Blue River Hotel is situated in a small clean and relatively quiet side street off Pham Ngu Lam Street opposite 23/9 Park (site of the original central railway station).

It is an ideal low cost base to explore HCMC and do the Lonely Planet walking tour.

Breakfast is good with fresh crusty French-style bread rolls, fruit, jams eggs, omlettes, the obligatory noodle soup, fruit juices, tea and coffee.

Rooms are clean with good shower room, flat screen TV and bar fridge. We had one overlooking the street and slept very well.

Free Wi-Fi is available and accessible throughout.

The real bonus of this hotel is the warmth, hospitality and assistance that Thuy and her colleagues Thu and Thu provide at the Front Desk. Everyone it seems, ourselves included, had a long list of travel and onward booking queries that needed assistance. Thuy and her staff did wonders in dealing with all of this efficiently and with a smile – they keep a detailed log book of all requests – taxis, phone calls etc - so that nothing is over-looked.

We were particularly pleased with their advice and assistance in getting an Air Con Coach from HCMC to Can Tho. They booked the coach tickets by phone (110,000 VND per person) and arranged a taxi from Blue River Hotel (45,000 VND) to the bus company office from which we got the free shuttle bus (every 5 to 10 minutes at 0800) to the Bus Station. We were the only European-looking people at the bus station which was a surprise to us – no idea how everyone else gets to Can Tho. The coach itself was very modern and comfortable. The journey to Can Tho takes around 4 hours including a 30 minute stop at a superb place for lunch. There are buses to many other Mekong Delta destinations from the same bus station.

They also got some delayed train tickets to us and recommended a beautiful authentic Vietnamese restuarant way-off the tourist track in a quiet residential street which we visited en-route from the airport (having flown back from Phu Quoc) to the railway station for an overnight to Nha Trang.

All in all thanks in particular to Thuy and her colleagues Blue River Hotel is a great place from which to explore HCMC.