Accommodation: Hotel in Ho Chi Minh
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
08:00: Your guide and driver will meet you at your hotel then escort you to the city’s Central Post Office, which was designed by the renowned French architect Gustave Eiffel, and Notre Dame Cathedral, the iconic landmark built between 1863 and 1880. Admired for its neo-Romanesque architecture, the cathedral is a popular backdrop for local wedding photographers. Next, stroll toward the Saigon River along Dong Khoi Street, which figured prominently in Graham Greene’s famous Vietnam novel, The Quiet American, to the Saigon Opera House, a commanding building completed in 1901. Shelled during World War II, it was used to shelter French citizens fleeing North Vietnam in 1954, the year Vietnam earned its independence from France. The tour continues with a stop at the Reunification Palace, where a North Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates in 1975 to end a war that killed an estimated 58,000 Americans and three million Vietnamese. You will also visit the War Remnants Museum, where Vietnam’s government has assembled presentations – some of them graphic – of wartime hardships and atrocities. Walk around China town and the Thien Hau Pagoda before going back to your hotel around 17:00.