Looking for the best things to do in Ho Chi Minh City? See my recommendations below.
Ho Chi Minh City — still widely known as Saigon—is Vietnam's largest and most dynamic city and home to around 10 million people. The city’s traffic is legendary—an endless stream of motorbikes weaving through intersections in a carefully choreographed chaos that can be both overwhelming and fascinating. As Vietnam’s economic hub, it presents a mix of history, culture, and modern life. The main tourist sites are genuinely worth visiting, but some of the most memorable experiences come from simply walking around and seeing what you find.
Fruit and veg seller
We flew to Ho Chi Minh City from Da Nang and spent two days there before continuing on to Jakarta.
Reunification Palace
This is one of the most significant historical sites in Vietnam. The building was the seat of the South Vietnamese government and the residence of its president until 30 April 1975, when North Vietnamese tanks drove through its gates and effectively ended the war.
The palace has been preserved largely as it was at that moment, and it is part history museum and part time capsule. Visitors can walk through the formal reception rooms, the presidential living quarters, the war operations centre in the basement (with its original communications equipment, maps and situation boards intact), and up to the rooftop helipad.
War Remnants Museum
The War Remnants Museum is essential viewing for anyone wanting to understand Ho Chi Minh City and the country it belongs to. The museum documents the American War — the term used in Vietnam for the Vietnam War — through photographs, military hardware, official records and personal testimonies. The factual records are thorough and the photographs speak for themselves. The courtyard outside displays aircraft, tanks, artillery and a UH-1 Huey helicopter.
📌 Worth Knowing: The Independence Palace and the War Remnants Museum are roughly a 10-minute walk apart so visiting both on the same day makes sense.
Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon
France controlled Vietnam for close to a century, and its architectural influence on Ho Chi Minh City is still highly visible. The area around Dong Khoi Street and the riverfront in District 1 contains the highest concentration of colonial-era buildings, set along wide, tree-lined boulevards that still follow the original French urban plan.
The Central Post Office, designed by Gustave Eiffel's engineering firm in the 1880s, is the centrepiece — a grand vaulted hall that is fully operational and free to enter. The Notre-Dame Cathedral is adjacent to it.
Nha Rong Wharf
On the southern bank of the Saigon River, the Nha Rong Wharf building is one of the city's most recognisable colonial structures, distinguished by the pair of dragons on its roofline that give it its name — Nha Rong meaning Dragon House. It was built by the French in 1863 as a commercial port headquarters, and it was from this wharf that the young Ho Chi Minh departed Vietnam in 1911, beginning a 30-year journey through Europe, America, the Soviet Union and China before returning to lead the independence movement.
The building now houses a museum documenting Ho Chi Minh's life and travels through photographs, artefacts and personal effects. The riverside location and the views from the wharf make it worth a visit.
Ben Thanh Market
Ben Thanh Market is a huge covered market dating back to the early 20th century. It houses hundreds of stalls selling fresh produce, dried goods, spices, Vietnamese coffee, clothing, and souvenirs. The fresh food section in the morning is a working, functional space where local vendors have traded for generations. Prices throughout the market are higher than elsewhere in the city, and bargaining is standard practice. The area around Ben Thanh also hosts a popular night market after dark.
Standing at 461 metres, Landmark 81 is the tallest building in Vietnam and one of the tallest in Southeast Asia. Located in the Binh Thanh district on the banks of the Saigon River, the skyscraper is visible from much of the city and is part of a larger complex that includes a shopping mall, hotel and residential apartments. The main draw for visitors is the SkyView observation deck on floors 79 to 81, which offers panoramic views across the city, the river and the surrounding flatlands. Entry to the observation deck requires a ticket and it is worth booking in advance, particularly on weekends.
Bitexco Financial Tower
The Bitexco Financial Tower is the second tallest building in the city and The Saigon Skydeck observation deck on the 49th floor also has impressive 360-degree views over the city and the river below.
Café Apartments at 42 Nguyen Hue
The Cafe Apartments at 42 Nguyen Hue is a nine-storey residential building that has been almost entirely taken over by independent cafés, boutiques and small creative businesses. Each apartment has been converted into its own individual space, meaning no two floors are quite the same — you might find a specialty coffee shop next to a vintage clothing store next to a flower café. The building sits right on Nguyen Hue Boulevard, one of the city's main pedestrian promenades.
Saigon River
A sunset cruise on the Saigon River is a relaxing way to experience Ho Chi Minh City from a different angle. As the city's skyline lights up in the early evening, the river provides unobstructed views of many of its landmarks — all of which look more striking from the water than from the street. Several operators run dinner cruises with live traditional music, while shorter sightseeing cruises are also available.
Trung Nguyen Legend Café
Trung Nguyen is Vietnam's most well-known coffee brand—a franchise coffee shop with pricey but delicious coffee. Their tagline is “The Energy Coffee That Changes Life”. The Vietnamese coffee here is slow-dripped through a small metal filter directly into the cup, producing a strong, concentrated brew that is traditionally served iced with sweetened condensed milk. It’s quite different from espresso-based coffee traditions, and it was amazing.
The Legend Café in District 1 is their flagship. The café spans multiple floors and is elegantly fitted out with dark wood and Vietnamese artwork.
City Sightseeing Bus Saigon
We used the City Sightseeing Bus to see the main attractions and the Grab app (the regional equivalent of Uber) to get around at other times.
These are the two most popular day trips from Ho Chi Minh City. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do them.
The Cu Chi Tunnel network is located approximately 40 kilometres northwest of the city centre. During the war, Viet Cong fighters constructed over 250 kilometres of underground tunnels by hand — a system that included sleeping areas, kitchens, field hospitals, weapons workshops and command centres, all built beneath active combat zones and largely undetectable from the surface.
Sections of the tunnels have been preserved and opened to visitors. Guests can crawl through passages that have been widened slightly from their original dimensions — narrow, low and warm — which provides a direct physical sense of what it meant to inhabit them. The site also includes displays of wartime equipment and examples of the tunnel defence systems used during the conflict. Most visitors do Cu Chi as a half-day trip from the city, either through an organised tour or by private vehicle. Allow 4–5 hours in total including travel time from the city centre.
The Mekong Delta begins roughly two hours away from Ho Chi Minh City. It is a flat, green landscape of rice paddies, coconut palms and waterways, where communities have lived by the river for centuries and daily life still moves largely by boat.
A standard day trip from HCMC covers the towns of My Tho and Ben Tre, with boat rides through the narrower canals, visits to local cottage industries (coconut candy production, honey farms, rice paper making) and lunch at a riverside restaurant.
Flower Market
See how to apply for a visa for Vietnam.
See how to plan a trip to Vietnam.
See things to do in Huế.
Read about our cruise in Ha Long Bay.
Sara Essop is a travel blogger and writer based in South Africa. She writes about family travel and experiences around the world on her blog "In Africa and Beyond". Although she has been to 53 countries thus far, she especially loves showcasing her beautiful country and is a certified South Africa Specialist.
