Things to Do in Ho Chi Minh City: 2027 Prices and 3 Days

The best things to do in Ho Chi Minh City are the War Remnants Museum, Independence Palace, the Post Office and Book Street walk, Nguyen Hue after dark, a 15,000 dong waterbus ride and a morning in Chinatown. Three days covers all of that plus one trip out of town, to Cu Chi or the Mekong Delta. One day covers the centre and nothing else.

Prices and hours below were checked in November 2026 on the palace, museum and waterbus operators' own websites. A lot of guides still quote 40,000 dong for both the palace and the museum. Neither figure is right any more.

Things to do in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: what the main sights cost

For a rough dollar figure, divide by 26,000. The palace comes to about US$3, the museum about US$2.30 and a waterbus leg about 60 cents. The sights are cheap; the taxis between them add up, so the route below keeps each day in one area.

One naming trap: District 1, 3 and 5 stopped being official administrative units on 1 July 2025. Hotels and drivers still use the old names, so this article does too, but give a driver the street number. The District 1 travel guide covers where to stay in the centre street by street.

Start with the War Remnants Museum

Be at 28 Vo Van Tan for the 7:30 opening. By 10am the tour coaches arrive and the upper galleries jam. The aircraft and tanks in the yard take ten minutes. The indoor floors take two hours if you read the captions, and the captions are the point. Requiem, the gallery of work by photographers killed covering the wars in Indochina, is the one people talk about afterwards. The Agent Orange rooms are harder, with graphic images of children.

The museum tells the war from the Vietnamese side, and it says so plainly. Go knowing that.

With children, an adult should walk the upper galleries first and decide. Nobody checks which rooms a family skips. Our War Remnants Museum visiting guide goes floor by floor.

Walk through Independence Palace

The palace is under 1 km from the museum, so walk it. Ngo Viet Thu designed the building, and it was finished on 31 October 1966 as the residence and office of the South Vietnamese president. At 10:45 on 30 April 1975 a tank drove through the main gate, and the war was effectively over. Two tanks of the same type now sit on the lawn.

The reception rooms are kept almost as they were left. The basement is the part most visitors rush and should not: war-room maps, radio sets and bunker corridors that show how close the fighting had come.

The conference hall, one of the reception rooms kept as it was in the 1970s. Photo: Duong Nguyen, Google Places photo. Photo: Duong Nguyen / Google Maps.

The official Independence Palace website lists the 80,000 dong adult ticket and 7:00 to 18:00 opening every day of the week. Read what the counter is selling: some exhibitions inside are priced separately. In March and April the afternoon high sits around 33 to 35°C.

Post Office, Book Street and the cathedral you cannot enter yet

The Central Post Office at 2 Cong Xa Paris was built between 1886 and 1891, and it is still a working post office. The long vaulted hall ends in a large portrait of Ho Chi Minh above the clock. From mid-morning it is full of tour groups, and the central counter sells more souvenirs than stamps.

Book Street, Nguyen Van Binh, runs along the side of the building. Look for English translations of Vietnamese novels, which are hard to find elsewhere in the country.

Notre Dame Cathedral opposite has been under restoration since 2017. The gold-plated crosses went back on the twin towers on 19 March 2026, but the work is scheduled to run into 2027 and the interior is not reliably open to visitors. Plan on the outside only.

The main hall of the Central Post Office, built 1886 to 1891. Photo: Ekrem Canli, CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo: Ekrem Canli, CC BY-SA 3.0.

From here, Dong Khoi runs 700 m or so down to the Opera House, which opened in 1900. The real hazard of this walk is the big junctions: use the marked crossings, walk at a steady pace, and do not stop halfway. Motorbikes steer around a predictable pedestrian; they cannot steer around one who freezes.

Ben Thanh Market, and what it is honestly good for

Ben Thanh's clock-tower building went up between 1912 and 1914, and it is the most photographed market in the city. It is also the most expensive place in Saigon to buy a T-shirt. Compare the same item at three stalls, ask the total in dong, and walk away politely if it does not suit.

The food stalls inside are the better reason to come. Pick a stall with prices on the board, point, and confirm the price before extras arrive.

The south gate and clock tower, built 1912 to 1914. Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo: Bahnfrend, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Anyone who hates shopping can skip it in 15 minutes and spend the time at the Fine Arts Museum two blocks away. Skip antiques, ivory and anything made from wildlife as souvenirs. Most of it is fake, and the real ones are illegal to export.

Use the metro, even for two stops

Metro Line 1 opened on 22 December 2024, after years of delay, and few guides explain how to use it. It runs 19.7 km from Ben Thanh to Suoi Tien with 14 stations. The first three, Ben Thanh, Opera House and Ba Son, are underground. A cash ticket costs 7,000 to 20,000 dong depending on distance, and a day pass is 40,000 dong. Children under 6 ride free.

For a visitor, the useful stops are Ben Thanh, Opera House and Tan Cang. Tan Cang is the walk to Landmark 81, the 461 m tower with the city's highest viewing deck. Thao Dien, the next stop, is the expat cafe district. In rush hour, an air-conditioned train beats a taxi.

It does not go to the airport, Chinatown or the War Remnants Museum. Use Grab for those.

