PRICE:
Frommer's Exceptional

Named for a light, fast ship, this sleek downtown address gives you that very impression. A French company built the original in 1956 when it overlooked the Place Garnier, now Lam Son Square and the classic Opera House. After honeymoon years as the town's address of note, the hotel became a shabby hangout for wartime journalists -- in 1964 a bomb was targeted at the many correspondents at the hotel, but the joke goes that it wasn't dropped close enough to the bar. On the day of Saigon's liberation, a tank pulled into the square out front of the hotel, aimed at the facade and didn't fire, to the delight of the many journos in the bar. In postwar years the hotel fell into obscurity as the Doc Lap (Independence) Hotel. The Caravelle was renovated and expanded beyond recognition in 1998, and is now an extremely attractive, efficient, and well-appointed place. We think it's the best international business hotel in Saigon. With top-notch amenities and stylish rooms, the luxury accommodations here attract business travelers and well-heeled tourists alike. Rooms in the old wing carry more history. Suite 610, where the aforementioned bomb landed, is a Special suite (seriously, that's the name). It's a lavish room with a small entrance hallway, a kitchen, separate dining area, and living room. Rooms in the new wing are large and plush, with neutral furnishings and firm beds; higher floors have great views of the Cathedral and Opera house. Marble bathrooms are sizable. The suites are luxe beyond belief. And the classic character of the old hotel lives on in the old wing rooftop SaigonSaigon bar, an open-air colonial throwback with rattan shades, low-slung chairs, and twirling ceiling fans. If you let your imagination go, you might just see Graham Greene or a wartime correspondent sidling up to the bar. Facilities: 2 restaurants; 3 bars; rooftop pool; health club; spa; Jacuzzi; sauna; car and motorbike rentals; tour desk; business center;; room service; massage; laundry service; dry cleaning; banquet facility for 250; rooms for those w/limited mobility.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Vietnam, 2nd Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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