Where to stay in Ho Chi Minh City: the best neighbourhoods and hotels

Dong Khoi is the old Rue Catinat, the street Graham Greene's characters drank their way along, running from Notre-Dame Cathedral down to the river. The Opera House sits halfway, the wedding-cake City Hall presides over the pedestrian boulevard of Nguyen Hue, and the Central Post Office, with its vaulted iron hall, is a short walk north.

This is the heart of District 1 and the smartest place to stay. The hotels are landmarks in their own right: one opened in 1959 as the city's first international hotel and has a 24-storey tower over the business and shopping district; another began life as a French garage and has been part of the skyline for more than 80 years. Around them are spa hotels with outdoor pools and one palace of Italian marble.

At the foot of Dong Khoi the city meets the Saigon River, wide, brown and busy with barges and dinner boats. The promenade along Ton Duc Thang has been smartened up, and Ba Son, the old French shipyard district just upstream, is turning into one of the city's liveliest quarters for food and shopping.

Riverfront hotels trade on the view. A 1920s colonial classic, with balconies and a rooftop bar over the water, sits where Dong Khoi ends; newer towers have outdoor pools, spas and sky bars; and one resort-style hotel is a five-minute walk from the Opera House. In Ba Son there is a design-led boutique hotel inspired by the neighbourhood's past.

Ben Thanh Market, with its clock tower, is the city's best-known landmark: a hall of dried fruit, coffee, lacquerware and firm bargaining, ringed at night by food stalls. A few blocks west is Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker district, whose main drag, Bui Vien, becomes a pedestrian street of bars, music and plastic stools after dark.

It is the liveliest and best-value corner of District 1, and still only a 15-minute walk from Dong Khoi. Alongside the hostels there are proper five-stars: one near the market has a pool, a spa and a steakhouse with panoramic city views; another sits beside a park, steps from the central bus station. Not for early nights.

North-west of the cathedral the traffic thins a little and the trees close overhead. Le Duan Boulevard runs past the consulates to the Reunification Palace, its 1960s war rooms left exactly as they were; just beyond, in District 3, are the War Remnants Museum, old French villas and a cafe on what feels like every corner.

It is a calmer, more local base, with the main sights still walkable. One long-established five-star stands on Le Duan itself, steps from the cathedral; a boutique-minded hotel sits among colonial houses beside the historic Marie Curie School; and a newer tower in District 3 has an outdoor pool and is a five-minute drive from Ben Thanh Market.

Outside the centre the city sprawls, and a few places are worth the taxi. In Binh Thanh, Landmark 81, the tallest building in Vietnam, rises over a riverside park, with a hotel on its upper floors. To the west is Cholon, the old Chinatown, all incense-filled pagodas and wholesale markets.

Hotels out here give you more for your money: big rooms, big pools and, in one case, an easy run to the airport. For something altogether different, a small retreat hides in tropical gardens on the bank of the Saigon River, a 25-minute boat ride from the centre.

Phu Quoc is a short flight from Saigon, a hilly, forested island in the Gulf of Thailand with a west coast made for sunsets. Long Beach, running south from the main town of Duong Dong, is the classic strip; Kem Beach, in the far south, has the whitest sand; and the north-west coast around Ong Lang and Bai Dai is quieter.

The resorts are big, new and very good at pools. On Long Beach you'll find five-stars ten minutes from the airport and an all-suite and villa resort with private infinity pools. At Kem Beach, villas and a theatrical luxury resort share the sand. Families should look north, where a beachfront resort is geared to children and Vinpearl's theme park and safari are close.

When Saigon wants the sea at the weekend, it comes here. Vung Tau is a seaside city about 90 minutes away by car, with a giant hilltop statue of Christ, seafood restaurants and the long sweep of Back Beach. It is cheerful rather than beautiful, and busy on Saturdays.

Further up the coast, Ho Tram is the more appealing choice for a proper beach stay: a long, largely empty stretch of sand about two hours from the city, lined with large five-star resorts with lagoon pools, villas and kids' clubs. Go midweek and you may have the beach almost to yourself.

Mui Ne, beside the fishing port of Phan Thiet, is a long ribbon of beach resorts on the south-east coast. It is known for two things: the wind, which makes it the country's kitesurfing capital, and the red and white sand dunes behind the coast, which look borrowed from another continent. Round coracle boats crowd the fishing harbour at dawn.

It is a road trip from Saigon rather than a flight, about two and a half hours by car to the nearer resorts. Stay in a low-rise spa resort among gardens, an Indochine-style hotel on the sand, or, with children in tow, a themed resort with its own waterpark.

South-west of Saigon the Mekong splits into a maze of channels, orchards and rice fields. Can Tho is the delta's biggest city and the place to stay for the floating markets, where boats piled with pineapples and pumpkins trade at first light. Go early; it is over by mid-morning.

The best hotels sit on or near the Hau River, with pools, spas and wide water views, and one resort is reached by its own boat from the city pier. Push on to Chau Doc, near the Cambodian border, for a colonial-style riverside hotel and the pilgrimage temples of Sam Mountain.