Holiday Muong Thanh Ly Son — Hotel in Cù Lao Ré

I stayed for 3 nights in May 2025 in an Executive Suite ||Pros:|-large and spacious room with separate living room area to the bedroom|-wifi speed is generally good, mobile speed tested at over 50mbps although it varies in the room, and upload speed usually over 35mbps. |-seaview, although it's more a view of the port where incoming passengers arrive than anything amazing. |-glassed off shower separate to the toilet.|-bathroom sink is large and spacious. |-aircon works well in the room. |-nice sofa to relax on. |-they always provided fruit everyday when they cleaned the room, like some kind of Vietnamese apple and mandarins. |-receptionists are nice and friendly and try to help.|-location is close to the ferry pier, around a 5 minute walk. There are lots of touts though when you first arrive offering transport. |-they sell a selection of fresh garlic, honey, garlic powder etc items in the lobby for convenience. Ly Son island is famous for the garlic farms spotted around the island. ||Cons:|-pillow is too high and firm. lucky i had my own pillow. |-black out curtains have a gap at the top section because of the way it is hung, it's not hung to the top so it let's some light in. I guess it's better than having no black out curtains.|-the larger rain shower head was spraying the water out, it was a little broken. They probably should replace it. |-the water temperature is not consistent. While it is still warm, it goes from say a 9/10 hot to 6/10 warm, back to 7/10 warm and then 5/10 warmish back to 9/10 hot. It's not fully stable. |-breakfast isn't that great, very disappointing actually. The cucumber was no good which was a first for me in Vietnam, tasteless, the internal skin was too white and thick outer cucumber skin. They didn't even have salad like lettuce, carrot, beansprout etc. The bread is super dry as well, why can't they make Vietnamese banh mi which is flaky and light? The banh xeo they have is dry and tasteless. The rice is dry and bland. The egg is okay but super oily. Selection is limited as well. There needs to be more Vietnamese choices for the breakfast food and the quality needs to drastically improve. Drinks, cakes and fruits don't get topped up when they run out too. After the first day we decided to skip the included free breakfast and went to Com Hai San Ut Ngoc in town which was so much better. This was the first hotel on my Vietnam trip that was very disappointing in regards to the breakfast.|-breakfast finishes too early at 9am. |-hotel lobby (and at times the room corridors) is warm because they turn off the aircon to save money i suppose. although a few times they had turned it on but the majority of the time they have it switched off so it feels like a sauna in the lobby. | -the swimming pool location is very strange, it's right at the front of the hotel (lobby side) next to the road. So if any ladies want to wear their bikini or guys their briefs, go ahead because it's open season for anyone to look at you. you might as well be walking half naked on the street, and i think it's across the road from some kind of school. It's an interesting location to place a swimming pool. I didn't see anyone use it. Most hotels have their pools behind the hotel. Maybe the hotel should build a much higher privacy screen or bushes because the hedge that they have is not even 1 metre high. The thing is you would think there would be beaches to swim on the island however the island is very rocky and not really suitable for swimming. ||Anyway in saying all that, it's probably the best hotel on the island since there isn't too much competition for the standard of hotel. ||Overall...

I stayed for 3 nights in May 2025 in an Executive Suite

Pros: -large and spacious room with separate living room area to the bedroom -wifi speed is generally good, mobile speed tested at over 50mbps although it varies in the room, and upload speed usually over 35mbps. -seaview, although it's more a view of the port where incoming passengers arrive. -glassed off shower separate to the toilet. -bathroom sink is large and spacious. -aircon works well in the room. -sofa to relax on. -they always provided fruit everyday when they cleaned the room, like some kind of Vietnamese apple and mandarins. -receptionists are nice and friendly and try to help. -location is close to the ferry pier, around a 5 minute walk. There are lots of touts though when you first arrive offering transport. -they sell a selection of fresh garlic, honey, garlic powder etc items in the lobby for convenience. Ly Son island is famous for the garlic farms spotted around the island.

Cons: -pillow is too high and firm. -black out curtains have a gap at the top section because of the way it is hung, it's not hung to the top so it let's some light in. I guess it's better than having no black out curtains. -the larger rain shower head was spraying the water out, it was a little broken. They probably should replace it. -the water temperature is not consistent. While it is still warm, it goes from say a 9/10 hot to 6/10 warm, back to 7/10 warm and then 5/10 warmish back to 9/10 hot. It's not fully stable. -breakfast isn't that great, very disappointing actually. The cucumber was no good which was a first for me in Vietnam, tasteless, the internal skin was too white and thick outer cucumber skin. They didn't even have salad like lettuce, carrot, beansprout etc. The bread is super dry as well, why can't they make Vietnamese banh mi which is flaky and light? The banh xeo they have is dry and tasteless. The rice is dry and bland. The egg is okay but super oily. Selection is limited as well. There needs to be more Vietnamese choices for the breakfast food and the quality needs to drastically improve. Drinks, cakes and fruits don't get topped up when they run out too. After the first day we decided to skip the included free breakfast and went to Com Hai San Ut Ngoc in town which was so much better. This was the first hotel on my Vietnam trip that was very disappointing in regards to the breakfast. -breakfast finishes too early at 9am. -hotel lobby (and at times the room corridors) is warm because they turn off the aircon to save money i suppose. although a few times they had turned it on but the majority of the time they have it switched off so it feels like a sauna in the lobby. -the swimming pool location is very strange, it's right at the front of the hotel (lobby side) next to the road. So if any ladies want to wear their bikini or guys their briefs, go ahead because it's open season for anyone to look at. you might as well be walking half naked on the street, and i think it's across the road from some kind of school. It's an interesting location to place a swimming pool. I didn't see anyone use it. Most hotels have their pools behind the hotel. Maybe the hotel should build a much higher privacy screen or bushes because the hedge that they have is not even 1 metre high.

Anyway in saying all that, it's probably the best hotel on the island since there isn't too much competition for the standard of hotel.

Overall...

It's 4 stars hotel. Usually Muong Thanh Hotel is 5 stars, I believe, but here in Ly Son is 4 stars. I review by each points. Exterior(2points). I hope it's under construction. It's too poor. Interior and room (4points). It's fair as 4 stars hotel. Break first(2.5points): If guests are a few, then less foods. If you come late, no foods. If many guests, it's fair as 4 stars hotel. Cafe(4points): It's good. Inexpensive. Nice seating. Service(1.5points): When I check in, I needed to wait for 10 mins, I was told that because the PIC was in lunch time... When I check out, they charged me for water bottle due to unacceptable reason (I didn't have a time to check, so I paid). Anyway I think I won't stay Muong Thanh Hotel anywhere again from now on. P.S. Unfortunatelly, you don't have many choices over 3 stars hotel in...