If you are looking for a leisure itinerary for 2 or 3 days in Ho Chi Minh city, you are in the right place. In this post, I will share with you my opinion about how long is enough for Ho Chi Minh City and our itinerary for 2-3 days in Saigon, including tours to take, things to do, and places to stay.
Ho Chi Minh is one of the top places to visit in Vietnam. It is a bustling city with warm weather all year around. The city has plenty of cultural/ historical things to do and see as well as the vibrant nightlife. It is also a good base to explore southern Vietnam such as Vung Tau, Cu Chi tunnels, and Mekong Delta.
Ho Chi Minh has an international airport called Tan Son Nhat airport, located around 7 km from district 1. It has flights from all over the world and from other cities in Vietnam. You can also easily reach Ho Chi Minh city by road. There are trains, buses, and limousines from Saigon to all other places.
How Many Days in Ho Chi Minh City is enough?
In my opinion, 2 days is the minimum amount of time to spend in Saigon to get some good introduction about the city. You can see famous attractions, do some shopping, try local food, enjoy the nightlife, and take day trips to Cu Chi tunnels or Mekong Delta.
Basically, with one full day in HCMC, you can visit popular sights like the War Museum, Independence Palace, The Central Post Office, and Ben Thanh Market. You can spend the night at Bui Vien backpacker street, JapanTown, or at one of many trendy bars/nightclubs around Nguyen Hue/ Dong Khoi area.
You can spend half a day taking a guided tour to Cu Chi tunnels. It can be rushed when combining Cu Chi and Mekong delta tours in one day, so I recommend going to one destination at once.
Other very nice places to consider to visit if you have time are the Chinatown/district 5, Saigon Skydeck, Saigon riverside area with attractions like Bach Dang park. You can venture far away to the expat area in district 2 to visit places such as Thao Dien night market.
If you have time, you can always extend your days. 4 days is a good amount of time to explore Saigon at a slower pace. This will allow you to see all the iconic sights, enjoy delicious food, go shopping, soak in the nightlife, and side trips to nearby Cu Chi tunnels and Mekong Delta.
Ho Chi Minh has some of the best nightlife scenes in Vietnam, so if you love drinking and bar hoping, you can spend a week here without boring. There are backpacker vibe on Bui Vien street, trendy bars on Nguyen Hue/ Dong Khoi, or the interesting Japan Town (also known as the red light district of Saigon).
You can explore the city center without taking guided tour as many attractions are located within walking distance from each other. Grab taxis and motorbikes are also cheap and easy to use if you don’t like walking, especially the heat and humidity of Saigon can make you tired.
For Cu Chi tunnels, it is best to take a guided tour, as they will provide you public transportation, and you will have a deeper understanding of the complex.
You can watch my short youtube video explaining how long should you spend in Ho Chi Minh City, and continue reading for more detail of Saigon Itinerary:
How to Spend 2 to 3 Days in Ho Chi Minh City Itinerary
Day 1: Half day tour to Cu Chi tunnels
We flew from Melbourne to Saigon via the Jetstar airline. We arrived around 9pm, withdrew some money from airport ATMs, and booked a Grab taxi to get to our hotel, La Vela Hotel. The hotel was conveniently located in District 3, only a short ride by Grab to major points of interests in the city.
Here are the brief things to do in first day in HCMC:
- Stroll arround district 3 where La Vela Hotel is located
- Guided tour to Cu Chi tunnels
- Spend a night at Bui Vien street
The first night in HCMC, we just rested and got ready for the next day. The first morning, we did things slowly. We enjoyed our breakfast at La Vela Hotel. The buffet breakfast area was on the 25th floor and had stunning views of the city.
After breakfast, we went for a walk in the area outside of our hotel to see local life. We had some horse posters printed from local printing shops near our hotel.
In the afternoon, we got picked up at the hotel at 1 pm to head to Cu Chi tunnels. We booked a small group tour, which included hotel pick-up and drop-off, and a tour guide.
Cu Chi Tunnels is one of the top day trips from Ho Chi Minh city. It is an extensive underground system (250 km length in total) that the North Vietnamese army used during the Vietnam/American War. You will get to know how Cu Chi Tunnel works, explore secret entrances/hidden trap doors, and have a chance to crawl into the tunnel, and try shooting one of the guns used in the war.
The ride from Downtown HCMC to Cu Chi Tunnels is around 1.5 hours. On the way, we stopped at a lacquer workshop, where workers are war victims. The exploration around the tunnel area is around 2-3 hours. We went back to the hotel at 6pm.
We had some rest, took a shower and headed to Bui Vien Walking Street for some nightlife. It was only around 40,000 VND Grab taxi ride from our hotel to Bui Vien. Also known as the red light district, this area is packed with bars, restaurants, street food vendors, massage shops, and backpacker hostels.
We sit at one of the pubs with pavement seating and enjoy local beers. It is good to do people watching, see the street performance, and listen to music from surrounding nightclubs.
A note from me when visiting Bui Vien at night is to keep an eye on your belongings to avoid pickpocketing as it is very crowded. If you are a man who walks alone at night, you might be the target of street hookers. It is best to travel in a group.
See more: Is it better to stay in District 1 or 3, HCMC?
