khtodd

Thanks everyone who responded to my previous post about Saigon around Xmas time...

So, my wife and I will have about 7 days on the ground. Do people who have been there think we could happily stay there for that amount of time, or should we add a slight local detour? To help answer this, I'll add a bit of detail about us - we're a youngish couple (early 40s) who have been to Hanoi, a few places in Thailand, and Singapore. Last summer, we had 9 nights on the ground, and we spent 7 nights in Singapore and 2 at a beach resort in Thailand. We definitely did not run out of things to do for 7 days in SG as we love to eat local food, and to try to find the best examples of different dishes, which requires a bit of time and travel around the city. We also enjoy walking around getting the feel of different neighborhoods.

So, with that in mind, should we stay the 7 nights in Saigon, or should we take 2 nights on a trip - we were thinking about a beach resort in Vung Tau, which according to a little research should only be about an hour ferry ride from Saigon. That would leave 5 nights in Saigon....

Thank you!

rhkkmk

have fun... i think you could find plenty to do in HCMC

shelleyk

I think 5 nights in Saigon is more than enough time. We spent 3 full days in Saigon and loved it. There is a lot to see and do, but in 3 days we covered most of it, although we did not go to all of the museums we could have. On the 4th day we did a full day tour of the Mekong Delta, which again we enjoyed. We did not go to the Cu Chi tunnels, so if you have an interest in that, that could take another half day. If you are a beach person (which I am not) I would spend 2 days at the beach.

LancasterLad

Agree with Shelley.

7 days having to cope with Saigon traffic is too much. It wouldn't be too bad if the pavements belonged to pedestrians, but motor-cycles rule almost everywhere.

khtodd

Thanks for your input. We're still looking at all the options. For now, we have all 7 nights booked, but we can change it at any time.

LL - I know what you mean, most of Bangkok is similarly unpleasant to walk around, but at least they have the skytrain/subway.

Then again, we are primarily there to eat copious amounts of Vietnamese local food (maybe a few restaurants if they're worthwhile), so we'll see. We're definitely going to take a day to go to Cu Chi and whatever else is enroute or not horribly out of the way. Maybe we'll take another day trip as well... I don't know if I want to spend what little time we ahve packing, checking in/out, waiting at airports, etc. to get to another location for a day or two.

One thing we like about spending a lot of time in one place is that you can really take your time. It's relaxing to not have a schedule (most of the time I am extremely scheduled) - so if we don't get to a certain sight or restaurant today, we can try again tomorrow... leaves a lot more time for spontaneous discovery... How that will conflict with motorbikes everywhere is another story...

LancasterLad

<<<LL - I know what you mean, most of Bangkok is similarly unpleasant to walk around, but at least they have the skytrain/subway.>>>

The skytrain during the rush-hour makes me feel and smell like a crushed sardine! Since they've extended the skytrain over the Chao Phraya river the trains get even more packed.

So we try and avoid the Skytrain [BTS], by staying in Banglamphu on the river at Phra Arthit. We find the Underground [MRT] less crowded, and v.useful for getting to Hualamphong train station.

Back to Saigon. A nice little traditional restaurant in District 1 is Five Oysters...

http://www.fiveoysters.com/

Inexpensive and very tasty food. It's opposite the Duc Vuong hotel on Bui Vien.

The Duc Vuong has an excellent roof terrace bar/restaurant and set up very nicely with several little nooks to settle into, and it's good vfm too...

http://www.ducvuonghotel.com/the-vie...l-rooftop-bar/

The Bell Boy at the Duc Vuong is very sweet!

Several little shopfront cafe/bars down the bottom of Bui Vien. Very cheap, and on the corner where the Santa Cafe is is great for people watching, but don't use the Santa Cafe. Next door to it is a little place called Dune Cafe, and opposite there is Bookworms, both are excellent.

crellston

I would not bother with Vung Tau (and definitely not on a weekend when it will be packed!). Rather than Cu Chi, I would spend a couple of days in the delta, maybe at Or near Can tho for Cai Rang floating market. We actually stayed in Can Tho town which was fine and had some great food places but we did try to book this place http://nguyenshack.com which gets great reviews but does get booked way in advance. Two nights would be ideal.

We found the best food in District 3 in some of the smaller restaurants rather than in D1.