Ho Chi Minh City Travel Forum

I'm planning a trip to Vietnam later this year and trying to decide if my trip should focus more on the north and middle parts as I have a limited amount of time. Are there any must sees in and around HCM? I'm planning to go to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay, so I'm not sure if I need to go to the Mekong Delta or the Cu Chi tunnels as the north has similar tunnels and Ha Long Bay. Any thoughts from anyone there on things that one just has to see in HCM?

I preferred Hanoi over HCMC but I did love going to the Mekong Delta. It's much different than Ha Long Bay. If you have time do both. I booked a great and cheap tour through the Delta through a company in HCMC called Innoviet. They specialize in smaller groups. It was one of the highlights of our trip last year!

I didn't think much of Chu Chi tunnels - too fake and touristy - but other people loved them. Mekong was OK but I wasn't that happy with the tour we did - you might find better - it was an interesting area. You cannot compare the Mekong with Ha Long Bay - totally different places.

HCMC is a large city and there is plenty to see in the city area - museums, war memorabilia, galleries, what are you interested in?

The central area, Danang, Hue, Hoi An, DMZ, is interesting too. How many days are oyu planning top stay in Vietnam?

I found the Chu Chi Tunnels fascinating, and that day trip usually comes with an outing to the Cao Dai temple--also very interesting. I also did two days on the Mekong. Actually, unless you go inland, like to the Central Highlands, most things in Vietnam are somewhat touristy.

In HCMC proper, I thought the Reunification Palace was well worth seeing.

But, depending on the time of year you're traveling, I'd skip the south if you time is limited and focus on the north and central. But, it's important to check out the climate in each area.

Hi there
I too preferred Hanoi to HCMC, the latter is just so big and full of people on scooters! Saying that, in HCMC the Reunification Palace is worth seeing, the War Remnants Museum and the Post Office building is quite impressive! Com Nieu is quite a unique restaurant to visit to eat the com nieu (crispy rice) which is baked in clay pots and thrown across the restaurant by the waiters. We did a Mekong Delta tour which was a highlight for us as it's nice to see how people live on the river and see the various industries that they have there. Admittedly we were on a tour so things were arranged for us, but you could get a tour of the delta to see the local people making popcorn, candies, snake wine and visit a school and local houses as well as one of the floating market boats. We also stayed in a long house on the delta with a local family which was great.
Hue is worth visiting as well as the beautiful Ha Long Bay, Hoi An is a personal favourite of mine and you could visit the "My Son" temples. Cu Chi Tunnels were very interesting in my opinion and I would recommend a visit. Have a great time in Vietnam!

Hi There
October or november the weather in the north of vietnam is quite nice to travel around, i would prefer day trip to village in the north compare to south mekong detal, company viet vision travel they are ever oganize trip to villages for homestay with good facilities, half day cycling around, cross rice paddy field next day trip continue to Halong bay, or even can cycling from villge to CatBa island
over night on boat, enjoy kayaking. back to Hanoi overnight to sapa, home stay optional. it is about 10 day package tours in the north , advantage of that is enjoy seeing Halong bay, cycling in village, home stay, and highlight of sapa
there are no company doing this program. execpted vietvisiontravel let check it out

enjoy that

Thanks for all the responses. We're going in July, so does this make a difference in where to go. We are not that interested in going to museums and we'd be in vietnam for a little under 2 weeks, so trying to go from north to south seems like too much of a whirlwind tour as we would like to have a few days just lying on the beaches.

are the mekong delta tours similar to tours you might have in cambodia or thailand as I've been on those before to see floating markets.