Ho Chi Minh City Discovery Small Group Adventure Tour

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Explore bustling Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) on this small group adventure tour.The Ho Chi Minh City tour will give you an insight into the history, culture and the daily life of the locals in Ho Chi Minh City. Discover the historic Giac Lam pagoda, bargain for souvenirs at Ben Thanh market and enjoy a lunch of local Vietnamese cuisine. Learn about Vietnam's modern history by visiting the Reunification Palace and finish the day with a stroll along Ho Chi Minh City's tree-lined boulevards.

Your first stop is Giac Lam, built in the 17th century it is the oldest pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City. Continue to Chinatown with stops at Cholon and Binh Tay markets to see the locals bartering for wares. Next is Thien Hau temple, built in the early 19th century and dedicated to the Thien Hau the goddess of seafarers. Continue to Nha Rong wharf where Ho Chi Minh first left Vietnam in 1911. Your final stop before lunch is at the Ben Thanh Market, where you can practice your language skills and barter for goods.  The market's original location was close to the Ben Nghe River before it was destroyed in 1859 during the French invasion of Saigon. It was rebuilt and moved to its present location in 1899.

Enjoy lunch at a local Vietnamese restaurant where your guide will explain the local specialties. After lunch you'll visit the War Remnants Museum, originally opened in September 1975, it displays old military equipment and other related items from the Vietnam War.  In the courtyard you will find some larger exhibits including a F5A fighter and a UH1-Huey helicopter.  Continue on foot past the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame Cathedral, the General Post office, and the Opera house which are all beautiful examples of architecture from the French colonial period.   

At the end your tour you are free to continue exploring the area or your guide will assist you in getting a taxi back to your hotel.

USD $36.00

Review by: Jay S	April 2012
Good tour overall, but tour guide needs to be more forceful in speaking. Many times us tourists had difficulty hearing guide.

Review by: millie	March 2012
Vietnamese local guide was very thorough, unbiased and enlightening not only in Vietnam's history but also on the current events in the region; gave us dining recommendations, shows to not miss and other places noteworthy to visit in our short stay in Saigon before our Mekong River Cruise. Will look forward on having her as our local guide again in the future and will definitely pass this tour and guide to anyone who's palnning to visit Vietnam soon.

Review by: john g	March 2012
perfect way to see ho chi minh cith. highly recommend

Review by: Lawrence	December 2011
An enjoyable experience once again made by our excellent guide. My group was fortunate to get the same excellent guide on all our tours. A tour worth going on.

Review by: Stefanie D	December 2011
A fantastic tour! It ended up being a private tour (just my partner and I) so it was even better! Our tour guide (Gem) was so lovely. Very knowledgeable. Bring a decent amount of money as stops are made at the markets, tea/coffee shop, post office and many other stops where purchases can be made. Highly recommend this tour. So much of Ho Chi Minh is covered in this day tour. A must do tour for anyones first visit to Ho Chi Minh.

Review by: Maria H	October 2011
A bit disappointed because War Remnants Museum was closed during our Tour. We have to go there on our own the following day. Also we did not go to the Opera House as our Tour Guide said this is close to our hotel so we are not going there. If I knew I should have gone on our own to tour the City.

Review by: Leanida B	October 2011
My family learned a lot about HCMC, it's history and people and being in a small group made our tour much better. We loved the shopping experience in Cholon where goods are cheapest.

Review by: TREVOR R	September 2011
language barrier and the guide wanted to get away early_br/_ back 2 hours early

Review by: Ana Marie R	September 2011
Our tour guide speaks English articulately. He was very helpful. My husband and I had a nice time touring Ho Chi Minh City.

Review by: retobibi	September 2011
A worthwhile tour. Do it early after your arrival and then visit some of the spots again on your own, like spending more time at the War Museum.

Review by: stewart	August 2011
pretty good, guide and driver were knowledgeable and friendly

Review by: Paprika	May 2011
Tour covered basic spot like Notre Dame Cathedral. General Post Office, War Remnants Museum and Reunification Palace, Thien hau temple and Giac.. Pagoda. Lunch included was good choice from our young lady guide. I would have preferred less temple though. not much to see (We have lots in HK already) One thing I MUST say is that the guide is very good at helping you to take good photos. We were lucky as well as there are only 2 on our group tour. But i would have love to learn more about Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City's information, history etc more. I think there should be more explanation by the guide at the Museum, we were just left to walk around ourselves. I would conclude that trip as OK but not as good as one expect. For those travellign during the weekend, this 48 hours before confirmation request will drive you VERY MAD as the so called hotline is ALWAYS engaged and you can hardly get through. I did not get confirmation and have to call many times long distance. The end is I just have to wait at the Lobby and hoping that they will come.