Things to do in Saigon at night

Nguyen Hue is the evening walk. The pedestrian boulevard runs from the People's Committee building, the old City Hall, down to the river, and after sunset it fills with families, buskers and teenagers on skates. It is easier with children than any bar street, though the roads at both ends carry full traffic.

Halfway along, at 42 Nguyen Hue, is the Cafe Apartment, a nine-storey former residential block now filled with separate small cafes and shops. The lift charges a few thousand dong a ride. Pick one cafe with a balcony, not every floor. Our Nguyen Hue walking street guide covers the rest of the boulevard, including the Tet flower displays.

Temporary installations going up on Nguyen Hue before Tet in January 2020. Photo: Steffen Schmitz (more photos), CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo: Steffen Schmitz (more photos), CC BY-SA 4.0.

For height, the Saigon Skydeck is on the 49th floor of the Bitexco tower, a five-minute walk from Nguyen Hue.

Bui Vien is something else entirely: amplified music, plastic stools in the road, cheap beer and very late nights. It stays loud long after midnight. Fun for one evening, a bad place to book a room if sleep matters, and not a family promenade. Phone snatching from passing motorbikes is the crime most visitors actually meet in this part of town, so keep the phone on the building side of the pavement.

Travellers heading north put their outdoor days in Phong Nha's caves and jungle, a direct domestic flight from Tan Son Nhat to Dong Hoi and then 45 km by road. Jungle Boss runs guided trekking and caving there, and a one-day jungle trek is the honest test of whether a longer expedition suits you.

Take the waterbus, with the return already arranged

The Saigon Waterbus leaves from Bach Dang pier, a short walk from the river end of Nguyen Hue. It has 8 piers: Bach Dang, Thu Thiem, Ba Son, Binh An, Thao Dien, Thanh Da, Hiep Binh Chanh and Linh Dong. A leg costs 15,000 dong, and the full run to Linh Dong takes 52 minutes. It is the cheapest way to see the skyline from the water.

The catch is the timetable. Most sailings turn round after the first five piers, and only a handful a day run all the way to Linh Dong, sometimes with gaps of two or three hours between them. People ride to the end, find the next boat back is not until evening, and pay for a 15 km Grab back to the centre. Ride to Thao Dien, have lunch, and come back by boat or metro.

The Saigon Waterbus site sells the scheduled service alongside sightseeing cruises, so check you are buying the 15,000 dong boat and not a dinner cruise. Our Saigon Waterbus route guide has the stop-by-stop detail.

Give Chinatown a separate morning

Cholon, old District 5, is about 5 km west of Ben Thanh, 20 to 30 minutes by Grab. Start at Thien Hau Temple, 710 Nguyen Trai, built by the Cantonese community and still a working temple. The coils of incense hanging from the roof burn for days, and the smoke collects. Keep the doorway clear and ask before photographing anyone praying.

The ceramic roof figures over the Thien Hau Temple entrance. Photo: 兵庫胡志明倶楽部, CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo: 兵庫胡志明倶楽部, CC BY-SA 3.0.

From the temple, walk to Binh Tay Market, the wholesale market of the district. It sells by the sack, not the souvenir, and nobody is waiting for tourists, which is the appeal. Our Chinatown Ho Chi Minh guide maps the assembly halls, the lantern street and the alleys between them. Eat lunch in Cholon before heading back.

Choose Cu Chi or the Mekong Delta for the extra day

Cu Chi is the stronger choice if the war is why you came. The tunnel sites are 55 to 70 km northwest by road, and a half-day tour takes 5 to 6 hours door to door. Ben Dinh is the closer, busier site; Ben Duoc is further out and quieter. Ask which one before paying. The crawl sections are hot, low and tight, and anyone with claustrophobia can walk the surface exhibits instead. Tell the organiser in advance. The Cu Chi Tunnels guide compares the two sites.

The delta suits people tired of the city, but a single-day tour spends most of its time on a coach and in staged stops selling coconut candy.

Can Tho, about 170 km southwest, is where the delta gets good, and Cai Rang floating market there is busiest soon after dawn. That means sleeping in Can Tho, not leaving Saigon at 7am. Use the Mekong Delta trip guide to pick a route, and on a first visit choose one excursion, not both.

What to do in Ho Chi Minh City in three days

1. Day one: War Remnants Museum at 7:30, Independence Palace by 10:00, lunch, then the Post Office, Book Street and Dong Khoi. Nguyen Hue after dark.
2. Day two: Cholon from 8:00, lunch there, a cafe break through the heat, then the waterbus to Thao Dien in late afternoon and the metro back.
3. Day three: Cu Chi or one night in Can Tho. If neither appeals, the Fine Arts Museum, Ben Thanh's food stalls and an evening food walk. A 4-day Mekong Delta and Cu Chi Tunnels tour from Saigon covers both with a guide.

Leave the last day in the city if your flight is that evening. Tan Son Nhat is about 7 km from Ben Thanh, but at 5pm on a weekday that can be an hour by car.

On a longer Vietnam trip, give Phong Nha at least two days. A 5-day, 4-night expedition such as Kong Collapse is a different commitment from a city break. Check its fitness requirements before booking the flight north.