Vietnam Travel Guide
Tags: Accor Hotels / Vietnam Hotels / Hotel Deals / Novotel Hotels / Mercure Hotels / → All Tags
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.
Tags: Vietnam Hotels / Hyatt Hotels / Beach Hotels / Hotel Construction / → All Tags
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.
Tags: 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.
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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.
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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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Pilgrimage Vietnam Worth Pilgrimage to Vietnam
When it comes to user reviews of Pilgrimage Village in Hue, Vietnam, everyone’s a-talkin’ about the greenery. "Tropical paradise," "felt like you were out in the rainforest" and "serene and lovely" are all slightly-hackneyed-but-still-helpful superlatives doled out by TripAdvisor reviewers.
They also rave about the fresh fruit served every morning and noted that Pilgrimage is only $5 more than Vinh Hung Resort (in nearby Hoi An), and well worth the upgrade.
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Raffles In Vietnam :: Insert Luxury Hotel Chain Here
Last week, we told you about the historic hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia bearing the Raffles name. Never to be outdone by its neighbor and fiercest competitor, Vietnam has announced a Raffles hotel of its own, set to open in Da Nang sometime in 2011.
The resort will be set right on China Beach on a stretch of sand usually inhabited only by fisherman. Once notorious for being the site of bloody battles during the Vietnam War, it's and now famous for such pristine beauty one can hardly imagine anything but pleasantries occurring there.
Tags: Anti-View / Ho Chi Minh City Hotels / → All Tags
Room With an Anti-View: A Balcony Wardrobe in Ho Chi Minh City
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
How's this for a contrast: if you stay at the Sheraton Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, you'll have a fantastic view of a swimming pool belonging to the Caravelle Hotel next door. But get one main street away from the action, and this is the view from your hotel window instead.
Vietnam vacationer ultrapop design had this to say about their choice:
Well, we did ask for a quiet room away from the main street. Behind it rises the modern Sheraton Hotel in stark contrast.
We're still not sure which hotel gives this view, but it's somewhere in the Dong Khoi section of Ho Chi Minh City, so drop us a line if you can identify it. And let us know if the same wardrobe selection is still hanging on that balcony.
[Photo: ultrapop design]
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