Emeralda Resort Ninh Binh

I liked the size of the resort and the ability to ride bikes all over the place. The kids loved that about the hotel. I also liked that it had a heated indoor pool since we were there in January.

The hotel was the most expensive of the places we stayed in Vietnam -- and our room was nice, clean and very comfortable (best beds in Vietnam!) -- but it was not a 5-star hotel, which is fine except it advertises as one and charges as one. I'm sure 20 years ago it was incredible, but the hotel is in big need of updates and maintenance. All the buildings need to be pressured washed and painted. The bikes that you rent are all very old and rusty. On a family bike ride the pedal on my daughter's bike just fell off and could not be repaired so we all had to push it back, a couple of miles, to the resort. Made it an adventure, but still . . . . There was one place to eat breakfast (which was quite good and diverse), but only one other place to eat lunch/dinner. It was okay for a day or two, but we were there for 4 days, 2 days too long, and we needed more options. Unfortunately, the location of the resort makes it hard to eat elsewhere. We also "lost" a few hundred dollars in dong from my husband's wallet. We suspect it happened when we were at the spa, but who knows. Overall, we had a good visit, but the hotel is priced well above the quality. It was not value for the money, in our opinion, but there didn't seem to be many alternatives.