17 Best Sights in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Honoring Vietnam's national dress, this private museum is set on stunningly picturesque grounds that are a very long way from downtown. Once you pay the admission fee, a guide will take you to the two beautiful wooden exhibition houses, which showcase ao dais from the 17th century to the modern day. Smaller kids will like feeding the fish and playing ao dai quoits (and generally letting off steam on the verdant lawns if they're all city-ed out). This place is—amazingly—still off the tourist radar.

The outside of this museum showcasing the history of traditional Vietnamese medicine might be plain, but inside it's a fabulous carved wooden wonderland, with the interior of an authentic antique house on the third floor and a re-created Cham-style gazebo on the rooftop. Displays, enhanced by audiovisuals and drawing on nearly 3,000 items in the collection, range from Stone Age pots to 3rd-century coins (for coin-rubbing therapy), ancient texts, bronze kettles, and a range of cutting, chopping, and storing utensils. The concluding part of the introductory film (subtitled in English) and the shop at the exit are a reminder that this is a private museum, set up by Fito Pharma. It's well worth a visit for the insight into traditional Vietnamese daily life through the ages.

A large government-owned tourist park, Van Thanh is a lovely escape from Ho Chi Minh City's urban chaos, with its artificial lake, restaurants, swimming pool, and small children's playground. The food isn't brilliant but dining in a little hut over the lake is fun, and the grounds and buildings are picturesque "ancient Vietnam" style. Entry to the pool, which gets very crowded on weekends, is 70,000d.

This wholesale market, in a colonial-era Chinese-style building about a half-hour drive from downtown, is not so much a shopping destination (unless you want to buy spices, herbal medicine, or textiles) as a spectacle to behold, particularly if you get here before 8 am to savor the frenetic atmosphere at its peak. With more than 2,000 stalls, Binh Tay can get pretty chaotic. In the central courtyard a small shrine honors the market's founder, Quach Dam (1863–1927), a disabled Chinese immigrant who started out collecting scrap before making his fortune. The food court inside serves a wide variety of Vietnamese street food and Chinese-influenced dishes—great for a replenishing brunch after an early arrival.

Built in 1932 by Tamil Muslims, the Cholon Mosque now serves the city's Indonesian and Malaysian Muslim community. Notice how much simpler the mosque is than the pagodas in the area, which are characterized by exuberant ornamentation and bright colors.

Next door to Dam Sen Water Park, this attraction has an amusement park as well as its cultural aspects, which makes it a good choice for a family outing. You can enjoy traditional Vietnamese handicrafts, games, and folk song performances and then view a range of cultural reproductions, which include an ancient Roman square and a Japanese teahouse and peach blossom garden. If the kids get restless, head for the roller coaster, bumper cars, Ferris wheel, and other rides. Tamer activities include swan boats to pedal, an extensive aquarium, animal enclosures, a bowling alley, and a movie theater. There are food and drink outlets throughout the park.

Trying to visit both the cultural and the water park in one day is not recommended.

For a rollicking day out for kids of all ages, this park has a variety of slides and pools (one with a wave machine), a zipline, and a lazy river ride. Compared to water parks in more developed countries, Dam Sen is a little rough around the edges, but that doesn't prevent it from being an exhilarating day out. Children have to be taller than 4 feet 6 inches to go on the larger slides, but there's a range of medium slides for smaller kids and a toddler play area.

On weekdays there are usually no lines for the rides.

Lockers are available (15,000d) and you're given a small waterproof tube to hold your money, valuables, and the locker key. There are also several food kiosks within the park. It can take up to an hour to get here from District 1 when traffic is heavy, or about 40 minutes in light traffic.

One of the oldest pagodas in Ho Chi Minh City, Giac Lam Pagoda was built in 1744 in the jungle outside of the city of Gia Dinh. Outside the walls of the pagoda now lies the urban sprawl of Ho Chi Minh City. Inside, however, are peaceful gardens containing a bodhi tree imported from Sri Lanka in 1953, a seven-story stupa, and the pagoda itself. Prayers are held every evening at 6 pm.

