Tet celebrations taking place around Vietnam
A Tet experience is readily available at hotels and resorts around the country.
A Tet Village Rings in the Year of the Cat
Family resort Alma will welcome the Lunar New Year with a six-day program jampacked with merriment, including a Tet Village that will host an array of traditional games and competitions. From Lunar New Year’s Eve, Saturday January 21, until Thursday January 26, Alma will host all sorts of festivities, including buffet dinners, dragon dances, making lucky envelopes, smashing lucky balloons, and cupcake-making and decorating classes.
On the first day of Tet, Sunday January 22, until January 26, the resort’s Tet celebrations will be anchored by a lantern-adorned Tet Village at the Alma Food Court that comes to life from 9am to 6pm daily with huts brimming with traditional snacks and drinks.
The village’s line-up of traditional activities includes picking lucky envelopes, calligraphy, stilt walking, and the “bamboo dance” folk dance, with participants tapping and sliding bamboo poles on the ground while dancers step over and in between them. Competitions include “smash the watermelon”, where blindfolded participants, after being made to spin around, try to hit and break ripe watermelons with a bamboo stick at the direction of the crowd. To contact Alma or to make a booking, please visit alma-resort.com, call +84 258 399 1666, or email info@alma-resort.com.
Smorgasbord of Dining Experiences on Ho Tram Beach
The Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort will celebrate the Lunar New Year with a smorgasbord of vibrant dining experiences, traditional Tet merriment, and outdoor pursuits to foster quality family time. Perched on Ho Tram Beach, an easy commute from Ho Chi Minh City, the resort’s Tet program from January 18-28 is packed with indulgent buffets and a la carte menus, beach bonfires with marshmallow roasts, outdoor cinema nights, kayak racing, lion dancing, calligraphy presenting, lantern floating, morning excursions to Truc Lam Chan Nguyen “Monkey’s Temple”, and more.
Ho Breeza Beach Club will host its vibrant “Ho Tram Seafood Market” to a backdrop of live chill-out music on Lunar New Year’s Eve, January 21, and January 28. Crabs, squid, grouper, snapper, shrimp, mussels, snails, clams, and scallops caught from local waters that day will be presented in large bamboo baskets. Anchored with fresh seafood, local specialties, and international cuisine, buffet dinners held at the resort’s Sasa restaurant throughout the Lunar New Year program are themed “Dolce Vita”, “Roast Carving Buffet”, “BBQ Seafood”, and “Japanese Twist”, and accompanied by a live band. For more information about Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort, visit www.melia.com, email info@meliahotram.com, or call +84 (0) 254 3789 000.
Seafood Buffet Feast on a Beachside Lawn
The Anam Cam Ranh will mark the most important event in the Vietnamese calendar, Tet, with a host of activities, including buffet dinners, dragon dancing, live instrumentalists, outdoor movies, and kite flying from January 21 to 25. On Lunar New Year’s Eve, January 21, the resort, overlooking Long Beach, will serve a seafood buffet on its lush lawn from 6-9pm, accompanied by live music and a fire show.
To celebrate the first day of Tet, January 22, the resort will offer traditional sweet and savory Tet treats, dragon dancing, calligraphy presenting, “dan bau” music, kite flying, tapas and cocktails, and more. The following day, January 23, all ages are encouraged to learn how to make traditional “banh chung” (chung cakes), plant trees, and take part in bamboo dancing, with a Vietnamese buffet served at Lang Viet Restaurant and Bar from 6-9pm. The Beach Club will stage a roast buffet from 6-9 pm to a backdrop of live guitar and singing. For more information, please visit www.theanam.com, email info.cr@theanam.com, or call +84 258 3989 499.
A Traditional Tet Market, Culinary Specials and More in Vietnam’s Capital
The Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi will celebrate the Tet holiday with its popular annual Tet Market, as well as an exclusive culinary program and special accommodation package. The traditional Tet market (January 15-16) will feature bamboo stalls offering Vietnamese delicacies, fresh products, unique handicrafts, and colorful traditional paintings in the Dong Ho style. Visitors can also meet a calligraphy master or have their portrait sketched by a talented street artist.
Several extraordinary culinary opportunities are also on offer throughout January, including an “End of the Year Sunday Brunch” on January 15 and “Lunar New Year Extravagant Sunday Brunch” on January 22, both served at the award-winning modern French fine-dining restaurant Le Beaulieu. Other special meals and drinks will be served at Le Club Bar (including a Grand Tet Buffet Dinner on January 26) and angelina, the Metropole’s bar-lounge-restaurant renowned for its rustic New World cuisine and serving distinctive Tet cocktails from January 16-29.
The Metropole is also offering a special room package with rates starting from VND8 million ($342). For more information or to make a booking, please call 0243 826 6919 (ext. 8200), email h1555-fb3@sofitel.com (for dining), or 0243 826 6919 (ext. 8500) or email h1555-re3@sofitel.com (for room reservations).
