# Ho Chi Minh City Travel Guide: Saigon's Markets, War History & Street Food > Ho Chi Minh City travel guide: Ben Thanh Market, the Cu Chi Tunnels, War Remnants Museum, Bui Vien nightlife, banh mi, com tam, and a 2-day Saigon itinerary. - Source: https://clevertourists.com/guides/ho-chi-minh-city - Authors: Evan & Clara, Clever Tourists (first-hand, from a 526-day trip across 20 countries) - Published: 2026-10-11 Ho Chi Minh City, still Saigon to almost everyone who lives there, is Vietnam's biggest and fastest city: millions of motorbikes, French colonial landmarks wedged between glass towers, and a street-food culture that runs from 5am broken-rice stalls to midnight snail joints. The war that ended here in April 1975 is close to the surface, at the Reunification Palace, the War Remnants Museum, and the tunnels of Cu Chi an hour and a half up the road. This guide covers the sights worth your time, the neighborhoods to base yourself in, what to eat, and a two-day plan. ## Planning your time Two full days covers Saigon's essentials: one day for the central landmarks (Ben Thanh Market, the Central Post Office, the Reunification Palace, and the War Remnants Museum, all within a 20-minute walk of each other), and one for a half-day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels plus an evening in Cholon or on Bui Vien. Add a third day for the Mekong Delta. The city is hot year-round, so do outdoor sightseeing before 11am, duck into museums in the afternoon heat, and save markets and street food for after dark, when Saigon is at its most alive. ## At a glance - **War Remnants Museum** (Don't miss): Three floors on the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese side, including the Agent Orange and war-photographer galleries; heavy, and essential. - **Cu Chi Tunnels** (Don't miss): A preserved stretch of the roughly 250 km Viet Cong tunnel network northwest of the city; crawl a widened section if you fit. - **Reunification Palace** (Don't miss): The 1966 presidential palace whose gates a North Vietnamese tank broke through on 30 April 1975, with its war-room basement intact. - **Ben Thanh Market** (Worth a stop): The 1914 market hall under its clock tower: textiles, coffee, dried goods, and a food court; touristy but central. - **Saigon Central Post Office** (Worth a stop): A working 1890s French post office with a vaulted iron-and-glass hall and hand-painted maps of old Saigon. - **Cholon (Chinatown)** (Worth a stop): Thien Hau Temple's incense coils and the wholesale chaos of Binh Tay Market, a short Grab ride west of the center. - **Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica** (Worth a stop): The red-brick 1880 cathedral opposite the post office, still finishing a restoration that began in 2017. - **Bui Vien Walking Street** (If you have time): The backpacker strip of neon bars and plastic stools; loud, cheap, and fun for one night. - **Saigon Skydeck or Landmark 81 SkyView** (If you have time): City views from the Bitexco tower or Vietnam's tallest building, best around sunset. ## Itinerary ### Day One: Colonial Saigon & the Reunification Palace Start with breakfast com tam at a sidewalk stall, then walk into Ben Thanh Market as it opens and the dried-fruit and coffee sellers are setting up. From there it's a ten-minute walk to the Saigon Central Post Office and the Notre-Dame Cathedral across the square, best photographed before the tour groups arrive around 9am. Continue to the Reunification Palace, give the basement command rooms most of your time, and break for lunch before the midday heat peaks. Spend the early afternoon in the War Remnants Museum, which is air-conditioned in parts and takes two hours to do properly. Late afternoon, walk Nguyen Hue down to the Saigon River, ride up the Bitexco tower for sunset, then end the night at the Ben Thanh street-food stalls or, if you want the noise, on Bui Vien. Tip: The Reunification Palace has traditionally closed for a midday break around 11am-1pm; go in the morning and leave the War Remnants Museum, which stays open through lunch, for the afternoon. ### Day Two: Cu Chi Tunnels & Cholon Leave by 7:30am for the Cu Chi Tunnels, either on a small-group tour or by private car, so you're crawling the tunnels before the heat and the big coaches peak. A half-day tour gets you back in the city by early afternoon; the river-boat versions along the Saigon River cost more but skip much of the traffic. After lunch, take a Grab west to Cholon. Light a coil of incense at Thien Hau Temple, then wander the wholesale lanes around Binh Tay Market, where Saigon's Chinese merchants have traded since the 19th century. Come back east for dinner on Vinh Khanh food street, the old District 4's long row of grilled-seafood joints. Tip: Wear clothes you don't mind getting red dirt on and bring a small towel: even the widened tunnels are hot, low, and dusty. ## Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam's commercial engine, a sprawl of motorbikes and street kitchens anchored by a compact old core of French colonial landmarks, covered markets, and the sites where the Vietnam War ended in 1975. Most of what you'll want to see sits in the old District 1, which Vietnam's 2025 administrative