SAIGON · VIETNAM
Street food, scooter lanes, the delta beyond.
Cu Chi tunnels and Mekong Delta day trips, street-food tours by motorbike, river cruises and the old markets of Cholon. Every good day in Saigon, and every road out of it.
Only here
Three experiences that are pure Saigon.
Food tours and boat trips exist in every Asian city. Crawling the Cu Chi tunnels, eating dinner from the back of a scooter and waking up on the Mekong do not.
Underground war
The Cu Chi Tunnels
A 250-kilometre warren the Viet Cong dug by hand and lived in for years, two hours northwest of the city. Guides walk you through the trapdoors and tripwires at ground level, then you drop in and crawl a stretch of the real thing. Nowhere else puts you down inside the war like this.
- 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
Two wheels, one city
Saigon by Motorbike
Nine million people and seven million bikes; the traffic only makes sense from inside it. On the back of a local’s scooter you thread the night markets and pull up at pavement kitchens down lanes no guidebook lists, eating across the city between red lights.
- 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
Life on the water
The Mekong Delta
Two hours south the city dissolves into a maze of brown channels, stilt houses and sampans. You row through water-coconut palms, watch coconut candy pulled by hand, and drift past markets where the whole shop is one loaded boat. The river sets the pace.
- 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
Start here
The one almost everyone books first.
More Saigon trips are built around this half-day than anything else on the list.
Where most people start
Saigon's Most Popular Tours
Cu Chi, the Mekong, street food by night and the river after dark. The days most travellers come to Saigon for.
Where to begin
The trips a Saigon week is built around.
The Cu Chi tunnels, the Mekong Delta, the street food, the scooter rides, the river cruises and the cooking classes. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big day trip
How to do the Mekong Delta.
It is two hours south to the river and two hours back, so the how matters as much as the if. Three ways to reach the delta from Saigon, depending on the time you have.
Street food
Dinner is a plastic stool on the pavement.
Saigon eats outside. Banh mi carts and bun thit nuong grills, a bowl of pho before dawn, com tam under a tarpaulin, the night stalls of District 4. The best meals in the city have no menu, no walls, and a queue of locals who know.
Read the guide: the best street food tours in Saigon →After the heat drops
The city gets going at night.
Saigon does its best living after sunset. Street-food runs by scooter through the night markets, rooftop bars looking down over District 1, the A O Show at the opera house, and a dinner cruise drifting past the lit-up skyline on the river.
See the evening experiences →The river
The city makes more sense from the water.
The Saigon River bends through the east of the city, dividing the old districts from the new towers of Thu Thiem across the water. At dusk the Bitexco building catches the last light and the bridges start to glow. The best seat for all of it is the deck of a river cruise.
River cruises & boat trips →Tay Ninh day trip
The most extraordinary temple in Vietnam.
Two hours northwest of the city, the Great Temple of the Cao Dai religion rises in candy-coloured towers above the jungle. Inside, noon prayers fill the hall with the faithful in white robes under a painted celestial ceiling that has to be seen to be believed. Most tours pair it with the Cu Chi tunnels on the same day.
- 1 Tay Ninh – Cao Dai & Ba Den Mountain + Optional Cu Chi Tunnels
- 2 Small-Group 1-day: Cao Dai Temple & Ba Den Mountain
- 3 Cu Chi Tunnels – Cao Dai Temple & Black Virgin Mountain Full Day
Plan by distance
Pick how far you want to go today.
Saigon is a hub. Stay inside the city for an afternoon, push an hour out for the tunnels and mangroves, or commit a full day to reach the delta.
In the city
Stay in Saigon.District 1 on foot, the markets of Cholon, a coffee on every corner and a street-food crawl after dark. Days you never leave town.
Half a day out
Out to Cu Chi.The tunnels by road or speedboat, or the Can Gio mangroves downstream. Gone in the morning, back for a late lunch.
A full day there and back
Down to the delta.The Mekong’s coconut channels and floating markets, or the rainbow temple out at Tay Ninh. The big days that need an early start.
By motorbike
The only honest way to see Saigon.
Seven million bikes on the road, and the best guides are on them. Riding pillion through the back lanes of District 3, pulling over for a bowl of bun bo Hue at a pavement stall, weaving the night market alleys after dark — you see a city that tours through bus windows never reach.
See all 56 scooter tours →By place
The city, and the roads out of it.
Downtown Saigon for the markets and the street food. The Mekong for the river channels. Cu Chi for the tunnels. Tay Ninh for the Cao Dai temple. Can Gio for the mangroves. Mui Ne for the red dunes.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
Street food if you want to eat the city. A scooter if you want to move through it fast. A cooking class if you want to take it home. The river if you want the skyline at dusk.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Saigon? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
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