7 Days: HCMC and Its Best Day Trips

A full week is enough to do all four real day trips plus the Can Tho overnight properly, dawn floating market included, instead of dropping any of them for time. This is the same six-day plan as before with one day added at the end, not a rebuilt itinerary. Shorter trip? The 6-day version drops the dawn market and heads home a day earlier.

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.

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).

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, the honest single-day Mekong trip.

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; bus or car runs 2-3.5 hours instead. Treat Vung Tau as a beach-and-seafood day. The 32-metre Jesus Christ statue on the headland is worth the 800-plus steps.

Day 5: Use it on the city, not a fifth day trip

Spend day five on the city itself: the War Remnants Museum, Ben Thanh Market, Cholon’s Chinatown, none touched by this gateway plan. Our full Ho Chi Minh City guide or its 3-day city itinerary covers it well.

Day 6: Travel to Can Tho

Can Tho sits roughly 170km and 3-3.5 hours from HCMC by road. Leave District 1 by mid-morning, arrive early afternoon, check into a Can Tho hotel, most overnight tours include this, and spend the afternoon at Ninh Kieu wharf followed by a local dinner. The real payoff is tomorrow morning.

Day 7: Cai Rang floating market at dawn, then back to HCMC

Be on the water by 6-7am. Cai Rang’s wholesale boat trade runs roughly 5-8:30am and has largely wound down by mid-morning, so an early sampan or boat departure is the entire point of the overnight. Spend an hour or two among the wholesale boats, wander a canal-side market stall or two on the way back, then return to HCMC by road, arriving mid-to-late afternoon in time for a last District 1 dinner before departure the next morning.

Does a full week actually need the Can Tho overnight, or is six days enough?

Six days already covers all four day trips plus a rest day; the seventh day is specifically what turns a rushed, diminished Can Tho visit into the real thing, the dawn market at its actual working hours rather than its tired late-morning tail end. Skip it only if the floating market genuinely isn’t a priority for this trip.

Should you add a fifth day trip instead of the Can Tho dawn market?

No. There isn’t a fifth genuine day trip from HCMC worth the slot; Phu Quoc and Da Nang both require flights and are separate trips entirely. The seventh day is better spent finishing Can Tho properly than manufacturing a lesser destination just to fill it.

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

Confirm your day-seven return time with the Can Tho tour operator before you book a flight home; the road trip back to HCMC alone eats most of the afternoon, and a late-evening flight is safer than an early one.