Best Things to Do in Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City blends 19th-century colonial boulevards, pivotal 20th-century history and round-the-clock street life. Pair air-conditioned museums during the hot midday hours with early-morning temple walks and evening river breezes.

1. Step inside the Saigon Central Post Office and Book Street. Admire the 1891 vaulted iron-and-glass concourse, historical telegraph maps of southern Vietnam and wooden phone booths, then browse shaded Nguyen Van Binh Book Street next door.
2. Tour the Independence Palace (Reunification Palace). Walk through the preserved 1966 modernist state rooms, rooftop helipad and underground telecommunications command bunker frozen in time since April 1975.
3. Visit the War Remnants Museum in District 3. Allow two unhurried hours for the courtyard collection of US military aircraft and the upper-floor photojournalism and historical galleries documenting the Vietnam War.
4. Stroll Nguyen Hue Walking Street and the Cafe Apartments at 42 Nguyen Hue. Watch the fountains illuminate in front of the ornate People's Committee Building and climb the stairwell of the nine-storey 1960s apartment block converted into dozens of independent cafes and studios.
5. Explore Cholon (District 5 Chinatown) and Binh Tay Market. Breathe in the spiralling incense coils at 18th-century Thien Hau Temple, dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu, and wander the courtyard of wholesale Binh Tay Market.
6. Ride the Saigon Waterbus from Bach Dang Pier. Board the yellow public river boat in District 1 for a breezy cruise around the Thanh Da peninsula past the Landmark 81 skyscraper.
7. Light incense at the Jade Emperor Pagoda (Chua Ngoc Hoang). Tucked into Da Kao on the northern edge of District 1, this atmospheric 1909 Taoist-Buddhist temple is filled with carved wooden deities and terrapin ponds.
8. Browse the Fine Arts Museum and Ben Thanh Market. Pair the tiled colonial mansion of the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts with the iconic clock-tower hall of Ben Thanh Market nearby.
9. Eat charcoal-grilled com tam, banh mi and banh xeo. Join locals on low stools in District 3, District 4 or Co Giang Street for southern street classics and iced condensed-milk coffee.
10. Take a half-day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels or the Mekong Delta. Crawl through a section of the wartime underground network at Ben Duoc or Ben Dinh, or cruise shaded coconut canals around My Tho and Ben Tre.