Useful Local Tips For Travelling Ho Chi Minh City

It is sure that you have been heard about our big and bustling city - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). With the beautiful sceneries, the unique architectures, and numerous delicious dishes, the shopping centers, and markets also fascinate visitors everywhere when coming to this dynamic city.

And I will not bother you anymore, because we have a dozen things to do to really be able to blend into the hustle life in here. So that you can note some necessary tips for your plan to Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City

1. Weather in Ho Chi Minh City

With the tropical monsoon climate, the weather in Ho Chi Minh divides into two seasons: rainy and dry. The temperature is high and stable all year round. The rainy season starts from June to November with sudden rains.

However, rains in Ho Chi Minh city often do not last long. Therefore, all over the year, Ho Chi Minh City always appropriates that be chosen as the ideal destination for your trip.

¨Sunny in the morning and rainy in the afternoon¨ is a familiar sentence when people talking about the weather in Ho Chi Minh. The heavy rains will come at any time even though the sun is shining. Sometimes when it suddenly rains, you have just worn the raincoat and it stops right away. Surely maybe we will go crazy but certainly, the erratic rain makes a unique Ho Chi Minh City.

Sudden rain in Ho Chi Minh

2. Transportation in Ho Chi Minh

How to get to Ho Chi Minh City?

This is the big city in Vietnam so transportation to Ho Chi Minh City has many choices and is very easy.

The first one is traveling from Hanoi by train. You can buy tickets at Hanoi Train Station with various types of tickets such as soft chairs, hard chairs, 6-bed cabin, 4-bed cabin, etc. The fastest train - ¨Thong Nhat¨ (Reunification) between Hanoi - Saigon takes 30 hours traveling. For this choice, you will have the chance to sightseeing the outside scene.

Another way is that you can transfer by bus with about 900.000 VND for a bedchair (inclusive food and drink during the journey). Transferring time is about 30 – 40 hours.

Booking for a flight will be a good option for you because it does not cost much time to transfer. It takes only about 1 hour and 45 minutes to fly from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh and the airfares are not too high. If you have a plan for a few months before your departure date, you absolutely can buy promotional and cheap tickets. Besides, Tan Son Nhat International Airport is located in Ho Chi Minh city’s urban area so you can save your time and airport transfer fee.

Airport inside the city

Transportation for traveling around in Ho Chi Minh

The public transportations which are provided in Ho Chi Minh are quite varied and convenient. If you would like to visit and discover by yourself, you could go to each place by bus with a map.

Otherwise, it will be more fun if you rent a motorbike for moving with about VND 100.000 for 1 day. The rental procedure is very easy, you just have to leave your ID card and the rental fee.

If you are a careful traveler, choosing a taxi for moving is a great choice with many good quality taxi brands like Mai Linh, Vinasun, Hoang Long, etc.

Mai Linh taxi with green (or white) color - one of the best quality and reputed taxis in Vietnam

3. Accommodation in Ho Chi Minh City

Hotels and motels are the things you have to pay special attention because you always need a place to rest, sleep and relax to get energy for the trip. You should avoid renting rooms in the areas where so quiet and have fewer houses. In many situations, living in crowded areas ensure the safety of your property as well as convenience. 

There are many hotels for your staying with a variety of price levels, from VND 200.000 to millions for 1 night. You can choose the hotel in the center or near some popular area such as Nguyen Trai street, Le Thanh Ton street, Ben Thanh market area, Pham Ngu Lao, and Bui Vien – 2 streets many foreigners gathered. The accommodation here may be provided at a high price but it also helps you to save the transferring fee while staying in Ho Chi Minh, even though this city usually has traffic jams.

What do you think about enjoying the city from the top of a high building? Let´s choose a high - floor hotel which has a balcony or rooftop to drink a glass of wine or cocktail while enjoying the beauty of the sparkling nightlife of Ho Chi Minh City. Just hearing about it can make us imagine a romantic night.

4. Shopping in bustling markets and centers

Thanks to the rapid development of modern and well-equipped shopping centers with world-known brands in fashion, cosmetics, and more besides traditional markets, Ho Chi Minh City is an ideal venue for international and domestic shoppers. This is a true paradise for shopping with a large number of big markets, supermarkets, outlets, and shops. Goods in Ho Chi Minh are abundant in colors and categories, from ordinary items used in daily life to specialties in areas, from domestic products to the world’s reputable brands.

This city has a good selection of silk, fashion, lacquer, embroidery, and housewares. Prices are higher than elsewhere, but the selection is more sophisticated, and the cosmopolitan atmosphere makes it somewhat easier to shop, meaning that shop owners, especially in more high-end boutiques, aren't immediately pushing you to buy.

Stores are open 7 days a week from morning until night. Credit cards are widely accepted (often with visa card submission fees of 3%-5%), except at local markets and street-side stalls.

District 1 has the most shopping centers, markets, and fashion streets in the city, including Ben Thanh Market, Diamond Plaza, Parkson Saigon, Saigon Square Shopping Center, Miss ‘Ao Dai’ Building, Tax Department Store, Saigon Centre, etc. which offer multiple choices for shoppers to buy fashion products, cosmetics, and other necessities.

