Trip overview
My Tho sits about 70 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City, close enough that most operators run it as a single long day: bus down, boat around the islets, bus back, done before dinner. We split it over two days instead, because the parts of this trip worth doing well, the early canals and the slow stretch of river light, both happen outside the hours a day tour has time for. You leave Saigon by private vehicle, reach the river by late morning, and spend the afternoon on the water around Thoi Son and Con Phung, the two river islets that give My Tho its name as a boat destination. Rather than heading back into traffic that evening, you cross toward Ben Tre and stay the night.
The second morning is the reason this itinerary exists. Ben Tre is coconut country, threaded with small canals that a sampan can reach but a tour bus cannot, and the light and the traffic on those canals are both better before nine in the morning. You get an early paddle through narrower water, a stop at a small household workshop where coconut candy is still made by hand over a wood fire, and time to hear a set of don ca tai tu, the improvised chamber music of the southern delta, before the drive back to Saigon. None of this is undiscovered. It is the most-visited route in the Mekong Delta, and we say so plainly: the value here is not novelty, it is doing the well-known thing at the right hour and not on a clock that has you back on the bus by 2pm.
Trip highlights
- A large-boat crossing to Thoi Son islet, then a hand-paddled sampan through narrow coconut-water canals
- Con Phung islet and a small workshop where coconut candy is cooked and cut by hand
- A night in Ben Tre rather than a same-day return to Saigon, so the early canals are still an option the next morning
- A second, quieter morning on Ben Tre's back canals before the day-trip crowds from Saigon arrive
- Live don ca tai tu music heard in a garden setting, not a staged theatre
- Crossing the new Rach Mieu 2 bridge, open since August 2025, which has eased what used to be a slow river crossing
Your day-by-day itinerary
Day 1: Saigon to My Tho and the river islets (drive, about 2 hours; boats through the afternoon)
Your guide and driver collect you in Saigon and head south on the highway toward My Tho, around 70 kilometres away and roughly two hours with normal traffic. At the river you transfer onto a larger tourist boat for the crossing to Thoi Son islet, then step down into a sampan for the narrower canals, where a boatman or boatwoman paddles you under a coconut-palm canopy that a motor boat could not fit through. On Con Phung you stop at a small family operation that still cooks coconut candy in open pans, cutting and wrapping it by hand while you watch, and you can buy a bag if you want one. A short set of don ca tai tu, usually two or three musicians and a singer, plays in the garden before you continue by road to Ben Tre for the night, either at a homestay on the water or a small hotel in town, depending on the room class you choose.
Day 2: Ben Tre's back canals at first light, then home to Saigon (drive, about 2 hours)
You start early, before the day-trip groups from Saigon are anywhere near the water, and take a sampan out along a narrower stretch of canal than most of yesterday's route, past orchard plots and small stilt houses rather than tour-boat jetties. Breakfast is either at your homestay or in Ben Tre town, and you have a little time to walk before the drive back. The return crosses the Rach Mieu 2 bridge, which opened to traffic on 19 August 2025 and has shortened what used to be a bottleneck on this route. You are back in Saigon by the early afternoon.
What’s included
- Hotels in the class you choose, twin or double occupancy, with breakfast each morning, or an equivalent property if the one named is full.
- All meals written into the day-by-day programme below.
- A private air-conditioned vehicle for every transfer and excursion in the programme.
- An English-speaking local guide at each stop on the route.
- Every boat trip, river crossing and cruise named in the itinerary.
- Entrance fees for the sites listed in the programme.
- Drinking water in the vehicle and on boat days.
- Government tax and service charge.
Not included
- International and domestic flights, and rail tickets.
- Visas, and any fee collected at a border post.
- Travel insurance.
- Meals and drinks that are not written into the programme.
- Personal spending such as laundry, phone calls, minibar, souvenirs and watersports.
- Early check-in, late check-out and room upgrades.
- Anything added on the day at your request outside the printed programme.
- Gratuities for your guide and driver.
- Costs arising from weather, flooding, road closures or other events beyond our control.
- Bank transfer charges.
Booking this trip
- Days
- 2 days / 1 night
Sending this does not charge you. We hold the space and confirm within 24 hours.
For visa rules, payment terms and what to expect on the ground before you travel, see [Vietnam travel information](vietnam/travel-information).
Send us your travel dates and the number of travellers and we will confirm a hotel or homestay in your chosen class and hold the departure for you.