The first time I ate seafood in Ho Chi Minh City I did it wrong. I booked a table at a glossy place in District 1 with white tablecloths, ordered a steamed fish for roughly what I would pay in Singapore, and left thinking Saigon seafood was fine. Then a friend who grew up in District 4 took me to a plastic-stool joint on Vinh Khanh street where the clams arrived in a tin tray, the beer came with a bucket of ice, and the bill for four of us was less than my single fish the night before. That evening rewired how I think about eating here. This guide is the version I wish someone had handed me: where the seafood actually is, what to order, what things cost in October 2026, how to read a menu with no prices on it, and how to fold a seafood night into a few days in the city without wasting your evenings.
How Saigon eats seafood, and why it is not what you expect
Ho Chi Minh City is not a beach town. The nearest proper coast is Vung Tau, two to two and a half hours by road, and Can Gio, the mangrove district to the south-east, is where the city's own fishing boats come in. So seafood here is not about staring at the sea while you eat. It is about the overnight truck from the coast, the wholesale market that empties before dawn, and a street-food culture that treats shellfish the way other cities treat bar snacks.
The word to learn is ốc. Literally it means snail, but in Saigon it is shorthand for the whole category of shellfish eaten on the street: clams, cockles, razor clams, whelks, sea snails, scallops, blood cockles, mussels, and crab. An ốc quán is a shellfish stall or restaurant, usually open-fronted, usually loud, with a glass counter of live shellfish on ice out front and a grill going on the pavement. You point, they weigh, they cook it one of six or seven ways, and twenty minutes later you have a table covered in shells and sauce. It is sociable, cheap, and unlike anything I have found in Singapore, where the hawker-centre version is calmer and the prices are three times higher.
The other end of the scale exists too. There are big seafood restaurants where you pick a live grouper or mantis shrimp from a tank and pay by weight, riverside places in District 2 and District 7 with cooler air and higher bills, and dinner cruises on the Saigon River that put seafood on a buffet while the skyline slides past. I will cover all three tiers, because the right choice depends on who you are travelling with and how much heat and noise you can take. If you only have one seafood night, make it an ốc night. If you have three, do one of each.
One honest note before we go further: restaurant names in Saigon change, stalls move, and a place that was packed in March can be shuttered by October. I name a few long-running spots below because they have been around for years, but treat every name as a starting point rather than a promise, and check on the day. The streets and neighbourhoods, on the other hand, do not move. Learn those and you will always find dinner.
Vinh Khanh street in District 4: the seafood street
If you remember one address from this article, make it Vinh Khanh. It is a long, straight street in District 4, just across the Khanh Hoi bridge from District 1, and from about five in the afternoon until well past midnight it is one continuous run of ốc quán on both sides. Tables spill onto the pavement, motorbikes park three deep, and every stall has a young man out front whose entire job is to wave you in. Ten minutes on a Grab bike from the Ben Thanh area gets you there; walking from the Bitexco tower takes about twenty-five minutes if you are comfortable crossing a bridge with traffic.
Here is what surprised me about Vinh Khanh. The stalls look identical and they are not. The ones at the District 1 end, nearest the bridge, are the most tourist-aware, with laminated English menus and slightly rounder prices. Walk two hundred metres further and the menus go Vietnamese-only, the crowd goes local, and the plates get a little more generous. Quán Ốc Oanh is the name most people know on this street and it has earned its reputation; it is large, fast, and the grilled scallops with scallion oil and peanuts are the thing to order first. But I have had equally good nights at stalls I could not name afterwards, chosen simply because they were full of Vietnamese families at seven on a Tuesday. That is still the best indicator there is.
