Your complete guide to Saigon in 2025: discover the city's best hotels, restaurants, bars and tourist destinations – from book boutiques and designer threads to jungle cruises along the Mekong River

South China Morning Post

25-02-2025

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's most populous city and largest financial centre, is experiencing a cultural resurgence of sorts, with a slew of restaurant and bar openings and a greater influx of tourism than ever before. More importantly for our luxury-driven readers, it's also become a shopping haven and hub for young Vietnamese creatives, with exciting new spaces and concept stores offering a vibrant vision for Southeast Asia's future as a centre for fashion, arts and design.
Ho Chi Minh City's famous Book Street. Photo: @raniaskdr_/Instagram
Need help planning an itinerary to the sprawling heart of southern Vietnam but have no clue where to start? We've got you covered.
Stay at JW Marriott Hotel & Suites Saigon
The Driftwood Pool Bar at JW Marriott Hotel & Suites Saigon. Photo: Handout
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Formerly the InterContinental Saigon, this celebrated and centrally located hotel in Ho Chi Minh City's buzzy District 1 was recently reintroduced to the public as the JW Marriott Hotel & Suites Saigon just last year, debuting a slate of trendy, newly rebranded facilities, like the Driftwood Pool Bar, to the area. Within walking distance from major landmarks in the city such as the Independence Palace and War Remnants Museum, it's an excellent base for first-time visitors as well as a great place to stay for frequent travellers, with top-tier concierge services and a residential tower housing serviced flats and suites next door.
Check into a room with a view at JW Marriott Hotel & Suites Saigon. Photo: Handout
Though perks like Executive Lounge access – a highlight of many Marriott hotels – may appear to cater more towards the corporate business traveller, the hotel is also decidedly family-friendly. Located on the 19th floor of the Marriott in Saigon, the lounge has an intimate, homey vibe, which is perfect for relaxing and unwinding over evening cocktails in preparation for another busy day of sightseeing.
Meanwhile, the top floor deluxe suite is more than deserving of its name, sizeable enough to comfortably fit a family of three – or four, or more, if we're being honest – with sweeping views of the surrounding district and skyline. Amenities are refreshingly sleek and modern but still retain some signature old-school charm.
A suite at JW Marriott Hotel & Suites Saigon. Photo: Handout
Meal service is where this hotel truly shines though, and you'd be remiss not to try the banh mi here – a Saigon staple. If Western pastries are more your fix, the afternoon tea sets here are incomparable, comprised of delicious little cakes and canapés which are almost too pretty to eat. For Lunar New Year specifically, I indulged in a chocolate 'red packet' from the afternoon tea set made for the holiday before sampling some festive macarons from the in-house buffet restaurant, Market 39. Being spoiled for choice when it comes to even the smallest of snacks gives you a taste of the kind of grandeur that makes this Marriott experience truly special. As founder J. Willard Marriott himself liked to say, it truly is the little things that make big things possible.
Pick up some literature from Book Street