Is Ho Chi Minh City worth visiting? Yes! Of course, as a long-time resident, I’m a bit biased. I moved to Ho Chi Minh City in 2018 and lived in District 8. I then lived in District 7, District 2, and Phu Nhuan.
I love exploring Ho Chi Minh City. After all these years, I still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface. I’ve done all the touristy things but still love wandering down alleys looking for hidden coffee shops or cool buildings.
There’s a charm in Ho Chi Minh City (and Vietnam) that doesn’t quite exist elsewhere in Southeast Asia. There’s just something about it that keeps me sticking around. Visiting Saigon requires a slightly adventurous spirit, but it’s worth it.
Before visiting, you’ll need to learn the best time to visit, find out if you need a visa, and learn how to get your SIM card. Then, check my guide on Vietnam travel apps. If you have any questions about the city, ask me in my dedicated Ho Chi Minh City travel planning Facebook group. Here are my top reasons to visit Ho Chi Minh City.
It’s very affordable for a major city.
Ho Chi Minh City is a very low-cost, highly-populated city to visit. It’s considered Vietnam’s financial and economic center and has around 10 million inhabitants, more than Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, at 8.5 million.
There are a ton of 4- and 5-star hotels in great locations available for $50 USD to $150 USD per night. Some examples? The Liberty Central Saigon Citypoint (4-star) is in a great area of District 1. So is the Fusion Original (5-star, newer) across the street. For something historic and on the river, look at the Hotel Majestic Saigon (5-star). The Mai House Saigon (5-star) in District 3 is excellent, too.
I have dozens of other recommendations. If you need help choosing a hotel, ask me in my free Ho Chi Minh City travel planning group.
Many activities within the city are free or close to it. Entry tickets to museums and the Independence Palace are around 40.000 VND (less than $2 USD). Parks are free, the Ben Thanh Market is free, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Saigon Central Post Office are free, and visiting Nguyen Hue Street and Bui Vien is free.
Food is also cheap. Local meals can be had for a couple of dollars, while you could spend $10 USD to $50 USD at sit-down restaurants. The sky’s the limit with shopping and fancy restaurants.
Getting around Ho Chi Minh City is cheap, too—especially with the Grab app. Within District 1 and District 3, you’ll spend $1 USD per trip on GrabBikes (moto-taxis) and around $2 USD to $3 USD for GrabCars (taxis). Add $1 or $2 for slightly further trips.
Depending on where you’re flying from, your flight cost will likely be more than your entire trip to Ho Chi Minh City.
Its coffee scene is unmatched.
This doesn’t just go for Ho Chi Minh City, but all of Vietnam. As I wrote in my NAM House Cafe review, the coffee culture in Vietnam can’t be beaten.
Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer in the world, behind Brazil. It accounts for 17% of the world’s coffee production, with over 29,000,000 60 KG bags made yearly.
Over the years, I’ve tried many different Vietnamese-style coffees. Lately, I’ve been having a lot of egg coffee. One of my favorite places for egg coffee in District 1 is Little HaNoi (see my review article here). You can view their Vietnam locations here.
I also recommend salted coffee, coconut coffee, and peanut coffee.
Its street food is world-renowned.
Travelers come from all over the world to try street food in Vietnam.
But before doing so, you’ll want to load up on some probiotics and maybe leave a piece of chicken outside for a few days before eating it to prepare your stomach.
Just kidding—but not totally about the probiotics. I think they’re a good idea if you’ve never eaten street meat from carts before. You don’t have to worry much about getting “real” sick — a bout of the runs is more likely, if at all.
Having said that, jump in and follow the herds. Where are the locals eating? Look for popular food carts or stalls—ones with many people sitting nearby eating or waiting in line to order. These are good places to start.
Noodle-based soups and dishes like pho, bun bo Hue, and bun cha Hanoi are the most popular. Bahn mis, too.
I eat a lot of com ga Hai Nam, which is a version of chicken and rice. Lately, I’ve been eating a lot of bun bo Hue—the noodle dish with beef—and bun cha Hanoi—grilled pork and noodles.
A banh mi is good to grab if you want to eat and walk around. One could be a light snack to eat while walking. Two could fill you up nicely.
Its architecture blends the past and present.
