What Tet festivities to enjoy at Alma Resort on Lunar New Year

Family resort Alma in Vietnam will usher in the Lunar New Year with a four-day program packed with Tet merriment. The festivities range from a vibrant night market and live entertainment to traditional games and competitions.

As a tumultuous Year of the Rat dominated by the global pandemic draws to a close, we’re excited about ringing in Year of the Ox with a fun and lively Tet program designed to foster quality time with loved ones.

Herbert Laubichler-Pichler, Alma Resort’s general manager

Tet festivities at Alma Resort

The resort’s program kicks off on Lunar New Year’s Eve, February 11, with a morning excursion to a pagoda, wet markets and flower farm in the Cam Lam countryside, opening a window on how locals prepare for Tet.

Throughout the day until late in the evening, you can try your hand at concocting the quintessential Tet staple Banh Chung (Chung cake). After wrapping sticky rice and mung bean inside dong leaves at Alma Garden, head to the resort’s bean bag-studded football field to cook your Chung cakes amid outdoor games.   

The Kids Club will guide youngsters on how to craft new year greeting cards and offer Spring-themed face painting before the resort’s hill, with spectacular views overlooking Long Beach, hosts blowing giant rainbow bubbles and a kite flying competition. 

Along the main thoroughfare from Alma Garden to the Kid’s Club, adjacent to the largest of 12 swimming pools cascading down to the beach, a Vietnamese street market will burst to life from 7 PM. Stalls will brim with wares and fare including toys, souvenirs, Vietnamese street drinks, skewers, spring rolls, hand rolls, banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich), deep-fried rice cake, bao (steamed bun), dumplings, dim sum and desserts.

Alma Garden will host a “reunion” buffet, live band and fire dancing. Italian fine dining restaurant La Casa’s a la carte menu will be complemented by Alma’s “Singing Cooks and Waiters”. With ladles, pans and tambourines in hand, and with a live piano as a foundation, the apron-and-toque donning Alma Choir break into song and dance as suddenly as a flash mob to perform Vietnamese and international tunes. 

From 10pm, VTV will live broadcast celebrations from the resort before the countdown at the American Bar. 

On the first day of Tet

On the first day of Tet, February 12, and for the rest of the program, Alma Garden’s daily buffet breakfast will feature a Tet corner serving favorites such as Chung cakes, Banh Tet (sticky rice and mung bean cakes), Vietnamese caramelized pork and eggs with young bamboo shoots, pickled papaya, carrot and scallion heads, and dried coconut and lotus seeds. 

Alma Resort Tet festivities also include dragon dancing, calligraphy giving, and Tet games including pick the lucky envelope and bamboo dancing. The resort will stage all these activities at the lobby to mark the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Beachfront restaurant Atlantis will hold a Vietnamese cooking class as well as cupcake and cocktail-making workshops. And if you have an excellent appetite, you will enjoy the watermelon eating competition on the hill.

Throughout the rest of the program, children will make lucky envelopes, smash lucky balloons and learn to make fruits out of Play Doh. There will also be sunrise yoga, giant chess competitions, maki roll and pizza making classes, an ice-cream buffet and more.

Alma resort will once again open the night market on Saturday, February 13, with Vietnamese instrumentalists serenading the guests. 

Impeccable luxury at Alma Resort

Sitting on Vietnam’s emerging Cam Ranh peninsula fronting Long Beach, Alma resort commands over 30 beachfront hectares of inspiring ground. The bold and spacious integrated resort offers 580 luxury suites and pavilions that all afford sweeping vistas of the ocean, including contemporary three-bedroom oceanfront pavilions each totalling 224sqm with a living room, four bathrooms and a private pool.

Alma features a broad spectrum of restaurants helmed by top chefs, a food court with an array of local and international cuisine, as well as a sports bar, pool bar and beach bar. Other highlights include 12 swimming pools cascading down to the beach, a waterpark, 13-treatment room spa, 70-seat cinema, convention center, amphitheater, art gallery, science museum, gymnasium and yoga room, 18-hole mini golf course, a youth center with virtual reality games, a kid’s club, water sports center and even an ‘Alma Mart’ mini supermarket.

To learn more about the Tet festivities at Alma Resort or to make a booking, you may email info@alma-resort.com or call +84 258 399 1666.

All images: credit to Alma Resort

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