Attraction
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.
There are plenty of things to do in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon and the economic heart of Vietnam. The city's modern history is written into its landmarks: Independence Palace, where a tank crashed through the gates on 30 April 1975, the War Remnants Museum and, an hour or so outside the centre, the Cu Chi Tunnels. District 1 holds most of the colonial buildings, from Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office to the Opera House and City Hall, linked by Dong Khoi Street and the pedestrian boulevard of Nguyen Hue. To the west, Cholon, the old Chinese quarter, has Binh Tay Market and Thien Hau Temple.
Food is one of the best reasons to visit. Banh mi, broken rice and crisp banh xeo pancakes are sold everywhere, the Michelin Guide recognises a long list of local eateries alongside starred restaurants, and evening motorbike food tours are a local speciality. Rooftop bars, craft beer taprooms and an energetic café culture fill the evenings and afternoons. Three days is enough for the main sights, with a fourth for the Cu Chi Tunnels or a trip into the Mekong Delta.
Attraction
A museum documenting the conflicts of 1946 to 1975 through photographs, reconstructed prison cells and a yard of captured aircraft and armour.
Attraction
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…
Attraction
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…
Attraction
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.
Attraction
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…
Attraction
A Taoist temple completed in 1909 by Cantonese migrants, filled with carved figures, incense smoke and worshippers, and visited by President Obama in 2016.
Café
The flagship café of Marou, the Vietnamese bean-to-bar chocolate maker founded in 2011, serving chocolate drinks, cakes and French-style pastries on Calmette Street.
Café
A specialty coffee café in a bright, high-ceilinged heritage space up a staircase just off Dong Khoi Street, known for pour-over and serious coffee.
Café
A well-designed specialty coffee café near Ben Thanh Market, set in an older building with large colonial-era windows and a small food menu.
Café
A busy café and roastery on Hai Ba Trung Street serving farm-to-cup coffee from Dalat, with beans roasted on site in an open industrial space.
Café
A characterful café on Yersin Street recreating old Hanoi with dark wood and vintage photographs, known for northern-style egg coffee and breakfast.
Café
An acclaimed specialty coffee roaster with a riverside roastery at Saigon Pearl and a downtown café on Nguyen Sieu Street, known for its skilled baristas.
Hotel
An opulent five-star hotel in the Times Square Building between Nguyen Hue and Dong Khoi, home to the Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant Long Trieu.
Hotel
A refined luxury hotel on Lam Son Square with 245 rooms, a pool and spa, steps from the Opera House, the Central Post Office and Notre-Dame…
Hotel
A five-star hotel on Lam Son Square that opened on Christmas Eve 1959 and housed the American TV networks in the 1960s, next to the Opera…
Hotel
A five-star heritage hotel opened in 1925 at the riverside end of Dong Khoi Street, with 175 rooms, a pool and a rooftop bar overlooking the…
Hotel
A five-star landmark at Nguyen Hue and Le Loi, built as a 1920s car showroom and famous for the wartime press briefings known as the Five…
Hotel
A five-star MGallery boutique hotel inspired by 1930s French Indochina, displaying the owner's art collection and topped by the Social Club Rooftop Bar.
Bar
One of the city's longest-running rooftop bars, on level 26 of AB Tower, with 360-degree views, DJ nights and a strictly enforced dress code.
Bar
The Caravelle hotel's historic open-air rooftop bar on Lam Son Square, a 1960s haunt of war correspondents with live music most nights.
Bar
A small, stylish rooftop cocktail bar on the 24th floor of Hotel des Arts Saigon, with views over the city from above the boutique MGallery hotel.
Bar
The rooftop taproom in an alley off Pasteur Street where Pasteur Street Brewing poured its first beer in 2015, serving craft beers made with Vietnamese ingredients.
Bar
The rooftop garden bar of the Rex Hotel on Nguyen Hue, a wartime gathering place for officers and correspondents, named by Newsweek in 1996 among Southeast…
Bar
The rooftop bar of the Hotel Majestic Saigon, opened in 1925, looking out over the Saigon River with live music from local musicians.
Restaurant
Chef Peter Cuong Franklin's Michelin-starred restaurant in a narrow tube house in the Old Market, reworking Vietnamese street food with modern technique.
Restaurant
A Michelin-starred tasting-menu restaurant on the ninth floor of Le Meridien, serving creative European dishes with Vietnamese influences around an open kitchen.
Restaurant
The Reverie Saigon's Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant, known for dim sum and seafood and set in a lavish red and gold room overlooking Nguyen Hue.
Restaurant
A Bib Gourmand restaurant of two facing houses with a koi pond and garden in Tan Dinh, serving home-style Vietnamese dishes made largely with produce from…
Restaurant
A Bib Gourmand eatery that has been making giant crispy banh xeo pancakes filled with pork, shrimp and bean sprouts for more than seven decades.
Restaurant
A Bib Gourmand broken rice stall in Phu Nhuan, serving since the 1990s and known for its charcoal-grilled pork chop in a secret marinade.
Thing to do
The covered market of central Saigon, in its clock-towered building since 1914, selling food, coffee, crafts and clothing, with a night market on the streets outside.
Thing to do
A broad pedestrian boulevard running from City Hall to the Saigon River, converted in 2015 and busiest in the evening when families and visitors stroll its…
Thing to do
A 360-degree observation deck on the 49th floor of the lotus-shaped Bitexco Financial Tower, about 178 metres above the centre of Ho Chi Minh City.
Thing to do
Cholon's great trading market, opened in 1930 in an East Asian-style building with a central courtyard, and still a working hub for traders from across the…
Thing to do
A Vietnamese bamboo circus by Lune Production at the Saigon Opera House, combining acrobatics, bamboo props and traditional music inspired by village life.
Tour operator
Vietnam's self-described first all-female motorbike tour company, running food, night, sightseeing and photography tours of Saigon since 2010 with guides in ao dai.
Tour operator
A Saigon motorbike food tour company whose local drivers take guests to street food stalls on afternoon, night and private chef-led tours.
Tour operator
A speedboat tour company running small-group trips from Ho Chi Minh City to the Cu Chi Tunnels, the Mekong Delta and Can Gio since 2010.
Tour operator
A tour company showing Saigon from the back of vintage Vespa scooters, with evening, insider and craft beer tours run from its base on De Tham…
Tour operator
A food tour company run by an Australian-Vietnamese couple, with a morning pho walking tour and evening seafood and street food trails.
Three days covers District 1, Independence Palace, the War Remnants Museum, Cholon and a food tour, and a fourth day allows a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels or the Mekong Delta.
District 1 is the most convenient base, with most landmarks, hotels, restaurants and rooftop bars within walking distance; the streets around Dong Khoi, Nguyen Hue and Ben Thanh Market are the most central.
Tan Son Nhat International Airport is about 7 km from District 1, and the trip can be made by metered taxi, ride-hailing car or city bus; journey times depend heavily on traffic.
Street food, local cafés and transport are inexpensive, while luxury hotels, fine dining and rooftop bars cost more, so the city suits a wide range of budgets.
It is generally safe, but bag and phone snatching by passing motorbikes does happen, so keep valuables away from the roadside and take care crossing busy streets.