A Magnificent Season Begins With The LUXURY TRAVEL MAG / This Vietnamese Wellness Resort Thinks Creative Expression Can Improve Your Health / By Kate Symons / luxurytravelmag

Scissors at the ready – I’ve got an hour on the clock and I am about to get lost in a stack of old glossy magazines. The end goal is a collage. A mish-mash of words, pictures and colours that inspire, that reflect my future as I see it.

I am at TIA Wellness Resort, a beachfront gem in Da Nang, Vietnam, where inventiveness is on the menu. Run daily, the resort’s creative workshops were designed by an art therapist and introduced to open possibilities for self-expression and development.

TIA Wellness Resort – Lifestyle

“We realised that a lot of people – they get stuck in their routines,” says TIA general manager, Ramon Imper. “They work from morning to evening, they try to exercise, they try to eat well… but there is one element people are missing, and it’s the element of creating something. It goes back to childhood.”

It certainly does. As a teenager, I would pore over the perfect placement of a new addition to my pinboard and, at the beginning of each school year, I would immerse myself in creating a miniature version on my new school folder. I was building vision boards before they were called vision boards. Why did I stop? Well, as Ramon points out, we get stuck in our routines.

Ray of sunshine

In Vietnam, TIA – which means ‘ray’ in Vietnamese, as in, ‘ray of light’ – has been at the forefront of wellness since it opened in 2008. Then, it was Fusion Maia Da Nang and the first resort in Vietnam to introduce a spa-inclusive concept.

A little more than a decade later, a planned refurbishment became a complete renovation and rebrand thanks to the resort’s pandemic-related closure. TIA emerged in 2021, having only strengthened its standing as a wellness innovator.

Via the rebrand, ‘spa-inclusive’ gave way to a pair of guest programs: wellness inclusive and retreat inclusive. The former is the entry-level program and includes two 80-minute spa treatments per day (one per villa guest), as well as daily wellness practices such as breathwork, yoga, tai chi and creative workshops.

Retreat guests are afforded all this, plus an additional 80-minute master therapy each day and a plant-based meal plan.

TIA Wellness Resort – Create Tour

TIA Wellness Resort – Ocean Bistro

TIA subscribes to the well-worn adage, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”. Colourful and abundant, the morning buffet is proof of that.

“We don’t check what you eat for breakfast,” Ramon explains over our plant-based dinner. “We don’t want to be restrictive. We want to be a resort that can educate people and let people try new things.”

Minutes later, as I tuck into the raw lasagne, with its fresh, flavourful layers of ‘cheese’, sun-dried tomato sauce and avocado, I contemplate converting.

But the dishes aren’t all hits; the Vietnamese raw pho, served for dinner the following evening, lacked substance, and I was quick to grab supper from the minibar when I returned to my villa – all healthy options, naturally.

TIA Wellness Resort – Afternoon Tea

Dive in

Mine is a one-bedroom pool villa – there are also two- and three-bedroom options available. It is a generous space with a luxurious sunken tub and a lush outdoor courtyard. Black mala (prayer) beads are a reoccurring motif throughout the resort. I first admire them on the restaurant’s light fixtures, then incorporated in the staff attire.

In the room, mala beads tie back the four-poster bed canopy and feature in print form on accent cushions.

Given the inclusions, it feels as though I spend as much time in the spa as I do in my room – not that I am complaining. Among my treatments, I enjoy a Himalayan heart stone massage, master reiki therapy, sound healing therapy and a hydro detox treatment.

With its two cold plunges, the latter is a challenge, but wellness comes in many forms and I certainly feel reinvigorated once I am defrosting in a fluffy resort towel.

Meanwhile, my first experience with reiki piques my curiosity. With my eyes covered and very little in the way of physical contact with the practitioner, it does cross my mind that she could be sitting in the corner on her phone, for all I know. When she mentions my upset stomach at the end of the session – information I hadn’t shared – I am intrigued…or at least convinced she wasn’t scrolling Instagram.

TIA Wellness Resort – Wellness Centre

TIA Wellness Resort – Wellness activites

Apart from the sessions that require a ‘master’, guests are treated to the same therapist for spa appointments across their stay. This is a welcome touch. Wellness manager Miss Du is another regular face.

Her instruction throughout yoga, tai chi and breathwork sessions is gentle and knowledgeable; she represents the TIA ethos beautifully.

Says Ramon: “There is a special energy in Vietnam and especially with the Vietnamese people. They have a different approach to life, a different approach to problems. They have a different approach to the past and to the future. They live in the present moment and you really feel that here.”

It’s true, you do. Although living in the past isn’t so bad when there’s a stay at TIA in the memory bank.

TIA Wellness Resort – Wellness Treatment

TIA Wellness Resort – Breath Tour

Hotel Notes

Rates at TIA Wellness Resort start from USD$427 (about AUD$650) for a One Bedroom Pool Villa inclusive of all-day breakfast, an 80-minute wellness treatment per person per night, daily wellness mini-bar offerings (detox water, herbal teas, homemade snacks), and daily wellness activities (yoga, breathwork, tai chi, creative workshops). tiawellnessresort.com

Wellness your way

Thanks to resorts like TIA, wellness travel is burgeoning in Vietnam. Resorts are dotted along the country’s coastline and they are offering wellness packages in increasing numbers.

In Ho Tram, on Vietnam’s southeast coast, Melia Ho Tram Beach Resort is one such establishment. The all-inclusive property invites guests to elevate their stay with either a four- or seven-step wellness package.

A 60-minute body massage, beauty treatment, turn- down wellness ritual (your choice of a face mask, luxe bath, salt stones or cleansing drink) and wellness activities (think yoga tai chi, meditation) await those who opt for the short program.

A detox menu comes into play for those who choose seven steps.

Package or not, there are considered in-room amenities with wellness in mind, too: the Tibetan singing bowl and shungite stones placed just-so at the foot of the bed; the fitness station, including hand weights, resistance bands, kettle bells, and a yoga ball and mat; the vitamin C shower filter; and a bedside amethyst stone, said to relieve stress and strain.

Meanwhile, Melia’s wellness pathway, inspired by the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku (forest bathing), weaves its way throughout the grounds, leading walkers past eight stations including a reading nook (complete with street library), a bird-watching post and the meditation pavilion.

While the wellness packages at Melia are optional, the opportunity to feel well is surely not. With its beautifully manicured gardens, three restaurants, two postcard-perfect resort pools and a beachfront locale, Melia encourages wellness your way. melia.com