Where to Stay in Ho Chi Minh City — Does District 1 Matter?
How to pick a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City: what District 1 actually means for your itinerary, real airport travel times, and notes for families and business travelers.
Photo by Peter Nguyen on Unsplash PLAN THE DAYS
Find things to do in Ho Chi Minh City
Once you have picked an area, compare tours, attraction tickets and local experiences against the route you will actually take.
GetYourGuide affiliate link — no extra cost to you
THE DISTRICTS
Browse by theme
- Inside District 1
In District 1, where you stay decides your days. Seven hotels: a core close to City Hall, or a west side with larger rooms nearer the Reunification Palace.
- Hotels Near Tan Son Nhat
Two hotels sit much the same distance from Tan Son Nhat. What differs is how you cross: one runs a free shuttle you request ahead, from the other you walk.
15 hotels in this city Each with its district, straight-line distances and its own page. Ordered by guest score.
- A&Em Art Hotel
340m to Ben Thanh Market. At 55 rooms the building is not laid out simply — rooms 1, 2, 3 and 5 use one lift, while 7 and 8 need a staircase first.
- Cochin Zen Hotel
320m to Ben Thanh Market, 360m to the Reunification Palace. Almost nothing in District 1 sits that close to both. Two room types carry 'no window' in the name.
- Duc Vuong Saigon Hotel
51 rooms over eight floors inside Bui Vien Street. Ben Thanh Market is 1.1km away and a convenience store 100m.
- Fusion Suites Saigon
800m to the Reunification Palace — closer than the core hotels — but 1.3km to City Hall. The west side of District 1 in one address.
- Hotel Nikko Saigon
Inside District 1 but a block back from the tourist core. Apartment-style rooms with kitchens are the real draw.
- Liberty Central Citypoint
220m to City Hall and 380m to Ben Thanh Market — a 9.5 location score, unusual for a four-star.
- Lotte Hotel Saigon
A 283-room five-star beside the Saigon River. Room types split into deluxe and executive, king and twin, river view and city view — which makes this an unusually simple booking for District 1.
- Rex Hotel Saigon
160m to City Hall and 520m to Ben Thanh Market — about as deep inside the District 1 core as the city gets.
- The Myst Dong Khoi
160m to Nguyen Hue and a convenience store 20m from the door. All 108 rooms have balconies, from 40 to 70sqm.
- The Reverie Saigon
150m to Nguyen Hue Street and 230m to Ho Chi Minh Square — the highest location score of any property covered here.
- La Vela Saigon
4.4km to the airport, the closest tier in the city — and 20,933 reviews at 9.0, the largest sample here.
- Sherwood Residence
A District 3 address that sits 630m from the Reunification Palace — closer than most District 1 hotels — with the shortest airport run covered here.
- Windsor Plaza Saigon
District 5, so the District 1 sights are a ride away — in exchange for a 24th-floor pool, a free shuttle and shopping on foot.
- ibis Saigon Airport
980m from Tan Son Nhat, seven minutes by road. You book this for the shuttle, not the distance — but the property asks you to arrange it in advance and publishes no timetable.
- Yoko Airport Saigon
1.2km to Tan Son Nhat. The phrase reviews keep using is 'a 10–15 minute walk to international departures'. No shuttle timetable to match.
In Ho Chi Minh City, the sights, restaurants and shopping are concentrated in District 1. That makes location decisions simple: either you are in District 1, or you need to know how long it takes to get there.
District 1 is large, though. City Hall is 160m from one hotel in it and 2.4km from another, with almost nothing in between — so “District 1” on its own tells you very little about what you can walk to. If you plan to get around on foot, start with where the core and the west side split apart and the rest of the decision gets much faster.
Outside District 1 the trade is clearer. District 3 puts the airport 19–20 minutes away against 24–31 from District 1, though how far you are from the centre varies inside District 3 too — the Reunification Palace is 630m from one address there and 1.7km from another. District 5 is the local side of the city: 3.1km to Ben Thanh Market and a ride into District 1 every time.
How we choose the stays on this list
- Real distance to the sights — walkable, or a car every time?
- Drive time to the airport, not just distance. Traffic here makes the difference
- Room configurations by party size, especially apartment-style units with a kitchen
- Drawbacks that come up repeatedly in guest reviews
Worth knowing about Ho Chi Minh City
The airport is close but slow. Tan Son Nhat is only 6–7km straight-line from District 1, yet the drive runs 24–31 minutes, and longer at rush hour. The order does not follow the map either — the District 1 hotel nearest the airport is not the quickest one to reach it. Planning your schedule from the distance alone will not work here.
For longer stays or family trips, look at apartment-style rooms with a kitchen — this city has a lot of them.