Ordering works like this. The shellfish sits on ice in the glass counter. You either point, or you read the menu, where each item is listed with its cooking styles: nướng mỡ hành (grilled with scallion oil), hấp sả (steamed with lemongrass), xào me (stir-fried in tamarind), xào bơ tỏi (butter and garlic), rang muối (salt-roasted), nướng phô mai (grilled with cheese, a Saigon invention that works far better than it should). Prices are per plate, not per kilo, and a plate at a street stall is sized for sharing between two or three. For four people I would order six to eight plates, a bowl of bánh mì to mop up the sauce, and a bucket of Saigon beer, and expect to pay somewhere between 400,000 and 700,000 VND for the table, which is roughly S$20 to S$36 at the time of writing. Crab and lobster push that up quickly; everything else is cheap.
Three practical things. Go before seven if you want a table without waiting, or after nine-thirty if you want the stalls at their most lived-in. Bring tissues, because the paper napkins are tiny and you will be eating with your hands. And if you are drinking, keep an eye on the ice: the bucket is refilled constantly and the bill counts cans, so stack your empties where you can see them. Nobody is cheating you, but it is very easy to lose track.
Where else the locals go: Phan Xich Long, Thanh Da and District 8
Vinh Khanh is the most famous seafood street but it is not the only one, and on a Saturday it can be a crush. For a calmer version of the same thing, the ốc stalls around Phan Xich Long in Phu Nhuan district are popular with younger Saigon residents, slightly more polished, and a fifteen-minute ride north of District 1. The street itself is better known for cafés and restaurants of every kind, so it is a good choice if your group includes someone who does not eat shellfish; there will be a noodle place or a grilled-meat place within a hundred metres.
Thanh Da, a peninsula in Binh Thanh district wrapped by a bend in the Saigon River, is where families from the city go for weekend lunches on the water. The restaurants are big, open-sided, built on stilts or along the bank, and the menu leans towards river fish: snakehead grilled whole over charcoal, elephant-ear fish served standing up on a rack so you can pull the flesh off with chopsticks and wrap it in rice paper with herbs. It is not ocean seafood in the strict sense, but it is the kind of meal that tells you where you are. Expect to pay a bit more than Vinh Khanh and to spend two to three hours at the table, because nobody here is in a hurry.
And then there is Binh Dien, the wholesale market in District 8 where most of the city's seafood arrives in the small hours. It is not a restaurant and it is not really set up for visitors; it is a vast, wet, brilliantly lit shed of crates and ice and shouting that runs from around midnight to dawn. I went once at three in the morning with a cook who was buying for her stall, and I would not send a first-time visitor there alone. But if you are the kind of traveller who wants to see where the clams on Vinh Khanh come from, a taxi there and back at four in the morning is an experience you will talk about for years. Wear closed shoes. The floor is a river.
The dishes worth ordering, and the ones I would skip
The menus at a Saigon ốc quán can run to eighty items and most of them are the same ten shellfish prepared different ways. Rather than list everything, here is what I order again and again, and why.
Sò điệp nướng mỡ hành, scallops grilled on the half shell with scallion oil and crushed peanuts, is the dish to judge a stall by. It is simple, it is quick, and if the scallop is tired you will taste it immediately. Ốc hương, the small spiral sea snails sometimes sold as sweet snails, are best steamed with lemongrass and eaten by hooking the meat out with a pin, which every stall provides. Sò huyết, blood cockles, are served barely cooked and are a love-or-hate thing; order a small plate first. Nghêu hấp sả, clams steamed with lemongrass and chilli, gives you a broth at the bottom of the bowl that you should drink with a spoon. Ốc móng tay xào me, razor clams in a sticky tamarind sauce, is the dish that got me into all this in the first place.
On crab, be careful about what you are buying. Cua is mud crab, sold whole by weight, and at a street stall it is the single most expensive thing on the table. Ghẹ is the smaller blue swimmer crab, cheaper and sweeter, and usually the better value. Either way, ask the price per hundred grams before it goes on the scale, and watch the scale. This is not a scam warning so much as an ordinary caution: a kilo of mud crab at a tourist-facing stall can cost as much as the rest of your dinner combined, and the staff will not stop you from ordering it.
