Ho Chi Minh City for 3 days

[jebbs]

Hoping a cruiser with experience can help me.  We will be on Viking Orion in March 2023 and have 3 full days in Ho Chi Minh. That’s Saturday 8am until Monday 6pm.  Am I wrong if I think we will be right in the city to dock???  I’m thinking how itineraries usually list two cities if we dock away from the prime location, for instance another cruise says Seville(Cadiz) Spain, meaning docking in Cadiz and a distance to Seville. How should I plan our time?  Will Viking offer excursions each day?  Will the included tour be offered each day?

I appreciate any insight you can offer.  I enjoy all your posts!

Thank you.

 

[LindaS272]

If it’s like our cruise on Orion in Nov. 2019 where we were at Ho Chi Minh City for three days, the port is about 45-60 minutes outside the city. Viking will provide shuttles; Vikingcruises.com will show your daily excursions offered by V. We happened to use a private tour with the fabulous and excellent Xuan https://www.tourwithxuan.com/hcmc-tour.html.

The Viking website shows several tours. The reason we booked with Xuan is that we were late booking the cruise and many things were sold out. Plus, it’s nice to have a smaller group where you can customize what you see. Our cruise also docked close to Danang and we booked with Xuan for a private tour of Hoi An. He then met us in Ho Chi Minh City for our tour there.

 

Edited September 28, 2022 by LindaS272
Added information.

[Heidi13]

9 hours ago, jebbs said:

Hoping a cruiser with experience can help me.  We will be on Viking Orion in March 2023 and have 3 full days in Ho Chi Minh. That’s Saturday 8am until Monday 6pm.  Am I wrong if I think we will be right in the city to dock???  I’m thinking how itineraries usually list two cities if we dock away from the prime location, for instance another cruise says Seville(Cadiz) Spain, meaning docking in Cadiz and a distance to Seville. How should I plan our time?  Will Viking offer excursions each day?  Will the included tour be offered each day?

I appreciate any insight you can offer.  I enjoy all your posts!

Thank you.

 

 

Very few cruise ships can navigate upriver as far as Saigon. They normally dock at a commercial port around Phu My, which as Linda S272 noted is about 1 hr from the city.

[sturge28]

For those who used the shuttles, was that a problem based on the number of people desiring that type of transportation to Ho Chi Minh City? Were there also drivers/cabs for hire available at the port that could be hired for the day? If yes, how much did they charge? Thanks!