Six Senses Ninh Van Bay

There is no road to Ninh Van Bay. Guests cross from Nha Trang by the resort's boat, arriving at a sheltered cove hemmed in by jungle-covered mountains and enormous granite boulders that the architects built around rather than removed.

Villas sit on the water, in the rocks, on the hillside or back in the trees, each with a private pool and an open-air bathroom. The Six Senses signature is everywhere: an organic garden that supplies the kitchens, an ice-cream parlour that costs nothing, an observatory, and a spa built for multi-day wellness programmes rather than one-off massages.

Days are deliberately unstructured, with snorkelling on the house reef, rock climbing, kayaking and a resident naturalist to explain the marine park next door.