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 article, I will share with you my opinion about how long is enough for HCMC 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 attractions, museums, good food, shopping, and vibrant nightlife.
HCMC is the transport hub of South Vietnam, making it 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 trains, buses, and minivans.
How Many Days in Ho Chi Minh City is enough?
If you are tight on time, I recommend spending at least 2-3 days in Ho Chi Minh to see major tourist attractions and get some good introduction about the city.
Within 2-3 days in Ho Chi Minh City, you can do many things in the city center, visiting cultural attractions, shopping at the traditional market, trying traditional Vietnamese food, enjoying the nightlife, and taking day trips to Cu Chi tunnels or Mekong Delta.
Basically, I recommend spending at least 1 full day in the city center seeing the city’s most iconic attractions and another day for a day trip to Cu Chin tunnels or Mekong delta.
On the first day, you can visit popular sights in district 1 and district 3 like the War Remnants Museum, Independence Palace, Central Post Office, Ben Thanh Market, Book Street, Opera House, and City Hall.
These attractions are all located close to each other, so you can easily visit these places on foot, by Grab or Green SM taxi app. Many tour agencies offer sightseeing tours around the city within a half day or full day, which you can consider booking these tours for a deeper understanding of the city.
At night, you can check out Bui Vien Walking street, which is the backpacker and party area in the heart of HCMC. Many cheap bars and restaurants with hot dancers on two sides of the 500m long street.
If you want a more trendy vibe, head to the bars and nightclubs along Nguyen Hue and Dong Khoi area. These are the high-end part of the city where you can find more stylish bars and restaurants. JapanTown nearby provides unique Japanese style Izakaya bars and massage shops.
On the second day, you can arrange guided tours to either Cu Chi tunnel and Mekong delta. These are the most popular day trips from HCMC city. If you’re tight on time, you can combine a visit to Cu Chi tunnel and Mekong delta within one day.
Otherwise I recommend spending a half day in Cu Chi tunnel, and another full day in the Mekong Delta to fully experience both places and avoid lots of time traveling on the road.
If you have more time in the city, I recommend spending half a day exploring Chinatown (also called Cho Lon or District 5). This area is one of the first areas of HCMC where you can find many beautiful Chinese style temples, assembly houses, traditional markets, and authentic Chinese food.
If you’re into museums, HCMC has a good number of museums where you can learn more about the war, history of HCMC and history of Vietnam.
The War Remnants Museum is the city’s top museum but if you’re history buffs, I recommend visiting HCMC History Museum, Ho Chi Minh Campaign Museum, Museum of HCMC, Fine Arts Museum, and Museum of Traditional Vietnamese Medicine. Museum hopping can be done within a day.
During your visit, you can consider checking out Saigon Skydeck, Ho Thi Ky street food night market, Tan Dinh pink church, Jade Emperor Pagoda, or Saigon River 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.
I visited Ho Chi Minh city many times, and my shortest time in HCMC was only 2 days with my boyfriend before our main trip to Japan. We took guided tours as I found it easy to explore the city in a short time.
You can explore the city center without a 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.
Some of the best hotels in HCMC for first-timers:
- Luxury: Park Hyatt Saigon (one of the top 5-star hotel in the heart of Saigon)
- Luxury: La Vela Saigon Hotel (I stayed here, good 5-star hotel in district 3 with huge rooftop terrace and infinity pool)
- Mid-range: Orchids Saigon Hotel (I stayed here, good quality 4 star hotel in a central area)
- Mid-range: Liberty Central Saigon Riverside Hotel (4-star riverside hotel)
- Budget: Hoang Lan Hotel ( I stayed here, cozy and clean family-run hotels in a good area)
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:
This is my suggestion for a 2-3 day itinerary in Saigon.
How to Spend 2 to 3 Days in Ho Chi Minh City Itinerary
Day 1: Exploring the city center: sightseeing, shopping, street food, nightlife
Most popular points of interest of HCMC are located in the heart of the city, within the limit of district 1 and district 3. So on the first day in Saigon, I recommend exploring the city centre or neighborhoods where your hotel is located.
