Ho Chi Minh City: Kim Hotel (Hotel)

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Address: 40-18 bui vien street, Quarter 1 , Ho chi minh , Vietnam

Lonely Planet review

It's not much to look at from the laneway and it's actually pretty easy to miss (we walked straight by a couple of times while staying), but the Kim manages to combine a quiet location and family atmosphere with rooms that are both sizeable and comfortable.

Once you've crossed the threshold you'll be impressed by the friendly Ms Kim and her eager-to-please and ever-reasonable family. Reasonable because they know how to keep your costs low by keeping their costs low - that is, prices drop if you don't use the lift, and again if you don't use the air-con. The fact that there's a lift at all is testimony to the ambition of this small place. There are a dozen rooms (two per floor), but those at the front are best. They have a teeny-weeny but often breezy balcony festooned with bougainvillea - we found sitting on the balcony on the desk chair, a couple of beers to hand, to be a fine way to kill a late-afternoon hour or so watching xe oms (motorbike taxis), bicycles, hawkers, children, dogs, backpackers and beggars float by on the ebbing tides of a Saigon laneway. Ah, the serenity!