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First off, a taxi will not be able to take you to the front door of the hotel. I believe, after looking on Google maps, that the place is on an alleyway. This is a good thing other than the fact that you'll have to lug your luggage a meter or 40 from where the taxi stops to the checkin counter. (This is not 100% certain, as the maps are sometimes misleading.) The good part is that while the alley opens onto Bui Vien Street which is a cacophony of VERY LOUD THUMPING music from about 6:00 PM until I-don't-know-how-early in the morning, at the hotel, you'll be *maybe* out of earshot of that "lively" -- as it's been described -- street scene.

I stayed less than a 10 minute walk from your Tony Hotel and also away in an alleyway just about 100 meters off of Bui Vien Street. Quiet, mostly. From Google street view, your alley is wider than mine, but still not wide enough for taxis.

There are tons of bars and restaurants. At #4 Pham Ngu Lao (at most 150 meters away) there's an underground food court, shops, and a decent restaurant.

Have fun out there!

Anyone have any thoughts on this Hotel? - @kevinodprobate

A picture paints a thousand words.

Google maps photos from CUSTOMERS are very telling.

Hint.

Make sure your phone charger is multivoltage AND you have an appropriate adaptor for local sockets.

Some photos seen to show taped over sockets - What does that say about general maintenance and safety?

Dark alley with bars on downstairs windows- safety?

Gofood bike delivery available. Handy if you fancy something but don't want to go out.

Loads of foreign people around. It's a tourist area, so watch out for tourist prices, and tourist cons.

There goes 30 seconds of looking at Google Maps pictures.

Anyone have any thoughts on this Hotel? I have one of the nicer rooms book, but have only seen photos. Please let me know good and bad. I will be there 1/1.

I'm quite familiar with this area. The hotel was once called , and like you mentioned in an earlier post, you'll most assuredly be "...in the heart of things". If possible I suggest you book a room on an upper floor. There's going to be quite a bit of noise at the street/lower levels. I've not stayed at that hotel, but there's quite a few .

When you are ready to taxi from the airport, make sure you give the correct name for the hotel, being "Tony Saigon Hotel", not Tony hotel HCMC. Good reports from members about having honest fare meters, taking economical route, clean etc. You might consider installing Google Maps on your phone to follow the driver's course while enroute. I'd suggest you install the , but from what I understand they won't be able to enter the airport's arrival/pick-up point. What many of us like about Grab is that you'll know the fare upon booking, hence no incentive for the driver to choose an alternate (read, more profitable) route.

And any suggestions on a bar/restaurant where I can spend my first night there enjoying great local food and drinks with clean ice? - @kevinodprobate

There will be literally hundreds upon hundreds of restaurants in your immediate vicinity. One of the better restaurants (in my not-so-humble opinion) which isn't too far from your hotel (about a 10 minute walk) would be . Delicious!

For "people-watching", back near your hotel there'll be many bars with sidewalk seating. A favourite with the tourist/traveller types would be , at the corner of Bui Vien and De Tham. Never a dull moment, and a chance to chat up fellow western visitors there.

I wouldn't be too concerned about the ice. Ice, delivered, is dirt cheap here. So cheap that it's probably cheaper for an establishment to buy it than it is to make it.

edit: kitty-corner across from GO2 Bar is a pharmacy, , which stocks all manner of drugs, even some which are supposedly restricted/unavailable in VN

I continue to be befuddled by people booking things ahead of time in Vietnam and THEN asking for opinions. I find it's a waste of time to respond to such threads since the person obviously isn't going to change their mind based on one of our opinions.

I think I've posted many times that this is only a good location if you really want to be near the heart of the tourist traps and the incessant noise.

I'll check my list of places that have clean ice versus my list of places that have dirty ice and maybe get back with that information...

😂😂😂