Saigon in 5 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
Five days lets you add real museum time without derailing the budget. This extends the 4-day plan with a fifth day of District 3 and a modest-entry museum, the same route, one more layer.
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, roughly US$29-33 for 8-10 tastings
- A Landmark 81 SkyView or Bitexco Skydeck ticket if you are doing one of the two on Day 3
| 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 |
| 3 | Cholon, Metro Line 1, one viewpoint decision | 250,000-750,000 VND |
| 4 | Tao Dan Park, District 3 back streets, no paid tours | 150,000-250,000 VND |
| 5 | A modest museum, riverside walk, local market shopping | 200,000-350,000 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. Afternoon: wander Ben Thanh Market for orientation, 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. Walk to Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office next door, free to view from outside; Notre-Dame’s interior stays closed mid-restoration. Afternoon: the Jade Emperor Pagoda, free. Evening: a self-guided street-food crawl for under 150,000 VND, or the booked tour above.
Day 3: Cholon and One Viewpoint Decision
Head to District 5 for Cholon, Vietnam’s largest Chinatown: Binh Tay Market and Thien Hau Temple, both free, priced for locals. Ride Metro Line 1 back toward the Thu Duc/Landmark 81 side of the river, 6,000-20,000 VND. Decide on one paid viewpoint here, not both: Bitexco Skydeck at roughly 240,000 VND or Landmark 81 SkyView at 300,000-500,000 VND, or skip both for a rooftop bar drink instead.
Day 4: The Deliberately Cheap Day
The lowest-spend day of the trip on purpose. Morning in Tao Dan Park, free. Spend the rest of the day in District 3’s back streets, local cafes and no-frills eateries away from the main tourist strip, where a full meal runs closer to 40,000-70,000 VND than District 1 prices. Skip paid tours entirely today.
Day 5: District 3 and the Museums
A modest-entry museum, the Fine Arts Museum or the City Museum, both charge a few tens of thousands of dong and neither takes more than 90 minutes. Spend the afternoon on a slow riverside walk, free, and shop at a local market rather than Ben Thanh, prices run lower a few streets from the tourist strip.
Is a museum day worth it after already visiting the War Remnants Museum on Day 1?
Yes, they cover different ground entirely. The War Remnants Museum is a war history museum; the Fine Arts Museum and City Museum cover art and the city’s broader development, both charging a fraction of the War Remnants ticket and drawing far smaller crowds. Neither replaces the other.
Does five days need a rental motorbike to get around?
No. Grab and walking cover every stop on this itinerary, and a rented motorbike adds accident and theft risk that a five-day visitor rarely has time to manage safely. Save the motorbike experiment, if you want one at all, for a shorter guided ride rather than solo traffic navigation.
Six days and beyond add the Thu Duc riverside side of the city; see the 6-day version of this plan, or the ranked sights list if you want to reorder these five days yourself.