My second stay at this hotel. I just love the location of this hotel to so many of the city's highlights and the staff are exceptionally polite and accommodating, the rooms and breakfast great. My only disappointment was that we were too early for the Xmas decorations - I'm just going to have to come back!

Our room overlooked the beautiful swimming pool area with the river in view a few streets down. The Caravelle has great rooms and we had no noise from other guests or outside.
This time we stayed at signature level and it was worth the extra $. It was good to be able to sit in the club area and have a drink and just look out the window after walking around in the heat outside. The view was even better at night time with the surrounding buildings lit up.

The Caravelle is opposite the Opera House; the cathedral and old post office are just up the street and the Reunification Palace and War Remnants Museum are an easy walk - just check to see when the latter two have their lunch-time visitor free period. We also walked down to the Ben Thanh Market - it's undercover and is a good place to buy presents and souveniers but can get a little crowded (mainly with stall owners) and stuffy in the inner aisles. Also did shopping and bought reasonably priced women's silk tops and scarves along Dong Khoi street (alongside the hotel) between Le Loi street and the river.

Ho Chi Minh City is our first stop in a 2 week trip through Vietnam & Cambodia. Overall, we have been happy with the Caravelle.
Pros: centrally located; rooms are clean, well-appointed, & quiet (we have not experienced issues with noise as many others have noted); neighborhood is safe for walking with many restaurants and shops nearby; the breakfast buffet at restaurant Nineteen (included in our room rate) was extensive with wide variety of Western & Eastern food available, delicious, & very fresh food; wifi was free, fast, & reliable.
Cons: customer service needs improvement- while the staff/management ultimately does try to accommodate needs, they make the customer feel as if it is burdensome. This comment is based on our experience at check-in. Arrived to hotel after 1am local time, after traveling for more than 24 hours. Assigned to deluxe room per reservation & discover upon opening door that is a smoking room. We were never offered option of smoking vs. nonsmoking - my husband & I do not smoke and he is allergic to strong odors such as smoke. Return to lobby to request nonsmoking room to be told by night manager that there are none available, it is travel agent's fault for not requesting nonsmoking room, & that we should keep this room for the night & hope to change next day. No empathy displayed, nor other options offered, except to try to up-sell us to a Signature room for $65/day extra. Ultimately, upon our insistence, were given a nonsmoking room, which was an upgraded Signature room & told that we might have to switch rooms following day. After long travel time, felt that this type of haggling was unnecessary. Next day were told that could keep room, at no extra cost, which was very nice of management. However, no comment was made about use of Signature lounge. Visited lounge twice to have juice and few canapes. At second visit were told that we were not permitted to use lounge, that was room upgrade only, which was somewhat embarrassing. Would have been fine with this arrangement, if had been informed. After first "reprimand" (which is what it felt like) were informed sternly twice more at front desk & with message to room that we were not to use the Signature lounge unless we wished to pay extra. This experience left us feeling like we had been a burden to the hotel and not an appreciated guest.

We spent five nights at the Caravelle Hotel and enjoyed our stay very much. Our room was on an upper floor of the new tower and we had a lovely view of the Saigon river from our window. The room was spacious and clean and the bed was supremely comfortable. I also appreciated the free wi-fi and nightly turn down service. We didn't eat at the hotel but did enjoy drinks at the 9th floor bar, billed as being on the rooftop but this wasn't quite true. We also spent a lovely day relaxing by the beautiful pool. The bells on the tables to call over a waiter made us feel extremely spoiled!

The location of this hotel couldn't be better. Right across the street from the opera house, we were able to walk just about everywhere we wanted to go. We took a taxi to and from the airport (Caravelle's airport shuttle service is outrageously expensive) and twice to dinner but otherwise we walked. For the price, this is probably the best hotel in District 1.

I would have given this hotel five stars except for one little thing. I accidentally left my glasses behind in the bathroom and have been unable to get the hotel to mail them back to me. Our email address was asked for upon check in and we were told this was so they could email us if they found anything in the room after we checked out. I never received an email about the glasses and instead had to contact them. I offered to pay for shipping and have sent several more emails but haven't heard from them again. A truly great hotel would have taken care of this small service.

Friends recommended this hotel to me as a great place to start our exploration of Vietnam and it did not disappoint. It is a western style premium hotel with a distinctive Ritz Carlton feel about it at what I felt was a very reasonable price.

The rooms are spacious and well decorated, the upstairs roof top bar excellent and the breakfast buffet (if you are into that sort of thing) outstanding.

The staff are consistently excellent and very well trained.

The caravel is well positioned, not far from the markets and shopping areas and is definitely worth staying a few nights at.