Ho Chi Minh City
A city everyone still calls Saigon, its own airport included
- When to go
- September 27° · 30 rainy days
- Per day
- €price 1 of 5
- How many days
- 2days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 7 km Ho Chi Minh
- Right now
Ho Chi Minh City has been the official name since 1976, but in everyday speech the place is still Saigon — as its airport code, SGN, quietly confirms. Two days works: one for the war and the history, one for the Mekong Delta or the districts off the main tourist route.
The War Remnants Museum is the hardest and most important thing in the city. The presentation is one-sided and does not hide it, but the photographs and the consequences of defoliants are documented and heavy going; go in the morning and allow an hour and a half to two. The Cu Chi tunnels are the other half of the same story, ninety minutes out: a network of over two hundred kilometres of narrow passages, part of it widened for visitors.
What people forget is that this is also a French city. The nineteenth-century central post office, the Notre-Dame cathedral built of brick shipped from Toulouse, and the opera house — all within five minutes' walk. An hour there makes the right contrast with the morning.
The Mekong Delta begins two hours south and is usually done as a day trip, which does not suit it: the thing worth seeing is the floating market at Can Tho, which runs from five to eight in the morning and therefore needs a night. With only one day, spend it in the city rather than in a minibus to the river and back.
What to see in Ho Chi Minh City
The War Remnants Museum
One-sided and hard going, and it says so. Mornings, an hour and a half to two, with nothing planned straight after.
- T
The Cu Chi tunnels
Over two hundred kilometres of passages, ninety minutes from the city. Part is widened for visitors — the original is narrower than it looks.
The Central Post Office
A nineteenth-century building with a steel vault, still working as a post office. Free, and best from the inside.
Ben Thanh market
The central market: fabric and souvenirs by day, street kitchens around it at night. Bargaining is expected, start at half.
Bitexco and Landmark 81
Viewing decks over the river. Landmark 81 is the tallest building in the country, and the top floor has both a viewing deck and a bar — a drink often comes to about what the ticket costs, so do the sums before queueing.
Cholon
The Chinese quarter, with the Thien Hau temple and Binh Tay market. Reached by taxi, and the least polished part of the city.
Two things you probably did not know
The tunnels at Cu Chi near Ho Chi Minh City run for some two hundred and fifty kilometres on three levels. People lived in them for years; they held hospitals, kitchens and workshops. Kitchen smoke was vented kilometres away.
The banh mi sandwich came from joining the French baguette with Vietnamese fillings after the colonial period. The Vietnamese version uses rice flour in the dough, so the crust is thinner and lighter than the French one.
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