Saigon in 6 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)

Six days is enough to properly cover both sides of the river without adding a day trip. This extends the 5-day plan with a sixth day across in Thu Duc, and flags where the Cu Chi Tunnels would slot in if you have a seventh day free.

Book these before you go:

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
6 The Thu Duc riverside district, cheaper food away from District 1 250,000-400,000 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. 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. 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. 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 and no-frills eateries, where a full meal runs closer to 40,000-70,000 VND than District 1 prices.

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. Spend the afternoon on a slow riverside walk, free, and shop at a local market rather than Ben Thanh.

Day 6: The Thu Duc Side of the River

Cross back toward Thu Duc for a longer look than Day 3 allowed: newer streets, a different pace, and food that runs cheaper than District 1 equivalents since fewer tourists pass through. If a full extra day is available beyond this itinerary, the Cu Chi Tunnels, 1.5-2 hours out, roughly 110,000-125,000 VND entry, make the natural add-on, covered fully in our separate Ho Chi Minh City day-trip guide rather than folded into a city-only plan.

Should I add the Cu Chi Tunnels as a seventh day or replace Day 6 with it?

Add it as a seventh day rather than replacing Thu Duc. The tunnels are a genuinely different experience, war-history tunnels outside the city, while Day 6 is about seeing the newer riverside half of Ho Chi Minh City itself. Our 7-day itinerary keeps both intact rather than trading one for the other.

Is six days too long for a first visit to this city?

Not if you are pacing spend, not just sights. Day 4’s deliberately cheap day and Day 5’s slower museum pace exist so six days does not feel like six straight days of ticket lines. A first-timer short on time is better served by the 3-day version; six days suits a slower, cheaper trip more than a highlights-only one.

The full guide has the e-visa and airport transfer detail this itinerary assumes you already sorted.