Ho Chi Minh City — Sights
Scooter tides, sidewalk broken rice, rooftop nights.
- Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica of Saigon — Twin-spired red-brick cathedral, still under restoration in 2026
- Saigon Central Post Office — A working 1891 post office where you mail postcards under iron arches
- War Remnants Museum — The war seen from the Vietnamese side; people leave very quiet
- Independence Palace (Reunification Palace) — Where the tanks broke through in 1975, frozen in 1960s style
- Ben Thanh Market — A clock-tower maze of stalls where haggling is the rule
- Nguyen Hue Walking Street & the Café Apartments — A boulevard turned evening plaza, with cafés stacked in an old block
- Bui Vien Walking Street — The backpacker strip that blasts music all night
- Saigon Skydeck (Bitexco Financial Tower) — Lotus-bud tower, 49th floor, 360° over District 1 and the river
- Landmark 81 SkyView — Vietnam's tallest tower, floors 79–81, with an outdoor ledge
- Tan Dinh Church (the Pink Church) — A church painted entirely pink; shoot it from across the road
- Jade Emperor Pagoda — Smoky 1909 Cantonese temple with a turtle pond out front
- Thien Hau Temple, Cholon — Cholon's sea-goddess temple, hung with giant spiral incense
- Saigon Waterbus — A 15,000-dong cruise on the Saigon River that's really a commuter boat
- Cu Chi Tunnels — Crawl through wartime tunnels barely wider than your shoulders
- Mekong Delta Day Trip (My Tho & Ben Tre) — Sampans through palm-lined canals, plus a coconut-candy workshop
- Ho Chi Minh City Museum — Saigon history inside a French-era mansion
- Ho Chi Minh City Fine Arts Museum — Three floors of Vietnamese art in a yellow villa
- Binh Tay Market — Cholon wholesale hall of dried goods and spices
- Giac Lam Pagoda — One of the oldest temples, tall stupa
- Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens — 1860s downtown park with old trees and orchids
- Turtle Lake (Ho Con Rua) — Roundabout ringed by snack carts and cafes, best after dark
- Nguyen Van Binh Book Street — Pedestrian lane of bookshops and cafes by the post office
- Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre — Fifty minutes of puppets dancing on water, only in Vietnam
- Vinh Nghiem Pagoda — Large Japanese-influenced pagoda with a tall tower
- Saigon Opera House (Municipal Theatre) — French-style theatre on Lam Son Square, best lit at night