Ho Chi Minh City is too big to work through. Fourteen million people, a city that moves 24 hours a day, and most backpackers give it two to four days. Not everything fits, and with an average of 32 degrees during the day you get less done here than you would plan at home anyway.
A few things really belong on your trip: the war history, one day outside the city, and food that comes off a cart instead of out of a kitchen. Others are on every list and cost you half a day or around eight euros, so they are mostly a treat if you have the time.
So where do your Saigon days go, and what do you save for next time?
Still planning? How many days you need, where to sleep and how to get there are all on our Ho Chi Minh City page.
Street food on the back of a motorbike
For a lot of backpackers this is the highlight of their whole stay, and that comes down to how Saigon works. The best food is not in a restaurant but down an alley, behind a roller shutter or on a corner you would never find yourself. On the back of a local guide’s bike you get in a few hours to places you would not pass in two days of walking.
You ride past busy markets, local neighbourhoods and hidden food spots, and you hop off at every one to eat. Southern Vietnamese food is sweeter and milder than in the north, with plenty of fresh herbs and lime. Along the way you also see how the traffic here actually works, which makes the rest of your stay a lot less scary.
Do this on your first night, not your last. Afterwards you know which dishes to order yourself at a stall for the rest of your days.
Our verdict: absolutely, and ideally on your very first night
The Cu Chi tunnels
The best-known thing to do from Saigon is not in Saigon: the Cu Chi tunnel network is about 40 kilometres outside the city. This is where the Viet Cong lived and fought underground during the Vietnam War, and you crawl through a stretch of the tunnels yourself. For a lot of travellers it is the most powerful experience of their whole trip through Vietnam.
You visit the original hideouts, see how the entrances were hidden and get the stories from a guide. Count on half a day including the ride there and back. Tours leave in the morning or the afternoon and pick you up in District 1.
Pick the morning tour. It is cooler and quieter, and being underground in the afternoon heat is a lot less fun than it sounds. Having half a day left over afterwards is a bonus.
Our verdict: a must, and go in the morning
Cholon at seven in the morning
This is our own favourite in Ho Chi Minh City, and also the place hardly any backpackers go. Cholon is the city’s historic Chinatown: centuries-old temples, Chinese tea houses, local markets and food stalls where you are the only foreigner. The yellow market hall of Binh Tay Market with its Chinese roofs is worth the ride on its own.
It costs you nothing but a Grab from District 1. Get there at around seven in the morning, because that is when the market is being unloaded and the soup carts are out on the street. A few hours later it is just a busy neighbourhood.
Have breakfast while you are there. A bowl of soup from a cart in Cholon costs just over a euro and gets you the calmest, most real morning this city has to offer.
Our verdict: at seven they are unloading the market, a few hours later it is just a busy neighbourhood
The War Remnants Museum
Where Cu Chi lets you feel the war, this museum shows it to you. Photographs, vehicles and a lot of background on the Vietnam War, told from the Vietnamese side. It is the most visited museum in the city, and plenty of travellers see the rest of their trip differently afterwards.
Entry is about €1.50 and it is open daily from 7.30 to 18.00. It is in District 3, about twenty minutes on foot from Bui Vien. You can simply walk in on your own, but with a guide the photographs and the stories land better. Some walking tours combine the museum with the Independence Palace.
Know what you are walking into: some of the photographs are hard to look at. Do not plan anything cheerful straight after it. Get a coffee and give yourself a moment.
Our verdict: go, even if you never set foot in a museum at home
A day in the Mekong Delta
The delta is the opposite of Saigon: no horns, just narrow canals, palm trees and villages where life happens on the water. You glide through the greenery in small boats, visit a coconut village and see how people work and trade locally. A completely different Vietnam from the street your hostel is on.
It is a full day. You get picked up in the morning and you are back late in the afternoon or in the evening. There are small group tours too, and they are worth the extra money if you would rather not shuffle through a coconut workshop in a line of forty people.
Do not plan this on the same day as Cu Chi, put it on the day after. Two early starts are fine, two half experiences in one day is a waste.
Our verdict: go as soon as you have a third day
Nguyen Hue walking street after dark
This wide boulevard is where Saigon shows itself off. During the day it is mostly hot concrete, but once it gets dark the buskers, the music and the food stalls arrive, and at the end stands the floodlit city hall, one of the most beautiful colonial buildings in the city.
It costs nothing and at the weekend the street is car-free. Halfway down, look for the Apartment Building at number 42: an old block of flats where almost every apartment has been turned into a cafe, a bar or a little shop. Go up to the top and work your way down floor by floor.
Pair it with dinner. Bui Vien is close by, so afterwards you can head anywhere, or just stroll back to your hostel.
Our verdict: free and done in no time, so always add it
The Saigon Skydeck at sunset
From the 49th floor of the Bitexco Financial Tower you look out over the whole city, and only up there do you get how huge Ho Chi Minh City really is. The river, the endless rooftops and the lights coming on while you stand there watching.
Entry is about €8.50 and the viewing deck is open from 9.30 to 21.30. By Vietnamese standards that is a lot of money, well over a third of your daily budget, so make sure you go at the right moment.
Be up there half an hour before sunset. Then you see the city twice, once in daylight and once after dark, for the price of one ticket. Go at three in the afternoon and you pay the same for half of it.
Our verdict: good fun, and at its best around sunset
Got time to spare in Ho Chi Minh City?
Ben Thanh Market and the night market around it
Walking in costs nothing and the market hall is a good place to soak up the atmosphere. Want to buy something? Start haggling at about a third of the asking price. The best part comes after six, when the night market opens up around it: then you eat outside between the stalls and it is one of the most fun spots in the city.
The Cu Chi tunnels or the Mekong Delta
There is a combo tour that does both in one day, and then you are on the road from early morning until the evening. With two days, pick Cu Chi and save the delta for next time. With three or four, the Mekong Delta is one of the best days in southern Vietnam.
Thao Dien if you are staying longer
Green, quiet and full of cafes, coworking spaces and western restaurants. If you are sticking around to work, this is the nicest part of town. Only here for a few days? Then you are better off closer to the centre, because every Grab back costs you time.
An evening in District 3 or District 4
One night on Bui Vien is part of the deal: neon, speakers, packed terraces and a beer for eighty cents. Staying longer? Spend an evening in District 3 or District 4 and eat among the local places. For the same money it is a completely different night, and at least as good.
Our top five in Ho Chi Minh City
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- The street food tour by motorbike, ideally on your first night
- The Cu Chi tunnels, on the morning tour
- The War Remnants Museum, slowly and without rushing
- A full day in the Mekong Delta
- Cholon at seven in the morning, while the market is being unloaded
Still got time after that? Walk Nguyen Hue after dark and find the Apartment Building at number 42. And if you want to understand what you have been eating all those days, a cooking class where you first shop Ben Thanh Market with the chef is the most fun way to find out.
So what do you really have to do in Ho Chi Minh City?
Everything on this list is worth your time, but Saigon is above all a city to let yourself get carried along by. The travellers who got the most out of it dropped their plan halfway through and followed a food cart. This list is here to help you choose, and to leave room around it.
If we had to pick just one thing, it is the combination of Cu Chi in the morning and a plastic stool by the road in the evening. On the same day you see where this city comes from and where it is now, and that contrast is exactly why you are here.
And set your alarm for six one morning. Grab a ride to Cholon, sit down at the first soup cart with a queue of locals in front of it and point at whatever your neighbour is having. It costs you just over a euro and an hour of sleep, and it is the bit of Saigon you will still be telling people about a year from now.
