Ultimate 3-Day Ho Chi Minh City Itinerary
Discover the bustling city of Ho Chi Minh City in just three days!
While it’s never enough time to truly explore Vietnam, make the most of your limited vacation days with this itinerary. From must-see landmarks to hidden gems, let’s make the most of your time in HCMC!
I did this trip in Nov 2022. Post may be updated periodically. The affiliate links included in this post are at no cost to you but help support my blog. Cheers!
Confession
As a Southeast Asian who claims to love exploring this world, I am ashamed to say my 3D2N in HCMC was my first trip to Vietnam.
Oh yes, I hear you. I have travelled to the Caucasus, been around Europe, hiked in Yunnan, China, and yet not flown to Vietnam. All those when Vietnam was a mere two hours no-frills flight from Singapore.
But I’m not the only one found guilty. There are others who do not cherish their own countries as much as other far-flung destinations too. During my two-year-long sojourn in New Zealand, I met kiwis who have travelled to exotic places but have not seen all of New Zealand yet. C’mon, you’ve been to Bolivia but not Northland?
Ho Chi Minh City
There is a lot to unpackage for Vietnam. We could go into the Vietnam War, but I’m not too keen on that. You can read more about it from Google or my visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels.
For my trip, I visited the following places in chronological order. I do not have a set plan, but I do have an objective to visit both the Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta. I booked both tours from my hostel, but you can book them in advance from klook.
Day 1
Ben Thanh Market
After dropping my bag in the hostel, I crossed my first Vietnamese street towards Ben Thanh Market for breakfast. More about street crossing at a later section.
I’m surprised to find an outdated English website about the layout and shops! Most likely created by an ardent fan who then lost interest and abandoned it.
Ben Thanh Market reminds me of the bazaars, souks and street markets around the world. The locals do grocery shopping while the tourists hunt for keepsakes. As with all those markets, you must practise the art of haggling/ negotiation to get the best price without regretting yourself or pissing off anyone. The market is where everyone calls you good-looking and tries to pull you to their stores.
I had my breakfast – a so-so bowl of beef pho – at the centre of the market for 60 K dong – the standard for these places.
City Centre
As the check-in time was 1 pm, I spent my time walking around the city centre, in particular, visiting the Ho Chi Minh Statue, the lotus fountain and the People’s Committee of HCMC.
Cafe Apartment – Partea
The Cafe Apartment is a colourful block right next to Đường Nguyễn Huệ or a walking street of Saigon. Within this block are numerous individualistic small eateries and cafes with residential apartments and boutique shops nestled within.
The ten-story block has an elevator and an old stairwell. Take the elevator from the second floor – to avoid the fee – to the highest floor and walk your way down.
I stumbled into a cafe called Partea, which is like an English-style tea house – I later found out that this is one of the most popular cafes in the building!
The first thought that hit me upon entering the cafe was the strangeness of everything. Here I am in Vietnam, and yet here I am stepping into the fiction of Lewis Carroll.
You get to choose your teapot, cup, tea and cakes. They have a wall of tea leaves for you to sniff and make your selection. The afternoon was too warm for a cup of tea, so I settled for a cold matcha latte and matcha cake – living up to the name of a matcha fan! A couple of patrons before me went for their high tea set. People started streaming in after 12, and that was when I made my move back to the hostel.
Tom wrote a guide about the cafe apartments. It’s outdated but should still be useful for first-timers to browse.
Reunification Palace
After sorting out my check-in, I walked – again – to another of the must-visits in HCMC.
The Reunification – or Independence – Palace played an important role in the Vietnam War. It was here that marked the end of the war when a North Vietnamese tank rolled through the iron gates of the palace.
The site used to be the residence of the French Colonialists. When the French left, the palace became home to South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem. But the president was very unpopular to the people and later the US government. His army tried multiple attempts to kill him, eventually succeeding in 1963. The next president took over during the Vietnam War but fled for his life shortly after in 1975 – the year the war ended and President Minh took over. He unified Vietnam in 1976, and Saigon was subsequently renamed Ho Chi Minh City in his honour.
