Miehouse Nguyen Trai

Rooms and decor

Rooms are done in a clean Japanese-Vietnamese minimal style — white walls, wood accents, all still fresh from the 2020 build. The Deluxe Pool View runs about $32 a night and opens onto a small balcony looking right at the rooftop pool. If you don't need that, the Standard Double is around $23 with the same design minus the view, and a Family Suite for four runs roughly $57. It's private rooms only here — there are no dorms.

Food and amenities

The headline amenity is the rooftop pool, and it's the one thing none of the other Pham Ngu Lao hostels can match. It's 8 by 4 metres, 1.3 m deep and open 6am to 10pm, free for guests, with loungers, umbrellas and a pool bar where drinks are charged separately. The view runs across the Saigon skyline, taking in Landmark 81 (461 m, Vietnam's tallest tower) and the 262 m Bitexco. Down on the ground floor there's a restaurant doing Vietnamese and Western plates — a notch above the street stalls and handy on the nights you don't feel like going out — plus a small spa with a 60-minute Vietnamese herbal massage for about $22. Wi-Fi runs at 100 Mbps and the air-con holds up.

Location and getting there

You're on Nguyen Trai in District 1, a 5-minute walk from both Pham Ngu Lao and the Bui Vien bar street — close to the action but a step back from it, which is why the rooms stay quiet. If walking to the bars feels like a stretch at night, a Grab covers it in about 2 minutes for roughly a dollar.

Things to know before booking

This is the priciest tier in the cluster — a Standard Double from about $23 versus roughly $10 for a dorm bed nearby — so it only makes sense if you actually want the pool and a private room. There are no dorms at all. You're a 5-minute walk from Bui Vien rather than on top of it, and there's no in-house bar beyond the poolside drinks, so a night out means heading over to the walking street. None of that is a dealbreaker — just know it's a quiet boutique, not a party base.

Our take

For anyone who wants a pool within walking distance of Pham Ngu Lao, Miehouse is the pick — the 8x4 metre rooftop pool with its skyline view is genuinely the only one in the area, backed by a 2020 boutique fit-out, private rooms, a restaurant and a spa. It scores 8.7/10, and from about $23 it works best for couples and solo travelers who'd rather swim early and walk to the bars than crash in a bunk above them.