Top 10 things to see and do in Saigon

Top 10 things to see and do in Saigon

I’m not gonna spend a lot of words on the Top 10 things to see and do in Saigon, but no worries, this article contains all the necessary links that will send you straight to the information you need.

I will show you pictures to give you an impression.

Here we go:

1. visit the main landmarks from the colonial era….

• Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica
  

  Legend is that she shed tears -or at least ‘a tear’- in 2005. People come to pray and plead to her ever since.

  

  In the middle picture we see a woman praying on her knees. Us, we are just posing, being the atheists that we are.

  

  Inside the cathedral. It’s ok, but nothing spectacular. There are services with singing going on every day. We heard it once when passing by and it sounded interesting, but we had no time to check it out.

  

  And indeed; I did not buy even the smallest Maria!

• Central Post Office
  
  
  

  The post office is light and spacious inside. Well preserved as well. In the middle we see ‘Father’ Ho watching over us all.

  

  I love the vintage maps high up on the walls and the retro-phone booths.

  

  The Post Office nowadays is a tourist attraction and a good place for tourists to buy souvenirs. At the same time it is still a real, working post office. So here we are, trying to blend in.

  

  Inside the post office you can buy souvenirs, like in many other places in Saigon. Difference is that the prices are fixed and slightly higher than e.g. in Ben Thanh Market. In my opinion the higher prices are well worth it, because you skip all the fuss and stress from Ben Thanh market: overcrowded, overheated, no air, aggressive sellers, pick pockets, hard bargaining. Sometimes there’s a fine line between couleur locale and a living hell, don’t you think?

  

• Opera House
  
  

  What a pity that the only way to see the inside of the Opera House is by buying a ticket for one of the shows! Look at those mosaics and statues!

• City Hall
  
  

  Here too, we only saw the building from the outside.

  

  It’s a beautiful and well maintained building.

2. …. and those of today

• Bitexco Tower
  
  

  See the tall building in the distance? That’s the Bitexco Financial Tower and the most iconic building of Ho Chi Minh City at the moment.

  

  In the first pictures you see the building from ‘the back’. Looking at it from the front, it becomes clear what’s so special about the building. It is supposed to look like a lotus flower, with the hanging helipad as the lotus bud. Although it doesn’t really resemble a lotus flower, i.m.o., the helipad sticking out does give the whole building a distinctive look and character. Which may be it’s most important role, since (about) never a helicopter has landed on the pad. Some say the winds there are simply too strong for helicopters to land.

  

  And of course even a 262 meters tall building’s windows need to be cleaned. I guess these guys are not having vertigo or they would not be able to do their jobs.

  You can go in the Bitexco Tower, to the Sky Deck and/or to the Bar, for views and/or for drinks.

• district 7
  A different kind of neighbourhood, with lots of expats, more space, glossy malls and the pretty Rainbow Bridge. Also check out this url.

3. browse around on local markets and wet markets

• Ben Thanh Market
• Binh Tay Market
  We went to neither.First of all, Binh Tay Market is under renovation (closed till end 2017, I heard) and besides that, neither of us felt for the suffering and hassle that often goes with markets like this. I LOVED Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, but Ben Thanh Market is a whole different story.
  Ofcourse it’s entirely up to you to decide wether it’s up your alley or not. Maybe you prefer lesser known specialised markets, like the beads market that we walked through. Then check out this link.

4. sample local (street-)food

Most of you know that I am so NOT a foodie, so no, I did not have any street food myself-at-all. Not even a whole lot of Vietnamese food in restaurants, for that matter.

I DID have a bahn mi sandwich though, a typical Vietnamese delight.

Don’t let that stop you. Everybody is always raving about the food in Vietnam, so don’t miss out!

This article gets you started, street food wise.

I also tried pho, a beef noodle soup. The broth was delicious!

And this is quite an extensive guide for dishes and restaurants to try in Saigon.

Of course there’s a ton of other information on the web AND there are several food tours to be booked, so take your pick.

5. drink lots of coffee!

Read more about great places to have a coffee here and here.

Find more good coffee places on Curly Traveller’s map: City Guide Saigon.

6. explore Chinatown aka Cholon

• many interesting temples
  
• day and night markets
  
• local life; just walk around

Read my article about Cholon here.

7. check out some of the city’s museums

• Ho Chi Minh City Museum (read my article about this interesting place here)
• War Remnants Museum
  
  
  

  The famous war photographer Robert Capa died in this war.

• Independence Palace or Reunification Palace
• FITO museum : museum of traditional Vietnamese medicine. I would have loved to visit this, but we did not have enough time. Neither did we have time for the next one of this list.
• Fine Arts Museum

8. sip cocktails and enjoy the views on a cool rooftop bar

Rooftop bars are booming in Ho Chi Minh.

They are great places for sunsets, city views, cocktails and breezy nights.

How cool is this cocktail at Shri Bar?!

We went to Shri, not only one of Saigon’s most popular rooftop bars, but on top of that (pun intended) it was right next to our hotel.

Cheers!

Connecting skywalk from M Hotel to Shri Bar next door. Vertigo, anyone?

You can find more rooftop bars on my map of Saigon: Curly Traveller’s City Guide Saigon.

For detailed info about and reviews of Ho Chi Minh’s rooftop bars, read e.g. this article, this one or this one.

9. discover hipster places

I wrote about cool hipster shops and restaurants here, here, here and here.

Curly Traveller’s City Guide Saigon has lots of cool hipster places on it.

10. join a few local tours

Read my reviews of two very popular and good local tours here and here.

Want to read more?

For a complete and continuously updated overview of the city’s main attractions, check out this link.

The following blogs give a lot of information and share their lists which are pretty awesome:

• Migrationology
• Love and Road
• Traveller
• VietnamCoracle

Have you been to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam? What were top attractions for you?