2 Best Sights in Side Trips from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The former home of the Con Dao Museum, this house now contains somewhat confusing exhibits (signage in Vietnamese and French) outlining the history of Con Son's prisons. Admission is free and the entryway is presided over by a giant bust of Ho Chi Minh. Take time to stroll around the grounds, which have some exotic animals in pens at the rear.

Built in 1898, the White Palace has variously served as the French governor's residence, a retreat of Bao Dai, the last emperor of Vietnam, and the president of South Vietnam's summer house. The villa is now a slightly worn museum with a ground-floor exhibition of late-17th- and early-18th-century Chinese artifacts recovered from a shipwreck near the Con Dao Islands. On the upper floors there's the now-shopworn living quarters of the last resident. Despite its tired air, the White Palace is worth visiting for the views of the East Sea and the lush tropical grounds.