Celebrating Lunar New Year At Luxury Destinations Across Asia

2026 is the Year of the Horse, and a fun-filled festival across many countries in Asia. Here is a compilation of hotel and resort options offering a little something special on Feb. 17 as they mark Chinese New Year and Tet in Vietnam.

Valentine’s Venues in Hong Kong & SouthEast Asia

Fine Dining Accompanied by Live Pianist

The Anam Cam Ranh and The Anam Mui Ne will each host remarkable dining experiences to mark Valentine’s Day this year. The Anam Cam Ranh’s fine-dining restaurant The Colonial will serve a seven-course set tasting menu, accompanied by a live pianist, from 7-10pm, Highlights include ‘Satsuma Wagyu A4 tenderloin with multicolour beetroots, butternut squash, XO condiment and caviar’ and ‘Apple terrine with hibiscus ice cream, macaron crumble and caramelised sauce’. The Anam Mui Ne, meanwhile, will host a romantic buffet experience for couples at their own outdoor table by The Indochine Restaurant’s waterfall. The feast includes a surf and turf buffet for two, one lobster each, one bottle of rosé wine, and a specially plated dessert set for two.

The Most Enchanting Hotel Gardens in Asia

Asia’s most enchanting hotel gardens combine lush landscaping, cultural heritage, and innovative design, offering guests tranquil escapes in both urban and resort settings.

The Art Gallery Hotels of Asia

We’ve put together a round-up of Hotels as Art Galleries. From supporting pottery art included in the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding to giant abstract interpretations of iconic cultural landmarks to a hotel art tour by a practising artist who also happens to work for the hotel’s restaurant services team… each hotel has a different take on engaging art lovers.

Asia's Best Historical Excursions

Highlights from Vietnam’s Former Imperial Capital

Azerai La Residence, Hue, a historic luxury hotel overlooking the fabled Perfume River in central Vietnam, offers several ways to explore the area’s rich history, including UNESCO World Heritage sites. The hotel’s most popular “Full Day in Hue” tour begins with a leisurely boat ride on the river to Thien Mu Pagoda, a seven-story tower built in 1601 that stands today as an unofficial symbol of Hue. The excursion continues by private car to the Imperial Citadel where the Nguyen dynasty ruled between 1802 and 1945. In the afternoon, guests visit the tomb of Emperor Gia Long, the resting place of the first Nguyen Emperor, and Khai Dinh’s Tomb, which features traditional Vietnamese in design with European flourishes, making it unique from other tombs in Hue. Some guests opt to end the day with a royal dinner inside the Imperial City at the Royal Theater of Vietnam.

Halong Bay: Vietnam's UNESCO jewel

Halong Bay, a mystical seascape of limestone pillars and emerald waters, is Vietnam’s jewel and a place that feels both otherworldly and intimately tied to the rhythms of nature and history.

The Anam Cam Ranh: Grounds for a Glorious Resort

Traveloscopy regular correspondent, John Savage, compares his green thumb to that of Vietnam's first five-star colonial beach resort. Our verdict is in. 

How many gardeners does it take to ensure the 12 hectares of gardens, grounds and lawns surrounding the stunning five-star The Anam in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Peninsula remain pristine?

On the streets of Hanoi

Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, is a city where ancient history and modern development exist in an intricate dance, each step revealing layers of culture, conflict, and resilience. Rudi Romero paces the ancient streets.

In true Louis Theroux fashion, my journey through Hanoi was a deep dive into a city that feels both timeless and rapidly evolving, a place where the past and the present converge in fascinating ways.

Glimpses of old Saigon

Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as it's officially known, is a city of contradictions. It is a place where the weight of history and the pulse of modernity coalesce in a vibrant tapestry of culture, commerce, and chaos. Rudi Romero explores the ancient metropolis dreaming of past times.

Images: Roderick Eime  || Main Image: Đào Minh Tự/Pexels

My journey to this captivating metropolis was like stepping into a Louis Theroux documentary—a deep dive into the eclectic blend of the past and the present that defines this urban sprawl.

History of Ho Chi Minh City's famous Hotel, Caravelle Saigon

Like so much of the former French Indochina, there are many stories of days gone by. Here in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City is arguably its most famous hotel, the Caravelle.

In the early 1950s, when the colons were still running the show and Saigon was still very much a French concern, two entrepreneurs, Monsieurs Antonin Emery and Marius Mallein, set out to build the tallest, most luxurious and modern hotel the city had ever seen. Indochina was booming, and demand for upscale accommodation was on the rise.

Quang Ninh, Vietnam - The land of heritage

World renowned for Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site, Quang Ninh now is increasingly recognized by domestic and international tourists as a year-round destination, thanks to diverse experiences and strategic investments by major private enterprises like Sun Group.

Bao Hai Linh Thong Tu in Sun World Ha Long

Mekong River Under Threat

 The Mekong River is the twelfth-longest river in the world and the third-longest in Asia, with an estimated length of 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and a drainage area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually. From its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau, the river runs through (where it is officially called the Lancang River), Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult.

A VIETNAM TOUR FOR EVERYONE

FROM bustling energetic cities, to river villages and hillside treks to seaside towns, Wendy Wu Tours will have a holiday in Vietnam to suit your every need.

MEMOIRS OF THE CARAVELLE

The Caravelle Hotel today

The names of very few hotels evoke such fond, romantic images, and indeed such anticipation, as The Caravelle. Its breezy sound recalls its inspiration: the Iberian caravelas, or as the French called them, caravelles fast, light 15th-century sailing ships that explored the world in search of foreign trade, adventure and new horizons.