Review of the Phuong Nam Hotel, Sapa

The Phuong Nam Hotel is a popular hotel in the Vietnamese town of Sapa. From the rear of the hotel guests have fantastic views of Fansipan Mountain, which at 3,143 metres is the highest peak in the Indo-China region. Sapa is very popular town with tourists and the price of this hotel reflects this. The basic rooms without windows are still more expensive than much better rooms in other parts of Vietnam. Nonetheless, by Sapa standards, the Phuong Nam Hotel represents good value for money.

Good points about the Phuong Nam Hotel

The best feature of the Phuong Nam Hotel is its location. As well as being in the part of Sapa overlooking the rice terraces and the mountain, the hotel is in an area which has lots of bars and restaurants. The hotel is also located on the road which leads to the popular walk to Cat Cat Village.

The Phuong Nam Hotel offers guests a fairly good standard of accommodation. The rooms and facilities are well maintained. The service is efficient if a little ‘abrupt’. This is a very popular hotel, particularly with Vietnamese tourists, and the way the staff treat guests reflects this.

The Phuong Nam Hotel delivers views and a decent standard of accommodation and catering, and is located in a good spot. You may not fall in love with this hotel but you won’t be disappointed either. If you do decide to stay we recommend that you spend a bit more money and book one of the more expensive rooms with a view. The hotel has many terraces where you can sit and enjoy the views, but its not the same as seeing the mountain from your room or better from your own private balcony.

Rooms at the Phuong Nam Hotel

I stayed in a standard double room, which was 18 sqm and had no window. The room was alright and there was a shared terrace with great views about 15 metres away from the entrance door.

The room furnishings were all very new looking. The hotel has been recently renovated (2017). The room had all the amenities you would associate with a 3 star hotel: minibar, free WiFi (slow) and satellite TV with English language channels. The bed was acceptably comfortable but a little narrow for a double bed, indeed the room was a little narrow for a double room.

The bathroom was decoratively very nice, but a little bit cramped. The closeness of the shower to the toilet meant that after you take a shower the whole bathroom stays wet for a while afterwards. Not a big problem, just not great.

Facilities at the Phuong Nam Hotel

The Phuong Nam Hotel has a popular late night bar downstairs next door to the front entrance. The bar attracts a lot of non-residents and plays loud music at night. The rooms are some distance away from the bar and you wouldn’t realise it was there unless you decided to visit in the evening for a drink. They serve food in the bar as well if you don’t feel like walking 100 metres to better place to eat.

Inside the hotel there is another dining room where they serve a buffet breakfast. The buffet breakfast is what is normally described as ‘Asian’ which means that it features a range of rice and noodle dishes, salad, fruit, tea, coffee, juice, bread, and a few Western style breakfast items like pancakes, fried eggs and ham. Its not great but included in the room price its sufficiently good to fill you up first thing in the morning if you adopt the approach of trying a little bit of everything. The fried rice is the best quality item in the buffet.

The best facilities at the Phuong Nam Hotel are the terraces and the roof top cafe area. The hotel offers lots of places to sit outside and enjoy the view. This is the thing that the Phuong Nam Hotel excels at and the main reason why most people choose to book a room there. You get as good a view of the mountain from this hotel as you would from others which are a lot more expensive.

Location of the Phuong Nam Hotel