Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is the centrally governed city of southern Vietnam, which Vietnam's national tourism authority calls the economic heart of the country and the main hub of the southern region.
Country
Vietnam
Type
City
Understand the place
Not only where to go, but what to eat, what things cost, what visitors get wrong, how accessible Ho Chi Minh City is, which scams to recognize and what is genuinely worth your time.
The complete guide
Start with the parts of Ho Chi Minh City that matter most to your trip, then move into the practical details.
Experiences & attractions
Attractions, experiences and places actually worth your time.
Eat like you understand the place
Signature dishes, local drinks, markets and eating well.
Where to stay & explore
Where to stay, wander and choose the right area for your trip.
Beyond the destination
Nearby places worth a day out from here.
Bring home the right things
What is genuinely worth buying and where to look.
After dark
What the evenings are like, and where to spend them.
Family travel
Family logistics, strollers, transport and practical planning.
When to go
When to visit and what the seasons really feel like.
Know before it happens
Common tourist traps and how to avoid them.
Money & budgeting
Budgets, payments and everyday prices.
Transport
Public transport, taxis, walking and common pitfalls.
Travel for more people
Mobility, transport and sensory accessibility.
Understand before you arrive
Local expectations, religion and visitor etiquette.
The details that matter
Connectivity, health, photography and useful local details.
Find your fit
Solo, women alone, older visitors, LGBTQ+, pets, remote work, budget and luxury.
Travel that holds up
Tourism pressure, supporting local people and animal welfare.
Traveler experiences
Traveler reviews will appear here after moderation.
Worth the drive
Distances are straight-line, not driving time — mountain roads in this region are often twice as long as the map suggests.
Historic site · Phường Sài Gòn (former District 1), Ho Chi Minh City
The Saigon Central Post Office is a working post office opposite the Notre-Dame cathedral in central Ho Chi Minh City, in a building Wikidata dates to 1891.
Market · Phường Bến Thành (former District 1), Ho Chi Minh City
Bến Thành Market is the covered market completed in 1914 facing Quách Thị Trang Square in central Ho Chi Minh City, run by a public market management board.
Church · Phường Sài Gòn (former District 1), Ho Chi Minh City
The Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon is the twin-spired Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City at the head of Đồng Khởi Street in central Ho Chi Minh City.
Gallery · Phường Bến Thành (former District 1), Ho Chi Minh City
The Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts is the city's art museum at 97A Phó Đức Chính in the former District 1, with collections of ancient to early-modern and modern Vietnamese art.
Historic site · Phường Bến Thành (former District 1), Ho Chi Minh City
The Independence Palace (Dinh Độc Lập), also called the Reunification Palace, is the former presidential palace of South Vietnam at 135 Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa in central Ho Chi Minh City, kept as a special national historic site.
Museum · Phường Xuân Hòa (former District 3), Ho Chi Minh City
The War Remnants Museum (Bảo tàng Chứng tích Chiến tranh) is a war museum in the former District 3 of central Ho Chi Minh City, with galleries of artefacts and photographs and military hardware shown in its courtyard.
Explore deeper
6 guides
The Cu Chi tunnels are kept at two separate sites, Bến Dược and Bến Đình, each recognised as a national relic in a different year and each the base of a different wartime command. This guide sets out what the relic site's own pages say each one is, what else sits beside Bến Dược, and what XTOUR cannot confirm.
Tết, the Lunar New Year, is Vietnam's main holiday, and its length is set in two steps: the Labour Code fixes five days, and the government chooses the actual days each year. This article sets out that rule, the 2027 holiday the government approved on 2 October 2026, and what the national tourism authority tells visitors to expect.
In 2025 Vietnam cut its provinces to 34 and moved to two levels of local government, so heritage sites now give addresses that look wrong next to older pages: Hội An in Đà Nẵng, Phong Nha in Quảng Trị, wards where there used to be districts. This article shows what the official pages say, old and new, and what XTOUR does and does not infer from them.
Vietnam does not have one rainy season. The national tourism authority's month bands and the national hydro-meteorological forecasting centre's bulletins together show a north with a cold, drizzly winter, a central coast whose main rains come in autumn, and a south with a rainy season through the middle of the year. This article sets out what each body says, where they differ, and where official forecasts and storm warnings are published.
XTOUR plans Vietnam around the cities and towns you sleep in: Hanoi in the north, Hue and Hoi An or Da Nang in the centre, Ho Chi Minh City in the south, with Ha Long, Phong Nha and the Ninh Binh sites reached from a base. This guide says what each base is for, which sites linked to a base lie outside it, where official pages still use pre-2025 place names, and which XTOUR guide takes over.
Continue exploring