Ho Chi Minh City is in an obvious transition. The last several years, the present day, and the near future are all involved, so you have plenty of time to experience what I’m about to discuss.
The best way to describe Ho Chi Minh City’s appearance is that it’s trying to preserve its history while simultaneously adapting to the modern world.
There are a lot of French colonial buildings around the city.
The Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon dates back to the late 1800s. I recently learned that all the original building materials were imported from France. Other buildings include the nearby Saigon Central Post Office, also from the late 1800s, the Ho Chi Minh City Opera House, and the People’s Committee Building.
A lot more exist around the city, and you’ll stumble upon them as you explore. Here are a few more: the Hotel Continental Saigon, the Hotel Majestic Saigon, Ben Thanh Market, and the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts.
Seeing buildings like these (and more) scattered throughout the city, blended with modern-day high-rises, office buildings, and malls, brings a sense of excitement. There’s history weaved with modern-day convenience.
Riding a scooter is a (dangerous) blast.
I’ve been riding a scooter in Vietnam since I first came out here in 2018. I crashed into a row of garbage cans on my first day, but I’ve been accident-free ever since! Knocking on my desk. Knocking some more. Still knocking.
Coming from the USA, where motorcycle riding isn’t nearly as common, there hasn’t been a day where I haven’t thought about how fun and freeing it is to ride. I have a t-shirt that says: “Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.”
Something is exhilarating about having a motorbike as your daily vehicle, zipping around a foreign city, never really knowing what’s going on or what you’ll see.
Riding a scooter opens up Saigon in an entirely new way and makes getting from attraction to attraction much more convenient. I highly recommend learning to ride if you can/are able. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and use the Grab app to get around. It’s much better than hailing random street taxis, trust me.
I’ve personally rented motorbikes on long-term leases from Richard at DC Motorbikes (website). He has two locations: one in Thao Dien and the other in Phu My Hung.
Adventurous spirits are rewarded.
Visiting Vietnam will require thicker skin. The vacation experience here is not nearly as streamlined as in nearby countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
However, there’s something to be said about having to plan a bit more and think on your feet compared to having a more streamlined and hiccup-less vacation experience. I’ve traveled extensively in the region, and navigating Vietnam has been more of an adventure and rewarding overall.
Vietnam’s infrastructure, especially for tourism, is not nearly as polished as nearby countries. Individually, though, there are great hotels, great places to eat, and a lot of fun, interesting, or exciting things to do. But the glue holding it all together is still in development. There will be hiccups, but this is part of the deal when exploring a developing country.
If you prepare yourself for these hiccups ahead of time, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the city. Here’s a guide I wrote on some travel tips for Ho Chi Minh City.
The weather is warm (or hot) year-round.
The weather in HCMC ranges from warm to hot all year. Shorts, t-shirts, tank tops, flip-flops, sneakers, etc., are all you’ll need. If you plan to go somewhere nice for dinner, maybe a pair of pants and a collared shirt (but this is optional). Khaki shorts are fine for this, too.
Ho Chi Minh City has a wet season and a dry season. The wet season typically runs from May to November. December through March is the best time to visit to take advantage of the dry weather and before it gets too hot. This site has good information on the year-round weather in Ho Chi Minh City.
There are a lot of things to do.
Put simply, there are a ton of things to do in Ho Chi Minh City, and they’re not geared toward any one interest. There is a wide variety of activities, free and paid.
- Many museums are within walking distance of Districts 1 and 3. The War Remnants Museum, the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, the Ho Chi Minh City History Museum, and the Ho Chi Minh Campaign Museum. There are more. Most museum tickets cost less than $2 USD.
- The Independence Palace is one of my favorite attractions in the city. It is the site of the Fall of Saigon in 1975. An entry ticket gives you access to the entire grounds, coffee shops, courtyard, and the former presidential palace. You are free to roam as you please. It is 100% worth the $2 to $3 USD entry fee.
- The Saigon Skydeck is an observatory on the 49th Floor of the Bitexco Financial Building in downtown District 1. You’ll notice this building by its helipad sticking out from the 52nd Floor. It’s an air-conditioned activity. At the time of writing, a ticket is 240.000 VND. You can soak up the AC and admire the 360-degree views of HCMC. Stay as long as you like.
