Saigon eats standing up. The great days out leave town.
Which Cu Chi trip goes to the quieter tunnels at Ben Duoc. What a delta day costs once lunch is counted in. Where a street food ride finishes at midnight. Reviews of every tour you can book in Ho Chi Minh City.
Four bookings that carry a first trip to Saigon.
The two day trips out of the city, the ride that eats its way through it after dark, and the long day that does both. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The tunnelsCu Chi Tunnels Tour from HCM City – Morning or AfternoonBen Dinh in a morning and back for lunch. Take the early slot; by noon the crawl is airless.
02Down to the deltaMekong Delta Tour with Sampan JourneyA sampan through the coconut channels at My Tho, lunch on the island, home before dark.
03Dinner by motorbikePrivate Street Food Tour by Motorbike/Car with Local StudentsA student rider, four stops, a plastic stool at every one of them.
04The city on footSuper Niche Walking Street Food Tour in Ho Chi Minh CityDistrict 1 at walking pace, stopping at the stalls the tour buses drive past.
Every good Saigon day trip is two hours out and a world away.
A tunnel network under the rubber country north-west, coconut channels to the south, mangrove creeks reachable in a morning and the beach town the city drives to at weekends. Six places, and the day out that does each one properly.
One day to My Tho, two days to Cai Rang, or the back channels at Ben Tre.
The Mekong starts ninety minutes south of the city and improves the further down you go. Three lengths of trip, what it costs to get on the boat, and how far downriver each one takes you.
Cu Chi, Ben Duoc, and the war Saigon keeps in view.
Everything at Cu Chi →
Two stretches of tunnel take visitors. Ben Dinh is closer to the city and busy by ten; Ben Duoc is another half hour out, wider underground and quieter above it. Most trips pair one of them with a war museum, a battlefield, or the Cao Dai temple on the road home.
Ben Dinh or Ben Duoc
Ben Dinh runs on a tight loop and moves a lot of people through a widened crawl. Ben Duoc is further, less rebuilt and gives you room to stand in the command bunker without a queue behind you.
The museums in District 3
The War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace sit fifteen minutes apart and answer different questions. Take a guide for the palace; the rooms below it are the part nobody explains on a sign.
Long Tan and Nui Dat
The rubber plantation east of Ba Ria is a full day from the city and a personal pilgrimage for many Australians. The cross site is on private land and the paperwork has to be arranged before you travel.
Saigon serves its best food on the pavement, from six.
Banh mi from a corner cart, snails by the plate on Vinh Khanh, com tam under a strip light, a rider who knows which stool to pull out for you. The city is at its best between six and midnight and almost none of it happens indoors.
What a day out of Saigon actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The street costs less than dinner at home, and the two big day trips both sit in the middle band.
Street food rides, cyclo hours, cooking classes and the half day out to the tunnels.
Full days: tunnels and delta together, the run down to Cai Rang, a private rider for the evening.
A car and guide for the day, overnight trips into the delta and the crossings toward Cambodia.
Nobody sees Saigon properly from inside a car.
Pillion on a scooter through the six o’clock traffic, a Vespa with a food stop every twenty minutes, an ao dai rider who takes the river road, a cyclo through Cholon at walking pace. Pick the machine and let somebody else deal with the roundabout at Ben Thanh.
The Saigon days out that fill first.
Every tour we have reviewed in the city →These carry more travellers than anything else on the site. What each one is, what it costs, and where it goes.
1
Cu Chi Tunnels Tour from HCM City – Morning or Afternoon
Visit the Cu Chi Tunnels from Ho Chi Minh City on a morning or afternoon group tour. Expect a long drive, about two hours at the site, English commentary, narrow tunnels, trapdoors, wartime kitchens, and optional AK-47 shooting for adults.
From · $15
Read our review →
2
Mekong Delta Tour with Sampan Journey
from $16
3
Ho Chi Minh City Street Food Tour & Sightseeing By Motorbike
from $28
4
Cu Chi Tunnels-Tapioca Small Group Tour Morning or Afternoon
from $14
5
Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta Signature Tour
from $33
6
Mekong Delta Guided Tour from Ho Chi Minh City
from $18
7
Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta Full Day Tour – Max 12
from $43
8
Saigon By Night and Street Food By Motorbike | Opt: Ao Dai Riders
from $37
Four things in Saigon you cannot arrange on the day.
