Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it was previously known, is a busy city whose streets are full of people and Vietnam’s ubiquitous heavy traffic. It’s also a city that has a European air due to the monuments built by the French after seizing the city in 1859, a fact which has earned the city the nickname of “Paris of the East.”

Spending a day exploring the historic and narrow streets amid the hustle and bustle of the city is an experience that no traveler in Vietnam should miss.

Coming to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, formerly Saigon) for the first time, it seems incredible that its inhabitants suffered the cruelty of the Vientam War so recently. The people are very lively and they seem young and eager to move forward. They´re living in the present while looking to the past to face the future.

Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, is the heart of Vietnam. The streets are full of life (even more so than Hanoi) and lined with shops, vendors, food stalls, markets, and, above all, people. People everywhere.