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Getting from Tan Son Nhat airport to your Saigon hotel
A private car from Tan Son Nhat airport to central Saigon takes 30 to 60 minutes and costs a fixed price per car. The airport is only about 8 km from District 1, but it sits inside the city, so the trip is mostly traffic. Land at 10 pm and you are at your hotel in half an hour. Leave at 5 pm and you will crawl.
Your driver meets you in arrivals with a sign, loads the bags and takes you to the door of the hotel, which in the old centre’s narrow lanes can mean a short walk from the nearest point a car can reach. Our Saigon airport transfers page shows where drivers wait at each terminal. If the queue at immigration is long, you can add fast-track when you book.
The cheaper options are real. Bus 152 runs from the international terminal to Ben Thanh market for about 6,000₫, and bus 109 goes to the Pham Ngu Lao backpacker area for 15,000–20,000₫ (2026 fares). The Metro Line 1 doesn’t go to the airport. A metered taxi to District 1 usually costs 150,000–250,000₫. The honest verdict: the bus is fine for one person with one bag in daylight; after a long flight, with children or two cases, a booked car with a known driver and a fixed price is worth the difference.
Long Thanh airport, east of the city, is not open yet; commercial flights are targeted for December 2026, and until then every international flight lands at Tan Son Nhat. Our Long Thanh airport page tracks the date.
Is Saigon worth visiting?
Saigon is worth two or three days, and for most trips to the south it’s where you start. It’s the biggest and fastest city in Vietnam, loud and crowded at first, and then, once you’ve found a café down a lane off the main road, strangely easy to like. The old buildings sit between new towers, a bowl of noodles on the pavement costs a couple of dollars, and almost every street has something to eat.
The city moves quickly. Whole blocks are pulled down and rebuilt, and in the last two decades the typical Saigon street went from bicycles and motorbikes to motorbikes and cars. Even the name needs a note: the official city is Ho Chi Minh City, most of its residents say Saigon, and since the July 2025 reorganisation the city’s boundaries include the former Binh Duong and Ba Ria–Vung Tau provinces. That means Vung Tau and Con Dao are now officially part of it too. Districts were replaced by wards at the same time, but travellers, hotels and drivers still say “District 1”, so do we.
Things to do in Saigon
Most sights are in District 1 and District 3, within 10 to 20 minutes of each other by car. Take a car for the longer hops; the traffic is the main reason a short distance can take a long time (see how Saigon’s traffic works).
Notre Dame Cathedral and the central landmarks
The red-brick Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office beside it and the Opera House a short walk away are the colonial heart of the city. The Opera House is lit up at night and worth a walk past. Ho Chi Minh City Hall, at the top of Nguyen Hue walking street, is another photograph.
Museums
The War Remnants Museum is the one most visitors put on the list, and rightly. For the rest, the History Museum, the Fine Arts Museum and the Ho Chi Minh Museum are each worth an hour or two. We’ve written up the choices in Saigon’s museums.
Markets and night food
Ben Thanh market is the tourist one, and fine for coffee and souvenirs. For the real thing go after dark, to the street food and stalls in the night markets of Saigon, many of which are a short taxi from the centre.
Cafés, gardens and quiet corners
The calm side of the city is a café behind a wall, a spa, a pool, a garden set back from the road. They’re best found by walking a few streets away from the main drag in District 1 and District 3.
Thao Dien and District 7
East of the river, Thao Dien and Thu Duc are where many foreign residents live, with cafés, riverside restaurants and international schools. District 7 and Phu My Hung have the newer, wider streets, malls and a lot of Korean and Japanese restaurants. Both are 35 to 70 minutes from the airport.
Day trips from Saigon
Saigon is the base for the best short trips in the south, and a car with a driver who waits and brings you back is the easiest way to do any of them. None needs an early start beyond 7 or 8 am.
Cu Chi tunnels
The wartime tunnel network about 1½ hours north-west of the centre, and the most popular half-day. Our guide to the Cu Chi tunnels explains the two sites, Ben Dinh and Ben Duoc, and which to pick.
Can Gio mangroves
The mangrove reserve south of the city, known as the green lungs of Saigon, reached by a short ferry crossing at Binh Khanh. See Can Gio.
Tay Ninh and Ba Den mountain
The Cao Dai Holy See and the highest mountain in the south, in a long day trip north-west. See Tay Ninh and Ba Den.
Vung Tau and the Mekong
Vung Tau is the nearest beach, 1¼–2 hours by car. My Tho, the nearest Mekong Delta town, is about 1½–2 hours south.
Phan Thiet beaches
For a longer beach break, NovaWorld Phan Thiet is a resort town about 3 to 3½ hours east by road.
Where to stay in Saigon
Stay in District 1 for a short visit: the sights, restaurants and the Metro are within walking distance, and the airport is close. District 3 is quieter and more local, with good cafés and the War Remnants Museum. For a longer stay or a family, Thao Dien (leafy, with a river view) and District 7 / Phu My Hung (modern, with wide pavements and playgrounds) are easier places to live for a week.
District 1 hotels can have narrow, one-way approaches; give your driver the hotel’s name and address, and a phone number if you have one. The booking box takes any hotel in the area.
Getting around Saigon
Taxis and ride-hailing are the usual way. For a day with several stops, hiring a car and driver by the day is simpler than hailing a ride at each one, and you don’t need to explain the next address every time. The Metro Line 1, from Ben Thanh to Suoi Tien in Thu Duc, is cheap (7,000–20,000₫ a ride in 2026) and useful for the Binh Thanh and Thu Duc side, but it’s one line and doesn’t reach the airport.
Crossing the road takes a little nerve. Walk at a steady pace, don’t stop or run, and let the motorbikes flow around you.
When to go to Saigon
December to April is the dry season, with the most sunshine. May to November is hot with an afternoon shower most days, and it’s still a good time to come: the showers pass and the city is greener and quieter. Tet (the Lunar New Year, early February in 2027) empties the city for several days. Many places shut, and then prices for transport go up around the holiday.