Best Things To Do in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam 2025 4K.

What's going on everybody this is Island Hopper TV and today we're going to show you the best things to do in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Let's do it. That's right everybody this is located in South Vietnam and it is the largest city with a total population of around 14 million people. We're going to show you 25 things to do. You can take a water bus along the Saigon River. I did this in the evening time. You can also do it at sunset. It's very affordable. It's 15,000 Vietnamese Dong one way. That's like 50 cents. If you wanted the round-trip ticket it's 30,000 Vietnamese Dong. That's like a dollar and 20 cents. And the benefit of doing it at night is it's very colorful. As you can see the skyline lights up. They've got a lot of high-rises that put on these light shows. I would say Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the best days if you wanted maximum lights. But like I said the sunset is nice as well. You can go during the daytime. It's just Saigon gets quite hot in case you didn't know. And as we continue to show you around I want to let you know a couple things. Number one is the currency conversion. It's one US dollar equals 25,000 Vietnamese Dong. There's a lot of zeros in this currency. They call it hundreds of thousands or millions at times. For example you'll withdraw 2 million which is about 80 dollars. Okay so I recommend pulling out 5 million which is around 200 dollars on average. Obviously currency conversions can vary with time. As we go through this video there will be time stamps below so you can jump around from location to location. Here we are now at Ben Thanh Market. This particular market is famous because you can get a lot of knockoffs here. Just depends on what you're looking for. But you can find everything from souvenirs to teas, food. I mean it's just a cheap affordable market that's been around for so long. Ho Chi Minh City has many modern malls but people still gravitate to this old classic Ho Chi Minh City style market. Now we've arrived at Huey Vien. This is one of the biggest party streets in all the world right here in Ho Chi Minh. I would say there's about three types of environment that you're going to get with this street. First one is going to be the daytime. You'll never know that it's a party street. It's just a regular street people drive down with a motorbike. But then when sunset rolls around it lights up very nicely and then from about sunset until 9 or 10 p.m it's still pretty tame. But by the time 10 p.m rolls out that's when the party really kicks off. Now if you're someone who doesn't really like partying I would not recommend being here after 10 o'clock because it can be quite chaotic and a bit extreme for some people because it gets loud and it just attracts a different type of crowd around that time frame. But either way coming down here for sunset you'll be totally fine have a beer get some pho or get some banh mi something cool and then just head back to the hotel by 9 30 10 you won't have any issues. It is in the it is in the location of the backpacker district. It's known as the old western quarter or western street because of many western backpackers who came here. There are two streets that form the party zone. You have Bui Vien Street being the main one and then several alleyways off to the side. But it basically turns into one of the busiest nightlife areas you'll see anywhere in the world. It's got a cool mix between like modern nightlife but also still you can find some of that real down-to-earth cultural Vietnam style nightlife where you've got people riding around on bikes or selling street food or souvenirs which kind of adds to a little bit more culture and fun. This place really reaches maximum capacity around Friday or Saturday night after 10 pm for those of you wanting to know. Yeah so I'm actually at the top of Vietnam this year is landmark 81 Vinpearl. You can see Saigon river and downtown Ho Chi Minh city from here. Wow they got this harness because you have to wear it when you're going around here. All right landmark 81 is 461 meters tall that's 1,500 feet. It's 81 floors. It's one of the tallest buildings in Southeast Asia and the tallest building in actually Vietnam. It is the 15th tallest skyscraper in the world. It's located in the area of Vin Homes which is outside of the District 1 area. This is more of a laid-back type area if you're thinking about staying at the hotel by Marriott that's in here. I have stayed at that hotel. Prices vary anywhere between $200 a night all the way up to $1,500 just depends on peak season. It was completed in 2018. At the very top is the observation deck the sky view. You've got 360 degree views of Ho Chi Minh city. Great way to get a good view with the glass walk and it is one of the highest observation decks in all of Asia. I would say prices start around $200,000 go up to $450,000 Vietnamese dong. That's like $8 to $12 US depending on what you want to do when you're up there. I would say that glass walk is quite interesting. It's open air whereas the rest of the experience is not open air. So on a hot day you can check out the Saigon River and see how it kind of just meanders across this flat land. It's really cool views up here. I would say maybe even consider going at sunset and then staying a little bit past dark. That could be nice views. Here we are now at the War Remnants Museum. Now