MEKONG DELTA · VIETNAM
Floating markets, coconut canals, the river south.
Day trips and slow boats out of Saigon into the Mekong Delta. The dawn market at Cai Rang, the coconut workshops of Ben Tre, sampans down the narrow canals, and the orchard towns strung along the water.
Only in the delta
Three mornings you can’t have anywhere else.
River cruises and food tours exist all over Southeast Asia. These three are pure Mekong Delta. The dawn market, the rowed canal, the coconut village. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
At first light
Cai Rang at Dawn
The delta's biggest market trades from boats on the Can Tho river, and it happens before the sun is properly up. Wholesalers hang a sample of what they're selling from a tall pole so you can read the market from across the water, coffee arrives alongside in a rowboat, and the whole thing has thinned out by mid-morning. You go early or you don't go.
- 1 Cai Rang Floating Market & Mekong Delta 2-Day Tour from HCM City
- 2 1-Day Mekong Delta Cai Rang Floating Market-Ancient House-Pancake
- 3 Cai Rang floating market, Cacao & hidden small canal
Off the main river
Into the Coconut Canals
Where the river narrows to a channel too tight for an engine, you swap to a sampan and someone rows. Nipa palms close in overhead, the water goes flat and brown, and the only sound is the paddle. It is the quiet ten minutes everyone remembers long after the boat trips and the markets blur together.
- 1 Largest Floating Market, Wild Small Canal System & Organic cocoa
- 2 Can Tho: Authentic Floating Market, Wild Canal system, Cocoa
- 3 Cai Rang floating market, see sunrise, CaCao orchard, small canal
The coconut kingdom
Ben Tre's Cottage Trail
Ben Tre runs on the coconut. Candy pulled and cut by hand while it is still warm, husks spun into rope, the leaves thatching the roofs. Add a honey farm with a glass of tea, a shot of rice wine, and a rowboat through the water-coconut groves, and that is a full Ben Tre day on the river.
- 1 HCM: Mekong Delta, My Tho & Ben Tre Coconut Village
- 2 CuChi Tunnels&Mekong Delta-Boat,TukTuk,Coconut Village SmallGroup
- 3 From Ho Chi Minh City: Discover Mekong Delta & Coconut Village
The nine dragons
Where the Mekong splits into nine.
By the time the Mekong reaches Vietnam it has stopped being one river. It fans out across the south in a web of channels, islands and rice fields the old maps call the Nine Dragons. Towns sit where the boats can reach them, markets gather where the channels meet, and almost everything still moves by water.
The river cruises →The day trip from Saigon
Start with the day that leaves the city.
If you've got one day, this is the one. The Mekong Delta trip almost everyone does first, out of Saigon and onto the water by mid-morning.
The classics
The Delta's Most Popular Tours
Cai Rang, My Tho, Ben Tre, Cai Be. The river days most travellers come to the Mekong Delta for.
By town
Pick a town on the river.
Each town is its own day. Can Tho for the big dawn market. Ben Tre for the coconut kingdom. My Tho for the quick trip from Saigon. Cai Be for the orchards. Chau Doc for the flooded forest near the border.
By experience
Or pick how you want to ride the river.
A sampan if you want the quiet canals. A bike if you want the village trails. Cooking class, fruit orchard, floating market at dawn, or a cruise that runs for days. The delta does all of it.
Out of Saigon
How far down the delta?
The delta starts an hour from Saigon and runs all the way to the Cambodian border. How much of it you see comes down to how many days you have.
Cu Chi Tunnels & the delta
Two famous sights, one day out of Saigon.
Crawl the war tunnels at Cu Chi in the morning, then trade them for the river in the afternoon. It is the most-booked day trip from the city, and for travellers short on time it is the neatest way to pair the country's most famous tunnels with a first taste of the Mekong, boat ride and all.
- 1 Cu Chi Tunnels and Mekong Delta 1 Day Tour With Small Group
- 2 VIP Tour Cuchi Tunnels & Mekong Delta Cruise Full Day Group 12pax
- 3 HCMC: Cu Chi Tunnels & Mekong Delta VIP Tour by Limousine
Straight off the river
Eat your way through the delta.
Elephant-ear fish stood up whole on the plate, coconut candy still warm, a cooking class in an orchard garden. Our three for travellers who plan the day around lunch.
On two wheels
The village trails by bike.
Flat dirt paths between the rice fields and the fruit gardens, monkey bridges made of a single plank, a little ferry when the path runs out. Three rides we’d send a first-timer on.
When a day isn’t enough
Longer out on the water.
If the day trips leave you wanting more river, these go further. Sunset cruises, a sampan with a local crew, and the multi-day boats that work all the way down toward the border.
Plan it
Three days down the Mekong.
First time in the delta? A route that takes in the close towns, the dawn market and the orchard country without a single backtrack.
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