Ho Chi Minh City 6 Day Itinerary

Tan Son Nhat Airport sits just 6 kilometres from District 1, yet the journey can take 45 minutes in morning traffic. That gap between distance and reality is a good introduction to how Saigon works: everything here has a layer of complexity that rewards the visitor who slows down enough to read it properly.

Day 1: Arrival and District 1

From the airport, Grab is the most reliable option into the city centre. Expect to pay 110,000 to 250,000 VND (roughly USD 5 to 11) depending on surge pricing, plus a 10,000 VND airport toll. If your budget is tight and you have a local SIM sorted, Bus 152 runs directly to Ben Thanh Market for around 6,000 VND. Pick up a SIM card before leaving the arrivals hall: staying connected makes navigation and Grab substantially easier.

Stay in District 1 for your first few nights. The Park Hyatt Saigon is the classic luxury option on Lam Son Square (USD 200 to 300 per night), while the Hotel Majestic has colonial-era character and lake views at a lower price point. For mid-range, the streets around Pham Ngu Lao offer good guesthouses under USD 50.

Start the afternoon gently. The War Remnants Museum on Vo Van Tan Street charges 40,000 VND (about USD 1.50) and is one of the most affecting museums in Southeast Asia. Its coverage of the American War is unflinching and requires a couple of clear hours, not a rushed 40 minutes. Open 7:30 AM to 6:00 PM daily.

Walk from there to the Ben Thanh Market area for an early evening look around. Do not buy much here on day one. The market is heavily tourist-oriented and prices are elevated. The outer ring of the night market extension that opens at dusk has better street food than the interior stalls. Watch the 500,000 VND and 20,000 VND notes carefully when paying: both are blue-toned and quick-change artists exploit this constantly.

Dinner at Cong Caphe on Hai Ba Trung for egg coffee and rice dishes is a low-key but authentic way to start.

Day 2: Cu Chi Tunnels

Leave early. The Cu Chi Tunnels are 70 kilometres northwest of the city and the drive takes 90 minutes each way. A full-day organised tour from District 1 runs USD 16 to 25 per person including transport, guide, and entry. Independent entry at the Ben Dinh site costs around 125,000 VND per person for foreigners.

The tunnels were built by the Viet Cong over two decades and cover 250 kilometres at their peak. The section open to visitors has been widened for Western-sized bodies, but it is still a genuinely claustrophobic experience. The more interesting structures are above ground: trapdoors, booby trap displays, and the wartime kitchen that vented smoke horizontally through tunnels to prevent aerial detection. The Ben Duoc site is larger and less crowded than Ben Dinh but requires a longer drive.

Return to the city by mid-afternoon. The Bitexco Financial Tower observation deck on Floor 52 costs about 200,000 VND and provides a good aerial read of how the city’s districts relate to each other. Do it once, but most of the interesting ground-level detail in Saigon is lost from that height.

Evening on Bui Vien Street (“Backpacker Street”) is loud, relentless, and worth an hour of your time. It is not where you eat seriously. Head one street over to the local restaurants on De Tham for better banh mi and cheaper beer.

Day 3: Museums, Temples, and District 3

Banh Mi Huynh Hoa on Le Thi Rieng Street opens mid-morning and sells some of the most generously filled banh mi in the city. Arrive before the queue builds.

The Museum of Vietnamese History in District 1 covers 4,000 years from the Dong Son bronze culture through to the modern state. Entry is 30,000 VND for adults. The Fine Arts Museum nearby, inside a beautiful French colonial building on Pho Duc Chinh, charges 30,000 VND and has a strong collection of lacquerware, silk paintings, and propaganda art from the 20th century.

The Jade Emperor Pagoda in District 3 is the best active temple in the city. Admission is free, the smoke is thick, and the tortoise pond outside provides useful decompression after the joss-stick intensity inside. The Tan Dinh Church in District 3, painted pink inside and out, makes for a good photo stop.

Afternoon: the neighbourhood around Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in District 3 has French-era villas being steadily converted into independent coffee shops and small restaurants. This is where younger Saigonese eat, which is a reliable quality signal.

Dinner at Quan An Ngon on Nam Ky Khoi Nghia serves a very wide spread of Vietnamese regional dishes from open kitchen stalls arranged around a courtyard. For something more considered, Anan Saigon in District 1 does modern Vietnamese cooking with serious technique.

Day 4: Can Tho and the Cai Rang Floating Market

An overnight or very early departure gets you to Can Tho, capital of the Mekong Delta, in two hours by road (90 kilometres). The Cai Rang Floating Market operates from around 5:00 AM to 9:00 AM. By 8:30 AM the best of it is already winding down. Hire a small boat from the Can Tho tourist pier (roughly 100,000 to 200,000 VND per hour) and get out among the larger produce boats where whole villages sell from their decks.

The delta landscape, flat and green with the Mekong running brown and wide, looks nothing like the rest of Vietnam. A riverbank lunch of elephant-ear fish (ca tai tuong), grilled with rice paper and herbs, is the meal to have.

Return to Ho Chi Minh City by late afternoon. Evening at leisure: the rooftop bar at the Chill Sky Bar on the AB Tower in District 1 has one of the more dramatic skyline views at night.

Day 5: Mekong Delta Villages and My Tho

The My Tho region, accessed via the town of My Tho 70 kilometres from Saigon, offers a quieter version of the Mekong Delta experience than Can Tho. Day tours run USD 20 to 35 per person from District 1. Look for tours that include Ben Tre island rather than the generic My Tho boat loop, which has become heavily commercialised.

A functioning coconut-candy workshop, a honey farm where you drink tea with a beehive floating in it, and a patch of orchard where rambutans hang in clusters you can eat straight off the tree: these are the low-key pleasures. The local folk music performances (don ca tai tu) played on traditional instruments in a riverbank shelter are often spontaneous enough to still feel genuine.

Back in the city by late afternoon. The Pham Ngu Lao area has good cheap seafood on Bui Vien’s side streets in the evening. Nam Gia on Truong Dinh serves Vietnamese seafood in a more sit-down setting.

Day 6: Departure

Tan Son Nhat’s international terminal handles departures for most flights. In 2025, the airport added Terminal 3 for domestic flights, so allow extra time if you are connecting domestically first. Traffic from District 1 during the 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM window can add 20 minutes; book your Grab the night before if you have an early flight.

A final morning can go to the General Post Office on Cong Xa Paris Square, a huge vaulted French colonial building still used for sending mail, and Notre Dame Cathedral across the road, currently undergoing long-running restoration work that has been ongoing since 2017. The surrounding streets have good bakeries for a last Vietnamese iced coffee.

Transport

Grab covers taxis, motorbike taxis (GrabBike), and food delivery across the city. Download it before you fly and load a local payment method. Public buses are slow and routes are hard to navigate without some Vietnamese, though Bus 109 from the airport to the centre is reliable enough.

Practical Notes

Carry cash in smaller denominations. The 500,000 VND (pink) and 20,000 VND (blue-green) and 500 VND (blue) notes look similar enough to cause expensive mistakes when paying quickly. ATMs from Vietcombank and BIDV are reliable and widely distributed. Credit cards are accepted at mid-range and above hotels and restaurants but rarely at street stalls. Vietnamese dong cannot be converted back outside Vietnam, so do not withdraw more than you will spend.

Dress with sleeves and covered knees for temple visits. Hats and a handheld fan are practical rather than tourist accessories between November and April when humidity climbs well before noon.