District 1 or 5 to stay at Ho Chi Ming?

Question

I want to have the convenience of shopping, local eatery, sight seeing and night life. Which hotel would you recommend?

Answer 1

District 1

The Grand Hotel is old & beautiful. Lots to do from that location.

Answer 2

I found district 1 to be a little bit touristy for my taste.  I stayed in Dist. 3 and discovered wonderful little markets, coffee shops, restaurants and hotels (I recommend the Four Roses hotel as a good, clean, friendly hotel at a very cheap price)

Four Roses Hotel

790 / 5  Nguyen Dinh Chieu

P1. - Q3.  TP. Ho Chi Minh

Dist. 3 doesn't have many big hotels or a lot of night life, but a taxi ride to Dist. 1 is only about $2-3.

Answer 3

District 1 or 3 is where I would stay.  We stay in Dist one when in SaiGon.  There are to many hotels for me to pick one for you.  I don't know your budget or what nicities you require.  As far as night life, good food and sight seeing either Dist 1 or 3 are right in the middle of it.  Good Luck and Have a Good Time.

Answer 4

Try Metropole Hotel-Travelers' Pick

3star property with a rating of 5 out of 5

Location -

Located between the city and Chinatown, this seven-story hotel is within two km (1.2 miles) of Notre Dame Cathedral, Ben Thanh Market, and Saigon Opera House.

Amenities include an outdoor swimming pool, and a complimentary fitness center; guest event space includes two function rooms providing banquet catering.

Very affordable

try to set your travel date.

you can call 1-800-expedia now for special rates as prices change in a matter of seconds.The travel consultant can arrange a package deal for you.

Answer 5

*** this turned out to be quite a long answer!! Not sure what you will think about all of this .... but here goes anyway!! *****   (^-^)

The Rex Hotel is in the middle of Dist. 1 and every taxi driver in the city knows how to find it. "The Rex" is historic and reasonable cost for most people .....

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

taxi drivers need glasses, but cannot afford them. Bring blank 3X5 cards and CLEARLY  write the address you want to go to on the card so that the Taxi driver can read it in large printing.

NEVER  take a ride on a "motorbike taxi" unless you REALLY, REALLY  know the person (like if he is your uncle, or something)

"F Taxi" (one of the many Taxi companies there) has yet to ever cheat me .....

District 1 has more plain clothes police on the street than any other district, so as to keep the tourists safe.

if you sleep with a bar girl you will get a disease for sure ... maybe AIDES ......

Vietnamese are excellent at cheating at card games .....

Vietnamese are excellent at picking your pocket (regardless of how young they are, including children) .... be careful if someone is standing too close to you ....

there are many "pan handlers"  on the street watching for you ... they dress to look as poor as a church mouse. Do not fall for it. Do not make eye contact or talk to them.  

night life????  ughhhhhhhhh ... do not go alone, ok?

if while shopping for shoes, you try a pair on, you just bought them .... soooooooo ... do not try on a pair of shoes unless you think they will really work for you.

Vietnam is LOADED  with Chinese knock-offs (fake stuff like Sony, Panasonic, etc) .... do not fall for it. The locals hate it also. On the other hand ... you can find hand made Vietnamese wood carved items that are pretty cool and also reasonable price ..... it pays to shop around ...

I am sure you will have fun .... just be careful and use common sense ....

good luck .....

PS >>> if you happen to meet an awesome local girl ( not located at a bar .. the good girls are not found there) ....  if you want to give her a gift that she will think is really, really cool ... bring a small bottle of US made perfume (make sure it is real) .... the first thing they will do is to look at the box and see where the perfume was made!!! (^-^) lol !!!!!  Another really good gift item is a Timex watch ... however you will need to take a sharp knife and cut off the place of manufacture  ..... Timex is not sold in VN and it is still a great watch to own .... the "Indiglow" feature really gets some attention there ......  to them this is an awesome gift

another totally HOT  gift is to get some American chocolate and give it to them .... take a look at See's candy (GOOGLE) ... You can get a small box for cheap and still make a BIG impression .....

ughhhhhhhhh ...  there are10,000,000,000,000  good girls there that are really cool (that are very safe from a medical perspective) ..... I would much rather meet one of them any day as opposed to meeting a bar girl ....

Answer 6

I recommend dist. 1 'cuz they have lot of things for you to see, enjoy, drink, taste and burn money too. Dist.1 also has a Western Town and Japanese Town with it. If you just happen feel lonely and wanna see a hot chick as your home town (I assume you're from America), go to Western Town lol.

Night life in Sai Gon is great!

Dist 5 has lot of stuffs relate to Chinese life. In fact, we can call it Chinese town of Ho Chi Minh city.

Re hotel, it's quite cheap and easy to find anywhere in the city, esp. in Dist.1 and dist 3. They're the heart of city.

Answer 7

District 1 and 3 have lots of things for you to enjoy, if you like something in Chinese way (music or food)  you can visit district 5 in Cholon, lots of tourists prefer 1 and 3