The palace is now a museum for visitation as long as no official receptions or meetings are taking place.
What I found the most interesting of them all is the underground bomb shelter and war rooms with large maps.
Prepare to spend around half-day here, depending on your interest. The palace opens every day from 8 am to 3.30 pm. The ticket costs 65K dong – a bowl of pho! – including the Norodom exhibit. You could rent an audio guide from the counter.
Post Office & Notre Dame
Post palace, I walked to another must-visit in HCMC – the Post Office.
The place was crowded with tourists sheltering from the intermittent torrential rain – you always get rain in the afternoons. A huge portrait of President Minh hung at the centre of the chamber, while a few tourists or locals wrote postcards or sent mail at the counters. Two souvenir shops occupied two smaller units by the sides of the main chamber.
The Notre Dame Basilica of Saigon, right next to the Post Office, was closed for renovation/ restoration. The cathedral, constructed by the French around 1880, would have looked gorgeous without the ugly scaffoldings.
Opera House & Tran Hung Dao Statue
With the rain slightly cleared, I walked along Đồng Khởi road to see if there were any shows in the HCMC Opera House. But the building was decked in red with dancers rehearsing on a temporary stage. They even have pro cameras perched on long cranes swivelling around and police patrolling the area.
Thinking that the opera house might be closed to the public, I continued along the same road towards the river.
Having crossed the busy Công Trường Mê Linh, I did not want to cross another harrowing wide road again to an uninteresting river. And that’s how I encounter the statue with menacing eyes. Tran Hung Dao was a brilliant Vietnamese commander-in-chief who stopped Kublai Khan and his Mongol armies in the 13th century, not once but thrice. His charisma to arouse the public and his ability to thwart foreign threats inspired the North Vietnamese so much in the Vietnam War, they built a statue of him overlooking the Saigon River thereafter.
But the sight of domineering modern skyscrapers right behind the solo ancient general was a little off – it made him look rather small and lonely. Or maybe that is the effect the builders were looking for – the god-like general now commandeering a fleet of modern citizens towards success. I’m no feng shui master, but the arrangements felt strange.
Bánh Mì Huynh Hoa
Dinner was Banh Mi around the neighbourhood of my hostel. Bánh Mì Huynh Hoa is said to be the best in town, but the main reason I was there was its proximity to my hostel.
The queue was almost non-existent – compared to Google reviews – and the people in front of me were all GrabFood riders. You have to buy back as there were no seats around.
The shop sells only one Banh Mi variant, which is massive and costs 62K dongs. Packed within the crusty baguette were ample pates and porky slices. The sandwich is so stuffed with meat, they couldn’t fit in the vegetable. That was separately packed in a bag. I have my weekly Banh Mi fix in Singapore – yet this Banh Mi experience in Vietnam was novel. A glove, a toothpick, and a packet of wet tissue were along with the sandwich. The massive Banh Mi could easily feed two or even three mildly hungry adults. I was ravenous but could only finish ¾ of the sandwich before finding the meaty mix too overwhelming.
Bùi Viện
My first night in HCMC was still young, and I headed to the party street Bui Vien, not to party but for a foot massage.
The hour-long massage at Coco Care Spa was alright – it was more of a fusion-style massage using hot stones than the kneading I was looking forward to. They expect tips.
Crowds started filling in closer to 10 pm by the time I left. Men in black polos with the word ‘security’ etched behind were cajoling passersby to step into their clubs, while scantily-dressed women danced on table tops. The street was closed to traffic, but a few motorbikes still cut through.
Day 2
Mekong Delta
You can read more about my Mekong Delta tour here! I booked this tour from my hostel the day I arrived.
City Centre
Post-Mekong Delta Tour, I met up with an old friend who brought me to a fried rice stall for dinner – that was my only street food in HCMC. After dinner, we walked around the city. The hot and empty promenade I saw the morning before has transformed into a busy place with buskers.
Day 3
Cu Chi Tunnels
You can read more about my Cu Chi Tunnels tour here! I booked this tour right after my Mekong Delta trip.
