Ho Chi Minh half-day tour

Our Vespa tours of Ho Chi Minh City are guaranteed to give you a view of greater Saigon unlike anything you'll see with a sanitised vanilla package tour, and vastly more of it than you could see on your own. We're long time residents of Saigon, and we know exactly how to show you a side of the city that includes the must-see sights while also getting you off the well-worn tourist trail.

Guests ride on our lovingly restored vintage Vespa scooters, behind drivers who've grown up safely navigating the mad traffic for which Saigon is famous. Our English-speaking guide will answer any and every history question you may have (we dare you to stump him).

The tour begins in the cool early morning (approximately 8am) with a pickup at your hotel. Our first stop is the Ernst Thalmann School on Tran Hung Dao Street, an historic location that marks the beginning of U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia in March 1950. We tell the little-known story of how 500,000 Vietnamese demonstrated through the streets of the city despite French tear gas attacks and massed troops.

We continue through historic District One and pause at the northern end of Nguyen Hue Street. Here we note the buildings and constructions that traverse more than 300 years of Saigon’s history, from the establishment of the Bat Quay Citadel to the declaration of independence in 1945 to the colourful times of the Rex Hotel as a Bachelor Officers’ Quarters during the War.

Our next stop is a quick look at the little known Hindu Temple in District One, moving then to the remarkable Reunification Palace. Here we explain the history of the building, its role and the role of Le Duan, after whom the boulevard in front of the Palace is named and we touch on the Time of Hardship from 1975 to 1985.

Next we visit a twin set of neighboring landmarks: the Post Office, noting the architecture and in particular the map of Saigon that shows where this modern city has come from, followed by a walk across the street to the sublime Cathedral of Notre Dame (“Our Lady”), where we’ll touch on the rituals around weddings in Vietnam and the role religious organisation plays within the State.

A drive down Dong Khoi Street (it means “people’s revolution”) allows us to correct a modern myth. We reveal the place where, in 1975, during the dying days of the former regime, the iconic photograph was taken of a helicopter lifting people out of Saigon. A stop at the historic Opera House (now the Municipal Theatre) lets us talk about the history the square represents from the time it was the main road into the Bat Quay, to the French invasion, to the wartime ‘Five O’clock Follies,’ to the filming of Phil Noyce’s “The Quiet American.”

A visit to a rare Muslim Mosque in Dong Du Street gives us a focus for explaining the Cham people of Vietnam and the famous modernist movement that gives the street its name.

We then take the ferry (an experience in itself) across the river to District Two where we see downtown Saigon from a different perspective and we have a chance to familiarise our guests with the fully-restored Classic Vespas, if they are continuing on one of our multi-day tours.

After a quick cool drink and comfort stop back at Zoom Cafe, we head west into District 5, Saigon’s own  Chinatown, known locally as Cxholon. We’ll check out out the colorful, surrealistic Cai Dai Temple on the way and taking a stroll through the fabric market as well as visiting the Silversmith Guild Hall before passing by the Francis Xavier Church where the Ngo brothers hid out during the coup against them.

Our last stop is the Chinese Community Spirit House to the goddess Thien Hau, protector of travellers on the sea. This is, without doubt, one of the most striking of its type in Saigon. Here we explain the meaning of these societies to Confucianists. To fulfil the spirit of one of the exhortations in the Spirit House, “Universal Salvation To All Creatures,” our guests release finches.
We end the tour at noon with complimentary lunch at Cafe Zoom in Pham Ngu Lao Ward, District 1.