9 Ho Chi Minh City Hotels With a Rooftop Above the Scooters

Ho Chi Minh City has somewhere in the region of eight million registered motorbikes and they do not stop. The sound is constant from six in the morning until late at night, crossing a road is a skill you acquire by walking slowly and predictably into moving traffic, and the pavements are frequently parked on rather than walked on. It is exhilarating for two days and it is relentless.

The city's answer, and it has become a genuine architectural feature, is the rooftop. District 1 has more good rooftop bars, pools and restaurants per square kilometre than almost anywhere in Asia, for the simple reason that six floors up the noise drops away and the air moves.

Why the roof is the amenity that matters

Saigon sits ten degrees north of the equator. It is hot all year, humid for most of it, and between May and November there is a heavy downpour most afternoons. Ground level in District 1 is loud, hot and hemmed in.

A hotel with a proper rooftop, meaning a pool or a terrace rather than a bar you have to buy your way into, gives you somewhere to be between three and six in the afternoon, which is the part of the day the city is least usable. It also gives you the skyline, which has changed beyond recognition in fifteen years.

The nine below are all in District 1, within walking distance of the cathedral, the opera house and the market, and all have a roof worth using.

Around the opera house and Dong Khoi

The colonial core, the most walkable few blocks in the city, with the museums, the cathedral and the best restaurants.

Park Hyatt Saigon occupies a restored 1920s building beside the opera house with a courtyard, a pool terrace and the best service in Vietnam. It is the most complete hotel in the country and the location is the best in the city.

The Reverie Saigon - The Leading Hotels of the World sits on Nguyen Hue with an interior of considerable extravagance, a spa on the upper floors and a rooftop bar over the walking street. It is the tallest and most opulent hotel in Saigon.

Hotel Des Arts Saigon Mgallery Collection is a restored art deco building with an indoor-outdoor rooftop pool, a colonial-era art programme and considerably more character than its price suggests.

Caravelle Saigon occupies the corner opposite the opera house with the rooftop bar that American correspondents used during the war, which is now a well-run terrace with the best view of Dong Khoi.

Sheraton Saigon Grand Opera Hotel sits beside the opera house with a rooftop bar on the 23rd floor, large rooms and the most reliable international-standard operation in the centre.

The riverfront and Nguyen Hue

Facing the Saigon river and the walking street, slightly east of the colonial core.

Hotel Majestic Saigon is the 1925 riverfront hotel with a rooftop bar looking down the water, a restored lobby and the strongest sense of the city's history. Ask for a river-facing room.

Renaissance Riverside Hotel Saigon occupies a tower on the river with a large pool deck, several restaurants and the best facilities of any hotel in the city. It is the family choice.

Le Meridien Saigon sits a short walk inland with a rooftop pool, contemporary rooms and rates below the colonial-core hotels.

Rex Hotel is the 1959 hotel on Nguyen Hue with a famous rooftop garden bar, a rooftop pool and a position facing the People's Committee building. It is the most atmospheric mid-range stay in the city.

What we have left off

The Thao Dien hotels in District 2 are excluded. The neighbourhood is leafy, quiet, full of good restaurants and popular with residents, and it is thirty minutes from District 1 in traffic, which puts the museums, the market and the colonial core out of walking reach.

What to do

Cross the road. Walk at a steady pace, do not stop, do not run, and the scooters will flow around you. This is the correct technique and it takes one attempt to learn.

The War Remnants Museum is confronting and essential and takes two hours. The Reunification Palace is preserved as it was in 1975. The Central Post Office and the cathedral are five minutes apart.

Eat pho for breakfast, banh mi from a cart, and com tam at a plastic-stool place at lunch. The best food in the city is on the pavement and costs almost nothing.

The Cu Chi tunnels are an hour and a half out and are worth a morning. The Mekong Delta is a long day and better as an overnight if you have the time.

Practical notes

Tan Son Nhat airport is 30 to 45 minutes from District 1 depending entirely on traffic, and it sits inside the city, so the journey is through it rather than around it.

December to March is the dry season and the most comfortable. April and May are the hottest. June to November is the rainy season, which means an intense hour most afternoons rather than continuous rain.

Use Grab rather than street taxis. Carry small notes. Motorbike taxis are fast, cheap and precisely as safe as they look.

Questions people actually ask

Is District 1 too noisy to stay in?

It is loud at street level and quiet from the sixth floor up. Ask for a high floor and it stops being a problem.

Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City?

Hanoi is older, cooler in winter and more atmospheric. Saigon is faster, hotter and the better food city. Most trips do both with a flight between.

Is it walkable?

The colonial core is, over about eight blocks. Beyond that, use Grab.

How many nights?

Three, four with the Cu Chi tunnels and a Mekong day.

If you only book one

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