Ho Chi Minh City Tour 3 Days from Manila: Cu Chi Tunnels & Mekong Delta
A long weekend out of Manila that fits three different Vietnams into three days: the underground war of the Cu Chi Tunnels straight off the morning flight, a full day on the islands and canals of the Mekong Delta at My Tho, and the French-built heart of Saigon around Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office. Two nights in one hotel in the city centre, so you unpack once. US$373 per person for 2 travellers in a 3-star hotel, twin share, with all meals, a private car, guide and boat; larger groups pay less.
Price per person
Per person in US dollars, twin/double share, for one private group on the dates you choose. Group size is the number of adults travelling together; children are priced separately (see below). International flights Manila–Ho Chi Minh City–Manila are not included.
| Adults | 3-star | 4-star | 4-star boutique | 5-star |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | US$373 | US$386 | US$404 | US$460 |
| 3 | US$310 | US$323 | US$341 | US$397 |
| 4–5 | US$294 | US$307 | US$325 | US$381 |
| 6–7 | US$257 | US$271 | US$288 | US$344 |
| 8–9 | US$207 | US$220 | US$238 | US$294 |
| 10 or more | Ask us for a quote | |||
| Single room supplement | US$53 | US$64 | US$79 | US$129 |
For 10 or more travellers, send us your group size and dates and we reply with your group price within 24 hours. Valid for travel in 2027, except Tet (Lunar New Year), Vietnamese public holidays and the Christmas and New Year peak, when hotels apply their own surcharges and we requote. Send us an inquiry or message us on WhatsApp +84 988 660 505 with your dates and we confirm your price in writing within 24 hours.
Hotels in Ho Chi Minh City (2 nights)
| Class | Hotel or similar | Room |
|---|---|---|
| 3-star | Queen Ann Hotel / Rang Dong Hotel | Superior |
| 4-star | Victory Hotel Saigon / Adora Art Hotel | Deluxe |
| 4-star boutique | Royal Hotel Saigon (Kim Do) / Harmony Saigon Hotel | Deluxe |
| 5-star | Hotel Grand Saigon / Rex Hotel Saigon | Deluxe |
Every hotel listed is in or beside District 1, a short walk or taxi ride from Ben Thanh Market, Nguyen Hue and Dong Khoi, so your free hours are spent in the city rather than in traffic. Named hotels are confirmed subject to availability when you book; if one is full, we use a hotel of the same class and location.
Planning your trip? Read our Vietnam e-visa guide or browse all Vietnam tours.
Tour at a glance
| Tour code | WMSGCCMT27 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 3 days / 2 nights |
| Starts / ends | Tan Son Nhat Airport, Ho Chi Minh City (flights from Manila not included) |
| Type | Private tour — any start date, your own guide, driver and boat |
| Hotel options | 2 nights in central Ho Chi Minh City: 3-star, 4-star, 4-star boutique or 5-star |
| Price | From US$373 per person, 2 adults, 3-star |
| Meals | 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners |
| Not included | International flights, visa (not needed for Philippine passports), travel insurance, drinks, tips |
- Car
- Gastronomy
- Temple
- Historical sites
Itinerary, day by day
The morning flight from Manila lands at Tan Son Nhat International Airport at about half past eight, Vietnam time, which is one hour behind Manila. Your guide and driver are waiting in the arrivals hall with a World Mate Travel sign. Because the airport sits on the north-west side of the city, on the road to Cu Chi, you drive straight out to the tunnels rather than doubling back through the centre — about an hour and a half through the suburbs and the rubber and rice country beyond them.
The Cu Chi Tunnels are a network of more than 200 kilometres of hand-dug passages, begun in the late 1940s during the war against the French and enlarged through the 1960s until they ran under villages, fields and, at one point, an American base. You walk the forest trail with your guide past concealed trapdoors scarcely wider than a sheet of paper, bamboo-stake traps, a field kitchen whose smoke was piped away to surface far from the fire, and workshops where unexploded ordnance was cut up and reused. A stretch of tunnel has been widened for visitors, with exits every few metres, and you can go down for as short or as long a crawl as you like. At the end you are offered what the tunnel fighters lived on: steamed cassava dipped in crushed peanuts and salt, with a cup of pandan tea.
The tunnels are low, hot and dark even in the widened section, and going underground is entirely optional — everything of interest can also be seen from the surface. The shooting range at the site is run separately and charged per bullet; it is not part of the tour.
Lunch is at a local restaurant on the way back. You reach your hotel in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City in the afternoon, when rooms are ready, and the rest of the day is free and easy until your guide collects you for dinner at a local restaurant.
Flights: planned around PR591 Manila – Ho Chi Minh City 06:55–08:30. If you arrive on a different flight, tell us and we reorder Day 1 around it.