this place is going to leave you with a somber feeling. It can be a bit depressing at times reading some of the information about that Vietnam War. People come here and take pictures with the old American army equipment. They also have tanks and airplanes as well. But what you read when you go inside there and learn about the tiger cages and all of the terrible things that happened during war, it's just a reminder that war is never good. This war, if you didn't know much about the history, you will find out about it basically. It was kind of like a civil war between the North and the South. The Americans joined the war to fight with the South. Ultimately the Northern Vietnamese won the war and the country was reunited under North and South as one Vietnam. Hanoi became the capital and the city of Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the Northern Viet Cong leader Ho Chi Minh. Here we are now at the old Saigon post office. This was built by the French in the late 1800s when Vietnam was part of French Indochina. The French were here making Vietnam a colony for about 67 years and it was famous because during the war this was actually one of the places people would get their mail, buy stamps, send postcards, and it functions now as a museum and a real working post office still to this day. People visit here just because it's an old colonial building right next to the church Notre Dame. In my honest opinion, I would visit here either before 11 a.m or after 4 p.m because in the middle of the daytime Saigon is so hot. And definitely go around trying some of the street food. What I like to do is actually go around Saigon while I'm here and find the best banh mi and the best pho. Here you can do that right now for a dollar a meal. And the reason I like to shop around for my favorite street food is just because I like to see what kind of variations of pho or banh mi are around but then once I find my favorite that's when I know hey that's my spot. So it's kind of like a fun little hobby that I do when I visit Saigon is find the best pho and the best Vietnamese food. In case you didn't know pho is a soup and then banh mi is a baguette that came from the French but now is Vietnam style. While here I found a lot of different Japanese and Korean options while in Ho Chi Minh. Like I said earlier there is the Notre Dame church. It was actually under construction while I was here in November 2025. The area behind me is called Book Street. Nice area to walk around, enjoy some coffee. It's like a cafe road. The Book Street is actually near the post office and Notre Dame Cathedral. You can do all of that in the same day walking around here. Then they have plenty of massage and self-care here in Ho Chi Minh City if that's your thing. You know you can get a back massage, a foot massage, facial, hair wash. Also they have lots of rooftop bars. They seem to be popping up everywhere around here so as time's gone by. It seemed like a lot of the rooftop bars were on top of boutique hotels especially around the area of District 1, around Japantown. It's a nice thing to do in the evening time if you wanted more of a luxury type experience. I found them to be in places like the Hilton. They have a great view up there. They have a restaurant and then on top of that they have the rooftop bar with these great views of the Saigon River. Lights up great at night. So lots of options for you with the rooftop bars. It's kind of like Bangkok. They're following that pattern of building rooftop bars for evening experience. So again it's one of those things you can do a different rooftop bar every night you're here. It's just something to do kind of for your bucket list if you want it. I would say three or four days in Ho Chi Minh is enough. Here we are now at the Jade Emperor Pagoda. The Jade Emperor Pagoda is for someone who wants to see what kind of Buddhist culture or Buddhist beliefs Vietnam has. There's not very many temples like you would see in say Thailand. This one's actually kind of small. They do have a koi fish pond and a small temple. This might not be for everyone but some of you may appreciate this. And it's free to visit. And here we are now at the Independence Palace. Let's go inside. Now this here is the former presidential palace for South Vietnam from 1966 to 1975. It served as like a command post where American and southern Vietnamese generals would meet and discuss plans for the war. It's also famous because this is where the northern Vietnamese tanks arrived when the fall of Saigon happened in 1975. Now when it's not raining you can actually rent one of these bikes. The rental bike company is called Tien Go. If you wanted to download and set it up before you arrived then you can ride the bikes around. Now we're actually headed to the Sky Deck. This is another observation tower that you can go to the top. This is one of the coolest looking buildings in all of central Saigon I would say. And they've got a big helipad up there but nice views overlooking the Saigon River. The thing about the Saigon River is it's just so windy it's literally like a snake river. It is 240,000 Vietnamese dong. That's about ten dollars per person. I would say the best observation deck in all of Ho Chi Minh City is probably Landmark 81 but this one's right there in the heart of the city so you can easily get great views if you want it. At this point I would say the Hilton Rooftop Bar is similar. But if you go to the Hilton Rooftop you've got to