Review by: Brooke W	May 2011
All the sites visited were terrific. Good overview of Ho chi Minh city. Only complaint was that my tour guide did not speak English as well as I would have liked. That is not to say that he was not extremely lovely and knew everything exceptionally. Just a little hard to understand at times.

Review by: Veronica C	April 2011
Our tour guide Thi was very nice and knowledgeable about the area. Her English was adequate although softly spoken at times.

Review by: Diane	March 2011
This was excellent value and really gave an indepth introduction to the city and its history. Our guide was very thorough in her knowledge and really looked after us. Lunch was superb and as excellent value.

Review by: Linda S	March 2011
We had the best city tour ever. Our guide had excellent English, with lots of information to share. He also tailored the to meet our very small (3) group's needs. When I asked about folk music or dancing in the city, within a few phone calls he had arranged for us to take the riverboat tour. We were delighted.

Review by: Karl B	February 2011
Same comments as above concerning contact of tour guide. Better co-ordination would be beneficial.

Review by: Peter D	February 2011
Recommend this tour. Gives a very good insight into the city and its main landmarks, as well as helping to orientate you geographically in relation to your hotel. Tour guide was excellent, friendly and very informative. Transport was comfortable and the inclusive lunch provided was most enjoyable. Pickup from our hotel was an hour late, two phone calls later determined that this was not the company, but rather the gross inconsideration of a group of tour guests.

Review by: Victor	January 2011
I'm so thankful to my wife for arranging this christmas vacation.

Review by: Craige P	December 2010
This ended up being a private tour with the excellent guide, Huong, who shared her knowledge about aspects of life in Ho Chi Minh City. I learned a great deal about the more recent history of the city. The Reunification Palace is certainly worth seeing. Our private pho lunch was also really enjoyable.

Review by: Irene B	December 2010
Had a very interesting day. Our guide Huong was excellent - helpful and really looked after us. Nothing was too much trouble for her. The war museum is a must-see.

Review by: MARY P	December 2010
A good introduction to Vietnam and an informative guide. Lunch should be optional.

Review by: Kenneth B	December 2010
The day was really interesting and informative. The guide was simply superb. My luggage still hadn't arrived when I took this tour so the guide helped me to barter for clothes at the market.

Review by: Olga S	November 2010
as boring as possible, very bad logistic, because, for example, objects a and c very close, but from first to second must drive via object b, which was in another part of city.

Review by: Justin W	October 2010
Absolutely excellent, strongly recommend. Extremely knowledgeable guide, great lunch. All round and excellent tour.

Review by: Peter Kay Tong C	October 2010
Very good tour. Guide spoke good English, was knowledgeable. Very good

Review by: Robert M	October 2010
Tour guide (Thi) was delightful. We travelled with a family with two young boys who despite a long day maintained their interest through out. The war remnants museum was particularly confronting and contained much history that put apects of the war into perspective. Visit to the church, post office and market was also a good cultural experience. Lunch was enjoyable. Tour of temples and commentary was also very good. The palace tour and history was also very interesting.

Review by: Julie Z	October 2010
Tour OK but dragged out a bit.

Review by: JENS PEDER S	August 2010
very good

Review by: Sofia I, Australia	July 2010
covered everyting we wanted

Review by: Mark W, Australia	May 2010
This tour is great for seeing all the sights of Ho Chi Minh City if you only have a short time frame. The Guide was excellent and very informative. He gave us useful tips for bargaining in the Ben Than Markets. Only downside would be we got to the War Remnants Musueum before the lunch period closing time and only had an hour to go through it which we would have liked a bit longer.

Review by: Dean D, Australia	May 2010
We did this tour on our first day in Ho Chi Minh and found it very informative as well as giving us and idea of what we wanted to go back and see by ourselves when we had some free time. Our guide was very knowledgable about the city and we felt we were well informed on important sites around the city.

Review by: Susan M, Australia	March 2010
One of the best days ever. Very informative and interesting. The tour guide went over and above his duties, he made the day so enjoyable. We saw the city, visited places that were of interest to all, not rushed at all.

Review by: David B, United States of America	February 2010
This is an excellent tour, full of activities and sites. An excellent value for the price. We had a terrific guide who made the day educational and fun.

Review by: Helen C, United Kingdom	February 2010
Covered all the must sees quickly so ideal if you're short on time or want a hassle free overview of the city. Guide knolwedgeable, freindly and efficient. Down side this was a very frequent stop tour and used a people carrier that it is difficult to clamber out the back of.

Review by: Robert H, Australia	July 2009
Trip was good, but unfortunately I was the only person on trip.

Review by: Anonymous, Malaysia	April 2009
The tour around the city was interesting and definitely worth it.

Review by: Oliver R, Philippines	April 2009
We booked for a small group tour. We ended up a private tour and it was expensive.