reform folded into new wards named Ben Thanh and Saigon, though every taxi driver still calls it District 1. Start at Ben Thanh Market, finished in 1914 under its landmark clock tower, then walk ten minutes north to the Saigon Central Post Office, built between 1886 and 1891 with a barrel-vaulted hall, wrought-iron columns, and painted maps of colonial Cochinchina on the walls; it still sells stamps. Across the square, the red-brick Notre-Dame Cathedral (1863-1880, built with bricks shipped from Marseille) had its two gilded tower crosses reinstalled in March 2026 as a decade-long restoration neared its end. Between the landmarks, look up: the old apartment blocks on Nguyen Hue and Ton That Dam hide cafes, boutiques, and graffiti-covered stairwells behind their concrete facades. Since December 2024, Metro Line 1 has run from an underground station at Ben Thanh out to the eastern suburbs, the city's first urban rail line. The war is the other half of any visit. The Reunification Palace, completed in 1966 as South Vietnam's presidential palace, is preserved almost exactly as it was on 30 April 1975, when a tank rolled through its front gates; the basement war rooms, radio equipment, and wall maps are the most absorbing part. A few blocks away, the War Remnants Museum covers the conflict from the Vietnamese side, with captured aircraft and armor in the yard and galleries on Agent Orange and on the photographers killed covering the war. Then get out of town to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 1.5-2 hours northwest by road, where guerrillas dug roughly 250 km of passages, field hospitals, and kitchens with smoke vents disguised as termite mounds. Ben Dinh is the closer, busier site, Ben Duoc the quieter one, and both let you crawl a short tunnel section that has been widened for visitors. It is still tight enough that most people come out sweating within 30 meters. Highlights: - Reunification Palace — the 1966 presidential palace frozen at the fall of Saigon, with intact basement command rooms and the gates the tanks broke through. - War Remnants Museum — US aircraft and tanks in the courtyard and unflinching galleries on Agent Orange and wartime photojournalism. - Cu Chi Tunnels — a preserved section of the guerrilla tunnel network about 1.5-2 hours northwest, with booby-trap displays and crawlable passages. - Cholon — Saigon's Chinatown, home to the incense-filled 18th-century Thien Hau Temple and the wholesale lanes of Binh Tay Market. - **Best time to go:** December to February for dry, slightly less humid weather; in any season, be out by 7am, when the parks fill with tai chi and badminton and the heat is still bearable. - **Tip:** Use Grab (car or motorbike) rather than street taxis to avoid meter games, and cross roads at a slow, steady walk without stopping: motorbikes flow around a predictable pedestrian, not a darting one. - **What to eat:** Eat com tam (broken rice with a grilled lemongrass pork chop and fried egg) for breakfast, a banh mi from a busy street cart for lunch, and grilled snails and clams on Vinh Khanh food street in the old District 4 at night, washed down with ca phe sua da, iced coffee with condensed milk. - **Where to stay:** Stay in the old District 1 (Ben Thanh and Saigon wards) between Nguyen Hue and Ben Thanh Market for walking access to nearly everything, or near Bui Vien and Pham Ngu Lao only if you want the noise and the cheapest rooms. ## Best time to visit Saigon is tropical and never cold, so the question is rain and heat rather than temperature. December through February is the sweet spot: dry, slightly less humid, and lively around Tet. The rainy season (roughly May to November) is perfectly travelable, since downpours tend to be short and come in the afternoon, and it brings lower hotel prices. - **Dry season · December–February:** Clear skies, the lowest humidity of the year, and daytime highs around 31-32°C. Lunar New Year (Tet) falls on 6 February in 2027: Nguyen Hue becomes a flower street in the run-up, but many family restaurants and shops close for several days afterward. - **Hot season · March–April:** Still dry, but the hottest stretch of the year, with afternoons often pushing 34-35°C. Plan sightseeing for early morning and late afternoon and spend midday in museums or a cafe. - **Early rains · May–July:** The monsoon arrives in May, usually as a heavy 30-60 minute downpour in mid-to-late afternoon, followed by cooler, clearer evenings. Mornings are generally dry enough to sightsee normally. - **Peak rains · August–November:** The wettest months, with September and October bringing the most rain and occasional street flooding during high tides. Hotel rates are at their lowest; carry a poncho and plan indoor fallbacks for the afternoons. ## With more time With a third day, take a day trip to the Mekong Delta: My Tho and Ben Tre are about two hours south for coconut workshops and canal boat rides, while Can Tho, three to four hours away, rewards an overnight stay for its dawn floating market. Tay Ninh's Cao Dai Holy See, about 100 km northwest, is often paired with Cu Chi for its colorful noon prayer service, and the beach town of Vung Tau is roughly two hours away by fast boat or road.