The Reverie Saigon review: my most unique hotel experience yet

Choosing to stay at the Reverie Hotel on my recent visit to Saigon / ho Chi Minh City was the right move.

It’s an incredibly stylish hotel located right in the heart of the city. It’s within walking distance to pretty much everything, and the views from the upper floor rooms are pretty much the best in town.

It’s a little weird though. Prepare yourself.

A full review of my one night stay at The Reverie Saigon

Unlike when you saw in my review of the Saigon Lotte Hotel, the Reverie is very Vietnamese. Nay, extremely Vietnamese. It was exactly the kind of vibe I was looking for on this trip.

Location

The Reverie is located at 22 – 36 Nguyen Hue Boulevard, 57 – 69F Dong Khoi Street. Basically, that’s right in the heart of the downtown area. It’s the perfect location for any first time visitor to Ho Chi Minh City who wants to be in the middle of everything.

Exterior of the The Reverie Saigon Hotel — Welcome to The Reverie Saigon Hotel! They don’t make it obvious, do they?

The Reverie Saigon main entrance — It’s not until you walk towards the main entrance that you start seeing hints that this might actually be a hotel. Looking good so far!

The Reverie Saigon ground level lobby — Wait, what? This doesn’t look like a hotel. Am I even in the right place?

The lobby (and checking in)

Long story short, the ground level entrance is where the concierge and bellhop desks are. The main lobby for checking in is located on the seventh floor (which is accessible via the elevator).

Seventh floor reception Reverie Hotel Saigon

Entrance to the reception area on the seventh floor

The entire journey up to the seventh floor is a visually intense experience. The styling and design at this hotel is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s weird at first. But extremely impressive.

The Reverie Saigon seventh floor lobby — Well, that’s it. Every hotel lobby that I will ever see for the rest of my life will never measure up to this one. This is incredible!

The best way to describe the design and decor of the lobby is to say that it’s very “crayon” like. Imagine taking an entire box of crayons, melting them down, mixing it up, and then painting the walls with it. It’s colorful. And vibrant.

Just off to the side of the lobby (and down one level) is the restaurant. The fact that I even remembered to take a picture of this is beyond belief. I mean, I have you any idea how difficult it is for someone with a severe attention deficit disorder to stay focused in an environment this visually stimulating?

Getting to my room

Fun fact: I actually took the following pictures of my walk up to my room the morning that I checked out. Why? Because the woman who checked me in walked me all the way to my room (and I was a bit too ashamed to tell her that I was doing a hotel review lol). But here’s what the experience is like:

Lobby design and decor — On my way to the elevator, all I could think about was how the designer of this place must’ve been on heavy drugs, or an absolute genius. Maybe both.

The Reverie Saigon Hotel elevator — Genius or not, drugs were *definitely* involved. This is wild!

The Reverie Saigon guest room hallway — I present to you the most normal part of this entire hotel: the guest room hallways.

Scott walking through hallway at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — This is me (obviously still trying to process how eventful my life has suddenly become over the past 10 minutes).

My room for the night was 2910. Not only was it located all the way at the end of the hallway, it was a corner room as well. Privacy to the max!

Room overview

I paid a little extra for the “Panoramic Deluxe room.” It was extremely panoramic. Very deluxe. Spectacular even. Check it out:

Walking into my room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel for the very first time — Not gonna lie. All I could think at this moment was that this was either going to be really great, or really (really) weird.

Panorama deluxe king room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — Plot twist: *it was weirdly great.*

Panorama deluxe king room overview at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — You know I’ve scored a good hotel room when the third picture is a wide angle zoom out of the entire layout. I normally save this sort of thing for last!

Scarred standing in the Panorama deluxe king room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — *“WTF have I gotten myself into here?”*

My panoramic room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — An extremely nice (and very unique) hotel room. That’s what.

King bed and a chandelier in the panoramic room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — Maybe this is a little bit too fancy for my tastes? Not that I’m about to run downstairs and demand a different room or anything, but I don’t normally find myself in accommodations this…*delightful*. I’m so out of my wheelhouse here.

Reverie Saigon Hotel panoramic room design elements — I don’t think I’ve ever use the word “dainty” in a hotel review before, but this lighting fixture is definitely that. Can I still keep my man card if I admit to liking it?