Things I skip: anything described as "cheese" on a non-shellfish item (it is processed slices, fine on a scallop, grim on a fish), the deep-fried frog that appears on most menus (not seafood, not great), and lobster at street level, which is almost always frozen and priced as if it were not. If you want lobster, go to a tank restaurant and choose a live one.
| Dish (Vietnamese) | What it is | Typical street price, Oct 2026 | Order it if |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sò điệp nướng mỡ hành | Grilled scallops, scallion oil, peanuts | 60,000–120,000 VND per plate | It is your first plate; use it to judge the stall |
| Nghêu hấp sả | Clams steamed with lemongrass | 50,000–90,000 VND | You want broth to drink and something mild |
| Ốc móng tay xào me | Razor clams in tamarind | 70,000–130,000 VND | You like sweet-sour and sticky fingers |
| Ốc hương hấp | Steamed sea snails, eaten with a pin | 90,000–180,000 VND | You are not in a hurry; they take work |
| Ghẹ rang muối | Salt-roasted blue swimmer crab | Sold by weight; ask first | You want crab without the mud-crab bill |
| Cua (mud crab) | Whole mud crab, tamarind or pepper | Sold by weight; often the priciest plate | It is a celebration and you have checked the scale |
Prices in the table are what I was quoted on Vinh Khanh and in Phu Nhuan in early October 2026 and they will drift. The exchange rate also moves; I have been using roughly 19,500 VND to one Singapore dollar for the conversions in this article, so adjust if the rate has changed by the time you read this.
Tank restaurants and sit-down seafood: when you want air-con and a chair with a back
There are nights when the pavement is not the answer. Rain in the wet season (which, in October, is still very much on), an older relative, a birthday, or simply the wish to sit in a cool room and have someone else deal with the shells. For those nights Saigon has a tier of large seafood restaurants where you choose your fish from a tank and pay by the hundred grams. They cluster along the big roads of District 1 and District 3, on the riverfront in Thao Dien (District 2, now part of Thu Duc City) and in District 7's Phu My Hung, the planned district south of the centre with wide streets and a large Korean and Taiwanese community that keeps the seafood standards high.
The experience is more like a Chinese seafood restaurant in Singapore than a Vietnamese street stall. You walk the tanks with a waiter, point at a grouper, a mantis shrimp, a tray of tiger prawns; they weigh it in front of you and quote a price; you choose the preparation (steamed with ginger and soy, fried with garlic, in a hotpot). A whole fish for four with vegetables, rice and a few starters lands somewhere between 1,200,000 and 2,500,000 VND in these places, so S$60 to S$130, and more if you go for lobster or king crab. That is still a fraction of a comparable meal at home, but it is a different proposition from a 500,000 VND street dinner, and it is worth knowing which one you are walking into.
My rule for tank restaurants is to ask the weight before the fish leaves the net, confirm the per-hundred-gram price out loud, and have one person at the table write it down. It takes ten seconds and it removes every possible misunderstanding at bill time. In my experience the restaurants are honest, but a grouper that looked modest in the tank can weigh 1.4 kilos, and 1.4 kilos at 180,000 VND per hundred grams is a number you want to have agreed to in advance.
Seafood on the Saigon River: dinner cruises compared
Dinner cruises are where a lot of visitors end up having their seafood night, and I was sceptical for a long time. Then I went on one with my parents, who were never going to sit on a plastic stool in District 4, and they loved it: the skyline, the breeze, the music, the fact that the prawns on the buffet were cooked properly. If you have a mixed group, a cruise solves a lot of problems at once.
The boats leave from the Saigon river pier at the bottom of Nguyen Hue, in front of the Bach Dang area, which is a five-minute walk from most District 1 hotels. The route is similar on every boat: downriver past the old port, under the Thu Thiem bridge, with Landmark 81 lit up in the distance, and back, in about two hours. What differs is the food, the size of the boat, and whether there is a show. HolidaySG lists several and I have been on three; here is how they compare.
