1. Diamond City Hotel, $42 after taxes, stayed for 4 nights, breakfast included
The hotel is in a small street off one of the train stations. The street is not lit so there were spots where we were walking in almost darkness. It did feel a bit scary. However, two blocks east of the hotel, there is a small night market with food vendors. This was NICE and we visited the vendors everynight along with the Seven-Eleven 2 blocks down. The hotel staff were very pleasant and very helpful. They told us how much the taxi was to the airport and called a taxi for us. We did not have to negotiate with the taxi man. We paid 350 baht to go to DMK. The breakfast offered a selection of Thai and Western foods. There was different things cooked each morning for the Asian option. We had curry one morning, pan fried noodles the next morning and the next was pan fried chicken breast. We ate both Asian and Western options. We made sure NOT to stuff ourselves because we knew there were so many different kinds of street food to try! The room was clean. It had the typical things that would be in a hotel room. We did not use the balcony because they are all connected to each other. It was small and smelly. I did not like the shower; it did not smell or look very clean... I did not like standing on the wooden plank to shower.
2. Hoang Hai Long Hotel, $37 after taxes, stayed for 6 nights, breakfast included
The hotel is on a busy street in Saigon. It is also 2-3 blocks from the Ben Thai Market and the night market. We noticed many of the hotels looked very similar to ours and all the staff wore uniforms. Yes, Vietnam's standard of hotels and hotel service is much higher than in Thailand. This hotel was very clean and beautiful on the inside and outside. The hotel staff was very nice, super helpful and a small handful of them spoke English quite well. That didn't matter too much, since Duong could speak Vietnamese to them. Breakfast was awesome. It was like we were in Vietnamese food heaven! The food tasted great! We ate so much every morning because it was so good. Their pho, banh cuon, banh uot, pate, bread and congee was delicious! We particularly enjoyed their fresh squeezed watermelon juice! We checked out their gym on the very top floor. It's nothing special. It's just a room with a few weights and old equipment. It didn't look like many or anyone used it. There is not a pool. We declined the option to pay to use the pool at the New World Hotel across the street. I would definitely stay there again! Great price, great food and also friendly staff! *Note: Agoda was running a special on this hotel otherwise it's in the $50-$60 per night.
3. The Imperial Adamas Beach Resort, $125 after taxes, stayed for 2 nights, breakfast included
This resort is architecturally beautiful. The lobby and the landscape screams a tropical vacation! Our poolside entrance room was amazing. It was very spacious. The bathroom was big with a gorgeous blue tiled bathtub. I was a bit disappointed in the beach. The sand was not as soft as I thought it'll be. The beach was not as clean either. There were alot of scraps here and there out at the beach. We did spend dinner the night we checked into the hotel to eat at resort grill restaurant. It was expensive... but we were tired and didn't want to venture elsewhere. The next night we did meet a nice Australian couple who took us North to Nai Yang Beach. There are shops and several restaurants there. We ate at Festa seafood restaurant and it was cheaper and really good. We made the mistake of taking the shuttle to Patong. Urgh, what a WASTE of time. Patong is tourist and aggressive vendors infested. All the prices there are the same or even more than at our resort. We were also told to pay 100 baht to rent a beach chair. Had we known we would have just stayed at our peaceful resort.
4. Baan Suwantawe Phuket, $50 after taxes, stayed for 4 nights, no breakfast
We were sad to leave the resort and nervous about staying in Phuket town. If it was anything like Patong, I was going to leave to the airport. We weren't sure what to expect. Phuket is an expensive place to be in. From talking to the front desk, taxi fares are set in Phuket since there's so much confusion and so much over-charging in Phuket. It cost us 600 baht to go from Phuket town to the Phuket airport! Anyways, we took the public transportation bus from Patong to the Phuket town. Thank goodness! When we got to Phuket town and found our hotel, we were greeted by a nice front desk man. We felt so much better after checking in and dipping into the pool at the resort. We stayed in a studio room hotel so there was a refrigerator and microwave. The hotel was nice and clean. It was also very roomy. One thing I did not like was the smell of the water in the shower. The funny thing is my husband thought it smelled fine... but I thought it smelled rusty. The area around the hotel was nice. There was a park next to the hotel, a couple of shops across and down the street.
5. Lebua State Tower, $135 after taxes, stayed for 3 nights, no breakfast
We decided to spoil ourselves and stay the lasts few nights in Bangkok at this 5-Star hotel. It most definitely was a 5-Star hotel from the appearance, to the room, to the abundance of staff. The lobby was beautiful and clean. The staff were very friendly and spoke English quite well. We had booked a Superior Suite and were upgraded to a Premium Suite. I am quite sure we were upgraded because I mentioned that we had dinner reservation to their really expensive Sirocco restaurant for our wedding anniversary. Our room was on the 55th floor. Our view was spectacular and we were even higher up than their Sea Breeze Restaurant because we could see it right below us. The room was very spacious. In fact, we didn't even use the living room space. Now that I think about it, I should have slept on the couch instead of on the bed. All their bed in Asia are firm! The bed at the Lebua was the less firm so it didn't feel like I was sleeping on hardwood floor. I totally felt like that in all the other hotels that we stayed at. Our dinner at Sirocco was nice. The food was okay. I think it's more of the atmosphere and the view that we were paying for. We knew it's fine dining and knew of fine dining prices... however we did not expect to pay $13 (390 baht) for a bottle of water (shared among the two of us!). After dinner we had drinks at their SkyBar, which is in the Sirocco Restaurant. It is overly crowed with people who are just there for the free view. I personally thought they should have a separate section for the guest who are staying at or dining in at their Hotel. *Note: They are serious about the no thong sandals. I only had a pair of thong sandals and a pair of sneakers. I wore a long Maxi dress with my thong sandal. I was not allowed to go to dinner! I had to go back to my room and change into my sneakers!
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I will also be posting my reviews and comments on TripAdvisor. Thank goodness for TripAdvisor! We tripadvised everything and for almost every vacation we go to.
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