Late October 2025, Phu Quoc, Vietnam. Regent is IHG's flagship luxury brand, and its Phu Quoc resort — opened in 2022, all suites and villas facing the Long Beach sunset — is one of its showcase properties. I stayed in a Garden Pool Suite. But honestly, the part of this stay I keep thinking about is not the room; it is the club lounge. So while the memory is fresh, here are both: the suite, and the lounge as it was.
The Suite: A Private Villa in All but Name
The Garden Pool Suite is a standalone suite: a master bedroom, a living room, a separate dressing room and an oversized bathroom, with its own garden and private pool beyond the glass doors. By day, light pours through the full-height glazing; close the doors at night and the world shrinks to your own domain.
Details are Regent's strength. The bedside notepad is stamped with a gold R; a spray of bird-of-paradise stands by a stack of coffee-table books. The room feels ceremonial before it feels lived in.
Living Room and Dressing Room
The sofa faces the in-room bar, and a separate dressing room keeps luggage out of the bedroom's way. Inside the wardrobe: a floral-print bathrobe, and a beach tote embroidered with the R — everything you need for the walk to the sand, prepared before you think to ask.
The In-Room Bar: A Complimentary Refreshment Gallery
What people remember about Regent Phu Quoc is the minibar, reimagined as a "Refreshment Gallery": less a minibar than a small private bar. A full set of copper tools — shaker, strainer, ice bucket, jigger — stands next to a copy of The Curious Bartender; a coffee machine, tea set and Champagne glasses complete the line-up. The snack drawer and fridge drawer are loaded — crisps, biscuits, nuts, sodas, beers, juices — complimentary and replenished. Want a nightcap? No room-service call needed; you are the bartender.
The Bathroom: Stone, Copper and a Deep Tub
The bathroom is all dark stone and timber: a vessel basin on a long counter, towels stacked on a wooden stand, amenities by Perricone MD. The freestanding tub sits by a lattice-screened window, a wooden caddy across it holding two copper jars of bath salts. The rain shower is generous, and even the TOTO Washlet remote looks like a piece of consumer electronics design — the toilet paper's folded tip is embossed with an R.
The Welcome: Wine and Three Little Tarts
On arrival, the table was already set: a bottle of Louis Latour Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2022, two glasses, a welcome card, a bowl of fruit and a glass case of three tarts — chocolate, strawberry and passion fruit. Exactly the right size of gesture: something to nibble while you settle in.
Rice Market: Worth a Trip on Its Own
The resort's Vietnamese restaurant, Rice Market, was the stay's other peak. Timber, woven lanterns and an old tree in the courtyard do the decorating; after dark, candlelight arrives before the menu does. We opened a bottle of Billecart-Salmon Le Réserve and worked from an amuse-bouche through grilled chicken, beef and fish cakes to the main event — the seafood hotpot.
The hotpot arrives in a cast-iron pot, the broth in the Vietnamese sweet-sour-spicy register. A whole ornate spiny lobster leads a platter of prawns, crab and shellfish; a vegetable plate, two kinds of noodles and three dipping sauces stand in support. Staff cook at the table — the sight of the lobster rising and falling in the red broth is the dish's own best advertisement.
The Club Lounge: A Record of Its Peak
What I most want to preserve here is the lounge. In late October 2025, Regent Phu Quoc's club lounge was at its peak: food that was a meal, not a token snack; generous pours; staff who remembered your preferences; a calm, unhurried room. Among all the hotel lounges I have used, it belonged at the very top.
Sadly, I hear the lounge has since changed — the offering has been scaled back, and it is no longer what it was. So let this section stand as a record: an archive of the October 2025 version. If you are booking today for the lounge, be prepared — it is not the lounge described here.
Verdict
Set the lounge's decline aside, and the Garden Pool Suite remains in Phu Quoc's top tier: standalone privacy, a proper in-room bar, a thoughtful welcome, a bathroom that steals scenes, and a restaurant like Rice Market. Of the 88 points, most of what was deducted belongs to a single regret — that the peak, once passed, does not come back.