Drive: airport – Cu Chi – city, approx. 110 km · Meals: lunch, dinner · Overnight: Ho Chi Minh City
After breakfast you leave the city at about eight o'clock and drive south-west through open rice country to My Tho, the nearest of the Mekong Delta towns, some 70 kilometres and an hour and a half away. The first stop is Vinh Trang Pagoda, founded in the nineteenth century and rebuilt in the early twentieth with a facade that mixes Vietnamese, Khmer, Chinese and European detail in mosaics of broken porcelain. Its gardens are watched over by three very large Buddha statues — standing, seated and reclining.
At the My Tho waterfront you board your private boat on the Tien River, the northern arm of the Mekong, and cross towards the four islets the river people named after the sacred animals: Dragon, Unicorn, Phoenix and Tortoise. The boat passes stilt houses, fish farms and fruit plantations on the way. Lunch is served in an orchard garden on Tortoise islet, a spread of delta cooking that usually includes the local deep-fried elephant-ear fish rolled in rice paper at the table.
In the afternoon you change to small hand-rowed sampans, four guests to a boat, and are paddled down a narrow canal under a roof of water-coconut palms. Ashore again, you sit down to seasonal fruit and honey tea while local musicians play don ca tai tu, the southern folk music that UNESCO added to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2013. The last call is a family workshop in Ben Tre where coconut candy is boiled, pulled and cut by hand, with a walk through the fruit gardens around it and plenty to taste.
You are back in Ho Chi Minh City by about five o'clock for the two landmarks at the head of Dong Khoi Street. Notre-Dame Cathedral was built by the French between 1863 and 1880 from red brick shipped out from Marseille, and came through the wars of the twentieth century untouched. Beside it stands the Central Post Office, finished in 1891, with its vaulted iron hall, its painted maps of old Saigon and the telegraph lines of Indochina, and a working counter where you can still post a card home. Dinner is at a local restaurant.
Notre-Dame Cathedral is in the middle of a long restoration: parts of the exterior are under scaffolding and the interior is closed to sightseeing, so the visit is to the square and the facade. The Central Post Office is open as normal.
Drive: approx. 150 km round trip · Meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner · Overnight: Ho Chi Minh City
Breakfast at the hotel, and the morning is yours. Ben Thanh Market is a short walk or taxi ride from the hotels we use, and it is the easiest place in the city for coffee beans, dried fruit, lacquerware and last-minute gifts; Dong Khoi and Nguyen Hue streets are the place for a last iced coffee. There is no programme and no guide waiting in the lobby.
Check-out is at noon. At 12:00 your driver and guide collect you from the hotel and transfer you to Tan Son Nhat International Airport, about thirty to forty-five minutes away depending on traffic, for the afternoon flight home. PR592 is scheduled to leave Ho Chi Minh City at 15:30 and to arrive in Manila at 19:40.
Every day can be changed — tell us what you'd like to add or skip.
Drive: 8 km to Tan Son Nhat · Meals: breakfast
What's included
Included
Two nights' hotel accommodation in the class selected, twin or double share (triple share on request), with daily breakfast
Full board with Vietnamese cuisine as listed in the programme: 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and 2 dinners
Private air-conditioned vehicle with driver throughout the tour, including both airport transfers
English-speaking tour guide throughout the programme
Sightseeing entrance tickets: Cu Chi Tunnels and Vinh Trang Pagoda
Private boat trip at My Tho, the hand-rowed sampan ride, honey tea, seasonal fruit, southern folk music and the coconut candy workshop
Two bottles of drinking water per person per day
Government tax, service charge and tour operator liability insurance
Not included
International flights Manila – Ho Chi Minh City – Manila, and any domestic flight
Vietnam visa where one applies (Philippine passport holders enter Vietnam visa-free)
Personal travel insurance — we strongly recommend cover that includes trip delay and medical repatriation
Drinks taken with meals, personal expenses and all services not clearly mentioned
Tips for your guide and driver — the customary rate is USD 3 per tourist per day for groups of 10 passengers and above, USD 5 per tourist per day for 4–9 passengers, and USD 9 per tourist per day for 2–3 passengers
Single room supplement (see price table)
Early check-in (before 2.00 p.m.) and late check-out (after 12.00 noon)
Peak season, festive and Tet surcharges where these apply
Good to know
Travel documents for guests travelling from the Philippines
Passport valid for at least six months beyond the stay in Vietnam. Philippine passport holders do not need a visa for a visit of this length.
Foreign passport holders resident in the Philippines should carry a valid Alien Certificate of Registration (I-Card), or their Philippine passport if they hold dual citizenship, and check whether their nationality needs a Vietnam visa.
A confirmed return or onward ticket, which immigration may ask to see.
Minors under 18 not travelling with a parent need a DSWD travel clearance; government employees need a Travel Authority from their office.
Each passenger is responsible for the validity of his or her own travel documents, and for any charge that results from an invalid or expired one.
Flights and pick-up times
This programme is planned around Philippine Airlines PR591 Manila – Ho Chi Minh City 06:55–08:30 on Day 1 and PR592 Ho Chi Minh City – Manila 15:30–19:40 on Day 3. Flights are not included; airline timings change with the season, so send us your confirmed flight details and we set the pick-up times to match. If your group arrives on a different flight, we reorder Day 1 around it.
