Our Home in Ho Chi Minh - calm amongst the city chaos
- Fletch
- May 12
- 6 min read
Updated: May 27
This post is not sponsored but includes affiliate links that we may receive a small commission from at no extra cost to you. Thank You for supporting our blog!
We're adding all of our favourite hotels to the blog that we've been staying in during our world adventures and today we share our best place to stay in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - La Memoria Hotel. Our fave hotel for budget travelers who also appreciate nice decor. We spent 2 months in Vietnam in 2024 and due to it's close proximity to Bali, we will always find a way to return to explore Vietnam whenever we can. We flew from Denpasar Bali to Tan Son Nhat International Airprot in HCMC via VietJet.
This hotel is not actually far from the hotel and we got a Grab taxi from the airport to the hotel which cost . (My TOP Travel Tip: make sure you download the Grab app before leaving when in your home country if you don't have it already. Grab is like Uber for South East Asian countries and Vietnam doesn't use GoJek like Bali. Download the app and set up your banking details to link bank cards to the app without having to reply on WIFI etc when you arrive. Much easier to set up and get organised before before you need it (as the app does ask for verification codes to be sent to your mobile number etc). Grab will allow you to book taxis and order food via the app - which is amazing for ease and convenience for us.
Btw Don't forget to Check out our Ultimate Things to do In Vietnam for the best things to do in each place on your next Vietnam holiday.
What started as a quick visa run from Bali to Vietnam has turned into a love affair with this beautiful country and this hotel is one that has us coming back time & time again when we're in the busy capital of Vietnam : Ho Chi Minh City (formally Saigon).
We're always pulled back to this hotel every time we're in Vietnams capital because booking accommodation can be pretty overwhelming there. A plethora of hotels but many don't have pools (which is a surprise for a South East Asian Country, we're used to Bangkok where many do) and as a family we really love to have a pool when in the city.
Ho Chi Minh is baking hot with high humidity and it's simply beautiful to come back to this clean modern hotel for a cooling swim. Especially with kids.
We actually found the best prices for La Memoria at Agoda but it's always worth a check on booking.com too as this isn't always the case, we found slightly cheaper there one time. I've included easy links above to La Memoria hotel Ho Chi Minh, for your ease and the date checker below.
We find this hotel to be a good price with a little bit of style which you tend not to get at our budget level. You can use this handy price tool to check your dates for availability and prices at La Memoria Hotel below:
We like the cool style. Kind of feels like a little slice of Tulum holiday fun in a city and it's within walking distance to many sights being in central zone 1. The decor is simple. The orange against the blue does something to the senses. With green cacti contrasting against it. The balconies are draped with hanging vines and greenery. A contrast to the city scape (but that's the one thing we love about Ho Chi Minh, it's residents fill every space with plant life).
Oh and a chicken pho breakfast is included in the price and it's unexpectedly up there with one of the best Pho's in Vietnam.
Other breakfast options available too, which is good with kids because you don't have to trudge out, hungry and hot and can start the day well all in the comfort of 'home' in Ho Chi Minh!
It's clean, straight to the point and a place where we feel very at home. In the mornings you can get up early and head to the many coffee shops in the area - you'll see local life happen around you. But can return to the safe haven of this hotel. Which is something we value very much here. Ho Chi Minh is noisy, chaotic, sweaty and leaves me feeling dizzy. I love a calm sanctuary to return to and there's something about this hotel that keeps us coming back time and time again and that's enough for us.
A great location: Great location in District 1
Near to: near Bui Vien walking street | A ATM machine next door | A juice seller outside on the corner (amazing to just nip out to with kids) | Local street restaurants a couple doors down - turn right at entrance for some easy authentic Vietnamese food if you can't be bothered trekking out & about |
I recently looked in on some reviews to see what people were saying as we actually last stayed in November 2024 and I read reviews saying "it's noisy" (erm hello this is a city) some rooms are front road facing so noisier than those within. I've stayed in both and honestly with the air con on I didn't notice it. If noise is an issue for people ear plugs should be a travel staple for them. That said, we didn't actually find this hotel to be 'noisy' sure there's noise though - it's a hotel in one of the worlds busiest cities ;-)
"it's decor isn't pretty" you can see from the pictures what the decor is and in Vietnam decor in hotels is pretty bad tbh if you're a style hunter like me. I love aesthetics and beautiful homes. In a former life I was a property developer, stager and flipper. I like nice things. I like interiors magazine. I have Pinterest boards for my Pinterest boards. Can you relate? I always try to book nice looking places because well basically I like things to look nice. Call me fickle.
And so to say it's not pretty - I think you need to just look at the pictures (it is what it is) and then increase the budget.
"location is far" it's a 5 min walk to Bui Vien walking street (take a left from the hotel and follow that road left. Walking street is literally 5 mins take a right). Then the major parts of the city are about 5 -10 mins from there. I'm not sure how central people want things other than on top of. And Bui Vien walking street is not a place I'd want to be sleeping on top of. We went on Halloween night and let me tell you there were many spooks out. We also walked through the next day during clean up and some spooks where still there! So a little walk from the hustle and bustle can be a good thing.
If any place is too far you can take taxis anywhere to literally anywhere using Grab. We took a taxi from the hotel to the Apartment Cafes which is only around a 15 min walk. But we were so tired from some major walking the day before the Taxi took around 3 minutes but saved our tired feet from 15 mins walking. And cost next to nothing.
Let me know if you have stayed here & how you like it? Let me know if you would like to see a video of this hotel as I have lot's of videos to share. Oh & Btw, This post is not sponsored just our honest review in our corner of the internet of the places we love along the way of our crazy adventure.
La Memoria Hotel - City Centre
118 Nguyen Cu Trinh, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
I hope you found this post helpful. Don't forget to keep up with our daily updates of our full time travel life below and use our handy travel planning tools below to get best prices for flights, hotels and more:
On YouTube:
💡HELPFUL PLANNING TOOLS FOR YOUR VIETNAM TRIP WITH KIDS 💡
✈️ - FLIGHTS WITH KIDS - We use this flight checker to search the best flight tickets fall or our Vietnam flights. We used this flight checker to get flights from Bali to Ho Chi Minh and then internally from Ho Chi Minh (formally Saigon) to Danang. Then again from Da Nang to Phu Quoc with the best prices at the time.
🚌🚆🚇 - TRAVEL WITH KIDS - We took the overnight sleeper train from HCMC to Da Nang check out our vid of that experience here. Booked via 12Go.
🏨 - ACCOMMODATION WITH KIDS - We use this hotels checker to search hotels and accommodation for our Vietnam trip. Use to check dates and costs to hotels and hostels in Vietnam now or go to our Accommodation Planning Page for more
🧭🗺️👣 - VIETNAM TOURS & GUIDES WITH KIDS - We use Get Your Guide for all of the trips in Vietnam. But we also love Klook too. TIP: Use both to compare offerings as trips will be different.
Trips in Ho Chi Minh
This post includes affiliate links that we may receive a small commission from at no extra cost to you. Thank You for supporting our blog!
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