The Saigon Princess dining cruise (from S$46.32 at the time of writing) is a colonial-style riverboat with an open-air upper deck and an indoor dining room, running a multi-course menu with Vietnamese and international dishes and traditional performances. There is a golden-hour departure that catches the sunset and a later starlit one; if you want photographs, take the earlier boat, and if you want the skyline at full glow, take the later one. It sails from five in the evening and the whole thing takes two to two and a half hours. Vegetarian and children's menus are listed as available at no extra cost, but confirm when you book.
The Ben Thanh Princess dinner cruise (from S$47.94) is the sister boat and the one I took my parents on. The menu is a set multi-course dinner with an optional wine pairing, there is live Vietnamese music, and it runs about two hours. Weeknights are noticeably quieter than weekends on this boat, which for an older group is a plus. The Elite of Saigon dinner cruise (from S$55.99) is a larger four-star vessel with buffet and set-menu options spanning seafood, Vietnamese, Western, vegetarian and Indian dishes, which makes it the one to pick if you are travelling with people who have different diets or who want a buffet rather than a set menu. It passes Landmark 81, the Ba Son bridge and the Thu Thiem bridge, and it adds special holiday sailings around Tet and Christmas.
If you want a show as well, the Saigon evening tour with water puppet show and dinner cruise (from S$75.79) bundles a water-puppet performance with a dinner on a wooden boat and includes van transfers and an English-speaking guide, running from six in the evening for four to five hours in total. It is a long evening and a lot of being moved around, so I would only choose it for a first night in the city when you want everything handled for you.
| Cruise | Food style | Length | Best for | From (time of writing) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saigon Princess | Multi-course, local and international, performances | 2–2.5 h | Couples; sunset photos on the golden-hour sailing | S$46.32 |
| Ben Thanh Princess | Set menu, optional wine pairing, live music | About 2 h | Parents and quieter groups, especially on weeknights | S$47.94 |
| Elite of Saigon | Buffet or set menu; seafood, Western, vegetarian, Indian | 2–2.5 h | Mixed diets; people who prefer a buffet | S$55.99 |
| Evening tour with water puppets | Dinner on a wooden boat plus a puppet show and transfers | 4–5 h | A first night when you want everything arranged | S$75.79 |
Two things to know about cruises. The seafood on board is good but it is buffet or set-menu seafood, cooked for a hundred people at once; it will not match a scallop pulled off a charcoal grill in front of you. And prices on HolidaySG are "from" prices at the time of writing, which usually means the basic menu on the quieter sailing; the sunset departure, the wine pairing and the window tables cost more. E-tickets are emailed after our team confirms your booking, so give yourself a day's margin rather than booking on the afternoon you want to sail.
Day trips for seafood by the sea: Vung Tau and Can Gio
If the idea of eating seafood where it was landed matters to you, two places within reach of the city do it properly. Neither is a quick hop, so I would only build them into a trip of four days or more.
Vung Tau is the city's beach escape: a peninsula about two to two and a half hours south-east by road, depending on traffic, with a long beach called Thuy Van (Back Beach), a Christ statue on a hill you can climb inside, and a seafront lined with seafood restaurants where the catch is genuinely local. The town's own speciality is bánh khọt, small crisp rice-flour cakes with a prawn pressed into each one, eaten wrapped in lettuce and herbs with fish sauce; it is cheap, fast, and the best thing I have eaten in Vung Tau. For a sit-down seafood lunch, the restaurants along the Back Beach road are the obvious choice and prices are a step below Saigon's tank restaurants for the same fish.
The simplest way to do it is a day tour. The Vung Tau full-day trip from Ho Chi Minh City (from S$45.48) runs roughly seven-thirty in the morning to six in the evening, covers the Christ statue, Thuy Van beach and the Whale Temple with entry fees included, and includes a Vietnamese lunch. Modest dress is required for the temple and the statue interior, so bring something to cover shoulders and knees, and the beach is generally safe for swimming but has no lifeguards in some stretches, so stay where other people are. Because lunch is part of the tour, you will not get to choose your own seafood restaurant; if that matters, do the trip independently by bus or hydrofoil (check whether the ferry is running on the day, because services have come and gone over the years) and spend the afternoon on the seafront.
