The Sights of Saigon

What makes the XO Sights of Saigon the best Ho Chi Minh City tour?

The “XO Sights of Saigon” tour stands out as one of the few remaining “pure” city tours in Ho Chi Minh City, avoiding irrelevant stops (e.g. food and coffee stops) designed to stretch out the itinerary.

Every other Ho Chi Minh City tour we have found is either a boring bus tour that only takes you to the main tourist attractions and provides very generic historical information, or a student-led tour lacking in-depth knowledge and including lots of “filler” stops. They also have a lot of dead time, where everyone is just standing around waiting to go to the next stop.

At XO Tours, we make the most of your time by only taking you to locations where the history is not easily discovered on your own. Our passionate guides will share fascinating stories about each stop and illustrate how they all connect.

The XO Sights of Saigon tour is led by tourism majors and teachers who undergo months of study and training before they are allowed to guide. And unlike other Saigon scooter tours that are led by unlicensed student “guides”, we will not fill the tour time with food and coffee stops to compensate for a lack of knowledge.

The only food we offer on this tour are light snacks to keep you cool and refreshed. If you are interested in trying Vietnamese food, we recommend booking one of our evening tours.

Which places will we visit?

The Sights of Saigon tour offers a good mix of both famous attractions and lesser known markets and sites that the big Ho Chi Minh City tours cannot go to. Some of the places we visit on this tour are the Central Post Office, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Reunification Palace (outside only), the Secret CIA Building, Tan Dinh Market, the Burning Monk Memorial, Ho Thi Ky Flower Market, the Hidden Weapons Arsenal and the Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda.

On this tour we provide a deep dive into the history of some of Saigon’s most famous locations (with historical photos!) that many travellers have seen in movies, documentaries and school books but never knew the full story behind.

Many other city tours take guests inside the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum, both of which do not even require tour guides. The Reunification Palace includes a free guide when you buy a ticket, and all the displays and photos at the War Remnants Museum include detailed captions in English. These two attractions also require a lot of time (a minimum of 2 hours each) to fully appreciate, so we recommend that you visit them on your own so that we can make the most of the time you have with us.

How is the pace of this tour?

We can easily cover the same number of sites in 3.5 hours that would require a full day on most other Ho Chi Minh City tours. Our pace is still very leisurely, so you will not be rushed. At each stop you will be allowed to get off the bike and walk around, so you will have plenty of great photo opportunities. We also will not take you to the typical tourist traps to try to sell you overpriced souvenirs.

Why the early start?

We only run the Sights of Saigon tour in the morning, when the weather is coolest. The local markets are also busiest in the mornings, so it is the best time to experience all the hustle and bustle!