Ho Chi Minh Travel Guide

My first blog post will be a travel guide when visiting the amazing City of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Just keep walking!

Locally pronounced as Sài Gòn, known as Ho Chi Minh (HCM) is one of my favourite cities a vibrant place with a lot to offer. HCM is really up n coming with a lot of developments. I’ve done Vietnam as a Solo and as a group and both times were equally as good. Just keep walking is the advice given to me by the locals just walk the motorbikes will go around scary as fuck but honestly it works!

Cost (Prices in £ GBP)

Travelling 0.50

Beer 0.25

Meal 0.40

Accommodation 3

Massage 3

Daytime vibes

A lot of cool things to do during the day in Saigon

Cu Chi Tunnels

A great experience to learn about the success of the Cu Chi tunnels during the Vietnam War

Learning about the role of the Cu Chi Tunnels during the Vietnam War. You’ll have the chance to crawl through the safer areas in which the soldier used to hide. At an extra cost, you even get to fire a mounted AK47.

Price: Approx. £24

Time: Morning 8am to 2.30pm or Afternoon 12.45 to 6.25pm

Where to Book: Book tickets to the Cu Chi tunnels here

War Museums

The War Remnants Museum is in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. It's every day from 07:30 to 17:00. A visit to this war museum can be a disturbing experience for most people. Although children can enter, we highly advise against it.

Price: Free

Opening Hours: Daily 07.30 - 12.00 & 13:30 – 17:00

Location: 28 Vo Van Tan, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City

Where to Book: Book here to combine both Cu Chi and War Museum together.

Bến Thành Market -

A large marketplace in central Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam in District 1. The market is one of the earliest surviving structures in Saigon and an important symbol of Hồ Chí Minh City, popular with tourists seeking local clothes, gadgets, local food and souvenirs.

Price: Free

Opening times: 7am to 7pm (Then reopens for night market til 12am)

Address: Chợ, Lê Lợi, Phường Bến Thành, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam

Nightime Vibe

Walking Street

The famous strip in Ho Chi Minh also known as Bui Vien. This place has pretty much everything go-go bars, nightclubs, street food and if needed massage parlours. A must-see for tourist I recommend starting here to take advantage of the cheap drinks (balloons if that’s your thing) you can get to really kick starts your night.

Cost: Multiple bars with different prices

Dresscode: Anything due to different clubs

Opening times: Place never sleeps can go to 7am

Address: Bui Vien Phạm Ngũ Lão Quận 1

Piu Piu

Piu Piu Wow could be one of the best nights I've been to the resident DJ played RnB, Hiphop, Afrobeats, Dancehall and even Grime. Easily one of the best nights I've had in Asia.

Cost: 150k VND entrance including 1 free drink

Dresscode: Smart Casual

Opening times: 9 pm to 4 am

Address: 97 Hai Bà Trưng, Bến Nghé, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam

Chill Skybar -

Chill Skybar

Feel like a celebrity this place was unreal purely for the experience, the music itself was more pop and dance which wasn’t too bad but the expensive on the whole was really cool especially if you want to dress up and move boujee.

Cost – More on the expensive side entry usually includes 1 or 2 drinks. I recommend getting on the guestlist prior to visiting.

Dress code – Smart casuals (No Tank Tops or Flipflops)

Reservation - +84 938822838 or Feel free to message me to be put on the guestlist

Address: AB Tower, 76 Lê Lai, Bến Thành, Hồ Chí Minh

Commas –

Another really good club to go is commas Not a massive club compared to Piu Piu but the vibe is equally as good. Its aa huge hit with the locals and Expats here, you’ll hear HipHop, RnB, Dancehall and Afrobeats.

Cost: 100K VND

Dress Code: Smart Casual

Reservation 📞: 0928 099 088 or Feel free to message me to be put on the guestlist

Address: Commas, 41-43 Nam Ky Khoi Nghia, District 1, HCMC.

Must-try foods when visiting

Vietnamese Noodle Soup (Pho) –

Pho is a Godsend if you have a hangover, it is a Vietnamese soup that consists of broth, rice noodles, herbs and meat. I highly recommend pho especially if you’re hangover it said to be the best hangover cure in the world talking from experience, I’d have to agree to say it puts the English breakfast to shame let me know if you agree in the comment section!

Vietnamese Roll (Banh Mi) –

The famous Vietnamese roll is absolutely perfect for all occasions out on walking street see yourself getting too messy grab a roll perfect so simple but yet so effective drink responsibly by trying out of these for sure can cost you around 10K VND as well.

Accommodation

Hangout Hostel ( Perfect for Solo Travellers)

Really good location in District 1 within walking distance to Bui Vien. Highly recommend if Solo tripping if you don’t like the thought of staying in dorms then check out the private room if that still doesn’t float your boat at least pop down and join in on the social events they run every night.

From $5 you’ll get free break, free beer/mixer and a free bar crawl to help you socialize and meet people check out my experience here.

Price: Dorm rooms from £4

Private rooms from £25

Benefits:

- FREE buffet breakfast (egg, sausage, vegetable, bread, cheese, tomato, salad, ...) from 07-10 AM every day

- Unlimited FREE coffee/tea on breakfast from 07-10 AM every day

- 2 FREE cold beer's & mixer on Happy Hour (07-09 PM) at night every day

- FREE Pub Crawl every night with Free shot at each bar

- FREE big locker & backpack storage

Location: 31A Phạm Ngu Lao, District 1 , Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

How to Book: Click the link to be redirected to the booking site Book Hangout Hostel

Apartments- (Perfect for groups)

Honestly, I could make another blog about this so many cool places to stay in Saigon Cristina Living was a fantastic apartment not too far from the nightlife, great views and excellent service. We got delivered breakfast every morning during our stay for free and It even came with a free minibar serving soft drinks and snacks.

Apartments are best when you’re with a group or just want to bring people back without the hassle of trying to get past reception and potentially getting blocked.

Price: £75 a night based on 6 people sharing

Bedrooms: 3 BDR

Location: Binh Thanh, Ho Chi Minh City

Getting High

Be careful the balloons are all fun a game until you passed out for a few seconds thinking wtf happened guilty!

Walking Street (Bui Vien) – You’ll see local Vietnamese women around selling cigarettes they usually have a Bud and rolling papers. My advice is to haggle but not too had as there’s a few about.

Weed Café – Cipherz - A rooftop coffee house where you can buy and bring your own supply they even sort you out with pre-rolled joints and look Check their page here

Please Note: I do not encourage any drug-taking activities under any circumstance. If you want to do drugs, then do so at your own legal and personal risk. This post is for informational purposes only.

Money

The official currency of Vietnam is called the Dong (VND), you can expect to get around 29,000 VND for £. I recommend converting to avoid the atm fees and limit if you are going to use atm expect to only be able to withdraw only 2 Million Dong per day.

Safety

Beware of using your phone at all times I actually saw this man on walking street during the day trying to video the area a few seconds later he’s trying to run after a motorbike with his flip flops on which as you could imagine didn’t work out goodbye phone.

Weed & Prostitution are both illegal.

My recommended tours below get a discount when booking through Black Lad Travel