Saigon City Tour & Cu Chi Tunnels

Saigon (officially known as Ho Chi Minh City) is the capital of the south and is a large lively city with a vast selection of restaurants, coffee shops, bars and markets to explore.

It’s also home to some of Vietnam’s most important 20th century historical sights.

This full day tour will bring you through the bustling streets to some of the buildings that have been at the heart of the action for Vietnamese history in the last 100 years or so, and then take you outside of town to the infamous tunnels of Cu Chi where the Viet Cong fought guerrilla warfare in the 1960s and 70s.

You will visit the Former Presidential Palace, a key base of operations for American advisors and the South Vietnamese regime throughout the 20th century conflict. The slightly surreal 1960s Soviet block-style architecture is fused with more traditional Chinese and Vietnamese style furnishings, along with strategic maps of Vietnam and Cambodia. The basement of the building is reminiscent of the UK’s Cabinet War Rooms and consist of a series of corridors, communications rooms and operation centres all built like a bomb shelter.

Pay a visit to the History Museum, a building designed in traditional Vietnamese style where exhibits document the origins of Vietnam’s history since pre-historic times. The museum contains a large number of historical and religious artefacts collected by the French from across Indochina. The museum documents Vietnam’s diverse history and culture and its relations with neighbours such as China and Cambodia prior to colonisation.

While in Saigon off at the Catholic Notre Dame Cathedral built by the French in 1887 and the nearby post office, a pink building with impressive architecture inside and with good photo opportunities.

In the afternoon drive to Cu Chi where the remains of the vast network of Viet Cong underground tunnels can still be seen today. The drive is around 1 hour and takes you through rubber plantations and into the countryside. The tunnels stretch over 125 miles and took nearly 21 years to complete.

For those who are claustrophobic it is not necessary to actually enter the tunnels, but in the forested area that you walk through local guides will demonstrate a number of terrifying booby traps and ingenious tactics used by the Viet Cong throughout the war.

What you’ll do

• Discover Ho Chi Minh City’s most important 20th-century sites on a guided full-day tour through its busy streets.
• Visit the Former Presidential Palace, including meeting rooms and the bunker-style basement used during the American conflict.
• Explore the History Museum and see French-era landmarks such as Notre Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office.
• Travel into the countryside to the Cu Chi Tunnels, learning about guerrilla warfare tactics and underground life during the war.