Mekong Delta Day Trip from Ho Chi Minh City

What you'll see on a Mekong Delta day trip

The Mekong Delta starts two hours south of Ho Chi Minh City and stretches to the Cambodian border. Day trips only reach the nearest fringe. A typical itinerary:

1. Drive to My Tho or Ben Tre — 2 hours on the highway. Comfort stops at a souvenir-and-coffee complex.
2. Boat to a river island — usually Thoi Son, Unicorn, Phoenix, or Turtle Island, 15–30 minutes on a motorised wooden boat.
3. Coconut-candy workshop — watch sticky rice paste being rolled and cut into cubes. Tastings and a sales room at the end.
4. Bee farm and honey tea — a thatched shed with a beekeeper, a honey-lemon tea, and fresh fruit.
5. Horse-cart ride through a village — 10 minutes, touristy but mildly charming.
6. Rowboat through a narrow canal — the money shot. 20 minutes of a local woman rowing a sampan through palm-lined waterways.
7. Lunch — elephant-ear fish, spring rolls, morning glory. Generally decent.
8. Drive back to Saigon — 2 hours, arriving 5.30–6pm.

Ben Tre variants add a bicycle ride between villages, which is the best thing on offer if the weather holds.

How to book

• Group tour — the dominant format. Book through a Pham Ngu Lao backpacker cafe or online for $20–40. Groups are 20–40 people per bus.
• Small-group tour — $40–65, max 10–12 people, usually to Ben Tre. Noticeably better than the mass tours; worth the premium.
• Private car with driver — $80–130. You can skip the coconut-candy stop and spend more time on the canals. Guide extra.
• Self-guided — technically possible by local bus to My Tho, but the boat operators on the pier are expensive and disorganised. Not recommended unless you speak Vietnamese.

Check whether lunch is included — cheaper tours often have you pay 150,000 VND extra on the day.

When to go

• December–April — dry season, the pleasant time to visit. Clear skies, calm river.
• May–October — rainy season. Brief afternoon downpours are normal; the delta is actually at its greenest.
• September–November — flood season. Water levels rise; rice paddies disappear under shallow water and the landscape feels more authentically "delta."
• Tet holiday (late Jan–early Feb) — most villages shut down. Skip.

Typical cost breakdown

• Group tour to My Tho: 500,000–700,000 VND ($20–28)
• Group tour to Ben Tre: 800,000–1,100,000 VND ($32–45)
• Private car and driver full day: 2,000,000–3,000,000 VND
• Lunch on group tours: usually included; upgrade fish to 250,000 VND
• Tip for rowboat operator: 20,000 VND per passenger
• Coconut candy souvenir: 50,000–100,000 VND

Is a Mekong Delta day trip from Saigon worth it?

Honestly, no — not as a day trip. The concept is sound, the delivery is a well-rehearsed tourist production. You'll spend four hours on a bus to hand-roll coconut candy at a workshop designed for tour buses.

Our honest advice:

• If you only have one day and can't do overnight — book the best Ben Tre small-group tour you can find, expect the coconut-candy theatre, and enjoy the rowboat.
• If you have any flexibility — skip the day trip. Take an early morning bus to Can Tho (3.5 hours, 200,000 VND), stay a night at a homestay, and join a 6am Cai Rang floating-market boat tour. You'll see a real working delta instead of a performance.
• Pair with a Cu Chi Tunnels morning if you absolutely must combine — several operators run this as a punishing 14-hour combo tour. We don't recommend it.