Southern Vietnam Itinerary: Saigon, the Mekong Delta and Phu Quoc

Southern Vietnam gets planned badly more often than the north, usually for one reason: people treat Ho Chi Minh City as an arrival airport and the Mekong Delta as a half-day excursion. Done that way the south feels like a hot, noisy prelude to the rest of the trip.

Given four or five days it is the most alive part of the country — the best coffee, the best markets, the most direct history, and a river delta that operates on water the way other places operate on roads.

Ho Chi Minh City: two nights, three if you like cities

Saigon, as almost everyone still calls it, is not a sightseeing city with a checklist. It is nine million people, seven million motorbikes and a café culture that runs from five in the morning to midnight. The set pieces — the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace, the Central Post Office, Ben Thanh Market — take one solid morning between them.

The second day is the one that matters. District 1 on foot in the early morning, a coffee sitting on a plastic stool watching the traffic braid itself together, the alleys behind Ton That Thiep, and then either the Cu Chi tunnels 90 minutes north or, better in our view, a slow afternoon in District 5’s Chinatown around Binh Tay Market and Thien Hau Pagoda.

For a longer hit list of what is actually worth your morning, the sister-site guides to things to do in Ho Chi Minh City and the top attractions in Saigon go deeper than we can here. If you want the loud version of a night out, Bui Vien walking street is exactly what it sounds like — worth one hour, not one evening.

A note on the War Remnants Museum: it is confronting, one-sided by design, and the single most affecting hour in the city. Go early, before the tour groups, and give yourself somewhere quiet to sit afterwards.

The Mekong Delta: go to Can Tho, not My Tho

Almost every agency sells a Mekong Delta day trip to My Tho. It is two hours each way for a boat ride, a coconut-candy workshop and a lunch — a packaged version of a place that is not remotely packaged in real life.

The delta done properly means an overnight. Drive to Ben Tre or Can Tho in the afternoon, stay in a garden homestay or a riverside lodge, and be on the water at half past five the next morning for the Cai Rang floating market, where wholesalers hang samples of what they sell from a bamboo pole above the boat. By eight it is over and the tourist boats arrive. That hour is the whole reason to come.

With two nights you can add the smaller canals around Vinh Long by sampan, a night in a homestay where dinner is elephant-ear fish and rice paper you roll yourself, and — if you have the time and the appetite for a long drive — Chau Doc on the Cambodian border, with Sam Mountain and the floating fish farms.

Chau Doc is also the crossing point for the fast boat up to Phnom Penh, which is the most enjoyable way to enter Cambodia. If that is your plan, our Vietnam and Cambodia itinerary guide sets out how to sequence the two countries. The Mekong Delta travel guide on our sister site covers the provinces one by one.

Our 8-day Saigon, Mekong Delta and Phu Quoc tour follows exactly this structure and is the most-booked southern itinerary we run.

Where to finish: Phu Quoc, Con Dao or straight home

Most southern trips end on a beach, and there are two real candidates.

Phu Quoc is an hour’s flight from Saigon, has the best hotel supply in the country at every price point, and a long west coast for sunsets. The north of the island is still quiet; the centre has been developed hard. Three nights is right, four if you want a day on a boat around the An Thoi archipelago. Read the Phu Quoc travel guide and how to get to Phu Quoc before you book, and the note on Sao Beach if white sand is the point.

Con Dao is the alternative for travellers who want fewer people and do not need resorts. A former prison island turned national park, with empty beaches, sea turtles nesting between June and September, and a sombre history that is worth understanding before you swim. Flights are smaller and weather-sensitive. The Con Dao island guide covers the practicalities.

If you would rather compare the coastline properly before committing, the best beaches in Vietnam puts Phu Quoc, Da Nang and Nha Trang side by side. Our 10-day luxury Vietnam tour with Phu Quoc and the longer 15-day luxury beach holiday both build around that finish.

Three itineraries that work

• Five days: Saigon ×2, Can Tho ×1, Saigon ×1, fly out. No wasted day, and you see both the city and the delta properly.
• Eight days: Saigon ×2, delta ×2, Phu Quoc ×3, fly home from the island. The classic.
• Twelve days, whole country: Hanoi and the north for five, fly to Da Nang for Hoi An and Hue for three, then Saigon and the delta for four. The south sits best at the end, when you have stopped wanting to walk everywhere.

Sizing the whole trip rather than just the south? How many days you need in Vietnam works through it region by region, and the northern Vietnam itinerary guide covers the other end of the country.

When to go south

The south has two seasons and no cold one. December to April is dry, sunny and busy, with February and March the most comfortable. May to November is the wet season, which in practice means a heavy shower in the late afternoon rather than all-day rain — the delta is at its greenest, prices soften, and mornings are usually clear. September and October bring the highest water in the delta, which is when the flooded-forest scenery around Chau Doc is at its best.

One date to plan around: Tet, the lunar new year in late January or February, when Saigon empties out, much of the delta closes for a week and domestic flights sell out months ahead.

Published 12 September 2026 · 1,553 words · 7 min read