If you book Vietnam tours with a local travel agency like ours, you can ask them to book one of these three oldest hotels in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) that are among the most elegant and well-known of the colonial era. Nestled all in the ex-famous Catinat Street, these are the places whose names keep on talking about them: Continental, Grande and Majestic. Despite the weather, they remain synonymous with a stay of great comfort and especially the emblematic refinement of a historical, cultural and endearing Saigon.

Hotel Continental Saigon

Probably the oldest in Vietnam, the Hotel Continental Saigon was built in 1878 by Pierre Cazeau, a major French supplier of building materials, and completed in 1880. Before 1970, it became the property of Duke De Montpensier in 1911 and then Mathieu Francini in 1930.

He must be proud to have welcomed celebrities such as writers Andre Malraux and Graham Greene and the poet Rabindranath Tagore. In addition, the hotel was frequented by many journalists, politicians and businessmen during the wars.

With its 86 carefully decorated rooms, its 140-year-old French architecture is sure to delight anyone wishing to enjoy a stay full of unique and exclusive ambience.

Hotel Grand Saigon

A century-old building in Ho Chi Minh City that is among the most popular with travelers is the Grand Saigon Hotel. Its history goes back to 1930 when it was erected to become, at first, a cafeteria. Henry Edouard Charigny de Lachevrotiere, editor-in-chief of a French newspaper, managed to put it into operation as the Grand Saigon hotel. The building was renamed "Saigon Palace" in 1937 and then "Saigon Lu Quan" (Saigon Inn) in 1958.

In 1978, another Saigon Palace made its appearance at 16 Ngo Duc Ke Street to unite with Saigon Lu Quan in Dong Khoi Hotel. It is necessary until 1998 that we see the reopening of the hotel Grand Saigon, renovated and better equipped, which has since become one of the most prestigious five-star hotels in Ho Chi Minh City.

Hotel Majestic Saigon

Started in 1925 at the crossroads between Catinat street (current Dong Khoi street) and Quai de Belgique (current Ton Duc Thang street), the hotel Majestic Saigon, one of the oldest hotels in Saigon, today enjoys a great reputation despite a number of historical vicissitudes. Designed by French architects, it was financed by a Vietnamese businessman of Chinese origin, the most prosperous of all Saigon-Gia Dinh. In 1965, two more floors were built with the intervention of the famous architect Ngo Viet Thu. Bombed in 1975, it was again renovated in 1994 in the style of Renaissance architecture. Majestic was awarded the 4- and 5-star standard respectively in 1997 and 2007, the first of its kind invested in and managed by the Vietnamese.

It shines as much by its beautiful aesthetics and its superb view of the Saigon River as by its reception of important personalities: the President of the French Republic François Mitterrand, the Japanese prince Akishino, the Danish prince Henrick, the prince of the United Kingdom Andrew, the Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sring Dhorn, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ... Certainly, the building has been refitted several times, but the compromise is never out of the ordinary: classic and majestic. Crème de crème of good holidays to revise the "Pearl of the Far East."

500 m from the Opera House and 1 km from Notre Dame Cathedral and Ben Thanh Market, the establishment is an ideal starting point to discover the highest places in the city, both on the cultural and commercial sides, as well as gastronomically.

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