You can easily explore districts 1 and 3 by walking using Google Maps. Between places you can use Grab Bike/ Taxi or Green SM Bike/ Taxi to avoid the heat or if you are tired of walking.
I often use the combination of walking and riding to explore the city. You can find cyclos in the city center, so you can consider using this transport for the experience.
For those visiting the city for the first time, I recommend taking a guided sightseeing tour. These often take 4-5 hours to see all the famous sights of the city. You can consider taking the sightseeing jeep tour, vespa tour.
On my partner’s first trip to Vietnam, 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. We both had good experience with the tour and felt quite cool seated on the open air jeep to see the city.
Here are the main things to do and see in HCM city center:
- The War Remnants Museum
- The Independence Palace
- The Central Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral
- The Ben Thanh market/ Central Market
- Nguyen Hue Walking street (HCMC People’s Committee and Opera House)
- Emperor Jade Pagoda
- Bui Vien Walking street
These attractions are located within a 2km radius from each other, so you can choose to explore any of them first. I recommend starting your journey from the one closest to your hotel if you explore these places without a tour guide.
The War Remnants Museum
The War Remnants Museum is one of the must-see attractions in HCMC, where you can learn about the history of the Vietnam-American war. The museum is centrally located on Vo Van Tan street, in district 3, right at the border with district 1.
The entrance ticket to the museum is 40k VND. The museum is open from 7.30am to 5.30pm, every day including weekends and public holidays.
The museum has an indoor and outdoor area. At the outdoor area, you can see a tank, helicopter, and tiger cave that was used to hold prisoners during the French colonial period.
Inside the 3-floors building, you can read the war stories, viewing photos, the effects of Agent Orange, war equipment, guns and helicopters. I recommend exploring from higher floor to lower floor for the flow of the history. We spent 2-3 hours at the museum to go through most of it has to offer.
The Independence Palace
The Independence Palace, also known as Reunification Palace, is located within a few minutes walk from The War Remnants museum. It is a well-known historical building with traces of the French colonial period to the American war.
The Independence Palace was the residential home and office of South Vietnam’s president, Nguyen Van Thieu, from 1967 to 1975.
It was originally the French government building during the French colonial time, but the main building was rebuilt 1962-1966 after a fighter pilot dropped a bomb in the building in a failed presidential assassination attempt.
The highlight event at the Independence Palace is when North Vietnamese communist tanks crashed through its gates on April 30, 1975, marking the end of the Vietnam-American war.
At the Independence Palace, you can explore different floors with office rooms, bed rooms of the president’s family. Many of those rooms have original furniture and decoration from the war time.
In front of the main building, you can visit the helicopter, the two tanks that were related to the bombing event and the 30 April 1975 event. You can spend a couple of hours exploring the ground, different rooms, and the bunker area.
The electronic car will take you around the ground for 10 minutes to see outside of the building. Then you can spend your time exploring the interior and the exhibition at the “From Norodom Palace to Independence Palace”.
The Independence Palace is open every day. The entrance ticket for the Palace is 40k VND for adults.
An electric car tour is 25k VND per person per ride. General admission tickets for both the Exhibit and Palace is 80k per adult.
The Central Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral
The Saigon central Post Office and Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon are located next to each other, so you can combine the visit to these two places within a single trip.
The Central Post Office is an iconic attraction of the city. It is one of the oldest buildings in Saigon, built in the late 19th century during the French colonial period by a French architect. The Central Post Office is open daily and free to enter to admire its stunning architects and pose for photos.
Inside the Post Office, there are souvenir areas as well as it still working as a normal office. People’re sending gift cards for their families as well as parcels at this post office.
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.
You can spend 20-30 minutes at the post office and the Big church. After visiting these places, you can walk for a few minutes to the nearby HCMC Book street on Nguyen Van Binh street. This short street is lined with old trees, book shops, and cute cafes.
Nguyen Hue Walking street: the City Hall and Opera House
Nguyen Hue Walking Street is the posh part of the city and is surrounded by upscale hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, and historical attractions.
This street was built in the late 19th century by French authorities after they filled in the Grand Canal connecting Saigon River to Gia Dinh citadel. It’s now connected to the City Hall and Saigon River.
