The Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta
Two day trips out of Saigon that explain the south better than the city itself does — one underground, one on the water.
A boat on a narrow coconut-lined canal in the Mekong Delta at first light
Ho Chi Minh City rewards a day of walking — the Central Post Office, Independence Palace, the War Remnants Museum, Ben Thanh market.
But the two things most guests remember are both outside it, in opposite directions, and they pair well because they are nothing alike.
Cu Chi: a town underneath a town
The tunnels are about 40 kilometres north-west of the city. What survives is part of a network that ran to something in the order of 250 kilometres, begun in the 1940s against the French and hugely expanded during the war with the United States. It was not a hiding place so much as an inhabited place: sleeping quarters, kitchens vented so the smoke surfaced far from the fire, field hospitals, workshops, meeting rooms.
A visit takes about half a day and covers the trapdoors — the demonstration of an adult disappearing into the ground through a lid the size of a laptop is the moment most people photograph — the traps, the equipment, and a stretch of tunnel you can go down into.
- The visitor tunnels have been widened and lit. The original sections were narrower than most people can imagine until they are in one.
- If you are claustrophobic, skip the crawl. It is short, but there is no turning round halfway, and there is plenty to see above ground.
- There is a live firing range. It is loud enough to hear across the whole site, and bullets are bought on the spot — no tour includes them.
- Wear clothes you do not mind getting red dust on, and shoes you can kneel in.
Two branches are open to visitors: Ben Dinh, which is closer to the city and busier, and Ben Duoc, which is further out and quieter. If the crowd matters to you more than the drive, say so when you book.
The delta: a different country
The Mekong reaches the sea through nine mouths, and the land it has built is flat, green and full of water. Most day trips go to My Tho, about 75 kilometres south-east — close enough to do properly in a day and still be back for dinner in Saigon.
A typical day is a river boat out to one of the islands, then a sequence of small working places rather than attractions: a bee farm where you drink honey tea, a workshop where coconut candy is pulled and cut by hand, someone playing southern folk music while you eat whatever fruit is in season. Somewhere in the middle you swap the river boat for a sampan and go down a canal narrow enough that the palms meet overhead. Lunch is on the island. Many itineraries also stop at Vinh Trang Pagoda, the oldest in the delta.
It is gentle and it is genuinely lovely, and it is worth knowing in advance that the workshops exist partly for visitors. The river, the canals and the fruit are entirely real.
Doing both
Two full days, in either order, from a single hotel in the city. Our southern itineraries are built exactly this way — you unpack once and go out twice.
