Ho Chi Minh City (Hồ Chí Minh — still called Sài Gòn by its 9 million residents, renamed after the fall of the South Vietnamese capital on April 30, 1975 when North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Reunification Palace ending the Vietnam War) is the most electrifying city in Southeast Asia: the largest city in Vietnam, the economic engine of the country (contributing 23% of Vietnam's GDP) and the most dynamic, fastest-changing urban landscape in the region — a city of 9 million motorcycles, neon-lit street food alleys, colonial French boulevards and glass towers rising from what was once the "Pearl of the Orient." Saigon's food is completely different from Hanoi's: sweeter, more fragrant, more influenced by Chinese and Khmer traditions — the bánh mì here is sweeter, the phở is served with more herbs and bean sprouts, the bún bò Huế is the spicy beef noodle dish nobody outside Vietnam knows, and the street food culture of the Bến Thành night market and the alleys of Bình Thạnh district is the most intense and diverse in Vietnam.
The Saigon bánh mì (sweeter baguette, more pâté, more pickled vegetables, more fragrant herbs than the Hanoi version) and cà phê sữa đá (Vietnamese iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk — Robusta beans drip-brewed through a French metal phin filter over ice and condensed milk, the most energizing coffee in the world) from a street cart or a sidewalk plastic-stool café. The Phúc Long coffee chain (the Vietnamese premium chain) does the best cà phê sữa đá if you want air conditioning.
The Bảo tàng Chứng tích Chiến tranh (War Remnants Museum — 28 Võ Văn Tần, District 3 — the most visited museum in Vietnam: a former US Information Service building converted to a museum presenting the American War (the Vietnamese name for the Vietnam War) from the Vietnamese perspective. The Agent Orange gallery (the documentation of chemical herbicide spraying over South Vietnam 1961–1971 — Monsanto's "defoliant" produced chromosome damage across three generations of Vietnamese, a story still unresolved) and the photojournalism gallery (the greatest war photography collection in the world — Nick Ut's "Napalm Girl," Eddie Adams's "Saigon Execution") are the most powerful rooms. Extraordinarily moving and necessary.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Dinh Độc Lập (Reunification Palace — 135 Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa — the palace of the President of South Vietnam, completely preserved since April 30, 1975, the day North Vietnamese Army tank No. 390 crashed through the front gates and a soldier climbed to the roof to plant the NLF flag, ending the war. The command bunker (B2 — the radio room, the map room, the operations center, exactly as left on April 30 1975), the presidential suite, the formal reception rooms and the rooftop helipad where the last American helicopters evacuated the CIA staff in April 1975.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe French colonial heart of Saigon (District 1 — the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Saigon (1880 — built entirely from materials shipped from France: the red bricks from Marseille, the cast-iron spires from Eiffel's workshop, no local materials used at all), the Bưu điện Thành phố (the Central Post Office — 1891, designed by Gustave Eiffel with the same decorative iron structure as his bridge work, the maps of Cochinchina on the walls unchanged since 1891) and the Nhà hát Thành phố (the Municipal Theatre — 1900, a miniature version of the Paris Opéra de Paris).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBến Thành Market (Chợ Bến Thành — the most recognizable building in Saigon (1914, the clock tower) with the night market spreading across the adjacent streets (6pm–midnight): bún bò Huế (the spicy Hue beef noodle — brighter, spicier, more fragrant than phở, with lemongrass and shrimp paste in the broth), bánh xèo (the crispy Vietnamese sizzling rice pancake with shrimp and bean sprouts, wrapped in lettuce and herbs), và hủ tiếu Nam Vang (the Phnom Penh-style pork and seafood noodle soup that is uniquely Saigon).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Cu Chi Tunnels (Địa đạo Củ Chi — the 250km network of underground tunnels used by the Viet Cong (National Liberation Front fighters) during the Vietnam War: a complete underground city with living quarters, kitchens (the smoke was channelled through the ground to emerge 100m away, to prevent detection), hospitals, command centres and weapon workshops, all at 60–90cm width — the tunnels were widened for western tourist bodies. The Ben Dinh section (closer, more tourist-focused) or Ben Duoc (more remote, more authentic). Go with an organized tour including transfer (USD$25–40) or by motorbike with a local guide.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe tunnel experience: crawl through a 100m section of the widened tourist tunnel (the original is 60cm wide x 80cm tall — impossibly claustrophobic), see the various tunnel openings concealed under leaves, the punji stake booby traps (sharpened bamboo in pits covered with leaves — the most feared weapon of the guerrilla war), the entrance concealment, the bomb craters (the B-52 carpet bombing left craters still visible as ponds), and the shooting range (AK-47, M16, M60 — USD$1 per bullet). The documentary film (20 minutes, 1967 North Vietnamese propaganda) shown at the beginning is mandatory and fascinating.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Chùa Ngọc Hoàng (Jade Emperor Pagoda — Đinh Tiên Hoàng, District 3 — the most beautiful and atmospheric Taoist pagoda in Saigon: built by the Cantonese community in 1909, dedicated to the Jade Emperor (the supreme ruler of heaven in Taoism and Buddhism) with extraordinary papier-mâché figures of the judges of hell and their tortures, the Ten Courts of Hell, the Turtle Hall (tanks of turtles released by devotees as merit-making) and the incense smoke that fills every chamber. President Obama visited in 2016.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCục Gạch Quán (10 Đặng Tất, District 1 — a 1930s French colonial villa converted to a Vietnamese restaurant with a garden courtyard: the most beautiful restaurant in Saigon, serving traditional Vietnamese home cooking (the dishes a Vietnamese grandmother makes, not a restaurant) — thịt kho tàu (caramelized pork belly and eggs cooked in a clay pot), canh chua (the sour soup with tamarind, tomato, pineapple and catfish), and rau muống xào tỏi (water spinach stir-fried with garlic and shrimp paste). Book in advance.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Mekong Delta (Đồng bằng sông Cửu Long — "the Nine Dragon River Delta" — the most fertile agricultural region in Southeast Asia: 40,000 km² of flat delta formed by the Mekong River as it reaches the South China Sea through nine channels, producing 50% of Vietnam's rice, 70% of its fruit and most of its freshwater fish. A Mekong Delta day tour (USD$35–60) from Saigon: speedboat to Mỹ Tho, then sampan through the floating markets and river channels between the coconut palm islands, the coconut candy factory (Ben Tre speciality), the bee farm honey tasting and the local floating restaurant lunch.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe floating market experience (Cái Bè or Cái Răng floating markets — the wholesale river markets where boats loaded with tropical fruit (dragon fruit, durian, longans, mangosteen) come from the islands to sell to wholesale buyers from dawn: boats with poles extending above them displaying the product they're selling — a mast with a durian means durian boat) and the sampan ride through the narrow channels between the rice paddies and coconut palm plantations is the essential Mekong Delta experience.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Chill Skybar (76A Lê Lai, AB Tower 26th floor, District 1 — the most spectacular rooftop bar in Saigon: 360° views over the Saigon River, the colonial district and the new skyscraper district of Thủ Thiêm across the river, with sunset cocktails (the "Saigon Sunset" — passionfruit, mango and rum) as the city lights come on. The contrast between the French colonial rooftops below and the glass towers rising around them makes the view uniquely Saigon.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHủ tiếu Nam Vang (the Phnom Penh-style noodle soup that is uniquely Saigon — clear pork broth with rice noodles, pork slices, shrimp, quail eggs, liver and bean sprouts, served at midnight street carts that appear at 10pm and disappear at 2am): the most Saigon meal of all, from a cart on the pavement of District 5, eaten on a plastic stool with the motorbikes flying past.