The best choise for rooftop bar in Ho Chi Minh city!
Visiting Ho Chi Minh city for a vacation, you might go to all the famous place such as Independence Palace, Ben Thanh market etc. But in the evening, where is to go to experience the luxury sublimation of this place? Let’s go to the rooftop bar! This article will give you some best rooftop bar in Ho Chi Minh city.
1. Top best rooftop bar in Ho Chi Minh city you must to try!
- The Grand Hotel Cafe
Location: 8 Đồng Khởi Street, District 1
Website: www.grandhotel.vn
The Grand is a colonial-era hotel that opened in 1930. The original wing is an attractive building on Đồng Khởi Street. Formally the Rue Catinat, this is the street where novelist Graham Greene lived for a time during his long stays in Vietnam in the early 1950s. The Grand just about manages to retain an air of the past. However, modern hotels jostle for space on this central, boutique-studded street, and last year the Grand opened a new wing: a 20 storey building that soars above the original. At street level, the new wing makes an effort to keep up the colonial ambience, but in general it’s indistinguishable from any other modern hotel. What the new wing does offer is a great rooftop bar.
– View: the view is what gets the rooftop bar at The Grand into this chart. Very few places in Saigon have city and river views: The Grand offers a 360˚ panorama (or 3,600˚ as their website informs you!). To the West, planes take-off and land from Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport; East, tankers unload in the docks; South, new tower blocks rise up from downtown; and North, the Saigon River winds away towards the quiet, wealthy suburb of An Phú. The Grand rooftop gives you a real sense of the topography of Saigon.
– Happy Hour: Happy hour at The Grand is buy-one, get-one-free on all cocktails. This sounds like a good deal, but it only runs from 3pm to 6pm, when the weather is normally too hot to comfortably sit outside and enjoy the views, and it’s a good half an hour before the sun sets over Saigon. What’s more, you are not allowed to change to a different cocktail for your free one
– Cocktails: Drinks are reasonably strong and there’s a long list of cocktails, including all the classics and plenty of The Grand’s own inventions too. As The Grand is run by state-owned Saigon Tourist (see Ambience) I had lowered my expectations for the quality of drinks here, but I admit to being pleasantly surprised.
– Ambience: As mentioned, The Grand is part of the Saigon Tourist empire. In general, this is a sign of mid-range quality at high-end prices, and ambivalent service. The bar is inside, but seating is outside on a wooden deck. Tables and chairs are comfy. Service is fine. The deck is very breezy thanks to its exposure on all sides – a breeze in Saigon is always a relief and really adds to the feeling of being ‘above’ the city. Bad pop music – another mark of Saigon Tourist – is played through speakers on the deck. Balustrades around the perimeter of the bar are just at the wrong height and interfere with the view when seated – amazingly, this is a mistake that many of the rooftop bars make. The experience is – as always with Saigon Tourist – no more than satisfactory, but the view and the breeze pull this rooftop bar above the general Saigon Tourist standard.
- The Serathon – Level 23 wine bar
Location: 88 Đồng Khởi Street, District 1
Website: www.sheratonsaigon.com/winebar
The pink twin towers of the Saigon Sheraton used to be one of the defining features of the city skyline. Nowadays, newer, taller, sleeker towers have grown up around it, but there’s still an air of exclusivity about this hotel. There’s always a buzz of expensive cars, clothes and cologne in the lobby and porte-cochère, as you make your way past the concierge to the large wood and marble elevators, and up to the 23rd floor.
– View: The Level 23 Wine Bar is one of the highest rooftop bars in Saigon. It’s not an intimate view but it’s big! The sheer height and scale is impressive. It takes in all the downtown sights, both old and new: colonial architecture like the Hôtel de Ville (now the People’s Committee), and modern skyscrapers like Bitexco Financial Tower (known as the Lotus Building), the second highest structure in Vietnam. Being so high up, you get an almost bird’s-eye view of the seemingly organic struggle for survival among buildings in central Saigon: the low-rise and expansive buildings of the past battle for space with the new and slender architecture of the present. It’s a commanding view, but it’s only 180˚ and you might even have trouble seeing it
– Happy Hour: Happy hour at the Sheraton is its biggest strength: buy-one, get-one-free on all cocktails and shooters between 4:30 and 6:30pm, seven days a week, and you have the choice to change to a different drink for your free one! The timing is perfect for the cooler air during dusk, and to see the twilight colours over Saigon. I was once refused my free drink because – by the time I’d finished my first – it was already past 6:30pm! So, don’t wait too long to order your second drink!
