Getting to know My Tho and Ben Tre
My Tho sits about 70 kilometres southwest of central Ho Chi Minh City, close enough that it has become the single most popular day trip out of Saigon into the Mekong Delta. That popularity comes at a cost: coach groups pack the docks at Thoi Son and Con Phung by mid-morning, and a boat ride that looks peaceful in a brochure photo can mean queueing behind three other tour buses. Leave before 8am, or plan an overnight in the area instead, and the same canals feel like a different place entirely.
The map underneath all of this has also changed. Since the 1 July 2025 provincial merger, My Tho is no longer part of Tien Giang; it now sits inside the newly formed Dong Thap province, and is in fact that province’s administrative capital. Ben Tre, the coconut country across the Rach Mieu bridge, has been folded into an enlarged Vinh Long province instead. Older guidebooks and maps that still list Tien Giang, or a standalone Ben Tre province, describe an administrative map that no longer exists; the towns and the geography have not moved, only the provincial lines drawn around them.
What draws people here is still the delta at its most classic: brown-water canals lined with water coconut palms, orchards of longan and dragon fruit, and a pace of life noticeably slower than Saigon’s by any measure. Coconut groves cover much of the land around Ben Tre in particular, and the industry built on them, from raw coconuts to handmade candy and rope, is a large part of what a visit here is actually about, day-tripper crowds aside.
Things to see and do
Thoi Son Island and the coconut canals
A larger tour boat crosses the river to Thoi Son, then hands you off to a hand-paddled sampan for the narrow, palm-shaded canals a motorboat cannot reach.
Con Phung coconut candy workshop
Watch coconut milk cooked down into candy by hand at a small workshop on Con Phung, with the finished sweets sold on the spot, still warm.
Don ca tai tu in a coconut garden
Southern Vietnamese chamber music, played live on traditional instruments under coconut palms, is a fixture of most Thoi Son and Con Phung itineraries.
Fruit orchard walks
Longan, dragon fruit and other seasonal orchards line the islands, most open for a short walk-through and a tasting stop.
Beekeeping and honey tasting
Small-scale apiaries on the islands keep bees for honey, and most tours build in a short stop to see the hives and taste what they produce.
Cai Be floating market, in decline
Once one of the delta’s largest floating markets with 500 to 600 boats, Cai Be is down to around 20 traders today. It is still worth a look if you are already nearby, but travellers who specifically want a working floating market should go to Cai Rang in Can Tho instead.
Rach Mieu 2 bridge
Opened on 19 August 2025, this second crossing of the Tien River eased the bottleneck the old Rach Mieu bridge had become, cutting congestion on the route between Ho Chi Minh City and Ben Tre.
Every one of these stops sits within a short boat hop of the others, which is why My Tho and Ben Tre pack so easily into a single day. If you would rather see the same canals without the coach groups, ask about an overnight homestay instead of the standard day tour.
Good to know
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| Distance from Ho Chi Minh City | About 70 km, roughly 1.5 to 2 hours by road |
| New province (since 1 July 2025) | My Tho: Dong Thap province, and its administrative capital. Ben Tre: an enlarged Vinh Long province. |
| Best time to visit | Year-round; December to April is drier and cooler |
| Getting around | Tour boat between islands, hand-paddled sampan within the canals, on foot or by bicycle on Ben Tre’s back roads |
| Currency | Vietnamese Dong (VND) |
Trips that include My Tho and Ben Tre
Every itinerary here can be adjusted to add an overnight stay on the islands, or to extend further into the delta. Tell us your travel dates and how many people are travelling, and we will send back a day-by-day plan with hotel options.