All Aboard the Rolling Palace

The Vietage by Anantara is a luxurious train experience that transforms a Vietnam rail journey into something cinematic, with cocktails, coastline and a soothing massage at 40 mph.

BY ANDY HILL

The Vietage by Anantara

Striding briskly along the platform at Da Nang station to catch my 8am train, it occurs to me that not one of the early commutes I routinely endure back home has ever come close to this in terms of sheer romance or style. Sure, the Vietnamese climate helps. More to the point, never once in the UK has a handsomely liveried attendant greeted me with the tantalising offer of a stiff drink.

To be clear, The Vietage by Anantara is not an entire train. It is an exceptionally luxurious carriage coupled to the rear of the Reunification Express, the storied north-south service that winds its way along the spine of Vietnam from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. Conceived and operated by Anantara Hotels & Resorts, it’s the exclusive railway excursion against which all others ought to be judged: a chic, slow-travel connection between the brand’s two central-coast resorts. One carriage departs in the morning from Da Nang to Quy Nhon and then on to Nha Trang, with a second carriage following the route in the opposite direction, setting off in the afternoon. Either way, it is considered one of the most scenic stretches of railway in Southeast Asia.

A private booth aboard The Vietage by Anantara

Inside, a dozen passengers settle into six private booths separated by curved cane-webbing screens. Each compartment is tastefully dressed in pale linen and earth-toned upholstery, the aesthetic pitched somewhere between Art Deco and high-end contemporary. There’s a black marble bar, leather stools and a treatment room offering a neck and shoulder massage. There is also a sense, as we glide into deep countryside, of stepping back in time to a more gracious age.

Documenting the beauty of Vietnam from The Vietage by Anantara

As an iced coffee arrives in a cut-glass tumbler, from the window Vietnam reveals itself in painterly vignettes: rice paddies backlit by pale sunshine, water buffalo with their egrets, and schoolchildren waving from crossings. It is a more civilised way to travel than the cramped fuselage of a jet and it has a lighter footprint.

Cocktail time aboard The Vietage by Anantara

There is a sense, as we glide into deep countryside, of stepping back in time

Later, I perch on a stool at the bar. Mr Binh, one of the hosts, recommends a Tropical Mule from the signature cocktail list – mandarin vodka, coconut liqueur and fresh fruit juice over ice. “We go slowly,” he says, polishing a glass. “That’s the point.” He tells me some guests nap, others write. Opposite me, a woman is sketching in her notebook.

Beachside luxury at Anantara Quy Nhon Villas

The view keeps shifting: bamboo bridges, lotus ponds, sugar palms. At one point, we pass a Cao Dai temple painted a luminous pink and I half expect the monks to wave. Lunch arrives on time at my booth: a seafood salad with green papaya and grilled prawns, followed by Hoi An chicken rice, then strawberries with coconut yoghurt. The menu, I’m told, was devised by a chef with a Michelin-starred background – each dish light, elegant and paced to match the journey. There’s wine, naturally. I resist a second cocktail… for now.

By late afternoon, we roll somewhat tipsily into Quy Nhon. A driver from Anantara Quy Nhon Villas whisks me to a glass-fronted suite overlooking a private cove. Later, I’ll visit Avani Quy Nhon Resort, just down the coast, where peach-coloured cliffs rise behind the pool. That evening, bobbing in the water, I think of the train and the refreshing, priceless luxury of a journey unhurried by time.

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