In the surrounding area, you can see French colonial style hotels such as the Rex Hotel, Hotel Continental Saigon, and the Caravelle Hotel. The Opera House on Dong Khoi street is also a short walk from Nguyen Hue Street.
One of the highlight attractions on Nguyen Hue (apart from the City Hall) is the Saigon Skydeck and the Apartment Building. Saigon Skydeck offers sweeping views of the city and Saigon River.
The Apartment Building is home to dozens of restaurants, cafes, and shops with balconies and views down to Nguyen hue Street. It’s a good spot for photography.
Nguyen Hue Walking street is a pedestrian area on weekend evenings and it’s a popular hangout place for both locals and tourists. Most of the city’s major events and festivals are hosted on this street.
Ben Thanh Market
Ben Thanh market is not only a popular shopping destination but also a historic place with beautiful architecture. The market was built in the late 19th century during the French colonial period; it has a clock tower in the main entrance and other three gates from other sides of the market.
The market has hundreds of stalls selling everything, from food, clothes, hats, bags, and souvenirs. You can find good things with good prices if you know how to bargain. Usually people bargain down to half price from the seller’s first offer.
For more shopping, you can walk to Sài Gòn Square and Saigon Central, which are a few minutes walk from Ben Thanh Market.
I also recommend Central market, which 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. It has air conditioning, so much cooler than the hot and humid Ben Thanh market.
Emperor Jade Pagoda
We visited the Emperor Jade Pagoda as a part of the jeep tour sightseeing around the city. It’s a good place to visit if you have time. The temple was 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.
It’s located a bit further away from other city’s iconic attractions, so it’s best to use Riding share services such as Grab or Green SM if you want to visit the temple,
Bui Vien Walking Street
At night, you can check out Bui Vien Walking street. It’s a lively area with bars, clubs, restaurants for all budgets. You can watch dancers right on the street.
The main street is only around 500m but there are many small alley ways and side streets to explore such as De Tham street or Do Quang Dau street. Some high-rated restaurants such as Bun Bo Hue, and Com Tam are located in this area.
The nearby Pham Ngu Lao street, also a lively area to check. Lots of tour agencies, street food vendors, and massage shops, in this area.
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.
Day 2: Day trips to Cu Chi Tunnels or Mekong Delta
After one full day exploring the city center, I recommend taking a day trip to either Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta. These are the most popular day trips from HCMC, located around 1.5 to 2 hours away from the city center of HCMC.
The best ways to explore these places are by guided tours. There are dozens of tour agencies in the city offering these tours. If you’re on the budget, you can choose group tours. If you want more privacy, you can pay a little bit more for a private tour.
It’s possible to combine the visit to Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong delta within a single day if you’re tight on time and want to see everything.
If you need to choose between Cu Chi Tunnel and Mekong delta, I recommend visiting Cu Chi Tunnel if you’re interested in the Vietnam War and the Mekong Delta if you’re interested in the local life one Mekong delta with lots of tropical fruits, coconut trees, and floating markets.
I experienced both tours on different days. I chose group tours due to its budget-friendly options. The tour includes pick up and drop from the hotel and the location near the hotel.
Cu Chi Tunnel half day tour (4-5 hours)
Cu Chi Tunnels 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.
Mekong Delta full Day tour (7-8 hours)
The Mekong Delta is a large region south of HCMC. I chose the full day tour to My Tho and Ben Tre. The tour took us to different islands on the Mekong Delta, visiting the farm restaurant, coconut work shop, and honey farm.
It’s a quick introduction about the life of locals on the river on the Mekong delta. During the tours, we used different modes of transport such as speed boat, slow boat, tuk tuk, and bicycle. There is also a mini cooking class at the farm restaurant about Banh Xeo, which is the region’s specialty.
See more: Is it better to stay in District 1 or 3, HCMC?
Day 3: Street food tour, Chinatown, and hidden attractions in district 3
There are so many other things to do and see in HCMC if you have more time. You can consider exploring street food, Chinatown, district 3, district 2, or Japantown.
Saigon Chinatown
Saigon Chinatown is one of the first communities in HCMC from the beginning establishment of the city 300 years ago. It’s full of cultural attractions, authentic restaurants, and a vibrant atmosphere.
