Vietnam family resorts offer value and style

Vietnam’s inviting beaches and friendly locals are increasingly luring foreign families to its shores. The Coco Beach Resort (www.cocobeach.net ) quite rightly describes its wide beach with soft sand as its “biggest playground for kids”, but there’s also a constructed version with swings, seesaw, slide and climbing ladder, and a wading pool for tiny tots. A kids playground, table tennis, and football are also nearby. The resort is in Mui Ne (near Phan Thiet) a couple of hours drive from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

All of Coco Beach’s rooms are bungalows or two-bedroom villas on stilts. Protection nets are available to keep the balconies safe. Nice touch. In the villas, each bedroom has its own bathroom, and there’s a living room and big terrace with sofa and armchairs to wallow in. Staff will gladly wash and sterilise baby bottles and heat up baby food. Family meals are easy at the Paradise Beach Club restaurant, where kids can play on the beach once they’ve eaten (there’s a kiddies’ menu) while parents linger, watching them from the table. Babysitters speak only Vietnamese (around US$2 per hour). The refurbished rooms are unpretentious and charmingly rustic. If that's to your taste, you'll love this unfussy beach set-up.