4 Days: HCMC and Its Best Day Trips

Four days is the point where the base becomes the point, not just a stopover: one settling-in day, then three full day trips out of District 1: Cu Chi and Tay Ninh combined, the Mekong Delta, and Vung Tau beach. Tighter on time? Drop Vung Tau and see the 3-day version . Got a fifth day? The 5-day plan adds a free day back in the city.

Book these before you go

Day 1: Land, settle into District 1

Tan Son Nhat Airport (SGN) sits 6-8km from District 1; a Grab car runs 110,000-250,000 VND (roughly $4-10), 25-45 minutes outside rush hour. Check in, walk Dong Khoi or Nguyen Hue in the evening, have dinner, and get an early night ahead of three consecutive day trips.

Day 2: Cu Chi Tunnels and Tay Ninh’s Cao Dai Temple

Early 7-8am pickup for the roughly 2-2.5 hour drive northwest to Tay Ninh, arriving by 11:15-11:30am for the noon Cao Dai ceremony. Continue to the Cu Chi Tunnels on the way back; Ben Duoc, at roughly 70km, beats the closer Ben Dinh on scale and crowds if your operator offers a choice. Entry runs 110,000-125,000 VND (~$4-5). Back in District 1 by early evening, 8-10 hours door to door.

Day 3: The Mekong Delta at My Tho and Ben Tre

My Tho and Ben Tre sit 70-90km southwest, 1.5-2 hours by road: a sampan canal ride, a coconut-candy workshop, Vinh Trang Pagoda. Shared tours run roughly $25-70 per person. This is the honest single-day Mekong trip; Can Tho’s Cai Rang floating market needs an overnight, covered in our 6-day and 7-day plans.

Day 4: Vung Tau beach

The Greenlines hydrofoil down the Saigon River takes 1.5-2 hours, roughly $10-15 (250,000-375,000 VND) one way, with more departures on weekends, book ahead for a Friday or Saturday sailing; bus or car runs 2-3.5 hours instead. Vung Tau is Saigon’s own weekend beach-escape valve, not a spectacular coastline by the standard of Da Nang or Phu Quoc, so treat it as a beach-and-seafood day rather than a bucket-list stop. The 32-metre Jesus Christ statue on the headland is worth the 800-plus steps if you have the energy left after three straight day trips.

Is a fourth day trip worth adding, or is three enough?

Three covers the highest-value pair, Cu Chi and Tay Ninh plus the Mekong, without much drop-off in return per hour. Vung Tau adds a genuinely different kind of day, beach and seafood rather than history or canals, but skip it if you’d rather spend day four resting or exploring District 1 itself instead.

Do the day trips get repetitive after three in a row?

Not with this order. Cu Chi and Tay Ninh is history and ceremony, the Mekong is rural canal life, and Vung Tau is a beach day; each one is a genuinely different kind of trip rather than a variation on the last, which is the actual test for whether a fourth day trip is worth booking.

The day trips, side by side

Day trip Distance from HCMC Travel time What it costs
Cu Chi Tunnels (Ben Duoc) ~70km 1.5-2h 110,000-125,000 VND entry (~$4-5)
Tay Ninh, Cao Dai Great Temple ~90km 2-2.5h Free entry; built around the noon ceremony
Mekong Delta, My Tho and Ben Tre ~70-90km 1.5-2h Day tour roughly $25-70pp shared
Vung Tau beach ~90-100km 1.5-2h by hydrofoil, 2-3.5h by road Hydrofoil 250,000-375,000 VND ($10-15)
Mekong Delta, Can Tho and Cai Rang (overnight only) ~170km 3-3.5h one way Overnight tour roughly $60-120pp

Book the Vung Tau hydrofoil for a specific sailing time rather than showing up; weekend departures fill days ahead during the December-April dry season.