Tag: Vietnam Hotels
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Hotels in Asia Do Traditional Christmas with a Twist
Christmas merriment isn't reserved for countries in the global west, though Europe and North America certainly have cornered the market on gingerbread houses and chintzy decorations.
In far reaches of the world, hotels cater to a clientele of locals, expats, and tourists alike who enjoy their fair heaping of tinsel and egg nog. Today we're focusing on three Asian hotels spreading yule tide joy in spades, some sticking to tradition, some contributing their unique cultural touch to the holiday.
Hotel History / Vietnam Hotels / Sofitel Hotels / Hanoi Hotels / Hotel Bunkers / Hotel News / → All Tags
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.”
Hotel Openings / Hyatt Hotels / Hotel Uniforms / Vietnam Hotels / Asia Song Design / Designer Hotel Uniforms / → All Tags
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.
Hotel WiFi / Vietnam Hotels / Tech Hotels / Hotel News / Hotel Cars / → All Tags
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.
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.
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]
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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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.
Raffles Hotels / Vietnam Hotels / Hotel News / Asia Hotel Scene / → All Tags
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.
Hotel News / Vietnam Hotels / Accor Hotels / → All Tags
French Hotel Chain Invades Vietnam
French hotel operator Accor announced this week that they would be ramping up their presence in Vietnam, adding 12 hotels to their current 8 by the end of 2010.
Forget any visions of unspoiled hill tribe regions in the far north: the 150-room Pullman Sapa Resort and the 200-room Pullman Lao Cai Hotel are on the way. Heavily touristed Ha Long Bay will get its first international hotel: Novotel Ha Long Bay, opening this summer.
Two new Mercure brand hotels will open in Hanoi, scheduled for 2009 and 2010--the first Mercure hotels in the country. More Novotels are on the way, including one in the beach resort area of Nha Trang.
Surprisingly, there were no high-end Sofitel hotels in the announcement, despite a lack of choices for luxury travelers and a booming export economy attracting plenty of foreign business travelers. Vietnam attracted 4.2 million foreign visitors in 2007, an annual increase of over 17 percent.
Still these will probably not be the last of the announcements: Accor opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) on Wednesday.
Vietnam hotels / Vietnam Resorts / Awards / → All Tags
Nam Hai Vietnam Wins Best Award
Last week in Bangkok the Asian TTG Travel Awards for hotels, airlines and travel agents were handed out, and one of our favorite Vietnamese spots, the Nam Hai near Hoi An was awarded the prize for Best New Beach Resort.
Less than one year into its life--it first opened in December 2006--the Nam Hai is really stacking up the accolades. As well as this best new beach resort award, it's been listed in the Conde Nast 2007 Hot List (in both the US and the UK), been picked as a "best of the best" of new hotels by Gourmet Traveller, and, on top of all of that, we think it's a nice place too. A place to watch as it goes from strength to strength in the future, we hope.
[Photo: frenchcoupleAlps]
Related Stories:
· [HotelChatter]
· Hotels in Vietnam [HotelChatter]
· Travel Stories in Vietnam [Jaunted]
Cubicle Dreamin' / Vietnam hotels / Vietnam Resorts / → All Tags
Cubicle Dreamin': Ultra-Luxury in Hoi An
Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.
In this episode, Hotel Maven Amanda K visits Vietnam...in her mind. Enjoy.
Just last week another friend of mine came back from a glorious holiday in Vietnam, and I'd really like to retrace my backpacking days there but stay in a bit more luxury this time round. From what I've heard the ultimate luxury in Vietnam is at the Nam Hai in Hoi An on the central coast.
The Nam Hai is quite new, having opened in December 2006, and perhaps what you'd call a boutique luxury resort--it's relatively small for this kind of resort with just 40 pool villas and 60 regular villas, all free-standing with views to the South China Sea. My choice is a pool villa complete with my own infinity pool; some of the villas have five bedrooms, so I can take a few friends too.
On top of that, the resort has three amazing beach front pools, one of which is temperature-controlled if you get an unlucky chilly day. In between swims I can play tennis, badminton or basketball, snack in the outdoor restaurant or head into historic Hoi An for some sightseeing. Sounds like nothing can go wrong.
[Photo: frenchcouplealps]
Related Stories:
· Hotels in Vietnam [HotelChatter]
· Travel Stories in Vietnam [HotelChatter]
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