Can Gio is the opposite kind of day: a mangrove biosphere reserve south-east of the city where the Saigon River meets the sea, reached by road and a short ferry. The fishing community here supplies a lot of the shellfish you will eat in District 4, and the small market at the coast, Hang Duong, is where day-trippers from the city go to buy clams and crab by the kilo and have them cooked on the spot. The Can Gio nature tour (from S$37.40) is built around Monkey Island, the crocodile reserve and the wartime base in the mangroves rather than the market, and includes lunch and all entry fees, running about eight to nine hours door to door. If the seafood market is your priority, hire a car for the day instead; the private car charter in Ho Chi Minh (from S$47.26) is the flexible option and lets you stop where you like.
Learning to cook it: market tours and cooking classes
The single thing that most improved my seafood eating in Saigon was not a restaurant. It was a morning at Ben Thanh market with a cook who walked me through the shellfish counters, explained which clams were from Can Gio and which were from the central coast, showed me how to tell a live cockle from a dead one (tap the shell; a live one closes), and then taught me to make a tamarind sauce. After that the menus made sense, I stopped over-ordering, and I started noticing which stalls were buying good stock.
HolidaySG lists a cyclo ride, market visit and cooking class (from S$39.82) that does roughly this: a thirty-minute cyclo ride through District 1, a guided walk through Ben Thanh market, and a hands-on class where you cook three or four dishes and eat them. It runs in the morning from eight to around noon, when the market is at its freshest, and takes three to four hours. The dishes vary with the day and the class, so if you specifically want a shellfish dish, ask when you book. It is a good fit for families and it is the one activity in this article I would recommend doing on your first full day, because everything you eat afterwards benefits from it.
If you would rather be driven to dinner than cook it, the cyclo ride with lunch or dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant (from S$19.65) pairs an hour-long cyclo loop past the Independence Palace and the Central Post Office with a set Vietnamese meal and an egg coffee. It is not seafood-specific, but it is a gentle introduction to the city for people who find the traffic intimidating, and it leaves you in District 1 at the right hour to continue to Vinh Khanh on foot.
Seafood with a side of Chinatown: Cholon
Cholon, the old Chinese quarter in Districts 5 and 6, deserves a mention because it eats seafood differently. The Cantonese and Teochew restaurants here steam fish with ginger and spring onion, serve prawns in the shell with salt and pepper, and make a congee with fish that is the best thing to eat if you have overdone it on Vinh Khanh the night before. Prices sit between the street stalls and the tank restaurants, the dining rooms are cooler, and the neighbourhood is interesting in its own right: temples, a wholesale market, bakeries that have been making the same wedding cakes for three generations.
The Saigon to Cholon exploration tour by buggy (from S$19.68) is a two-hour afternoon loop in an electric buggy, from half past two, that covers the temples and the bakery with cold towels and water included. It is pitched at the afternoon light rather than the food, but it finishes at the right time and in the right place for an early Chinese-style seafood dinner, and the guide will point you at one if you ask. If you prefer to go on foot, Cholon is a thirty-minute ride from District 1 and the restaurants cluster around the Binh Tay market and along the big roads of District 5.
Planning your seafood nights around the rest of the city
Seafood is a dinner thing in Saigon. The stalls open late afternoon, the cruises sail in the evening, and the tank restaurants are at their best at eight. That leaves your days free, and the easiest way to fill them without planning is the hop-on hop-off double-decker bus (from S$8.00), whose four-hour day pass links Ben Thanh market, the War Remnants Museum and the cathedral with audio commentary. A day on the bus, a shower, and a Grab to Vinh Khanh is a perfectly good first day.
For a view before dinner, the Saigon Skydeck (from S$12.00) on the 49th floor of the Bitexco tower opens until half past nine in the evening, and late afternoon gives you daylight and sunset in one ticket; from there, District 4 is a walk across the bridge. The Landmark 81 Skyview (from S$21.00) is higher and further out, in Binh Thanh, open until ten, and makes more sense paired with a Thanh Da lunch or a cruise, since the boats pass directly beneath it.