Chinatown is located around 6km west of the city center, around a 15-20 minute Grab ride away. You can explore Chinatown by guided tours or at your own pace. I enjoyed exploring the area by myself. It’s usually taken a half day to walk around the neighborhood and see its famous attractions.
I recommend you start exploring Chinatown at one of its famous restaurants such as dim sim, dumpling, roasted meat, or sweet soups. I enjoyed my meal at the Tiên Phát restaurants. They’re only open in the morning for breakfast and lunch, so make sure to go early.
Major attractions around Chinatown are temples, assembly halls, and traditional markets. They’re all within walking distance from each other.
I recommend visiting Thien Hau Pagoda, Quan Am Pagoda – On Lang Assembly Hall, Ha Chuong Assembly Hall, Hao Sy Phuong alley, and Hai Thuong Lan Ong traditional medicine street.
If you want to do shopping, I recommend visiting the Binh Tay market. It’s a great spot to do shopping, with better prices and a more local atmosphere than Ben Thanh market.
The market is also a historic place with French colonial architecture, founded by a wealthy Chinese man, where you can find the statue of him in the courtyard in the middle of the market.
Hidden gems in District 3
District 3 is located right next to district 1, but has a more local atmosphere. It’s home to two of the city’s most iconic attractions, the War Museum and the Independence Palace. It’s also home to local temples, and historical attractions.
Hầm Vũ Khí Bí Mật Secret Weapon Cellar
This underground bunker is located in a local house during the war time. It kept weapons for North Vietnamese use at the war. The bunker is located at 287 Nguyễn Đình Chiểu.
The alley itself is a lively place to explore where locals used the wet market. You can see fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits on the two sides of the alleys.
The Secret Weapon Cellar is free to visit. There are two underground in two houses next to each other. The first one is the cafe, so you can ask the owner to open the hidden entrance to you to get down to see. It’s a nice cafe with boutique cars and memorabilia from the war period.
The next house is also underground with more weapons and documentaries. They’re all free to visit so you can check them all while in the area.
Vinh Nghiem Buddhist Temple
This local temple is located along Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe area. It’s an active temple where locals come to pray. The temple has beautiful architecture and a peaceful atmosphere. It’s free to visit, so I recommend it while you’re in the area.
Xa Loi Buddhist Temple and The Venerable Thich Quảng Đức Monument
These two places are located close to each other and related to Venerable Thich Quang Duc. Xa Loi Buddhist Temple was the residence of the monk and the Monument has the statue of the monk to honor him.
Thich Quang Duc was known for burning himself to death at the intersection of Phan Dinh Phung and Le Van Duyet streets (now Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Cach Mang Thang Tam streets) in Saigon. He did this to protest religious inequality and demand freedom of belief during the 1963 Buddhist crisis.
Tân Định Parish Church
This 19th century pink church is a popular attraction in district 3. It was built during the French colonial period. It’s a good spot for taking photos. Nearby, you can visit the Tan Dinh market, which is also a good shopping destination in HCMC.
If you want to see inside, make sure to check the opening time of the church. It’s only open on weekdays from 8-11am in the morning, and 2-5pm in the evening. If you just want to take photos from outside, it’s okay to visit any time of the day.
The Cong Cafe located across the street from the church is a good spot for the Instagrammable photos of the church in the background.
Southern Women’s Museum
This is a great free museum in district 3, worth a visit when you’re staying in this area. The museum has a collection of traditional Vietnamese Ao dai and the role of southern Vietnamese females in the past during the French colonial period and the war.
Street food tour in HCMC
HCMC is one of the best places in HCMC to try street food. The city has a diverse food scene, so you can easily find dishes from all around the country within one city.
There is Hue food, Hanoi food, and southern Vietnamese food. You can try banh my, banh xeo, pho, bun bo hue, com tam,….
You can just hunt for street food by choosing your own restaurants and night markets to go to, but you can also try taking food tours to get more local knowledge about Vietnamese cuisine and hidden spots.
Heading to the HCMC airport
On the last day, after exploring, we headed back to our La Vella hotel in district 3 to get our luggage to get to the airport. 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. The hotel has clean rooms and 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:
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.