The Transport in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon, Vietnam) - Airport to center, buses, taxis, stations...

Map – Orientation

See this interactive Map, with all the places mentioned on
this page :

The main pages about Saigon :

On this page :

How to go from Saigon airport to the City Center ?
How to move inside Saigon Center ? – The Transport
How to travel outside Saigon by Train or Bus or Boat – location of the central stations

How to go from Saigon Airport (Tan Son Nhat) to the City Center ?

The airport is located 7 Km from the town center. See it on the Map :

By Bus

There is an Airport Bus for the city center, the line 109. The frequency is every 30 minutes. The price is 20,000 Dong. The trip takes about half hour to the city center (when the traffic is normal). It has several stops along the way and the 2 final ones are the 2 central bus stations in town : one beside the market Ben Tanh and the other beside the backpacker’s area “Pham Ngu Lao”. See on the map the location of the central bus stations . You can see the exact trajectory of the line on the official site Busmap.vn (look for line 109).
The airport bus runs from 5:30 in the morning till 1:30 am (can be changed, so check it).

By Taxi

A metered taxi from the airport is around 160,000 Dong to Saigon
center. Read more about the Taxis in Saigon.

With Grab (like Uber)

It exists in Saigon, see later on the page.

Buy a Flight Ticket in Vietnam

You can book Flights, Trains and Buses inside Vietnam with the site Baolau or 12Go Asia. Choose the Origin city and Destination city and it will show you All the available Transports to destination.

How to move inside Saigon Center ? – The Transport

1. Walking

If you choose to live in central Saigon (see the page: where to stay, with maps),
then you can simply walk to most tourist attractions.
Walking in Saigon is interesting but not necessarily relaxing because
of the heavy traffic and the difficulty to cross streets (read about it).

2. Taxi

The service is good and cheap. A typical ride in town could cost 40,000 Dong. It could be for example, from Notre-Dame Cathedral to the backpacker’s area Pham Ngu Lao, a 2 Km drive. To China town (from Pham Ngu Lao), 60,000 Dong.
Taxi drivers in South East Asia have sometimes little scams (read what I wrote about the scams of Taxi in Bangkok), so you as tourist, should try to use one the known companies like VinasunTaxi (they are also the most common in town, a big company). When everything is fine, a Taxi-meter should be started at the beginning of the course, so make sure it does.
One of the taxi scams, is companies that have a very similar name, for example Vinasum instead of Vinasun. You see, it’s not boring in Vietnam.

3. Taxi (or Moto-Taxi) via Smartphone Application

Grab is the biggest company for “Ridesharing” in Vietnam. Uber was bought by Grab in Vietnam. They do the same. It functions with cars and motorbikes. In order to use Grab you need :

A smartphone.
A phone number in order to register (they will send you an SMS with a code ).
Download the Grab application to your smartphone.

It is very easy to use Grab :

You open the application on your smartphone.
The application detects the position you are on the Map (it is better to fill manually a known spot near you, like an hotel).
You fill your destination (you can choose a point on the Map or fill an address).
You choose the way of Transport : motorcycles or cars.
The application shows you the price to your destination and it shows you the motorcycles near you.
You press the button “Book” and you wait a little bit (seconds, usually).
The application tells you that a driver has accepted your reservation and he is on his way and you see the driver’s name and license number. You now see on the map only 1 motorcycle, the one that is your driver. He usually arrives within 2 minutes to pick you.

In Saigon Grab has a competitor that is using Electric cars and Electric motorbikes. They are called XanhSM. They are using the electric vehicles of the company VinFast. The color of the vehicles is light blue.

4. Motorbike -Taxi

It exists in Vietnam and other countries in South East Asia. It is private ride (1 person) but instead of a car you ride on the back of a motorbike. This is convenient because you arrive to your destination fast (you bypass traffic jams).

Option 1 :The company Grab
As mentioned before.

Option 2 :The freelancers
They will address you when you walk in the streets. It is less interesting than Grab, because:

Their motorbikes are in bad shape
They drive dangerously and sometimes they are drunk
They ask for a higher price than Grab
They try to bring you to places, that you didn’t ask for
They don’t speak english and you need to explain to them about your destination.