If you are flying in and want to eat seafood the same evening, book the private airport transfer from Tan Son Nhat (from S$12.00) rather than queueing for a taxi; the drive into District 1 is typically thirty to forty-five minutes depending on traffic, and the fixed price removes the one argument that can sour an arrival. A Vietnam 5G SIM collected at the airport arrivals hall (from S$10.00) is worth it purely for Grab, which you will use every night of this itinerary.
Here is how I would lay out three nights for someone who wants the full range.
| Day | Daytime | Seafood evening | Rough food budget per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Market visit and cooking class in the morning; hop-on hop-off bus in the afternoon | Vinh Khanh street, District 4, arriving before 7 pm | 150,000–250,000 VND for dinner (S$8–13) |
| 2 | Cholon by buggy in the afternoon, or Landmark 81 late afternoon | Dinner cruise from the Nguyen Hue pier | Cruise price plus drinks; budget S$55–90 |
| 3 | Vung Tau day trip (lunch included) or Can Gio | Tank restaurant in District 1 or Phu My Hung, whole fish by weight | 300,000–600,000 VND (S$15–31) sharing a fish |
The budget column is a planning figure, not a quote, and it excludes alcohol beyond a couple of beers. Saigon beer at a street stall is around 20,000 to 30,000 VND a can at the time of writing; on a cruise or in a tank restaurant it will be two to three times that.
Eating safely and ordering with confidence
People ask me whether street shellfish in Saigon is safe. My honest answer is that I have eaten it dozens of times without a problem, and that the stalls that are busy with locals turn their stock over so fast that freshness takes care of itself. The precautions I do take are ordinary ones. I choose stalls that are full. I avoid raw or barely-cooked shellfish (blood cockles are the one exception, and I order a small plate) on the first night, when my stomach is still adjusting. I eat what comes off the grill or out of the steamer hot. I do not eat shellfish that has been sitting on a buffet in the sun. And I carry a packet of rehydration salts, which in three years I have never opened.
The ice question comes up a lot. Ice in Saigon restaurants and stalls is made commercially from treated water and delivered in bags; the cloudy, hollow cylinders are the industrial kind and are fine. I drink it. If that worries you, order canned drinks without ice, which no stall will object to.
On ordering, the most useful trick I know is to take a photograph of the menu at the counter before you sit down, so you have the prices in your phone. A few stalls at the tourist end of Vinh Khanh have a habit of handing a priced menu to Vietnamese customers and an unpriced one to foreigners; it is not universal and it is not malicious so much as lazy, but the photograph ends the discussion. If a menu has no prices at all, ask for a priced one, and if there is not one, walk fifty metres to the next stall. There is always a next stall.
Tipping is not expected at street stalls and is modest elsewhere; rounding up the bill or leaving the small notes is plenty. Service charges of five to ten percent appear on the bill at some tank restaurants and on the cruises, so read the bottom line before adding anything.
Getting to Vietnam and getting around
Singapore passport holders do not need a visa for Vietnam for short stays, with a passport valid for six months and two blank pages, and the exemption is per entry so a trip that combines Saigon with a hop to Phnom Penh and back is fine. Most other nationalities, including Indian, Malaysian and Chinese passport holders, use the Vietnam e-visa, which costs USD 25 at the time of writing, covers stays of up to 90 days, and is usually processed in about three working days; apply five to seven days before travel and keep a printed copy for the airline. These details were verified in August 2026 but rules change, so check our Vietnam visa requirements page before you book flights, and if you would rather someone else handled the application, HolidaySG offers visa assistance through the same page.
Inside the city, Grab is the answer to almost everything in this article. A Grab bike from District 1 to Vinh Khanh is a few minutes and a few tens of thousands of dong; a Grab car is better for groups and for rain. The hop-on hop-off bus covers the daytime sights. For day trips, the tours above include transport, and for anything off-list, a private car for the day is cheaper than you would guess and removes the negotiation. There is a metro line now, running from Ben Thanh out to the north-east, which is useful for Landmark 81 and the Thao Dien riverfront, but it does not reach District 4 or Cholon, so plan on bikes and cars for dinner.
