Top Sights in Ho Chi Minh City
A single square in District 1 holds a post office wrongly credited to the wrong architect and a cathedral whose restoration story keeps changing, and both are worth untangling before you photograph either one.
The square: Post Office and Notre-Dame
The Saigon Central Post Office at 2 Cong Xa Paris was built 1886-1891 by French architect Alfred Foulhoux with Marie-Alfred Bourdon, not Gustave Eiffel, a myth that persists despite being straightforwardly wrong. Free entry, open Mon-Sat 07:30-18:00 and Sun 08:00-17:00, still a working post office beneath its ironwork ceiling. Across the square, Notre-Dame Cathedral’s restoration, ongoing since 2017 toward a 2027 completion, has visibly progressed: new gold-plated crosses went onto the twin towers in March 2026, and the red-brick exterior is emerging as scaffolding comes down. Its interior remains closed to sightseers regardless, open only to worshippers and a bilingual Sunday 9:30am Mass.
Ben Thanh Market and its better-value neighbors
Ben Thanh’s 1914 hall and its 1,400-plus stalls are worth the walk-through, and the night market that forms outside after 6pm is a genuinely good food stop. Shopping inside is where it disappoints: asking prices run high enough that haggling down to half the quote still usually overpays. Saigon Square, with fixed or near-fixed prices and air conditioning, and Binh Tay Market in Cho Lon, less geared to tourists, are the better places to actually buy something.
Quiet pagodas, two loud skylines
Jade Emperor Pagoda at 73 Mai Thi Luu, built in 1909, is free, open daily 07:00-18:00, and calmer than anywhere near Ben Thanh: incense-heavy halls, a turtle and koi pond, dress conservatively before entering. For a modern view, Landmark 81’s SkyView on floors 79-81 climbs past 380 meters, though pricing is disputed across sources, roughly 300,000 VND standard adult up to about 810,000 VND for some combo packages, so treat any single figure as approximate and check the venue directly. Bitexco’s Saigon Skydeck, lower at 262 meters for around 240,000 VND, has a genuine advantage in its 50th and 52nd-floor rooftop bar, a comparable view at a comparable price without the deck-ticket line.
Ho Chi Minh City tickets on Viator list current Landmark 81 pricing, and the city’s official tourism site covers holiday closures worth checking before a trip. Nguyen Hue Walking Street, free and best in the evening for its fountain and street performers, links City Hall to the riverfront and pairs naturally with either tower as a closing stop.
For a hands-on morning between sights, see the activities guide , and for the full-day version of this walk, the 3-day itinerary has room for the square, the market, and one tower on the same day.
Visit the Post Office and Notre-Dame square before 9am rather than at midday, when the same spot fills with tour buses and direct sun.