- Nguyen Hue Street is one of the more famous streets in Saigon. In between the two sides, there’s a wide walking promenade that extends from the Saigon River to the Ho Chi Minh Statue and People’s Committee Building. Wandering in this area is a must in HCMC.
- What else? Ben Thanh Market, Bui Vien walking street, the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon, the Saigon Central Post Office, Japan Town, tons of cafes, street food, and more.
For more suggestions, see my guide on things to do in Ho Chi Minh City.
It’s steeped in layers of history.
One of my favorite things about Ho Chi Minh City is its history. The Vietnam War ended in 1975, which is relatively recent if you think about it. By comparison, the American Civil War ended over 100 years prior.
There are many locals in Saigon today who were around then. Think about the things they witnessed less than 50 years ago: the fighting, the helicopters, the tanks riding through the streets…
When I’m wandering around District 1 or 3, I always wonder what these streets were like then. There are a lot of buildings, museums, and monuments in Ho Chi Minh City from those times or erected in the aftermath of the war.
But the city’s history doesn’t stop at the Vietnam War. Relics from the late 1800s are also scattered around the city because, once upon a time, the French invaded and conquered Vietnam. They erected buildings in the French colonial style, many of which still exist today.
There are also statues around the city built after the fact of famous Vietnamese revolutionaries, most notably Ho Chi Minh. His statue is at the head of Nguyen Hue Street. So, the history is very apparent when visiting Ho Chi Minh City.
It’s home to the tallest building in Vietnam.
Landmark 81 in Binh Thanh District is the tallest building in Vietnam, the second in Southeast Asia, and the seventeenth in the world.
The skyscraper has a mall, shops, a small ice skating rink, and a food court on the lower levels. On the upper levels, there are private apartments, restaurants, cafes, and an observation area. It’s also home to the Vinpearl Landmark 81, Autograph Collection hotel. This is one of the nicer luxury hotels in HCMC.
You can purchase a ticket and ride the elevator to the 79th Floor. Then, you can climb stairs to reach the 81st Floor. At the time of writing, a ticket costs 300.000 VND.
Outside of Landmark 81 are the Vinhomes condominiums and Vinhomes Central Park, my favorite park in Ho Chi Minh City. It’s free to enter and is nicely situated along the Saigon River. I come here often. Here is my guide to Vinhomes Central Park.
There’s a night and day difference between districts.
Each district in Ho Chi Minh City has its own vibe and feel. The streets look different, there are different food choices, and the buildings have different architecture.
Some districts have more green spaces and tree-lined roads than others, or they just feel more “open.”
If you want to be in the city center, with all the financial buildings and high-rise hotels but not many trees, there’s District 1. Bordering it is District 3 (one of my favorites), and the vibe immediately changes. The streets in D3 are skinnier and lined with more trees. Wandering around D3 on foot is much different than D1.
Travelers know District 2 for Thao Dien, but this is only a tiny part of the district. Thao Dien is home to many expats and travelers, largely because of its high concentration of Western food, apartments, and international schools. The Sala area of District 2 is much different. It’s open and airy, and they’re in the process of building that area up nicely. This riverside walking area recently opened.
Another of my favorites is District 7. I lived here for a while. Like every district, D7 has busy, chaotic areas but also a much quieter and more “open” area further south. This area is called Phu My Hung and is also home to a large expat population, mainly Korean. There are a lot of great Korean restaurants down here.
The streets are wider down here, and there’s more open space. A lot of families live here. There are good parks. Crescent Mall is here, too, one of the nicer malls in Ho Chi Minh City.
Anthony, very interesting writings. I’m a travel agency owner in Phoenix and bring a large group to Tokyo in November, then boarding a Princess cruise ship with Ho Chi Minh being one of our stops. I’m doing a “report” on all ports so everyone will be educated on what to see and do in each port, so your writings helped me tremendously. Thanks!
Hey Ron. Thanks for reading. There’s a port near Vung Tau (Phu My Port) that some itineraries may mark as being in HCMC, when it’s actually closer to Vung Tau. Some cruises may provide a shuttle into HCMC from here — maybe a 1.5 to 2 hour trip.