5. Bus

To get information about the bus lines in Saigon :

You need a smartphone + Internet connection in Vietnam.
Bangkok

Use the free application for smartphones : Google Maps. It’s easy, you type the name of your destination. Google shows you the place on the map. Then you see the option “how to arrive”. You choose the way of transport (walking, driving or public transport). If you choose “public transport”, it will show you the buses available from your location. There are still no GPS on the buses of Saigon, so the application will not show you in “real time” the countdown for the bus arrival.
Use the (free) application for smartphones : Moovit. It is similar to Google Maps but it has a different interface. It shows you the bus lines and the bus stops on a the map. Very useful.
Use the application Busmap.vn. It has information about the Bus routes in Saigon.

The buses are usually painted green and white, they are small and old but usually not crowded (all the vietnamese have a motorbike, they don’t need buses).
The information on the bus stops (the maps) is not great, so if you stay in Saigon for just a few days it may be better to use taxis and moto-taxis, they don’t cost much.

You can see the the two Central stations (for in city travel) on the following Map, click to enlarge :

In the following photo, the central station at Pham Ngu Lao:

6. Rent a Motorbike

I wouldn’t do it in a big city like Saigon, with it’s special traffic (apparently, within the chaos, there are some unofficial driving rules, that you as a tourist may need time to get used to). It is possible to rent a scooter for about 120,000 Dong per day, especially in the backpacker’s area Pham Ngu Lao. Do it if you are seeking adventures.

If you rent a moto, remember that you will need to park it in Saigon :

And also to fill gasoline :

7. Rickshaw

It exists, especially for lazy tourists.

8. Bicycle

There is an attempt to provide a sharing service of bikes via a smartphone application. For the time being it is not developed enough and anyway bikes are not really adapted to the traffic of Saigon.

9. The Waterbus

There is a service of public boats on the river. The boats go from the town center to the suburbs in the north.

You can use these boats as a tourist attraction or use them to arrive to the center of district 2 (Thao Dien). District 2 is a neigborhood with a lot of expatriates and there are many western restaurants and bars. Look at the following Map. The stop in town center is near the famous walking street “Nguyen Hue” and the stop in district 2 is a 15 minutes walk to the animated area. The boat ride takes about 20 minutes. The price is low. The frequency of the boats is low, there are more boats on the week-end. You can see the Waterbus website for details.

10. Use the Metro (the underground, the tube).

If this thing existed in Saigon, do you think I would put it last in the list ? But, a suburban train is being built, right now.

How to travel outside Saigon by Train or Bus or Boat :

Look at the following map. Click to enlarge :

You can see on the map, the train station and the 2 Bus National Central Stations.
You can see the stations also on the interactive map above.
Bus Terminal Mien Dong is the main one, it is mainly for North National destinations.
Bus Terminal Mien Tay is more for South National destinations (the delta).

In order to arrive to the central stations from the center of Saigon, use one of the transports mentioned above.
You may also need one of the Central Bus Stations that are located in the centre of Saigon (these stations are mainly for Saigon destinations) :

There are also private bus companies for national destinations operating from Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker’s area. You can buy Bus tickets in the many travel agencies in town and especially in Pham Ngu Lao area or via the site 12Go Asia (you get a list of all ways of Transport to destination).
For long distances in Vietnam, it is common to take a night bus.

They have beds inside (but I prefer to take a train) :

In order to know how to arrive to the main cities in Vietnam, visit the page What to Visit in Vietnam. For each city, I have stated what are the travel options to destination (if there is a train station in town, an airport etc…).

The Boat terminal for Vung Tau (beaches)

You can reach Vung Tao with a speed boat from the very center of Saigon.
Visit the page about Vung Tau, for details about the places to visit, where to stay etc.
The pier is located very close to the famous Nguyen walking street. You can see it on the following map or on the interactive map above.

Buy a Train or Bus or Flight Ticket in Vietnam

You can book Flights, Trains and Buses inside Vietnam with the site Baolau or 12Go Asia. Choose the Origin city and Destination city and it will show you All the available Transports to destination.