Vietnam Travel Guide
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Metropole Hotel in Hanoi Discovers Its Vietnam War Bunker
Today's cool hotel history lesson for today involves the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi which recently discovered a Vietnam War-era secret bunker that once housed Jane Fonda, Joan Baez and a few others during the 1972 Christmas bombings by American forces.
After the bombings and the war, the bunker had been sealed and forgotten. And while the hotel always knew of the shelter, they could never find it. Until over the summer, when during renovations of their poolside bar, a worker's drill hit a piece of concrete. The seven-room, five-foot high bunker had finally been uncovered. Associated Press reports:
Since then, workers have been excavating the flooded and low-ceilinged space. Not much has been found in the seven rooms: a wine bottle, a rusty paint can and a light bulb still in a socket. But a few tales remain, some involving famous guests. “If these walls could talk, they would tell a lot of stories,” says hotel general manager Kai Speth, while giving The Associated Press an exclusive first glimpse. The bomb shelter “needs to be brought back into the life of the hotel as a reminder of what this hotel and this town went through.”
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A Sneak Peek at the Hotel Uniforms for Hyatt Danang in Vietnam
What the hotel managers will be wearing at Hyatt Regency Danang.
Last week, we took a look at some of the big hotels opening in New York, London, Los Angeles and Miami but there's a whole world out there! We'll be highlighting some upcoming hotel openings every week until the end of the year! Know of a cool hotel that's opening? Let us know!
When the Hyatt Regency Danang opens in Vietnam on October 31, the hotel staff is going to be sporting some very stylish uniforms complete with matching shoes, hats and accessories. And it's not just the front desk that will look pretty. The stewards, chefs, housekeepers, security guards and even the landscapers will all get stylish clothes to wear.
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Free Hotel WiFi Even Goes as Far as Hotel Cars in Vietnam
Hey hotels who haven't yet provided guests with free WiFi: this hotel in Vietnam has cars that are better than you. It's the Caravelle Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City and not only does it offer some really good (under $200) deals for stays including free breakfast buffets and airport rides, but it also boasts free WiFi throughout the property. And in case you need the bandwidth to be increased for some reason, they can take care of that as well.
Since the complimentary internet has been so successful over the last two years, the hotel has extended free WiFI to their fleet of six cars, with "interchangeable Wi-Fi routers creat[ing] hotspots using 3G and HSPDA technology that enables download speeds of up to 7.2MB per unit." Excellent.
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Accor is Running a Vietnam Super Sale, But You Have To Hurry
No time to twiddle your thumbs on this one: today is the last day of the Accor sale on various hotels in gorgeous Vietnam.
Similar to the Australasia-wide sale Accor had going a few months ago, this one just runs for a few days, and the rates they're offering are up to 50% off standard.
The deals work like this: at every Novotel in Vietnam — that includes the Novotel Dalat and the Novotel Nha Trang — the rates are just $45 a night across the country. At fancier Accor properties like the Grand Mercure Phu Quocor the La Residence Hue, there's a flat rate of $75 a night in this sale. There are also $45 rates on a couple of Mercure hotels due to open soon, in Hanoi and Hue.
Vietnam hotel market is definitely heating up and Accor has another ten projects in the pipeline there, with tourism booming — so this kind of sale might have the lowest prices you see in a while. You need to book through the Vietnam Super Sale website to get these prices and remember, by the end of today it'll all be over.
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Hyatt Plonks A Resort In The Sand of Vietnam's Famous China Beach
You know what? We don't hear enough about the Vietnam hotel scene, and we know they totally have one because of all the heavily-touristed beaches along that beautiful coast of theirs.
Finally now we have an update on the Vietnam situation from Hyatt Hotels, and it's looking good; they've begun construction on the new Hyatt Regency Danang Resort and Spa, with 174 luxury condominiums and 27 oceanfront pool villas. The tropical property, due to open in early 2010 (so soon!) on 50 acres of land along a half-mile of China Beach, which Forbes named one of the top ten most beautiful world beaches, will be designed in the layout of a Vietnamnese town.
This sprawling plan, from the architectural firm RMJM, will maximize each room's views of sights like Marble Mountain and, of course, the sparkling blue South China Sea.
If this sounds a little too much like your idea of paradise, the complex will also offer a few private residences for sale, starting from one-bedrooms around $180,000, all the way up to private villas for $1,400,000. Those are a little too close to New York prices for us, but hey—they've got one of the world's best beaches and we've got the East River, so perhaps it makes sense.
[Image: Hyatt Regency Danang Resort]
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Appliances Caught Between Centuries at Saigon's Continental Hotel
All this week our roving correspondent Claire Duffett will be sending back her reports on the Vietnam Hotel Scene. Any questions or suggestions? Send 'em our way and we'll have Claire answer them for you.
We’ve been infatuated with Hotel Continental Saigon ever since we read Graham Greene’s The Quiet American way back when. Alas, we modern-day journalists can’t afford to stay in the place where Fowler and his fellow foreign correspondents partied back in the 1950s.
Despite our modest means, we still managed to catch a glimpse of the hotel when we passed through town a few weeks ago. And it met—and exceeded—our expectations.
