Ho Chi Minh City | aaarticle.com

Ho Chi Minh City, still widely called Saigon, is the largest and most dynamic city in Vietnam. A fast-moving southern metropolis of markets, motorbikes and street food, it mixes French colonial landmarks with the energy of a boom town.

Overview

The economic powerhouse of the south, Ho Chi Minh City is hotter, faster and more modern than Hanoi, a sprawling metropolis where new towers rise over French-era boulevards and endless rivers of motorbikes. Its centre keeps colonial landmarks and busy markets, while the past century of war and change is told in its museums and the tunnels outside town. Warm year round, it is a city for the street — the food, the cafés and the constant motion — and a gateway to the Mekong Delta.

Highlights

The colonial core holds the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office and the old opera house, near the busy Ben Thanh Market. The War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace tell the story of the war, and the Cu Chi tunnels lie a day trip outside the city. Rooftop bars, street food and a boat trip into the Mekong Delta round out a stay.