Weather matters more than you would think for a food trip. October is the tail of the rainy season; expect a heavy shower most afternoons, usually over by six, and plan Vinh Khanh for after it passes. From November through April the evenings are dry and a few degrees cooler, and sitting outside at a shellfish stall becomes an unqualified pleasure rather than a slightly sweaty one. If you can choose your dates, choose then.
Frequently asked questions
Which single street should I go to for seafood in Ho Chi Minh City?
Vinh Khanh street in District 4, ten minutes by Grab from Ben Thanh market. It is lined with shellfish stalls from late afternoon until after midnight, and the stalls a few hundred metres past the District 1 end are the most local. Go before 7 pm for a table without a wait.
How much does a seafood dinner cost in Saigon in 2026?
At a street shellfish stall, 100,000 to 200,000 VND per person for a full spread with a couple of beers, roughly S$5 to S$10 at the time of writing. A tank restaurant with a whole fish shared between four runs 300,000 to 600,000 VND a head. Dinner cruises on HolidaySG start from S$46.32 for the Saigon Princess and go up with menu, sailing time and wine. Crab and lobster are the items that move the bill most; ask the price by weight before ordering.
Is it safe to eat street shellfish?
Busy stalls turn their stock over quickly and cook to order, and I have eaten at them many times without trouble. Choose places full of locals, eat shellfish hot from the grill or steamer, go easy on barely-cooked items like blood cockles on your first night, and skip anything that has been sitting out. Commercial ice is fine; order canned drinks without ice if you prefer.
What is the difference between the dinner cruises?
The Saigon Princess and Ben Thanh Princess are mid-sized boats with set multi-course menus and live performances, about two hours each; the Elite of Saigon is a larger four-star boat with buffet options covering seafood, Western, vegetarian and Indian food. All leave from the pier at the end of Nguyen Hue and follow a similar route past Landmark 81. The listed prices are "from" prices for the basic sailing; sunset departures and wine pairings cost more. E-tickets are emailed after our team confirms your booking.
Can I eat seafood by the sea on a day trip from Ho Chi Minh City?
Yes. Vung Tau is two to two and a half hours by road and has a seafront of seafood restaurants plus its own speciality, bánh khọt prawn cakes. Can Gio, the mangrove district, has a small coastal market where you buy clams and crab by the kilo and have them cooked. Organised tours to both include lunch, so if choosing your own restaurant matters, go independently or hire a car for the day.
Do I need a visa for Vietnam?
Singapore passport holders are visa-exempt for short stays with a passport valid six months and two blank pages. Most other nationalities use the e-visa, USD 25 at the time of writing, up to 90 days, about three working days to process. Check the Vietnam visa requirements page for your passport before booking, since rules change.
What should I order if I only have one night?
Grilled scallops with scallion oil, clams steamed with lemongrass, razor clams in tamarind, and a plate of salt-roasted blue swimmer crab, with bánh mì to mop up and a bucket of iced Saigon beer. That covers grilled, steamed, stir-fried and roasted in one sitting and will cost a table of four around 500,000 VND at a street stall.
When is the best time of year for a seafood trip to Saigon?
November to April, when evenings are dry and a little cooler and sitting outside is comfortable. October still has afternoon showers that usually clear by early evening. Shellfish is available year-round, since most of it comes from Can Gio and the central coast by truck rather than depending on the city's own weather.
Featured experiences in this guide
Planning a Saigon food trip? Book the market visit and cooking class for your first morning and a Saigon Princess dinner cruise for the night you want to sit down, then leave the other evenings free for Vinh Khanh. Prices shown are "from" prices at the time of writing; e-tickets are emailed after our team confirms your booking, and our team is available 9 AM to 11 PM Singapore time if you have questions. Browse more on our Vietnam page.