Ho Chi Minh City (still Saigon to most locals) is younger, hotter and more commercial than Hanoi, with French colonial buildings squeezed between glass towers. It's the natural base for tunnel tours, Mekong Delta boats and some of the country's best late-night street food.
Good to know
- Use the Grab app for taxis and bikes — fixed prices, no haggling.
- Book a Cu Chi Tunnels or Mekong Delta tour a day ahead through your hotel or a reputable operator.
- District 1 is walkable but sprawling — plan sights by neighbourhood cluster to avoid backtracking in the heat.
Eat this
Places the planner can use
Mark places as a must or something to skip. The itinerary is built only from this list; ★ marks the destination’s highlights.
1960s time-capsule palace where a tank crashed through the gates in 1975, ending the war.
Central covered market of souvenirs, fabric and a food court of Vietnamese classics, loudest after dark outside.
Twin-towered brick cathedral facing Gustave Eiffel's colonial post office, still in daily postal use.
Backpacker strip of beer stalls, clubs and street performers that spills into the road after dark.
Smoky Taoist temple thick with incense coils and carved wooden deities, one of the city's most atmospheric.
49th-floor observation deck over the Saigon River and the city's ever-multiplying skyline.
Sundowners above the traffic at bars like Chill Skybar, with the river and Landmark 81 lit up.
Market shop then hands-on lessons in pho, fresh spring rolls and banh xeo at a home-style kitchen.
Sobering collection of American War photography and armor — a difficult but essential few hours.
Crawl through (widened) sections of the guerrilla tunnel network used against French and American forces.
The city's Chinese quarter, centred on an early-20th-century covered market and incense-filled Thien Hau Temple.
Boat through floating markets and canal-side fruit orchards a couple of hours south of the city.