Getting to know Can Tho
Ask most travellers what brings them to Can Tho and the answer is a boat ride at dawn to the Cai Rang floating market. That is a fair reason to come, though it works better as one stop on a fuller day than as the whole point of the trip. Can Tho itself is the delta’s biggest city, a working river port with a walkable riverfront, a night market, and enough restaurants and hotels that it makes a comfortable base for a night or two rather than a rushed morning stop.
Since 1 July 2025, Can Tho’s city limits have grown well beyond the old riverfront core. The former provinces of Soc Trang and Hau Giang were absorbed into Can Tho under the national provincial merger, so a Khmer pagoda that older maps place in a separate province now sits inside the same administrative city. The change matters mostly for paperwork and road signs; the sights themselves have not moved.
What makes Can Tho worth an overnight rather than a pass-through is the mix of a real, working city with a handful of quieter spots close enough to reach by boat or a short drive. A morning on the water, an afternoon in a century-old house, and an evening on the pedestrian bridge over the river cover a full day without repeating themselves.
Things to see and do
Cai Rang floating market
About 6 km from Ninh Kieu wharf, roughly 30 minutes by boat. Boats leave from 5am, trading is busiest between 5 and 7am, and it thins out fast by mid-morning.
Ninh Kieu wharf
Can Tho’s riverfront promenade, with a pedestrian bridge, a walking street and a night market that runs into the evening.
Binh Thuy ancient house
A French-Vietnamese house over a hundred years old, once used as a filming location for The Lover.
Con Son islet
A short boat ride from a pier in Binh Thuy ward, followed by 10 to 15 minutes on the water; fruit orchards, folk snack-making and traditional music.
Can Tho night market
A walkable stretch of food stalls near Ninh Kieu, best after the day’s heat has passed.
The former Soc Trang pagodas
Khmer temple architecture, now within Can Tho’s city limits since the 2025 merger, a longer excursion for visitors with an extra day.
Cai Rang is the market most people mean when they say floating market, and it is still the delta’s largest by a good margin, but it is not what it was a generation ago. What was once a market of an estimated 600 trading boats has fallen to roughly 100 still working the water regularly, and tourist boats now outnumber the wholesalers they came to photograph. Visitor numbers are down as well, by around 30 percent against recent years. None of that makes the trip not worth doing. Go early, go with the expectation of a smaller, quieter market than the postcards show, and it is still one of the better ways to spend a delta morning.
Con Son sits apart from the standard boat-tour circuit and rewards the extra effort to reach it. A short ride to a pier in Binh Thuy ward (Pier 147 or Co Bac pier), then 10 to 15 minutes on the water, lands you on an island where a handful of local families run informal fruit gardens, cook demonstrations and a well-known trick of feeding fish trained to leap clear of the water. Homestay rooms on Con Son run around 850,000 dong a night, and staying over turns a half-day visit into something closer to village life for an evening.
Good to know
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| Cai Rang floating market | 6 km from Ninh Kieu wharf, about 30 minutes by boat; leave by 5am, busiest 5 to 7am |
| Con Son islet | Pier 147 or Co Bac pier in Binh Thuy ward, 7 to 8 km from central Can Tho by road, then 10 to 15 minutes by boat |
| Con Son homestay | Around 850,000 VND per room per night |
| Binh Thuy ancient house | French-Vietnamese architecture over a century old; filming location for The Lover |
| Administrative shape | Since 1 July 2025, Can Tho city has absorbed the former Soc Trang and Hau Giang provinces |
| Getting there | About 2 hours by highway from Ho Chi Minh City; no international flights into Can Tho |
Trips that include Can Tho
Can Tho works well as either a two-night stay on its own or the midpoint of a longer delta route. Tell us how important an early floating-market start is to you and how many nights you have, and we will build the schedule around it.