Meals
Lunches and dinners are Vietnamese set menus at restaurants we use regularly, served family-style with rice, soup and several shared dishes; the Day 2 lunch is in an orchard garden on the river islands. No-pork, vegetarian, halal and allergy requirements are all straightforward if you tell us at booking.
Transportation
The vehicle is private to your group and sized to it: a 7-seater up to three passengers, a 16-seater up to seven, a 29-seater up to twenty-four, and a 45-seat coach above that. The boat at My Tho is also private to your group; the hand-rowed sampans carry four guests each.
Age pricing
| Traveller | Age | Rate per person | Sleeping arrangement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infant (parents pay any entrance fees) | 0 to 2 years | No charge | No extra bed |
| Child sharing parents' bed | 3 to 10 years | $254 · 68% of the adult fare | No extra bed |
| Child in own single bed | 3 to 10 years | $321 · 86% of the adult fare | Extra bed |
| Child sharing a twin room with one adult | 3 to 10 years | $373 · 100% of the adult fare | Own bed in a twin room |
| Child 11 and over (adult fare) | 11 years and over | $373 · 100% of the adult fare | As an adult |
Frequently asked questions
From US$373 per person for 2 adults in a 3-star hotel, twin share, with all meals, the Cu Chi Tunnels, the My Tho boat day and both airport transfers. With 2 adults the 4-star option is US$386, 4-star boutique US$404 and 5-star US$460 per person. The price drops as the group grows, to US$207 (3-star) per person for 8 to 9 adults; for 10 or more, ask us for a group quote. The single room supplement is US$53 to US$129 depending on hotel class. International flights are not included. Prices are valid for travel in 2027, except Tet, Vietnamese public holidays and the Christmas and New Year peak.
Yes. The vehicle, driver, English-speaking guide and the boat at My Tho are for your group only, and you can start on any date. The vehicle is sized to your group: a 7-seater up to 3 passengers, a 16-seater up to 7, a 29-seater up to 24 and a 45-seat coach above that. The hand-rowed sampans on the canal carry four guests each.
No. The price covers the land programme in Vietnam; you book the Manila – Ho Chi Minh City return flight yourself or ask us for the current fare. The programme is planned around Philippine Airlines PR591 (06:55–08:30) on Day 1 and PR592 (15:30–19:40) on Day 3. If you fly at different times, send us the confirmed flight details and we set the pick-up times to match and reorder Day 1 if needed.
Philippine passport holders do not need a visa for this trip; bring a passport valid for at least six months beyond your stay and a confirmed return ticket. Foreign passport holders living in the Philippines should check their own nationality: citizens of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Nordic countries, Japan, South Korea and a number of other European countries enter visa-free for up to 45 days, most ASEAN citizens get 14 to 30 days, and everyone else, including US, Canadian, Australian and Indian passport holders, applies online for an e-visa at the official portal evisa.gov.vn, usually issued in about 3 working days. Full list in our Vietnam e-visa guide at worldmatetravel.com/guide-for-vietnam-evisa.
No. Going underground is optional. A stretch of tunnel has been widened for visitors with exits every few metres, so you can crawl a few metres and come up, or stay on the surface and see the trapdoors, traps, kitchen and workshops with your guide. Wear closed shoes and light clothes; the site is hot. The shooting range is run separately and charged per bullet, and is not part of the tour.
Yes. Children under 3 travel free (parents settle any supplier fee on the spot). Children aged 3 to 10 pay 68% of the adult fare sharing their parents' bed, or 86% with an extra bed; a child sharing a room with one adult, and children aged 11 and over, pay the adult fare. Group size for the price table is the number of adults; children are not counted towards the band.
Two nights in one hotel in central Ho Chi Minh City, in or beside District 1. Standard hotels by class are Queen Ann or Rang Dong (3-star), Victory Saigon or Adora Art (4-star), Royal Hotel Saigon (Kim Do) or Harmony Saigon (4-star boutique) and Hotel Grand Saigon or Rex Hotel (5-star), or a similar hotel of the same class if one is full. Because you go to Cu Chi first on Day 1, no early check-in is needed; standard check-in is from 2 pm and check-out is at noon.
Send an inquiry and we confirm the price in writing within 24 hours. Nothing is charged on this website. To confirm your tour, pay a 30% deposit by bank transfer or by Visa, Mastercard or Amex through a secure OnePay payment link that we email to you. The remaining 70% is due at least 14 days before you arrive. The deposit is non-refundable. If you cancel (in writing) more than 21 days before departure, you lose only the deposit, and any amount paid above it stays valid for 12 months towards another tour. From 7 to 21 days before departure the charge is 50% of the tour price, and within 6 days or for a no-show it is 100%. Groups of more than 8 people, and tours that include flights or Mekong river cruises, have different terms. Full details are in our Terms & Conditions at worldmatetravel.com/terms-and-conditions#cancellation.
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