buy drinks at least. Now we're actually headed out to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Again another relic of the Vietnam era. This is an area where soldiers from northern Viet Cong would actually hunker down. They were called guerrillas doing guerrilla warfare and these were basically soldiers not wearing a uniform but these were local Vietnamese people fighting with the North against the Americans. They had a lot of different tactics here like booby traps and all sorts of different things you'll see about how they were living in these tunnels and they were very effective with this technology they were using which is really just tunnels and the Cu Chi Tunnels really reveal all of that to you. One thing that was revealed to me being out here is how miserable it would have had to have been to be a soldier or someone fighting out here in a very dangerous environment because of the weather and the elements. It goes from rain to hot as heck. It's like a sauna out here. It's just so bad. I mean the war must have been one of the worst situations anyone could have ever found themselves in. You can see how they were making shoes out of old tire rubber. Now here we are at the Mekong Delta. So the Mekong Delta has got a few different activities. You basically get on a boat and you go across this massive wide river. This is actually I think the longest river in Southeast Asia and one of the longest in all of the world really. It's a big river nonetheless and you go around here they got islands and on those islands they have activities like bee farm, trying local fruits. The locals here they always told me they said everything that people could ever need from life the Mekong River Delta right here would provide whether it be fish or vegetables, fruit or food in general. Just a breadbasket of food here in the Mekong Delta area. Yes that is a banana tree. I've never seen so many bananas on a tree. We took a little horse and buggy over to the canals. They also have these canals that kind of branch off the Mekong. I did a little boat tour there. That's when you can really see how lush this place is. I mean every day I was in Saigon it rained. If you've been following the news you know that Vietnam's been getting a lot of rain but this is kind of normal during rainy season for Saigon to get rain. It's just they've gotten a lot more this year than they did in years past. So there's been some flooding but this Mekong River is always just so lush and you can see that by the fruits all around. Anyway you also will see there's a temple. They even have like this hotel here that you can stay at. Then they have the crocodile farm right here. From what I've been told there is no crocodiles in the actual river. At least that's what they told me. But yeah here's a look around the temple and then that hotel I was telling you about it's like bamboo kind of tiki huts. But what we do in the evening time is you can head to the opera house. They do shows still to this day. If you're looking to do that in the evening time a nice way to kind of unwind and relax by watching a local show at the opera house. The area around the opera house is known as the central area and they have a famous road known as Nagin Way and that's actually a very famous road that connects from the river all the way up to the end where they have the Ho Chi Minh statue as well as the area where the opera house is. Now around here you'll have a lot of motorbikes. You'll have people asking you if you want to take a rickshaw. I'm going to tell you at around 12 o'clock in the afternoon I have no idea how these rickshaw drivers are able to do this and just drive people around because even as a passenger from about 11 or 12 until 4 p.m in the afternoon it is so hot in Saigon. I mean 45 minutes outside and you really start to feel it. So I like to come down here in Nagin Way in the evening time just after sunset. It's still hot but it's nowhere near as hot with the sun. Nagin Way has a lot of restaurants, bars, cafes and they also do a lot of festivals here. Some rooftop bars as well. The good news is they did just complete a metro system here in Ho Chi Minh City. It is new. I think it opened like a year or year and a half ago. You can try and ride that if you're looking to get around on public transport. Me personally I go around on the motorbikes but I don't drive it myself. I go around with an actual grab driver. Some foreigners they do rent their own bikes. They consider that to be dangerous. It's also dangerous to actually ride a motorbike in general but it's common here. We are now at the Turtle Lake Loop. This is located between District 1 and District 3. It's just a cool loop to say that you've driven around it on a motorbike if you wanted to. It's called the Turtle Lake because of the turtle monument that once stood here but there is no actual turtles in the lake. It's just a little fun tourist activity if you wanted to check it out. I decided to stop here when I ended up going up to the Pink Church. Just keep in mind the Pink Church doesn't open until like four in the afternoon so don't even try and come over here before then. But the Pink Church is another famous church for those you're into that. Also another great way to get around Saigon is on the Hop-on Hop-off bus if that's something you're into. By the way if you're planning to visit Vietnam we did just make a best places to visit in Vietnam video. You've got to watch that next. Click the link right here.