Ho Chi Minh City

Ben Thanh Market is the defining landmark of central Ho Chi Minh City - a 1914 French colonial covered market with a distinctive clocktower entrance selling food, clothing, souvenirs, and local produce, surrounded by an evening street food market.

Bui Vien Street is Ho Chi Minh City's most famous backpacker street - a 400-metre pedestrianised strip in District 1 packed with open-air bars, clubs, street food, and neon lights that becomes one of Southeast Asia's most intense nightlife corridors after dark.

Cần Giờ Beach is Ho Chi Minh City's own beach district - a 70km drive from District 1 through mangrove forest to a dark-sand coastal town where Saigonese come for weekend seafood, a swim, and a break from the city without leaving city limits.

Cần Giờ Monkey Island sits inside a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve 60km from central Saigon - a river island in the mangrove forest where long-tailed macaques live in large semi-wild troops, reached by boat through the Cần Giờ waterways.

Cu Chi Tunnels is a 250km network of underground passages used by Viet Cong guerrillas during the Vietnam War - one of the most remarkable feats of military engineering in history, now preserved as a living war museum 40km northwest of Ho Chi Minh City.

Independence Palace is the former seat of the South Vietnamese government in Saigon - the building where the Vietnam War effectively ended on April 30, 1975 when North Vietnamese tanks crashed through its gates, preserved exactly as it was on that day.

The Jade Emperor Pagoda is Ho Chi Minh City's most atmospheric active temple — a dense, incense-filled Taoist and Buddhist sanctuary built by Cantonese immigrants in 1909, housing elaborate lacquered statues, a sacred turtle pond, and the densest concentration of religious iconography in the city.

Notre-Dame Cathedral Saigon is a French colonial basilica built entirely from materials imported from France between 1863 and 1880, standing at the heart of District 1 as one of Ho Chi Minh City's most recognisable landmarks.

The Saigon Central Post Office is a functioning French colonial post office designed by Gustave Eiffel's firm and completed in 1891, featuring a stunning barrel-vaulted interior hall, vintage tile maps of Indochina, and a portrait of Ho Chi Minh — one of Ho Chi Minh City's most photographed colonial landmarks.

The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam's most visited war museum, documenting the human cost of the Vietnam War through photographs, military hardware, and exhibits on the effects of Agent Orange — a sober and essential stop for understanding the country's modern history.