Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City — still affectionately called Saigon by its residents — was a modest Khmer fishing village before Vietnamese settlers arrived in the seventeenth century and French colonists transformed it into the "Paris of the East" in the nineteenth. The Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, ended the Vietnam War and united the country, but the city's irrepressible commercial energy survived every political upheaval. Today, with a population exceeding ten million, it is Vietnam's economic powerhouse, a city where century-old pagodas nestle between glass towers and motorbike rivers flow through art-deco boulevards.

The city's French colonial legacy remains visible in the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica, built of red brick imported from Marseille in 1880, and the Central Post Office, whose vaulted iron interior was designed by Gustave Eiffel's firm. The Reunification Palace, where a North Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates to end the war, stands as a time capsule of 1960s modernist architecture. The War Remnants Museum, unflinching in its portrayal of the conflict's human cost, is among the most visited museums in Vietnam. Yet for many, the city's greatest spectacle is simply its streets — an ocean of motorbikes, street vendors, and neon signs that pulses from dawn to well past midnight.

Vietnamese cuisine reaches its southern apotheosis in Ho Chi Minh City. Phở, the national soup of rice noodles and slow-simmered beef broth, takes a sweeter, more herbaceous form here than in Hanoi, served with heaping plates of bean sprouts, Thai basil, and chillies. Bánh mì — the legendary baguette sandwich stuffed with pâté, cold cuts, pickled daikon, and coriander — is a perfect fusion of French and Vietnamese traditions. Bún thịt nướng (vermicelli with grilled pork), gỏi cuốn (fresh spring rolls), and cơm tấm (broken rice with grilled pork chop) are essential experiences. Bến Thành Market and the surrounding street stalls provide an immersive introduction.

The Củ Chi Tunnels, a 250-kilometre network of underground passages used by Viet Cong guerrillas during the war, lie seventy kilometres northwest and are one of Vietnam's most compelling historical sites. The Mekong Delta, where the great river fans out into a labyrinth of channels, floating markets, and fruit orchards, begins just ninety minutes south. The Cao Đài Temple in Tây Ninh, seat of a syncretic religion blending Buddhism, Christianity, and Taoism, is two hours northwest.

Ho Chi Minh City is a major port of call and embarkation point for Southeast Asian cruises, welcoming AmaWaterways, APT Cruising, Avalon Waterways, Azamara, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, CroisiEurope, Crystal Cruises, Emerald Cruises, Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Scenic River Cruises, Seabourn, Silversea, Tauck, TUI Cruises Mein Schiff, Uniworld River Cruises, and Viking. Ocean ships dock at Phú Mỹ port, about ninety minutes from the city centre, while river vessels navigate the Mekong. December through April, the dry season, offers the most comfortable conditions.