Day 2: Jeep Tour Saigon and some shopping
Our second day in Saigon, we booked a private guided jeep tour to explore downtown HCMC and its iconic attractions. The tour guide and driver picked us up from the hotel at 9am after our breakfast.
Here are the things to do and see in our city tour in the 2nd day:
- Emperor Jade Pagoda
- Saigon central Post Office/ Notre Dame Cathedral
- War Remnants Museum
- Independence Palace
- Ben Thanh market
- Nguyen Hue/ Dong Khoi area (HCMC People’s Committee and Opera House)
- Central Market
Our first stop was the Emperor Jade Pagoda, one of the must-see attractions in Saigon, visited by US former president Barack Obama. The temple was built in the early 20th century by a Chinese immigrant in honor of the supreme Taoist god. You can view its beautiful architecture and explore the different halls inside. Remember to take off your shoes when entering the halls.
The second stop is the Saigon central Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon. The Central Post Office is an ionic attraction of the city. It is one of the oldest buildings in Saigon, built in the late 19th century by a French architect. The Central Post Office is open daily and free to enter to admire its stunning architects and pose for photos.
The Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon is also a famous sight of Saigon, located right next to the Central Post Office. But currently it went under an extensive renovation, scheduled to finish in 2027.
From the Central Post Office, you can spot the roof of an apartment building when CIA employees helped Vietnamese evacuees escape Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War on April 29, 1975.
Our third stop was the War Remnants Museum. It is a must-see attraction for those who are interested in the history of the Vietnam-American war. We spent 2-3 hours exploring different floors, reading the war stories, viewing photos, war equipment, guns and helicopters.
The 4th stop is the Independence Palace, also known as Reunification Palace. It is a well-known historical landmark that stands there to witness Vietnamese history from the French to American war.
The complex was the home and office of South Vietnam’s president, Ngo Dinh Diem. It was rebuilt 1962-1966 after a fighter pilot dropped a bomb in the building in a failed presidential assassination attempt.
Independence Palace is best known when North Vietnamese communist tanks crashed through its gates on April 30, 1975, marking the end of the Vietnam/American war. You can spend a couple of hours exploring the ground, different rooms, and the bunker area.
After that we went to Ben Thanh market, do some shopping. Then we headed to Nguyen Hue Street, where we passed the Ho Chi Minh statue, Ho Chi Minh City Hall, and the Rex Hotel. The guided drop at Ngon restaurant on Pasteur street. We tried some local Vietnamese food here.
Then we booked Grab to get to the Central Market and Taka Shopping area. This market is a smaller version of Ben Thanh market, where you can find similar goods and the sellers are not too pushy compared to Ben Thanh. You still need to bargain though. We bought shorts for 100,000VND each.
Then we headed back to our La Vella hotel in district 3 to get our luggage to get to the airport in Japan. We already checked out in the morning before our tour. After a day exploring and under the heat of Saigon, we really needed some showers before our flight, so we booked a hotel near HCMC airport.
Prague Saigon Airport Hotel was our choice. It cost like AUD 40 and we had a good shower. The airport is only a 6 minutes Grab ride away. We also had time to explore a convenience store nearby and bought some snacks to eat on the airplane.
Another tip when flying out of HCMC international airport is to allow some extra time as sometimes it can be very crowded. Our flight was on Friday night. We arrived at the airport 3 hours before the flight to check in, but all airline counters were packed with people.
At one moment, I thought we would miss the flight, but we were lucky as the airport ground staff checked people around, and put us on the priority line for checking in the ticket. We still had to wait in the long line for the immigrant area though. But we made it on time to the boarding time.
You can watch my video about the best districts in Saigon here:
Day 3: Mekong Delta tour/ food tour/ Chinatown tour
If you have 3 days in Saigon, you can consider taking a guided day trip to the Mekong Delta area. And Taking the night food tour is also a great way to explore the city.
The district 5/ Chinatown is also worth visiting. You can use Grab taxi/car to get from district 1 to district 5, which is home to the largest Chinese communities in Vietnam. Here you can try authentic Chinese food such as wonton and dumpling. You can visit many temples such as Thien Hau Pagoda, wandering around Hai Thuong Lan Ong Street to smell traditional Chinese medicine…
You can spend nightlife at Bui Vien street, or enjoy drink at many trendy bars/ nightclubs on the Nguyen Hue and Dong Khoi area. Saigon Japan Town is also good place to visit for Japanese food and drinks.
See more:
- Best things to do in Ho Chi Minh City
- Best Time to Visit Ho Chi Minh City
- Where to stay in Ho Chi Minh City
- Is Ho Chi Minh City safe to visit?
- 10 Best Family Hotels in Ho Chi Minh City
- How to Spend One Day in Ho Chi Minh City Itinerary
There you have it, my leisure Itinerary for 2 to 3 days in Ho Chi Minh city. With this amount of time, you will be able to see sights that HCMC is known for such as the War Museum, Independence Palace, Ben Thanh market, and the Central Post Office.
You will have time to do some shopping, enjoy Vietnamese dishes, and visit Bui Vien walking street for some interesting nightlife scenes. You are also able to take day trips to Cu Chi tunnel and the Mekong delta. If you have more days, you can enjoy the city at a more relaxing pace.