Trip overview
Almost every Mekong Delta itinerary out of Ho Chi Minh City turns back at Can Tho. This one keeps going, south through Khmer pagoda country around Soc Trang, on to the old shrimp and salt town of Bac Lieu, and finally out to Ca Mau Cape, the marker at the country’s southernmost tip, where the delta finally runs out into the sea.
Since the 2025 provincial merger, Soc Trang now sits within Can Tho city and Bac Lieu within Ca Mau province, though on the ground the towns keep their own character and their own pace. The route stays mostly on paved roads with one stretch by speedboat out to the cape itself, and it suits travellers who have done a shorter delta trip before, or who simply want to say they stood at Vietnam’s southern edge.
Trip highlights
- Khmer pagodas around Soc Trang, including the Bat Pagoda with its resident fruit-bat colony
- Bac Lieu, once the delta’s wealthiest town under French rule
- Ca Mau Cape, Vietnam’s southernmost point, marked by the GPS0001 marker and a 21-metre ship-shaped observation tower
- The Km2436 marker, the southern end of the Ho Chi Minh Road
- U Minh Ha National Park, mangrove and melaleuca forest reached by small boat
Your day-by-day itinerary
Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho (about 2 hours / 170 km by highway)
The highway south now takes about two hours, a sharp cut from the three and a half to four hours the old road used to take. You settle into Can Tho by early afternoon, with the rest of the day free to walk along Ninh Kieu wharf.
Day 2: Cai Rang floating market at dawn, Binh Thuy ancient house, on to Soc Trang
A boat leaves before sunrise for Cai Rang, busiest between roughly 5:00 and 7:00, when around a hundred boats still trade on the water. Afterwards you visit the Binh Thuy ancient house, a French-Vietnamese villa once used as a film set, before the drive on to Soc Trang, home to the delta’s largest Khmer community, to visit its most striking Khmer temples, among them the Bat Pagoda with its colony of resident fruit bats.
Day 3: Soc Trang to Bac Lieu
The short drive to Bac Lieu, once the wealthiest town in the delta under French rule, takes you into salt-flat and shrimp-farming country. The afternoon is spent walking the old town and its surrounding countryside before an early night ahead of the drive south.
Day 4: Bac Lieu to Ca Mau City
The road continues south into Ca Mau City, the delta’s southernmost provincial capital. A new expressway linking Can Tho and Ca Mau reached technical completion in December 2025, though full commercial operation was still being phased in as this itinerary was written, so your guide will confirm on the day whether the fastest route is the new road or the established one.
Day 5: Ca Mau Cape and U Minh Ha National Park (over 100 km from Ca Mau City, by road or speedboat)
A full day out to Ca Mau Cape, more than a hundred kilometres from Ca Mau City and reached either by road or by speedboat along the mangrove-lined channels. At the cape itself stand the GPS0001 national coordinate marker, a 21-metre ship-shaped observation tower, and the Km2436 marker, the southern terminus of the Ho Chi Minh Road. On the way back the route passes through U Minh Ha National Park, a mix of mangrove and melaleuca forest reached partly by small boat, with a chance to see one of the park’s bird colonies.
Day 6: Ca Mau City to Ho Chi Minh City, departure
Your guide arranges the return to Ho Chi Minh City, either by road back through the delta or, where schedules allow, by a shorter domestic flight from Ca Mau; we confirm the better option once your dates are set, in time for your onward connection.
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
- 6 days / 5 nights
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