Ho Chi Minh City: Amazing things you should try in HCM once!

Ho Chi Minh City – formally known as Saigon – is one of the best places to visit in Vietnam. From delicious food to beautiful architecture, you’ll find no lack of things you should do in HCM City.

What to do in Ho Chi Minh City?
What to do in Ho Chi Minh City?

Things you should try in HCM City

Too frequently, this thriving town serves as a brief pit stop on many people’s Vietnam itinerary before continuing north to Hoi An, Hanoi, and Halong Bay. However, it would be a pity not to spend at least a few days in this large, lively metropolis. Let’s consider some best things to do in Saigon! 

1. Visit the Reunification Palace

Norodom Palace was the original name of the Reunification Palace (or Independence Palace). During the Vietnam War, the President of South Vietnam lived at the new Reunification Palace (or American War as it is called here). Visit this palace is one of the best things you should try in Ho Chi Minh City.

Visit the Reunification Palace
Visit the Reunification Palace

This building is a fantastic example of 1960s architecture for the decoration following the traditional style. The lower floor is dominated by meeting rooms, with an attractive bar on the second floor and a bomb shelter and communications center in the basement. In 1975, a North Vietnamese army tanker crashed through the main gate, thereby ending the Vietnam War. Come to here, tourists will have a chance to discover the heroic history of Vietnam. Nowadays, every visitor to Ho Chi Minh City always wants to stop at Reunification Palace on their itinerary.

Opening Hours: Morning: 8a.m to 11a.m; Afternoon: 1p.m to 4p.m.

Entrance Fee: 40,000 VND/ adult; 20,000 VND/ child.

2. Visit the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City

The War Remnants Museum is an extraordinarily poignant experience that will influence the way tourists think about the Vietnam War fatalities. Outside, there is an exhibit of different vehicles and weaponry used during the battle. There is an exhibit of anti-war posters and memorabilia on the ground level. The museum becomes more intriguing as tourists up the steps, but also more difficult to view. Photos of the aftereffects of the chemical Agent Orange dumped over Vietnam, are heartbreaking and overwhelming. Disabilities caused by chemical exposure have been handed down over numerous generations. The Requiem exhibition, which features photographs of journalists slain in the conflict, is especially painful.

Opening Hours: 7:30a.m – 6p.m

Entrance Fee: 40,000 VND / person

3. Send a letter at Saigon Central Post Office

Send a letter at Saigon Central Post Office
Send a letter at Saigon Central Post Office

Another one of the best things to do in Ho Chi Minh City is to send a letter from the central post office! The Ho Chi Minh City Post Office was constructed in the late 1800s with Gothic architectural influences. While the building is impressive from the outside, the interior really steals the show. Marvel at the grand arches inside, the beautiful marble floors, and the row of old wooden telephone booths on the left-hand side.

Ho Chi Minh City’s Central Post Office is actually still in use and on most days tourists will find it buzzing with activity. One activity that visitors to Vietnam love is buying a few postcards from one of the souvenir stands and sending them to friends and family back home. 

Opening Hours: 7:30a.m – 5p.m (from Monday to Saturday)

4. Shop until you drop!

Local people tend to flock to marketplaces from daybreak till the early hours of the morning to buy scrumptious sweets and pastries, luxurious textiles, and fresh food. Ho Chi Minh City’s markets are an obvious illustration of Vietnamese everyday life and well worth a visit, whether you’re looking for gorgeous flowers, freshwater crabs, or just soaking in the views.

Bến Thành Market

Ben Thanh Market (chợ Bến Thành) is Ho Chi Minh City’s largest historic market and one of the city’s oldest surviving structures. A soaring white clock tower guards its iconic southern entrance, which has remained untouched for almost a century. There aren’t many better spots to see the old Saigon in a city that has seen the devastation of colonial control and a decade-long conflict. Inside, its lofty halls are home to hundreds of shops selling everything from school uniforms and umbrellas to green tea and motor oil. 

Bình Tây Market

The Binh Tay Market, located in the center of Ho Chi Minh City’s Chinatown, is also one of the largest and oldest markets. Founded in the 1880s and restored in the 1920s, it now has over 2,300 booths offering spices, preserves, garments, shoes, purses, household items, jewelry, and much more. Not only tourists but also inhabitants might return every day for a week and still discover treasure in the depths of Binh Tay. At the center of the market, there is even a little park with a shrine in the center – an oasis of meditative quiet in the midst of bartering merchants and disgruntled chickens.

The Binh Tay Market is located in the center of Ho Chi Minh City's Chinatown
Binh Tay Market is located in the center of Ho Chi Minh City’s Chinatown

Hồ Thị Kỷ Flower Market

The Ho Thi Ky Flower Market is the largest of its type in the region, with entire fields of roses ranging from ruby red to light white on exhibit, as well as brilliantly bright chrysanthemums and voluptuous, sweet-scented orchids. The majority of the flowers are cultivated in the southern Mekong Delta or in the northern highland town of Dalat; however, some are imported from Cambodia. The market opens unreasonably early in the morning, and it will be crowded on Tết occasion (Vietnamese traditional New Year) when the area is filled with customers loudly haggling over the price of tulips.

How is the weather in this charming city?

Vietnam is one of the countries that is located near the equator. It’s easy to understand that Ho Chi Minh City has tropical climate. Ho Chi Minh City has two tropical seasons:

How is the weather in this charming city?
How is the weather in this charming city?

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