Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest city, with a population of 10,000,000 is a city that offers so much for so few dollars that it shouldn't be missed.   There are many centrally located hotels offering comfortable, attractive accommodations for ridiculously low prices for one thing.  Excellent shopping opportunities are within walking distance abound.  There are museums and other historical spots from the Vietnam War.  Lastly, the people are friendly and helpful to a degree that most other countries cannot begin to match.  So it's no accident that in less than three years, I've traveled to Vietnam four times.

I cannot recommend more highly the hotel I've stayed in for my two trips to Ho Chi Minh City (the other two trips were to Hanoi).  The Spring Hotel is located in the old part of the city within Walking distance of the Market, the Reunification Palace, and the War Remnants Museum as well as the Saigon River where you can even take in an excursion on a hydrofoil.  The hotel replied politely and thoroughly to all my emails concerning accommodations, providing us with a taxi from the airport, and day tours the hotel could line up for us within twelve hours.  

 Our rooms set us back $45.00 a night for my girlfriend and me and $40.00 for my nephew's single accommodation.  My bed was huge, being fully 7 feet wide, which is one foot wider than a king size.  At one end of the room there was an attractive arrangement of two chairs with a table for guests.  There was also an easy to choose in the room safe and a mini-bar.  Although I'm not an expert in architectural design, I'd describe our rooms, the hallway and the lobby downstairs as being French style.  Paintings lined the hallways that appeared decidedly French as well as a single large one behind the restaurant downstairs.   Later, however, I was to discover that the original artist was Vietnamese.   The cost of our rooms included breakfast in the hotel's restaurant where I usually started the day off early with a cup or two of coffee before my girlfriend joined me for an omelet and assortment of  fruit.  

This was no ordinary coffee since it was brewed in the cup itself so each time I wanted a fresh cup I had to ask a waitress to bring me a fresh one.  There was none of this, "you only get one cup or do I have to get your another cup?"  The Vietnamese female purveyors of my coffee were all smiles and warmth.  To give you one last idea of just how thoroughly the Spring Hotel anticipates what its customers want, just down the hall from me there was a balcony overlooking the street with a door on it which one could easily unlock.   On a little ledge inside the balcony the hotel had even left an ashtray for all those smokers who are treated like criminals throughout much of the world.  But the rooms themselves were non smoking.

 

 

 

 

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