Most of this city can be sorted from a coffee stool the night before. These four run on dawn starts, a fixed service time, a seat count and a permit, none of which care when your flight lands.
- 01Mekong Delta & Cai Rang Floating Market 2-Day TourThe floating market does its trading between five and eight, so the trip starts the night before, downriver at Can Tho.
- 02Cao Dai & Ba Den Mountain + Optional Cu Chi TunnelsThe Tay Ninh service runs at noon. Turn up at two and you are looking at an empty hall.
- 03Golden Dragon Water Puppet TicketThe theatre sells a set number of seats per performance and the early evening shows go first.
- 04Long Tan and Nui Dat – Australian Battlefield one-day tour from Ho Chi Minh CityThe Long Tan cross stands on private land and needs a permit arranged in advance. Nobody sells one at the gate.
Saigon’s wet season is an hour, not a day.
From May to November the sky opens around four and empties itself for an hour. Nothing stops; the city puts on a poncho and carries on. Book the outdoor half for the morning and keep something with a roof for the afternoon: a kitchen, a coffee window, a theatre, a table on the river.
Three things you can only do from Ho Chi Minh City.
Tunnels you can get inside, a market that trades from boats before breakfast, and a temple built for a religion younger than the railway line.
The Cu Chi Tunnels
Two hundred kilometres of hand-dug tunnel run under the district north-west of the city, on three levels, with kitchens whose smoke was vented a hundred metres from the fire. Two sections take visitors: Ben Dinh, close and busy, and Ben Duoc, further out and quieter. A widened stretch is open to crawl, and twenty metres of it is enough for most people.
- 1Cu Chi Tunnels Tour from HCM City – Morning or Afternoon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 15,833 reviews
- 2Cu Chi Tunnels-Tapioca Small Group Tour Morning or Afternoon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,485 reviews
- 3Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta Signature Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 7,328 reviews
Cai Rang Floating Market
Wholesalers moor mid-river below Can Tho and hang a sample of what they are selling from a pole above the deck, so a buyer can read the whole market from a distance. Business is done boat to boat between five and eight in the morning and the coffee comes across on a sampan. By nine the river is ordinary again.
- 1Mekong Delta & Cai Rang Floating Market 2-Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,183 reviews
- 2Cai Rang Floating Market & Mekong Delta 2-Day Tour from HCM City★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 942 reviews
- 3Mekong Delta & Cai Rang Floating Market 2-Day Tour from HCMC★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 813 reviews
The Cao Dai Great Temple
Caodaism was founded at Tay Ninh in the 1920s and takes what it wants from Buddhism, Catholicism and Taoism, with a divine eye above the altar and Victor Hugo among its saints. The hall is painted in the colours of its three branches and the congregation prays four times a day. Visitors watch the noon service from the balcony, barefoot and quiet.
- 1Small-Group 1-day: Cao Dai Temple & Ba Den Mountain★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 249 reviews
- 2Cu Chi Tunnels – Cao Dai Temple & Black Virgin Mountain Full Day★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 200 reviews
- 31-Day Tour of Black Virgin Mountain – Cao Dai Temple – Cu Chi Tunnels from HCMC★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 167 reviews
North to the tunnels, south to the river
By kind of day: on foot, on a bike, on the water or at a table
Three days in Saigon: the street, the tunnels, the delta.
District 1 on foot
Cholon
Tay Ninh
Saigon RiverNew on the site: more of the city, more of the river.
Everything else we have reviewed →
PHU MY PORT: SAIGON SHORE EXCURSION-Old and New Parts of Saigon
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Vung Tau/Ho Chi Minh: Nui Dat, Long Tan, Long Phuoc tunnel
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The Insider’s Saigon With Female Ao Dai Riders Vespa 4,5 Hours
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Saigon Evening: Water Puppet Show & Dinner Cruise Experience
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Nam Cat Tien National Park 2-Day Tour with Lodging, Meals..
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HCM city Chinatown Landscape, Beliefs & ghost tour by scooter
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Vung Tau Full-Day Tour with Beach, Christ Statue & White Palace
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Nam Cat Tien National Park 2 Days 1 Night – Private Tour
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2-Day Trekking & Biking Nam Cat Tien National Park from HCM City
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Ho Chi Minh Shore Excursion: Wonderful City Tour with Local Guide
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Ho Chi Minh City Shore Excursion: Private City Tour Including Cyclo Ride
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Saigon City and Chinatown Exploration with Water Bus Adventure
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