Attraction
1. Hoan Kiem Lake and Ngoc Son Temple
The lake at the heart of Hanoi, linked to the legend of the returned sword, with the Turtle Tower and the 18th-century Ngoc Son Temple on Jade Islet.
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2. Hoi An Ancient Town
The UNESCO-listed former trading port of Faifo, with more than a thousand preserved houses, Chinese assembly halls, temples and museums set along the Thu Bon River.
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3. War Remnants Museum
A museum documenting the conflicts of 1946 to 1975 through photographs, reconstructed prison cells and a yard of captured aircraft and armour.
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4. Independence Palace
The 1960s presidential palace of South Vietnam, whose gates were breached by a tank on 30 April 1975, preserved with its state rooms and basement command centre.
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5. Japanese Covered Bridge (Chua Cau)
A small roofed bridge begun by Japanese merchants in the 1590s, with a temple built onto it in 1653 and a full restoration completed in 2024.
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6. Temple of Literature
Hanoi's Confucian temple, founded in 1070, home to Vietnam's first national university and the stone stelae recording the names of successful royal examination candidates.
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7. Cu Chi Tunnels
A vast network of wartime tunnels on the north-western edge of Ho Chi Minh City, where visitors can crawl through restored sections and see how fighters lived underground.
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8. Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
The granite mausoleum on Ba Dinh Square where Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body lies in state, open on selected mornings under strict rules of dress and conduct.
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9. Tan Ky Old House
A late 18th-century merchant house kept by the same family for seven generations, combining Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese building traditions on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street.
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10. Fujian Assembly Hall (Phuc Kien)
The grandest of Hoi An's Chinese assembly halls, founded by Fujian merchants in 1697 and dedicated to Thien Hau, the goddess of the sea.
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11. Imperial Citadel of Thang Long
The UNESCO-listed heart of the old imperial capital, with the Doan Mon gate, the Kinh Thien Palace foundations, the 1967 D67 building and excavations spanning a thousand years.
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12. Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon
The red-brick twin-towered cathedral built by the French between 1877 and 1880, standing at the head of Dong Khoi Street and undergoing a long restoration.
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13. One Pillar Pagoda
A small wooden Buddhist pagoda raised on a single stone pillar in a lotus pond, first built in 1049 and rebuilt after its destruction in 1954.
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14. Quan Cong Temple
A temple from 1653 dedicated to Quan Cong, the loyal general of China's Three Kingdoms era, and one of the two headline sites on the Ancient Town ticket.
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15. Saigon Central Post Office
A working post office built between 1886 and 1891, with a vaulted hall, painted maps from 1892 and a portrait of Ho Chi Minh, opposite the cathedral.
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16. Jade Emperor Pagoda
A Taoist temple completed in 1909 by Cantonese migrants, filled with carved figures, incense smoke and worshippers, and visited by President Obama in 2016.
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17. My Son Sanctuary
A valley of ruined Cham Hindu temples built between the 4th and 13th centuries, about 35 km from Hoi An and listed by UNESCO in 1999.
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18. Vietnam Museum of Ethnology
A museum devoted to Vietnam's 54 recognised ethnic groups, with galleries of costumes and crafts and an open-air garden of full-size traditional houses.
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19. Museum of Trade Ceramics
A small museum in a traditional two-storey house on Tran Phu Street, displaying around 430 trade ceramics from the 13th to 17th centuries found in and around Hoi An.
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20. Saigon Opera House
The municipal theatre completed in 1900, a French colonial building whose facade echoes the Petit Palais in Paris, still used for performances on Lam Son Square.
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