Song Saa's Overwater Villas are a luxurious reinterpretation of Robinson Crusoe's house.
Less than an hour by boat from Sihanoukville, the Cambodian port – full of casinos, factories and cement buildings with Chinese letters – through which everyone passes to access tourist islands such as Koh Rong, is nevertheless located a small ecological paradise that is part of the most special and exclusive places in the world: the Song Saa hotel and its private island. What to expect from a stay at the resort? We tell you.
FIRST DAY
12:00 p.m. Arriving at Song Saa has little to do with a regular hotel check-in. Here, the entrance is made by private boat, from the port of Sihanoukville, and the entire hotel team awaits the guest at the pier of the private island after about 40 minutes of crossing.
Towel and vegetable drink in hand, the adventure begins. First of all, they point out a detail: the Song Saa has its own time zone. They ask us to advance our clock one hour. The reason? Sunset and sunrise will be better adjusted to lunch and dinner times, to improve and experience.
Aerial view of Song San resort.
12:30 p.m. We discover our villa. We are lucky enough to stay in an Overwater villa, which, as its name suggests, is located above the water. Some wooden bridges lead us to it and all the comforts and design are a kind of luxurious interpretation of Robinson Crusoe's house.
From the terrace and its pool of 26 square meters with outdoor wooden shower Only a crystal clear sea and the island of Prek Svay can be seen. The place is so spectacular and the amenities so exquisite that one does not know whether to jump into the sea, bathe in the pool, in the bathtub with glass windows overlooking the ocean or call the kitchen to taste one of the many dishes included in the Villa Dining Menu available to the guest throughout the day.
Bath in one of Song Saa's villas.
2:00 p.m. After a dip in the hotel's main pool with coconut included (picked before our eyes from the coconut tree at the time of ordering), we sat down at one of the tables in the Driftwood beach restaurant. With our feet in the sand, we enjoy an Amok (one of the most emblematic dishes of Cambodia consisting of a fish curry cooked in a banana leaf) and various Asian salads.
The silence and the relaxation of that wild island that has little to envy the Maldives It has already gripped us and I am beginning to understand that contemporary luxury reaches its peak when space, time and relaxation come together to give way to a state of optimal well-being... which we are approaching.
Swimming pool in one of Song Sea's private villas.
3:00 p.m. I visit the Discovery center, center of soul and essence of Song Saa. And the fact is that the hotel is not simply a luxury hotel-island aimed at a select public in search of relaxation, water sports and premium pampering. Is much more.
After buying the two private islands that make up the resort 13 years ago, Rory and Melita Hunter, the hotel's founders, aware of their high degree of responsibility as the first to develop a business in the Koh Rong archipelago, decided to build a project whose main philosophy would be to clean the place and help the neighboring communities.
Today the Song Saa Marine Reserve cares for the entire coral reef that surrounds the hotel (they have the first private marine reserve in the country recognized by the Cambodian government) and the entire Song Saa team organizes regular marine litter collections, and single-use plastic is absolutely prohibited on the island.
In turn, the Song Saa Foundation organizes programs of environmental education, water purification in the surrounding islands, distribution of medicines and books (with his Boat of Hope), consultations and medical attention and reforestation programs in the towns of the archipelago. Every resort guest is invited to participate in charity activities during their stay, to donate money and to leave toys and gifts for the children and inhabitants of the villages.
Environmental education taught by the @songsaafoundation team.
6:45 p.m. Has arrived the time of the Sundowners (people who watch the sunset). The hotel invites all its guests to watch the spectacular sunset while serving canapés and cocktails in a quiet, relaxed atmosphere that exudes exclusivity from all sides.
7:30 p.m. Today's dinner takes place at the Vista restaurant, a spectacular place with unparalleled views, and we discover a menu that mixes Khmer cuisine with a very special Western refined touch.
I am struck by the calm atmosphere, with a dim and elegant light and the feeling of peace that has invaded me since I arrived. They explain to us that no matter how crowded the resort is, everything is designed to avoid any type of crowding. The dinners are distributed in three modalities that change: the main restaurant, the dinner in the villa or the Destination Dining, which we will try the next day.
Sunset at Song Say resort.
SECOND DAY
10:30 a.m. We joined the Sala Song Saa excursion to visit a village on Prek Svay Island and discover the work of the Song Saa Foundation.
Mazzie, a 23-year-old girl who has been volunteering at the resort for a year, gives us a tour of the town and she shows us the school managed by Song Saa, the water purification drums scattered around the town, the signs of organization and awareness about the use of plastic and care for the environment that appear around the place (recycling drums, garbage storage areas...) and I can feel the important help provided by the foundation to all the people of the archipelago.
One of the dishes at the Song Saa resort restaurant.
3:00 p.m. At Song Saa, the Spa is not like any other spa. The cabins are distributed throughout the island, at different points that merge with nature, the sea and the wild peace of the place.
I am very lucky to enjoy a treatment Khmer, a 90-minute massage on a wooden platform in the water, with stunning views. My massage includes something very special: they teach me how to prepare my oil and also a cloth instrument full of aromatic herbs with which my therapist will treat me.
At the end of it, they make me choose a sentence at random from a bowl full of slips of paper. I have a phrase that defends the idea of gratitude: "To be happy, we must be grateful for everything that happens to us and smile at life". And boy, do I smile!
Wooden platform on the sea where massages are given.
7:00 p.m. Imagine a white sand beach, two torches illuminating the evening and a table served with succulent dishes of Asian cuisine. So was our last dinner at Song Saa.
As I mentioned previously, the hotel cares about the privacy of its guests and organizes its Destination diners, in which he distributes his clients to different points of the island. A most exclusive dinner under the stars is what you get if you choose that modality... And it's worth it!
The hotel distributes its clients around the island when it organizes its Destination diners.
THIRD DAY
11:00 a.m. We only have a few hours left before check out... and we don't want to waste them. We take a canoe and prepare to go around the island before leaving. Navigate through those crystal clear waters and be able to see the coral reef he full of fish that hides in a corner of the island is a spectacle.
we understand the importance of taking care of it, and the way back to the mainland emphasizes this feeling, since, as we move away, we see how the sea is filled with bottles, garbage and other plastic elements.
From Song Saa, I will conclude that contemporary luxury has little to do with a certain consumerist bulimia, with that frantic desire to enjoy a striking, stunning and selfish material luxury. The new luxury is conscious, it is presence, it is responsibility... And it can only be felt with experiences that encompass time, space and peace. The new luxury has its own space-time, its own schedule, its own microworld, but always taking care of its surroundings.
White sand beach of the private island where Song Saa is located.