two phases of luxurious beachfront and riverfront villas, set the standard for Ho Tram. Its first batch of houses has been around for nearly a decade, and brought attention to the area as a high-end weekend getaway.
As Sanctuary prepares to complete its second phase with 16 final villas, the developer acknowledges the necessity of other exciting venues and destinations within close proximity to really get the right amount of attention on the strip.
“The most important thing for us is for the strip to flourish,” says John Manning, the developer of Sanctuary. “No one wants to be an isolated development because there isn’t much for residents to do other than just be here. Starting this year, we’re seeing more projects come out of the ground and finally get started; we’re excited for the future.”
And develop, it will. The Grand Ho Tram Strip, the first integrated resort in the region, raised Ho Tram’s profile even further thanks to its international-standard design and casino. Presently it offers guests nearly 600 hotel rooms, 90 tables and over 600 slot machines, with plans to expand already in the works.
Ho Tram's sunsets will light up your social media posts!
To that end, it is expected that the Vietnamese government will allow Vietnamese citizens to gamble at The Grand in the near future, creating further incentive for locals to head to Ho Tram.
This goes without mentioning the award-winning 18-hole Bluffs golf course across the street. The par-71 championship links-style course was designed by Greg Norman and is Golf Digest’s 74th best golf course in the world.
The combination of high-end living at Sanctuary – wherein each villa has a private pool and the community shares a gourmet restaurant, tennis courts and children’s play areas – along with golf, gambling and water-based activities like kayaking and surfing has already turned Ho Tram into an enviable destination, but more is on the way.
In addition to a number of villa projects at various price points, Club Med, the global all-inclusive holiday brand, announced in October plans to open Club Med Ho Tram in 2021. According to the company’s website, this new property will feature 300 rooms, numerous restaurants and bars, a Children’s Club and over 30 activities such as a flying trapeze, archery, water sports and yoga.
In the next few years all of these unique properties will go a long way towards establishing Ho Tram as one of Vietnam’s premier destinations. However, anyone looking to get in on the fun now to be perfectly placed to take advantage of this rising hotspot can join the Sanctuary Villas community today.