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Floating Hotel Surrounds You In Natural Wonder, Wood Paneling
All this week our roving correspondent Claire Duffett will be sending back her reports on the Vietnam Hotel Scene. Any questions or suggestions? Send 'em our way and we'll have Claire answer them for you.
When we imagine living on a houseboat, it usually involves a serious amount of wood paneling, good scotch, and seriously outdated 70s furniture. So we were pleasantly surprised when, minus the booze, we discovered that a floating hotel on Halong Bay, Canh Buom 8, possessed these traits.
The tour boat shuttles travelers around the thousands of island jutting out of the bay. For boat standards, the cabin rooms--there were four on either side of the small, antique ship--were surprisingly spacious. We’ve seen cruise ships with more cramped cabins. And cruise ships certainly lack the appealing kitsch of these rickety ships. The entire trip from Hanoi, including the room, food, and transportation, costs either $32 or $56 depending on which “class” you select, although the difference between classes was indistinguishable.
Each room comes with a private bathroom, which had been recently renovated. While the water pressure was lousy, the hot water tank provided scorching, lasting hot water. This is impressive for a ship, since few hostel and budget-hotel showers offers as much. The restaurant area is spacious, with big windows that block the chilly February wind on the bay while still offering an incredible view.
There's no website but you can book a spot on a Canh Buom ship or on a similar boat with amenities that are just as oddly cozy, by visiting any reputable tour agents in Hanoi.
Vietnam Hotel Scene / Hue Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
La Residence Hotel and Spa Is Rightfully Snooty
All this week our roving correspondent Claire Duffett will be sending back her reports on the Vietnam Hotel Scene. Any questions or suggestions? Send 'em our way and we'll have Claire answer them for you.
Just north of Hoi An, along the Perfume River, is Hue, the former royal capital of the Nguyen dynasty. Down the road from the famed UNESCO palace ruins is La Residence Hotel & Spa, the town’s most understated luxury hotel. This French colonial relic recently underwent a massive expansion and renovation. It now has 122 rooms, 91 of which face the river. To complete the modern facelift, this week, it added free WiFi through the hotel.
Vietnam Hotel Scene / Mick Jagger / Hoi An Hotels / → All Tags
Old People Love Vietnam's Life Heritage Resort
All this week our roving correspondent Claire Duffett will be sending back her reports on the Vietnam Hotel Scene. Any questions or suggestions? Send 'em our way and we'll have Claire answer them for you.
If you think Life Heritage Resort sounds like an old folks home, well, you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. The resort chain has three locations in Vietnam, and we visited the one in Hoi An when we passed through town. With austere courtyards, and spongy, imported grass, the hotel resembles our grandparents' condo in South Florida more than it does a contemporary hotel beside the country’s most treasured ancient city.
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The Hilton Hanoi is Not the Hanoi Hilton
All this week our roving correspondent Claire Duffett will be sending back her reports on the Vietnam Hotel Scene. Any questions or suggestions? Send 'em our way and we'll have Claire answer them for you.
Hilton’s PR division in Southeast Asia probably despises John McCain’s nomination for U.S. president more than they did the release of “One Night in Paris," Paris Hilton's sex tape. Suddenly, “Hanoi Hilton,” resurfaced as a euphemism for unspeakable torture and hardship. Well, guess what, Hanoi has a real-life Hilton and it’s actually quite lovely.
The stately Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel and the Hoa Lo Prison museum, aka "Hanoi Hilton" buildings are located only a few blocks from each other. We visited the actual hotel as well as the notorious Vietnam War-era prison, which now functions as a Communist propaganda pulpit.
The museum depicts the oppression of Vietnamese prisoners during French occupation through the early part of the 20th Century, and the subsequent benevolence shown toward McCain and his fellow soldiers when they were imprisoned. There are photos of American soldiers playing basketball, decorating Christmas trees, and laughing together over holiday feasts.
In fact, they make it look better than the Hilton, and that is hard to do.
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Westin Headed to Vietnam in 2012
Big news from Westin: Starwood announced today that it they've come to an agreement with a real estate development company to build a 330-room Westin Hotel on the southeastern coast of Vietnam.
Westin's first Vietnam property (Starwood's got a total of 15 hotels under different brands in the Thailand and Indochina region already, so they're no strangers to the area), the planned hotel is slated to open in 2012 on a beachfront in Cam Ranh Bay, Khanh Hoa Province.
Historic Hotels / Vietnam Hotels / Ho Chi Minh Hotels / → All Tags
Sleep With History At Saigon's Hotel Continental
France's meddling in Vietnam really didn't turn out well for anyone. But one of the positive side effects to the colonization is the Hotel Continental Saigon, in present-day Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. So it's no wonder Graham Greene made his protagonist a guest at the hotel when he wrote The Quiet American.
Gorgeous, imposing and extravagant French Colonial hotels are perhaps the only thing in HCM more ubiquitous than families of five speeding past on lawnmower-engine mopeds. Of these hotels, Continental is certainly the most historic and quite possibly the most beautiful.
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