HO CHI MINH CITY · VIETNAM
Motorbikes, street food, and a river at dusk.
The Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta, street food eaten off the back of a scooter, French-colonial Saigon and the night skyline over the river. The whole city, and the best way to do each piece of it.
Only here
Three days that could only be Saigon.
City tours and dinner cruises exist in every big city. Crawling a wartime tunnel, eating from the back of a scooter and being rowed down a hidden Mekong channel belong to this city and its delta.
Underground war
The Cu Chi Tunnels
An hour north of the city, the Viet Cong cut 250 kilometres of tunnels to fight the war from below ground: kitchens, field hospitals and sleeping quarters, all hand-dug into the red clay. You drop in and crawl a widened stretch yourself, then come up where the jungle did the hiding.
- 1 HCM City: Cu Chi Tunnels Morning or Afternoon Tour
- 2 Cu Chi Tunnels Tour from HCM City – Morning or Afternoon
- 3 HCM: Cu Chi Tunnels & Mekong Delta with Coconut Village Tour
On two wheels
Street Food by Scooter
Saigon runs on millions of motorbikes, and the best way to eat across it is from the back of one. A local rider threads you through the evening traffic stall to stall, banh mi to com tam to a bowl of something you would never have ordered on your own.
- 1 Saigon By Night and Street Food By Motorbike | Opt: Ao Dai Riders
- 2 Private Street Food Tour by Motorbike/Car with Local Students
- 3 Saigon: Street Food Tasting & Sightseeing Tour by Motorbike
River country
The Mekong by Sampan
Two hours south, the Mekong splits into nine river mouths before it reaches the sea. You swap the road for a wooden sampan, get rowed down a coconut-palm channel barely wider than the boat, and stop for honey tea, river fish and coconut candy pulled by hand.
- 1 From HCM City: Mekong Delta Tour with Sampan Journey
- 2 HCM: Cu Chi Tunnels & Mekong Delta with Coconut Village Tour
- 3 Mekong Delta Guided Tour from Ho Chi Minh City
If you only do one
The day half of Saigon books first.
More visitors plan a Saigon trip around this one day out than anything else in the city. Start here.
The classics
Saigon's Most Popular Tours
Cu Chi, the Mekong, the street-food rides and the city loops. The days most visitors come away talking about.
Where to begin
The experiences a Saigon trip is built around.
The Cu Chi tunnels, the Mekong day trip, the street-food rides, the motorbike tours, the colonial-city loops and the river cruises. The handful of things most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The two big ones
Cu Chi, the Mekong, or both in a day.
Nearly every Saigon trip weighs up the same two day trips. One heads north to the war tunnels, one heads south to the river, and plenty of travellers fit both into a single long day.
Eat the city
Saigon eats at the kerb.
The best food in the city is served on a low plastic stool: banh mi from a cart, com tam over charcoal, a bowl of pho or bun thit nuong, and a glass of iced coffee to finish. Food tours and night rides string the stalls together so you order what the locals order.
See the best Saigon street-food tours →After sundown
The city only gets louder at night.
Saigon comes alive once the heat drops. Rooftop bars high over District 1, the neon and beer crates of Bui Vien, a dinner cruise out on the river, and night markets that don’t wind down until the early hours.
See Saigon after dark →The river
The Saigon River, once the sun is down.
The river loops through the heart of the city, and the skyline lights up along it: the Bitexco tower, Landmark 81 across the water, the dinner boats strung with lanterns. See it from a sunset cruise, over dinner on the water, or from a fast skiff running down toward the delta.
River cruises & boat trips →Old Saigon
A French city, hiding in plain sight.
Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office built by Gustave Eiffel’s firm, the old Opera House and the tamarind-lined boulevards of District 1: central Saigon still wears its colonial bones. Walking tours thread the landmarks together with the war-era sites and the Cholon temples in between.
- 1 Private Street Food Evening Walking Tour in Ho Chi Minh City
- 2 Super Niche Walking Street Food Tour in Ho Chi Minh City
- 3 Ho Chi Minh City: Walking Food Tour with 13 Tastings
Morning to midnight
The city keeps three different hours.
Saigon feels like a different place at dawn, in the afternoon heat and after dark. Sort the day the way the city does, and you fit far more into it.
Morning
Coffee first, then the markets.A glass of ca phe sua da at a kerbside stool, then Ben Thanh and the wet markets before the heat settles in.
Afternoon
The landmarks and the war story.The Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum, Notre-Dame Cathedral and the old French post office, on foot or by cyclo.
After dark
Street food on two wheels.A stool-by-stool food crawl through District 1 on the back of a scooter, the night markets, and the river lit up.
By place
Saigon and the country around it.
Central Saigon for the landmarks and markets. Cu Chi for the war tunnels. The Mekong for the river and the canals. Can Gio for the mangroves. The river itself for dinner and the night skyline.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Eat your way through it on a food tour. Ride pillion on a scooter. Learn to cook it yourself. Or take to the river, the markets and the streets on foot.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Saigon? Here is a three-day run at the essentials without a wasted hour.
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