Like many other pagodas built by Fujian congregations, this one is dedicated to Thien Hau, goddess of the sea and protector of fisherfolk and sailors. It has four stone pillars encircled by painted dragons, brought from China when the pagoda was constructed in the 19th century. Also note the scenes in ceramic relief on the roof and the murals next to the main altar.

This example of early French-colonial architecture in Vietnam, nicknamed the Dragon House (Nha Rong), could be considered more interesting than most of the displays within. Sitting quayside on Ben Nghe Channel, at far end of Ham Nghi, it was constructed in 1863 as the original French customshouse; any individuals coming to colonial Saigon would have had to pass through the building once they docked at the port. Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969), who was known as Nguyen Sinh Cung as a child, Nguyen Tat Thanh as a schoolboy, and later Nguyen Ai Quoc as well as other aliases, passed through here in 1911 on the way to his 30-year sojourn around Europe and America. Inside are some of his personal belongings, including his journals, fragments of his clothing, and his rubber sandals. Uncle Ho, as he's now affectionately known, was an ascetic type of guy, known for wearing sandals made only from tires; these are now scattered in museums around the country.

This pagoda, built by the Chaozhou Chinese congregation in 1872, is worth seeing for its elaborate woodwork. There are intricately carved wooden boats and a large figure of the deified Chinese general Quan Cong's sacred red horse, as well as representations of Quan Cong himself with two guardians. A festival dedicated to Quan Cong takes place here every year on the 13th day of the first lunar month.

Many deities are represented at this pagoda, but the main attraction is Ong Bon himself, the guardian of happiness and virtue. Ong Bong is also responsible for wealth, so people bring fake paper money to burn in the pagoda's furnace in his honor, hoping the year ahead will bring financial rewards to their families. The centerpiece of the pagoda is an elaborately carved wood-and-gold altar and a finely crafted statue of Ong Bon. Look for the intricately painted murals of lions, tigers, and dragons.

Busy scenes in lacquer, ceramic, gold, and wood illustrate traditional Chinese stories at this pagoda, built in 1816 by a congregation of Fujian refugees from China. Many legendary and divine beings, some dressed in elaborately embroidered robes, are portrayed, as are some simple rural scenes representing the birthplaces of the original members of the congregation. This is still one of Cholon's most active pagodas.

Believed to be the world's only Buddhist-themed amusement park, Suoi Tien (the name means Fairy Stream) is certainly one of the quirkiest. On the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, about 20 km (12 miles) from District 1 and behind a giant pair of tusks, it's a vast, sometimes downright odd, complex that contains an amazing diversity of attractions, from waterslides, crocodiles, and dolphins—thankfully, not all in the same place—to graphic depictions of hell, though there are not many signs in English to explain the more bizarre exhibits. There's also an ice palace, 4-D movie theater, fun fair rides for smaller kids, a go-kart circuit, and quad biking. Allocate a whole day to exploring the complex, and arrive early to get the land-based activities done before things heat up too much, then cool down in the water park, with its range of slides and pools to suit all ages. Food and drink kiosks can be found throughout the park.

The small zoo is depressing and best avoided.

Doing the water park and then exploring the theme park is going to be a huge day out, so it's probably better to choose one or the other for a day trip.

The Chinese Fujian congregation built this lavishly decorated pagoda dedicated to Me Sanh, the goddess of fertility, in the 19th century. Women—and some men—pray to the goddess to bring them children. Many other deities are represented here as well: Thien Hau, the goddess of the sea and protector of fisherfolk and sailors; Ong Bon, the guardian of happiness and virtue; and Quan Cong, the deified general, depicted with a long beard and his sacred red horse.

Sailors used to come to be blessed at this pagoda dedicated to Thien Hau, the goddess of the sea and protector of fisherfolk and mariners. On the main dais are three statues of the goddess, each flanked by two guardians. Note also the figure of Long Mau, guardian of mothers and babies. The turtles living on the grounds are considered sacred animals and are a symbol of longevity. The Cantonese congregation built this pagoda at the beginning of the 19th century.