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Why stay at Cai Be or Vinh Long?
This stretch of the Tien River is where the Mekong Delta lets you slow down. The islands are orchards, the paths are narrow, and many families open a room or two to guests. You eat what the garden grows, cycle between fruit trees and wake to boat engines on the river rather than horns. It’s the easiest place in the delta to do a night in a homestay and not feel you’ve gone far.
Two names get confused. Cai Be, with its riverside market and church, is on the north bank of the Tien River, historically in Tien Giang province and since July 2025 in Dong Thap. Vinh Long is the city on the south bank, now the capital of an enlarged Vinh Long province that also includes the old Ben Tre and Tra Vinh. Homestays are found on both sides and on the islands between them, so the page covers both.
How long from Saigon to Cai Be and Vinh Long by car?
A private car takes about 2-2½ hours to Cai Be and 2-2¾ hours to Vinh Long, 110-135 km, mostly on the Trung Luong-My Thuan expressway south past My Tho. Our prices include tolls.
Allow for the start: leaving central Saigon in the morning rush adds time, so an early start is worth it. If you’re booked into a homestay, tell us the address so the driver can find the last stretch, which often runs down a narrow lane.
Cai Be, Vinh Long: car, bus or tour?
The bus runs to Vinh Long from Mien Tay station and costs a few dollars a seat. It drops you in the city, not at Cai Be or your homestay, which sits across the water or down a lane. You then need a local transfer and, often, a boat.
A group tour covers both stops in a day or two but fixes the homestay and the schedule.
A private car takes you from the airport or your hotel to the homestay lane, with a boat transfer only where the island needs one. You know the car and driver beforehand, the price is fixed, and we hold drivers to the standard of calm driving, a non-smoking cabin, working seatbelts and no overpowering air freshener. If you’re doing a one-night stay, you can book the return a day later at a time you choose. Add a stop on the way for a market or a coffee if you like.
Meeting your driver
- Book in the box at the top of the page; you get an email confirming your booking, and the driver’s name, photo and number plate the evening before.
- Give us your flight number if you’re arriving by air: the driver tracks it and waits up to 90 minutes after landing.
- Put the homestay’s name and phone number in the notes at checkout, so the driver can call the host.
- Pay the driver in dong or by VietQR transfer. Tolls and parking are included.
Things to do around Cai Be and Vinh Long
Cai Be floating market
Cai Be is one of the older floating markets in the delta. On a normal day you’ll see a modest number of boats selling fruit, vegetables and flowers on the Tien River, and more on full-moon days and at Tet. Go early, take a boat from the Cai Be waterfront, and treat it as a morning on the river rather than a spectacle. For the big market, Cai Rang near Can Tho is the one.
Cai Be church and the riverfront
The old church and the colonial-era buildings on the Cai Be waterfront are worth a short walk before or after the boat.
An Binh island
An Binh is a quiet orchard island across the river from Vinh Long city. This is homestay country: fruit gardens, cycle paths, evening meals with the family, and a night of cicadas rather than traffic.
Orchards and canals
Rowing boats take you down narrow canals under coconut palms; in season you can pick and eat tropical fruit on the spot. The experience is closest to what Ben Tre offers, and a day in one is a good alternative to the other.
Vinh Long city
Vinh Long city is a pleasant river town with a promenade and a night market, useful if you want a hotel instead of a homestay.
When to go
The dry season, December to April, is the most comfortable and the best for cycling. May to November brings afternoon rain, and in the autumn the river is at its highest, which makes the islands look their best. Weekends and Tet (early February in 2027) are the busiest.
Onward from Cai Be and Vinh Long
My Tho is the closest delta town to Saigon and sits on the way down. Ben Tre is the other coconut-and-canal option nearby. Can Tho and its floating market are the next step south, around an hour onward, and Chau Doc is the stop after that. To book any of these legs, change the From and To in the booking box.