The Start of a Great Honeymoon at the Park Hyatt Saigon

Southeast Asia Trip Reports:

1. Planning a Southeast Asia Honeymoon
2. Park Hyatt Saigon Vietnam Hotel Review
3. Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon Activities
4. Le Méridien Angkor Hotel Review
5. Angkor Wat / Siem Reap Activities
6. Grand Hyatt Bali Hotel Review
7. Bali Beach Town Activities
8. Ubud (Bali) Hotels and Activities

We flew to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) on Cathay Pacific with a layover in Hong Kong. My husband convinced me to use my long earned miles on business class and since it was our honeymoon I folded. I personally would prefer two vacations using miles instead of one business class seat, but to each their own! I wish I had more of a review of the flight, but I actually slept 14 out of the 16 hours on our way to Hong Kong, it was amazing! I guess that alone shows how great the business class seats are on Cathay!  Now my husband stayed up most of the flight, enjoyed some first class dining and watched about 4 movies in his private pod.  He really enjoyed the Asian cuisine on the menu.

We arrived in HCMC at about 5pm and went directly to the hotel. As I mentioned in my first post of this trip report, our goal was to maximize the free nights I received from Hyatt’s Faster Free Nights promotion. We stayed at the Park Hyatt Saigon, which was by far the nicest hotel in the city and rated #1 on TripAdvisor. The check-in process was interesting, where we were actually brought to our hotel room for a guest services representative to check us in. Inside the room is where she documented our passport information, told us about the hotel, and gave us a tour of the room amenities. With my diamond status we got upgraded to a massive one bedroom suite. Diamond members also get free breakfast at the restaurant where you can order anything off the menu! There is no limit, but I still made sure to tip well. Vietnam is an extremely inexpensive city, but to actually pay for the breakfast at this hotel would have been extremely expensive!

If you’ve never been to HCMC, it’s extremely crowded. Crossing the street is a terrifying experience, as you are taking your life into your own hands walking in front of thousands of motorbikes with nearly no traffic regulations. The city is just very busy, noisy and the air seems quite smoggy. That said, the Park Hyatt was a little oasis in the midst of this chaos. The pool of the hotel was tucked in the back of the hotel with a beautiful waterfall section and spa area. Sitting in the pool area you had no idea about the hustle and bustle happening just outside the front of the hotel.

One great thing about the Park Hyatt was its convenience to the Ben Thanh Market. The market is huge and seems to be open all day and night. In a few short blocks you can walk there and pick up all sorts of souvenirs. This is your place for cheap t-shirts, chopsticks and whatever else you want to grab for people. It’s also where you can go to have a suit made in a day if you so desire. When you are done with the haggling of prices you can get a quick inexpensive, authentic meal here and have a nice stroll back to the Park Hyatt.

Also, I apologize about the lack of pictures of the hotel. I actually lost my camera during the trip (well it got stolen), so my husband started taking more pictures with his camera after the lost camera fiasco. More to come about the activities in Ho Chi Minh City in my next post!