Do you know that Hotel Continental Saigon is recognized as one of the oldest hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam? Evenly, the hotel witnessed a lot of changes as well as gone through the up and down periods of the city. Nowadays, the 4-star hotel with its best services becomes home to thousands of visitors who come to the city for business or traveling.
In this post, I’m gonna tell you 4 reasons why you should choose Hotel Continental Saigon as your temporary home on your journey to Ho Chi Minh City.
A Long History Alongside A Fantastic Architecture
Hotel Continental Saigon was built in 1880. Hence, it is said to be the first hotel in Vietnam. Indeed, it’s considered to be a historical site alongside Ben Thanh Market, Saigon Central Post Office, Notre Dame Cathedral Saigon, Opera House, Independence Palace, etc. Evenly, the hotel is a witness to many historical events, the biggest was the Vietnam War.
Similar to other constructions at that moment, the French brought their style into the hotel’s architecture. It was constructed with looping windows, tile roof, spacious bedrooms, thick brick walls, and 4 meter high ceilings to avoid the heat of South Vietnam. In the beginning, the hotel was mainly used to serve French tourists after a long cruise trip to a new continent.
Hotel Continental Saigon now is reaching the age of 140, run by state-owned Saigon tourist department. On 28/4/2002, it was recognized as the Monument Architecture Arts of the City by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee. Thus, choosing Continental Hotel Saigon will be a great experience of living in such a city’s historical site!
Prime Location with Surrounded Attractive Destinations
Image source: Alan Romanczuk
Hotel Continental Saigon’s address is 132-134 Dong Khoi Street, Ben Nghe ward, district 1, right in the heart of the city. It is one of the best locations in Ho Chi Minh City where you can visit various places of interest without spending much time on moving. Actually, the Opera House is just crossing the street. Or, the City Hall, also known as the Ho Chi Minh people’s Committee, is only 5 mins away.
In addition, the hotel’s ideal location can help you easily broaden your horizons about the Vietnamese lifestyle over 24 hours. You can figure out the differences between the way people live in daily hours and others when the sun goes down right from your room’s view.
Ok, let me list down the top destinations around so you can easily take a visit:
Saigon Municipal Opera House
Image source: Ngô Trung – Wikimedia
The house of the art. Certainly, you can go there for the real classic shows. Otherwise, you just simply sit in its step in the front to watch people going while enjoying your drink. The house’s just in the opposite of Hotel Continental Saigon.
Cà Phê Cô Ba
It would be a big missing for your experience in the city without having a try of the coffee. I particularly introduce Cà Phê Cô Ba for the drink, food, and especially the environment. To illustrate, the house is decored with an old-Saigon style that you can immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the past while enjoying the local dishes and good coffee.
Nguyen Hue Walking Street
You can easily access Nguyen Hue Walking Street by just turning right at the corner of the hotel’s Dong Khoi side. The street is where you can discover the lively and vibrant of the city. Especially at night, the locals love to come there for enjoying the environment of the bustling city. Surrounding the street are many vendors of street food, coffee shops, restaurants, shopping houses, etc.
The Old Apartment at 42 Nguyen Hue Street
Still in the Nguyen Hue Walking Street, but many stores gather in one place. In fact, this apartment is somehow outstanding in the area and hardly found elsewhere. You can see it highlighted with many shops from the outside, at no. 42 Nguyen Hue Street. Inside, there are coffee shops, restaurants, lounges, and a few fashion stores. And a lot of cool spots for photography too.
Shopping Malls
The hotel is truly surrounded by a lot of malls. Parkson Plaza is on the same block. Vincom Mall is just in the next corner. And Union Square is right in the opposite of Dong Khoi side. Furthermore, following Nguyen Hue Walking Street to the Saigon river, there is the Bitexco Tower, the second-highest tower in the country. With the high-density of shopping malls around the hotel, it’s not hard for you to find your favorite brand, isn’t it?
Going Around
Of course, Ho Chi Minh City has many more attractions for wanderers. Hence, if you want to explore other farther places? You can easily book a tech “xe om”, or taxi, or even bus since there are countless means of transportation active in the hub of the city.
Best Services and Facilities
Hotel Continental Saigon has over 1600 reviews on Tripadvisor. This credit is a result of many years of effort in improving and upgrading the services to satisfy customers’ satisfaction about a perfect trip. Moreover, Hotel Continental Saigon is famous for the well-qualified staff who always keep a mindset of hospitality in anyone’s mind. To me, they will be definitely friends you can lean on for days in Vietnam.
The Room Types
About accommodation, the hotel has offered 5 types of room designed for visitors’ purposes:
- Guest rooms and suites: suits for everyone with standard conditions.
- Superior room: offers a private and quiet atmosphere for people to travel for business trips. It is also an ideal choice for visitors who want to immerse themselves in quite a vibe.
- Deluxe (garden/city view): offers a view of the courtyard garden or bustling city one.
- Opera wing room & suite: opera room type is considered as the most spacious room type of the hotel. They have 2 types (45m2 and 55m2) with the view of the Opera house.
- Heritage: the special one that nowhere could have. They used to be the accommodation of famous people or celebrities in the past. Each room still has an old set-up when famous people lived in.
Plus, all types of rooms are well-equipped with high standard amenities such as free coffee & tea, high-speed wifi, sanity facilities, welcome fruits, etc.
More for Entertainment and Services
As for entertaining purposes, Hotel Continental Saigon provides guests with a variety of ways to relax such as spa, swimming pool, restaurant, a karaoke bar. Especially, there is a cafe named La Dolce Vita Cafe. The cafe is set up in an original French-style cafe with some round tables for people sitting outside, drinking coffee, or tea while overseeing the city. Actually, the decoration of the coffee shop would bring anyone sitting there back to the ‘Indochine’ atmosphere. And, a cyclo would be the best fit for this image.
Furthermore, to meet demands growing in tourism in recent years, this hotel also opens other services to bring convenience to travelers such as airport transportation, booking city tours, breakfast at the room, etc.
Easy to Book
Thanks to the popularity of the internet and the benefits it brings to our lives, now you can easily book rooms at Hotel Continental Saigon with good prices accompanied by each type of room. Surely, The hotel is available on big hotel booking platforms such as Agoda, Booking.com, Trivago, Expedia, Hotel.com, you name it!
For people who want to take a further look at a hotel before booking, you can go to the hotel’s website to get more information about rooms and other services.
Overall, a good hotel is the one that offers you not only a place to sleep but truly local experiences you might never have at others. At Hotel Continental Saigon, you would meet those 2 things: high-quality services and authentically antique Saigon fusion which would definitely bring your journey to Vietnam more valuable!
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