Scarred checking out the view in his panoramic room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — OMG the view. Hang tight – I’ll show you that in a minute…

I know absolutely nothing about interior design and decor, and I found every detail of this room to be utterly fascinating. The best way I can describe the furniture is to say that it’s kinda sorta Victorian with a Vietnamese twist. Whatever that means.

The Reverie Saigon Hotel complementary fruit bowl — Thanks for the delicious fruit bowl! It gave me something to chew on while I was trying to think of the words to describe the decor of this room.

It’s also worth noting that this was a “free minibar” room. That meant that everything in the minibar was free for the taking. And if for whatever reason you’re a picky MF’r, there’s a Nespresso machine with decent looking tea and coffee as well.

Cisco phone in my room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — It’s not all fun and games though. I had this *exact* phone at my last corporate job. The horrific ringtone on this thing has been permanently etched into my brain and will haunt me for the rest of my days.

I don’t think I’ve ever taken so many pictures of a single hotel room before. Even though I know for a fact that I would never decorate my own home this way, I quite enjoyed the novelty of staying in a room like this. It’s different.

The view

All I’m going to say is that you’d be a fool not to pay a little more for the Panoramic room if it’s available at the time you make the booking. The views of the city are nothing short of stunning.

The Reverie Saigon Hotel panoramic room — Ho Lee Chit – that’s a really nice view of Ho Chi Minh City.

View from the 29th floor of The Reverie Saigon Hotel — ~~Good morning Vietnam!~~ This is the morning view.

Nighttime view from my room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — This is the evening view. Incredible, eh?

Scott enjoying the view from his room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — It’s not quite as incredible as watching the chaos of the motorbikes on the streets below from the safety of your 29th floor panoramic room though.

The Reverie Saigon Hotel panoramic room curved window — The corner window is actually curved. It provides an excellent vantage point from which to observe the fearless motorbike riders dodging between cars and pedestrians at breakneck speed.

Looking out the window in the panoramic room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — And I thought my view from my room at the Shangri-La Far Eastern in Taipei was good. As Tony the Tiger would say, *“this is great!”*

Room service

I wasn’t planning on ordering dinner that evening, but the room service menu looked too good to resist. It was fairly well priced, very quick, and extremely delicious.

The bathroom

The bathroom was just as quirky and fun the rest of the room. Not that I demand a such things in a hotel bathroom, but it’s always nice to see that someone put in the effort. It was large, clean, and very bright. Quirky too!

The Reverie Saigon Hotel panoramic room bathroom — Even the bathroom is weird. The *good* kind of weird.

Dual bathroom vanity panoramic room The Reverie Saigon Hotel — There are dual sinks in this bathroom, arranged in a clever yin-yang configuration. Anyone with multiple personalities is going to absolutely love this.

Bathtub in the panoramic room at The Reverie Saigon Hotel — The huge window next to the bathtub is nice! Think of it as a great way to give all of Ho Chi Minh City a panoramic view of your junk.

The Reverie Saigon Hotel bathroom shower — There’s also a fully enclosed shower for anyone feeling slightly more modest.

Shampoo, body wash, and conditioner in the shower — Shampoo, body wash, and conditioner all the way from… Barcelona.

The Reverie Saigon Hotel bathroom toilet — It’s a toilet. What more do you want me to say?

The Reverie Saigon Hotel panoramic room closet space in the bathroom — By the way, all of the closet space for this room is located here in the bathroom. Not totally ideal, but considering how awesome the rest of this room is, I can let this slide.

The Reverie Saigon Hotel bathrobes — You’ll find two really comfy bathrobes in here as well. I like finding stuff like this.

Finally, I present to you one of the most stylish overhead lighting fixtures you’ll ever see in any hotel bathroom anywhere in the world. Whoever designed this place deserves one hell of a good hi five (and / or a slap on the butt).

Pros and cons

Unless anything extremely artistic ticks you off, I don’t think you’re going to find fault with The Reverie Saigon. It has a very “boutique” feel to it – which I wasn’t expecting considering how large is.

Pros

The very personalized and friendly service from the staff was fantastic. A truly world-class experience.
The styling and design is something you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
The location is perfect. It doesn’t get any better than this.
The views! OMG, them views.

Cons

The windows aren’t insulated enough. Even in my 29th floor room, the noise from the street below was bothersome.
It might be a little bit too weird for some people. It’s basically the kind of hotel experience need to prepare yourself for.

The Reverie Saigon review: my most unique hotel experience yet