Bánh Mì Hồng Hoa
It was around 2 pm when I had lunch at another recommended Banh Mi place near my hostel.
Bánh Mì Hồng Hoa had a variety of sandwiches. I went with their crispy roasted pork. The sandwich costs half of Huynh Hoa’s at 35K dongs, with comparatively lesser filling but just enough to fill me up.
War Remnant Museum
My next stop was the war remnant museum – a natural progression from the Cu Chi Tunnels tour. You have to visit the museum to understand the Vietnam War.
Tickets cost 40K dong – the price of a Banh Mi! – and it opens from 7.30 am to 5 pm. There are many exhibition rooms within. Note that the stories and photos can be depressing.
Pho Le
I was dead tired from all the activities under the scorching sun and torrential rain combination. But that is no excuse to waste my last good dinner in HCMC.
For that day’s dinner, I travelled beyond District 1 to have the best pho in town at District 5.
Pho Le serves big bowls of pho with generous beefy goodness. The pho comes with a complimentary big plate of raw vegetables, which I gladly chomped away.
Price errs on the expensive side (85K dongs) vs the average pho, but this is no common pho. The bowl may feed two mildly hungry folks.
You can tell that the place is frequented not just by tourists but also by the locals. They have a translated menu for newcomers.
Miscellany Notes
Flight from Singapore
I bought my tix from Scoots during their promo a month before and scored a return no-frills flight for SGD 128.
Travelling within HCMC
Grab has been very successful in Southeast Asia, and you can use the app to book rides in HCMC. Bikes are cheaper, faster, and better suited for short journeys. Cars are mostly used for long drives or to and fro the airport.
Prices ranged from 15K – 30K dong within the city for bikes. 150K dongs or less could get you to the airport by car. Make sure you buffer at least 30 mins for the ride to the airport during off-peak periods.
YouTrip Card
This card is a great save for anyone in Singapore – I only realised its full potential from this trip to Vietnam.
Charge your YouTrip card with Singapore dollars and use it for any purchases in HCMC that allow for card transactions. I used it for my hostel, trip bookings, and grab rides. The latter saves a lot of time – can you imagine the time spent and notes you have to exchange between you and the driver during payment?
The conversion rate was superb for my travel – it was even better than the rate I got from my moneychanger!
Re-link your YouTrip card to the Grab app when you are in Vietnam, as the app does not recognise the card if this was done in Singapore. Maybe it’s because of changes in the interface as you cross countries.
If you have not gotten the card yet, please sign up for your YouTrip here (valid till 18 Mar 2023) – you’ll get SGD 5 in your wallet from your first top-up and I get to enjoy the same benefits too. A win-win situation!
Crossing the Streets
I’ve read that crossing the streets of Vietnam can be intimidating (video).
The trick here is to face your hand to the traffic, look at the traffic, and walk slowly – the cars would stop, and smaller bikes would scoot around you. Some may horn you, and that’s perfectly normal. It’s their way of informing you they’re moving.
NEVER run or have sudden movements while crossing the streets – you’ll surely get hit.
Some junctions have traffic lights – use those.
The Airport
Entering Vietnam through the airport had been breezy.
But not for leaving the international airport.
Make sure you spare at least two hours – better three – before the flight.
I faced a long queue for my boarding pass, even though I had checked in online and without baggage. That took me 30 minutes.
Next was more than an hour’s wait in a ridiculously long queue – similar to crossing to Malaysia – to the immigration to have my passport stamped.
The X-ray checks took quite some time too.
And this was on a random Tuesday – a working day! – morning.
My flight was due at 9.30 am, and I reached the boarding gates at 9.20 am. How crazy! And to think I’d arrived at 7.20 am without any bags to check-in. But I wasn’t the only one. In the end, the flight was delayed too.
Ending
And that’s all from me for my short trip to Ho Chi Minh City.
I’ll be back in Vietnam next year (2023) for a longer trip in the north, doing some outdoorsy exploration, so make sure you check back again!
Till then, stay safe and travel well.
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