– Cocktails: Although the choice is limited when compared to the extensive menus of its competitors, the cocktails here are strong and long. One round (with the second drink free) is more than enough to make all the twinkling lights of the city seem a little blurry.
– Ambience: I admit to enjoying the kind of bland luxury that smart international hotel chains like the Sheraton offer, but it doesn’t lend much to the Level 23 Wine Bar. The bar is smart, airy – thanks to very high ceilings – and clean. It’s pleasant enough, but a bit, well, bland. The bar and seating area are actually inside, but the windows are very big and there’s no glass between you and the view. There are lots of green potted plants that create a ‘tropical’ atmosphere. A big mistake, however, is the seating. The seats that everyone wants to get are the high stools and tables right next to the windows – there are less than 10 of these.
If those seats are taken, then you’ll have to make do with the low chairs, from where you can only glimpse the tops of the taller buildings. Even if you do secure a window seat, the view is still annoyingly obstructed by the railings, which some genius designed so that they are exactly at eye level when seated. I often see customers raising themselves out of their stools to see over the railings! Another drawback is (Grrrr!) the music. Although at a more agreeable volume than most bars, the choice is not to everyone’s (at least my own) taste: at my last visit they were playing a lumbering cover version of ‘Dancing Queen’ (the original would have been bad enough!). Service is very good, if a bit brisk on occasions.
- Chill sky bar– Ab Hotel
Location: 76 Le Lai Street, District 1
Website: www.chillsaigon.com
Chill Sky Bar only opened a year ago, but it has quickly become one of the hippest places in Saigon for people to flash their cash. Located on the top floor of the AB Tower, it sits on a busy corner between the backpacker area of Phạm Ngũ Lão and the tourist mecca of Bến Thành Market. It’s the newest bar in the Top 5, and the only one that has a dress code: no shorts and no ‘slippers’ (presumably ‘flip-flops’) – in other words: ‘no scruffy backpackers!’ Despite sounding a bit snooty, the bar is very welcoming. The drinks, view, and general appearance are great – well-worth changing out of your sandals and into your shoes for.
– View: Chill Sky Bar offers a different perspective of the city than the previous three bars, all of which are around Đồng Khởi Street. On top of AB Tower you look back towards the big hotels and office blocks of Saigon’s financial district: it’s a great cross section of all the big construction projects that have changed the city skyline over the last ten years. The best part of the view is Bến Thành traffic circle, which is nicely aligned with the rocket-like Lotus Building (Vietnam’s second tallest structure). At rush hour, the traffic circle is a mesmerizing carousel of red tail-lights and white headlights, spinning around in what appears to be a vortex that pulls all traffic towards it, then spits each vehicle out at random back into the streets. Another good view is the bar itself: a colour-changing ellipse set on a platform right next to the edge, so that it appears to hover over the city.
Happy Hour: Chill Sky Bar has half price cocktails, beer and finger food on weekdays from 5:30 to 8pm. The timing is good, and the quality of food and drink make it decent value for money. Get here early for a seat with a view, and to witness the hypnotic ebb and flow of Saigon’s rush hour.
Cocktails: Drinks are very good, strong and particularly tasty here. The menu is short because it only lists their signature cocktails – bar staff assume you are familiar enough with the classics to have committed them to memory; just ask for whatever cocktail you want and they’ll make it for you
- Bay Hotel
Location: 7 Ngo Van Nam, District 1
Website: www.bayhotelhcm.com
If you want to check out some good views near Sai Gon river, you can check out the rooftop bar of Bay Hotel. Located in District 1, this 16th floor bar offers 360 degree views of the District 1 area. While you can also eat at the stylish restaurant, the rooftop bar of Bay hotel offers cocktails, over 30 varieties of beer, food, and regularly hosts live entertainment and themed music dance parties. Bay hotel is the best choise for whom to experience the best rooftop bar in Ho Chi Minh city. For further information, you can visit: http://www.bayhotelhcm.com/propeller-rooftop-bar/
2. Conclusion
If you are heading to Vietnam, don’t pass up the chance to catch some great and unique views of the city from up high at one of the many rooftop bars in Ho Chi Minh City. Have you been? Have any recommendations for rooftop bars in Ho Chi Minh City we missed or personal reviews of the ones we mentioned? As always, we’d love to hear from you!