Sai Gon Center

If you are in Ho Chi Minh City with a limited time frame, you can visit Ben Thanh Market, Saigon Square, or An Dong Plaza for a one-stop-shop experience. Keep in mind that Ben Thanh Market, albeit convenient, can be much more expensive than the other markets due to its central location and frequency of tourist shoppers. When shopping at Ben Thanh Market, you should start with 40-50% of the original asking price and negotiate from there. If the store owner does not accept the lower price, you can just easily go to the next stall.  In comparison, you should expect to get no more than 10-20% discount on goods that you purchase at Saigon Square. You will see more locals shopping at Saigon Square or An Dong Plaza. Wherever you choose to shop, you will be impressed with what Vietnam offers.  

Ben Thanh market

5. ¨Must – eat¨ foods in Ho Chi Minh City

Street foods make such a fundamental part of the Ho Chi Minh City travel experience. There are many popular street foods in Ho Chi Minh City to explore where the smell and flavor of tasty food are merged with an exciting atmosphere to form irresistible eating venues. Travelers can wander on the streets from evening until midnight, stop at many small vendors to try delicious local dishes like banh mi (banh mee), pho, bun, hu tiu Nam Vang, banh tam bi, banh trang tron, com tam suon, etc. If you want an overview of Vietnamese cuisine, Ben Thanh Market is also a good place to go.

¨Bánh mì¨ (Banh mee – Vietnamese Baguette)

Every road and street corner or alleys also have small stalls selling Vietnamese baguettes. You will have a variety of options to choose the favorable one for you such as baguette with ham, pate, pork, and inclusive radish, carrot, sliced cucumber, etc. to make the bread more delicious.

¨Bánh mì¨

¨Phở¨ (Noodles)

Pho is a famous dish coming from the North of Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh. When moving here, Pho was changed a little to suit the taste of the Southern people. You can recognize it when you look at the noodles. It is thinner than noodle in Hanoi and the broth is sweet but not a bit salty like Pho Hanoi. Nowadays, the noodle in Ho Chi Minh has changed more like noodle with fish, ostrich, etc.

¨Hủ Tiếu¨

As Hanoi is famous for ¨Phở¨, Ho Chi Minh is also famous for another noodle named ¨Hủ Tiếu¨. This is the popular and favorite dish of people in the South with the sweet flavor of the broth. There are many types of Hu Tieu like Hu Tieu Nam Vang (Phnom Penh noodle), Hu Tieu My Tho, Hu Tieu with beef, or famous Chinese fishing Hu Tieu.

This dish is easy to eat with meat or fish and broth. Just simple but the broth is the important soul of this food. It is cooked from the pork bones to bring a sweet and salted taste.

Hu Tieu is a dish which has the same age as the Southern. Traveling to Ho Chi Minh, you should not forget to try the best dishes to enjoy a unique dish of Southern cuisine.

The delicious¨Hủ tiếu¨

¨Bánh tráng trộn¨

Travelling Ho Chi Minh City without eating ¨Banh Trang Tron¨, for sure that you will feel regret. This dish is a mix of chewy, soft, salt, fat, sweet, sour, spicy. All is contained in a small plastic bag, mix it up and invite you to enjoy it. It is considered as a representation of a vibrant, diverse but harmonious city.

¨Bánh tráng trộn¨ in plastic bag

¨Cơm tấm sườn nướng¨ (Rice with grilled ribs)

¨Com tam¨ also is a simple dish and can be found on almost every road in Ho Chi Minh City. If you come here without enjoying ¨Com Tam¨ means as have not ever set your feet in Ho Chi Minh. This food is often served with ribs, fried eggs, rolls, etc.

"Com tam" spreads throughout the country, but only in Saigon, it becomes the culinary culture of the city with 10 million people. The "coverage" density along the big street to small alleys, from small vendors to luxury restaurants. "Com Tam" was voted by CNN and honored by the Asian Record Organization as one of the 10 most attractive dishes in Ho Chi Minh City. Whether the "Pearl of the East" has all culinary elite from around in Vietnam and all over the world, but "Com Tam" still has its own remains a certain favored position in the hearts of Ho Chi Minh people.

¨Cơm Tấm¨

6. Things to note in Ho Chi Minh

Recently, security in Ho Chi Minh street is quite complicated, so you should remember to be careful when traveling on the road, don't wear any jewelry, handbags, cameras, smartphones, etc. With small handbags, be sure that your money is divided into some small parts and the important documents are left in a secret box at your hotel. Because on Ho Chi Minh street, there are many pillages and the victims of these incidents often are foreigners who did not well-prepared for this situation.

During your trip, you should bring a map or use the Google map app on your smartphone, it is highly effective when you wander on the road or catch a taxi. The first thing you need is to choose the reputed taxi brand, then, in the car, you should pay attention to the driver. Normally, most of the drivers are honest but there will be still a few drivers willing to cheat the travelers by charging double or triple the price. Otherwise, they can take you to the winding roads to increase the fees.

In addition, you should be wary of the person who seems to behave friendly and good attitude for helping you carry your luggage. Sometimes, when it has done you will be forced to buy something they are selling or suddenly your luggage disappears with that elegant person.

Enjoying street foods is the most exciting experience but when eating, you should ask about the price before deciding to eat. In addition, you also have to care about the quality of those foods; and the same action while you go shopping.

Shopping in Ho Chi Minh city

However, Ho Chi Minh is a city that is vast and always interesting for anyone visiting here for the first time. Super busy and extremely exciting is what will be considered about this young city. And although you are a foreign tourist with the first time discovering Vietnam, traveling to Ho Chi Minh City still the best choice who would like to come to just enjoy and discover its vastness and diversity.

Mai Linh
Image sources: Internet