Ho Chi Minh City

Travelling to Ho Chi Minh City

We travelled to Ho Chi Minh from Bangkok. The Airport is only around 20 – 30 minutes from the centre of Ho Chi Minh. Private transfers are cheap compared to a lot countries. As we did not know if we would get a taxi which was safe and would not rip us off we pre booked a transfer prior to travelling.

Accommodation

We stayed at the Bay Hotel for 2 nights on our way to Nha Trang. The hotel is nice and clean and in a good location. The rooms have a mini bar which is stocked up daily and is included in the price. Some of the rooms have a river and city view which is nice. There is also a lovely roof top pool which overlooks the city. The pool is quite small but there weren’t many people using it at the time we travelled. In fact we were the only people in the pool on more than one occasion. It costs around £50 a night which includes breakfast. The breakfast is lovely and caters for most tastes (Continental, Vegetarian, Asian and American). The staff at the hotel were all very helpful and spoke good English.

Sunset Cruise

There is so much to see and do in Ho Chi Minh but due the amount of time we had there we were limited as to what we could fit in. We did manage to do a sunset cruise on the Saigon River though which cost around £50 each. We were picked up from our hotel and taken a short distance to where we boarded the boat at the Saigon Pier at around 4pm. It was a lovely day with clear blue skies. It was a modern speed boat which was around 60% full so there was plenty of room on the boat. There was also a English speaking guide who was very knowledgeable. We got to see some lovely sites from the boat and also given a lot of information regarding the sites including Dragon Floating Temple.

We stopped off at a lovely hotel on the river for drinks and a bite to eat if you wanted (drinks and food were extra). It was lovely seeing the amazing sun set on the river. The whole trip took about 4 hours from pick up to drop off at our hotel. Some people stated that the cost of the trip wasn’t worth it but we were happy with the price as it was a lovely day/evening.

Nightlife

Whilst in Ho Chi Minh we wanted to visit the most famous bar in the city the Apocalypse Now. This was a short taxi ride from our hotel. We got there quite early at around 7pm therefore it was pretty quiet. It did start filling up later at about 9pm. There were a lot of drinks offers too in this bar. We can imagine that it really gets going in this bar further into the evening. As our time in Ho Chi Minh was limited we decided to go to other bars.

We decided to go to Bui Vien Street which reminded us a lot of Khoa San Road in Bangkok. It is a really lively street full of bars and places to eat. There are a lot of bars that are not there during the day and are just set up at night time. There are a variety of bars and eating places here to suit most tastes and budgets. It is very noisy on an evening which we do not mind but I would not want to stay in an hotel too close. We went to The View Rooftop Bar which had great cocktails and overlooked the street. It also had happy hour everyday 4-10pm which was great. The food here was pretty good and very reasonably priced. This was our favourite bar out of the ones we had visited.

Summary

Ho Chi Minh is a great place to visit. Our only regret is that we did not have enough time to see the things we wanted to see. We will definitely be returning to see more.

Images

Things to do

• Visit the Reunification Palace
• Visit the Giac Lam Pagoda
• Visit Notre Dame Cathedral
• Visit Cao Dai Temple
• Visit Ben Thanh Market
• Take a boat trip on the Saigon River

Top Tips

• There is so much to see and do in Ho Chi Minh 2 days is not enough time. Plan your visit, what you want to see and do and allow the time to do this.
• If you like a lively atmosphere then Bui Vien Street is the place to be if you don’t then definitely avoid this area.
• Hotels vary so much in cost so do your research before booking and check out various websites.
• We thought the Sunset cruise was lovely and we got to see a lot in a short space of time.
• Although pick pocketing and bag snatching is low risk in Ho Chi Minh be aware as it does happen on occasion – take the usual precautions.
• Check out Government website for safety advice https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/vietnam/safety-and-security
• Check out other places we have visited in Vietnam. Click the following link Nha Trang
• Check out weather below for best time to visit Ho Chi MInh as there is a lot of rain in certain months – the dry season is from December to April.

Weather

Temp – Celsius Rain – mm	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
High Temp	32	33	34	34	34	32	32	32	31	31	31	31
Low Temp	22	23	24	26	26	25	24	25	25	24	23	22
Rainfall	10	10	10	40	140	180	190	170	190	160	120	40
Number of days	2	2	2	7	17	21	23	22	21	22	13	8