Saigon in 2 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Two days is enough for Ho Chi Minh City’s essentials on a real budget: the War Remnants Museum, the Reunification Palace and a proper street-food crawl, without the paid viewpoints or a day trip eating your time. Longer versions of this plan, 3 days through 7 days , extend the same route rather than starting over.
Book these before you go:
- A District 1 hostel or hotel, check rates on Booking.com , ahead of Tet or a dry-season weekend
- A street-food tour for evening two if eating solo on the street feels intimidating this early in the trip
| Day | Focus | Est. daily spend |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrival, War Remnants Museum, Ben Thanh Market, street food | 350,000-450,000 VND |
| 2 | Reunification Palace, Notre-Dame exterior, Jade Emperor Pagoda, food crawl | 450,000-850,000 VND |
Day 1: Arrival and District 1 Core
Fly into Tan Son Nhat (SGN) and Grab into District 1 for roughly 110,000-250,000 VND. Check into your hostel or hotel, then walk to the War Remnants Museum, 40,000 VND, open 7:30am-5:30pm, allow two to three hours. In the afternoon, wander Ben Thanh Market for orientation; it is priced for tourists, so treat it as sightseeing rather than shopping. Dinner is a street-food plate, com tam or banh mi, both under 65,000 VND.
Day 2: Reunification Palace and a Street-Food Crawl
Morning: the Reunification Palace, roughly 40,000 VND, or 65,000 VND combined with the exhibition, ticket window 8am-3:30pm, the former presidential palace preserved as it stood in 1975. Walk to Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office next door, both free to view from outside; Notre-Dame’s interior stays closed mid-restoration. Afternoon: the Jade Emperor Pagoda, free, donations welcome. Evening: a self-guided street-food crawl for under 150,000 VND, or the booked tour above if you would rather have a guide on your first night out.
How much should I actually budget for two days here?
Roughly 800,000-1,300,000 VND per person for food, sights and local transport across both days, excluding your hotel. That covers one paid museum, one paid palace, one temple, and enough street food to try pho, banh mi and com tam without rationing. Add a booked street-food tour and the top end climbs by about 700,000-800,000 VND for that one evening.
Do I need to book the War Remnants Museum ticket in advance?
No. Tickets are sold on-site with no separate online booking system, so just arrive before the ticket cutoff, roughly 11am for the morning session and 5pm for the afternoon one, and pay at the door. Full visitor details sit on the museum’s own site ; the Reunification Palace’s visitor page works the same way.
Two days only scratches Cholon, the viewpoints and the Thu Duc side of the river; the 3-day version of this same plan adds all three, and the full guide covers the e-visa and Grab costs this itinerary assumes you already know. Keep dong in small bills for the street stalls; almost nobody on Day 1 or Day 2 can break a 500,000 VND note.