Cuisine of Southern Vietnam - 5 Days

Greetings from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

You will be met by our guide at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) and transferred to a hotel in the downtown area. After checking in, you will be free to walk around the city center on your own to get a feel for the vibrancy of this young city.
At 6:00 p.m. Your motorbike drivers will pick you up from your hotel and take you to Café Zoom to “watch the world go by” (as quoted by The Lonely Planet) and enjoy a cocktail and appetizer (all included) before heading to a favorite local eatery. From the back of a vintage Vespa, guests can experience Saigon’s nightlife as locals do. The tour will begin with a ride through part of Chinatown before continuing on to District 4 via busy streets and alleys to see locals’ nightlife and enjoy street seafood and cold drinks in places where foreigners will not be found. As the tour moves from district 4 to district 3, it passes through downtown district 1 to take in the sights on its way to Banh Xeo, a Saigon specialty and southern cuisine with the locals. The tour will then continue to a hidden Vietnamese-style coffee shop where you can sample (live) Vietnamese music as a local. After that, the tour will take guests to a live music venue where they can enjoy drinks while listening to live music. At 10:00 p.m., return to your hotel.

Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City

At 9:00 a.m., you will be picked up from your hotel in Ho Chi Minh City and driven for one hour along Highway 22 to the Cu Chi tunnels. When we arrive, we switch to a sidecar and drive around the area where real tunnels remain underground. For about an hour and a half, explore the Cu Chi tunnel system, learning about secret entrances, bamboo traps, bobby traps, air holes, back walk sandals, and crawling through real tunnels.
Following that, you will have the opportunity to self-cook under the supervision of our chef to learn about Southern Vietnamese cuisine and have lunch with what you prepared yourself on a rubber plantation.
After the excursion, you will be returned to your hotel.
Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City

07.30 AM: After breakfast, your guide will drive you to Cai Be pier (86km) from HCMC via Trung Luong Freeway by car or van.

The tour will begin with a stop at the Cai Be floating market. Then we’ll head to Tân Phong Island for some biking and walking along village paths to see local daily life, including an orchard, school, church, pagoda, traditional houses, and possibly the Mekong Delta’s ancestral fruit picking methods… We can stop along the way to see how they make rice-net for spring rolls, how they sew coconut leaves for cottage roofs, and how they wave dried water-hyacinth to make a variety of products such as baskets, bags, hats, wallets, and shoes…
The rowboat will then take you deeper into the countryside, along smaller canals, where you can relax and enjoy the peace. Lunch is available at Ba Kiet / Muoi Huong.
Returning to our boat, we will cross the Mekong River, one of the world’s longest rivers, to reach An Binh Island. Check-in at t Trinh homestay via Muong Lo handmade canal.
Before cooking some special dishes with members of the local family, take a shower. We’ll have dinner and spend the night at the homestay.

If you’re in a group of 1-9 people, listen to traditional music before checking in.
If you have a group of 10 or more people, you can listen to traditional music after dinner.

After breakfast, check out and go for a morning walk through the village to get some fresh air, then visit the local workshop to learn how to make rice paper, coconut candy, and pop rice… With a cup of hot tea, enjoy some sweets. Visit the brick kilns on a boat trip to see how the locals make beautiful potteries out of clay. The floating village will be passed by our boat. On the Mekong River, we’ll learn how to farm catfish. We can also go to the town’s Vinh Long market. This is the best camera for photographing fish, shrimp, prawns, crabs, snakes, rice-field rats, tropical fruits, vegetables, and so on. Around 10:00 a.m., the cruise will arrive in Vinh Long!

Lunch at a local restaurant en route. Return to Ho Chi Minh City by bus.
Overnight in Ho Chi Minh City

Take your onward flight
After breakfast, our driver will come to your hotel to transfer you to Tan Son Nhat airport. Take your onward flight.
Ends of services.