Ho-Chi-Minh-City — Capital of Chaos & Charme

Ho-Chi-Minh-City (or Saigon as it is still called by most locals) is a many-faceted mix. A city of archi­tec­ture and his­to­ry, a bustling busi­ness cen­tre, a con­trast­ing and har­mo­niz­ing blend of West­ern and Asian cul­ture — and a stun­ning mul­ti-mil­lion metrop­o­lis that nev­er sleeps.

To ful­ly expe­ri­ence the area you should set aside at least two full days — which works well if you fly in or out of Saigon.

Need some more help plan­ning your Viet­nam trip? Check out the Ulti­mate Trav­el Guide to Viet­nam.

Getting there

Ho-Chi-Minh-City hous­es the biggest air­port Vietnam’s: Tan Son Nhat Air­port (SGN) from where you can get direct flights to Europe and all major Asian cities.

There are var­i­ous ways to get from the air­port to the city cen­tre:

• you can take a taxi to the cen­tre for any­thing between 150.000–250.000VND depend­ing on whether you make a fixed price or use the taxime­ter (which you should always do)

• the bus 152 leav­ing from the right side of the arrivals exit will bring you to the bus sta­tion close to Ben Thanh mar­ket. From there it’s just a short walk to most hotels. It costs 5000VND per per­son and bag and runs every 20 min­utes from 6am to 6pm

• the bus 109 (yel­low bus) goes to Pham Ngu Lao street in dis­trict 1 which is also close to most hos­tels. It costs 20.000VND and runs every 20 min­utes from 5:30am to 1:30am

• use a Grab or Uber taxi to get to your hotel with­out any hus­sle. It costs around 80.000–100.000VND to get to dis­trict 1.

You can find more infor­ma­tion about busses, taxis and Grab over at Get­ting Around In Viet­nam.

A typ­i­cal side­walk in Ho-Chi-Minh-City is more of a park­ing lane for the count­less motor­bikes.

Things to do

• Take a stroll through the French Quar­ter and mar­vel at the archi­tec­ture that doesn’t seem to fit its sur­round­ings but makes for an inter­est­ing, har­mo­niz­ing clash of cul­tures. Notable build­ings are the Notre-Dame Cathe­dral, the opera house and the Cen­tral post office.

• Vis­it the Reuni­fi­ca­tion palace — if you are inter­est­ed in its his­to­ry you can join a guid­ed tour through the build­ing or just get a glimpse of it from the out­side.

• Walk around the busy streets after the sun has set. It’s like a whole nother world with the lights of the traf­fic, the for­eign smells drift­ing over from food stalls prepar­ing for din­ner and every­one com­ing out­side to enjoy their evening meal and drink on one of the mil­lion tiny plas­tic stools on the side­walks.

A small neon lamp lit shop in a back alley of Ho-Chi-Minh-City sell­ing every­thing from news­pa­pers and drinks to whole coconuts.

• See a per­for­mance at the Water Pup­pet The­ater. You will have a won­der­ful evening filled with tra­di­tion­al folk­lore and music. Even if you don’t under­stand the lan­guage, you will under­stand the sto­ries told through lov­ing­ly made wood­en pup­pets, fire-spit­ting drag­ons and melod­ic arrange­ments.

• Spend your cash at Ben Thanh Mar­ket. They have most­ly clothes but you can also get sou­venirs and some cheap food and drinks. Don’t get scammed: com­pare prices at dif­fer­ent stalls and hag­gle! Don’t let them push you to buy prod­ucts for a price you are not will­ing to pay.

• Learn about the Viet­nam War at the War Rem­nants Muse­um. You will need to bring tis­sues and a strong stom­ach. Leave your kids at home. They show very graph­ic images on the top floors that are hard to look at, nonethe­less, this muse­um is a must. It will change the way you look at this coun­try and its peo­ple, who have suf­fered through so much and still man­age to smile and wel­come strangers to their homes. Please don’t be one of the dis­taste­ful tourists that take sil­ly self­ies infront of the bombers and tanks out­side of the build­ing. These are actu­al rem­nants of the Viet­nam War and were respon­si­ble for many deaths on both sides.

• Spend an evening at the main par­ty road in Dis­trict 1 and enjoy some over­priced West­ern food and drinks. If you feel like it, you can do some par­ty­ing here as well and it’s most like­ly the best place to meet oth­er trav­el­ers in the city.

• Try to cross a junc­tion with­out get­ting killed (It might not be as big of a dan­ger, but it sure feels like it).

• Do some shop­ping! From cheap fakes and tra­di­tion­al hand­i­crafts to cheesy sou­venirs and lux­u­ry goods — the local mar­kets and shop­ping malls offer you every­thing your heart desires.

The traf­fic in Ho-Chi-Minh-City is absolute­ly chaot­ic. We wait­ed 10 min­utes before dar­ing to cross this road.

• Get a mar­velous view of the city from a bird’s eye and vis­it the Sky Bar or Café at the 52nd floor of the Bitexo tow­er. Prices for cock­tails start at 200.000VND which is very expen­sive but def­i­nite­ly worth it for the view. Try to vis­it dur­ing the evening hours to see the sun set beyond the city lim­its, accom­pa­nied by live music.

• Spend an evening at the Bar 17Saloon to wit­ness some crazy enter­tain­ment à la Amer­i­can Old West and enjoy awe­some live rock or pop music while sip­ping on a cock­tail. Prices start at 110.000VND for a juice but you get unlim­it­ed refills of pop­corn.

• Take a break dur­ing the mid­day heat and find shel­ter in on of the parks. I espe­cial­ly liked 23/9 park close to Ben Thanh Marke. Get your­self a nice drink to bring with you, flap down on one of the bench­es and enjoy the sun shin­ing through the thick palmtree leaves over your head, and watch the locals going after their dai­ly busi­ness. Beware that you are not allowed to sit on the grass.

A Viet­namese woman wear­ing the tra­di­tion­al con­i­cal hat tak­ing a break from the heat in one of the many parks in Ho-Chi-Minh-City.

• Walk down to the water side at Ton Duc Thang street. There is a nice lit­tle land­ing pier by the fer­ry ter­mi­nal and a small park where you can sit for a while to calm down from the chaos of the city and get a great view on the “sky­line” of the city.

• Just explore the city cen­tre. Walk with no set direc­tion and let your­self be car­ried away. You will expe­ri­ence unlike things on every cor­ner if you take your time to take it all in and let your­self be guid­ed by your gut feel­ing.

• Stuff your­self with deli­cious street food and eat it on a teen­sy tiny plas­tic stool — it will taste a mil­lion times bet­ter and is a great chance to try out new dish­es. Instead of wast­ing your trav­el funds at an expen­sive restau­rant you can get a yum­my, fill­ing meal for less than a dol­lar on the street.

• If you are head­ing out­side the city to the Mekong or the North splurge on the lux­u­ry a metrop­o­lis has to offer. You might not get to see fan­cy gyms and mas­sage par­lors, high-end restau­rants and sky bars for a while.

Where we stayed

What were your high­lights in Ho-Chi-Minh-City? Do you have a favorite park, bar or restau­rant that you want every­one to know about? I would love to hear about your trip and which of these tips were help­ful to you!