A Guide to the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Cần Thơ is the biggest city in the Mekong Delta region and home to the Cái Răng floating market. Here, you’ll see hundreds of boats packed with more varieties of fruits than you ever thought possible. Although Cần Thơ is a large, somewhat industrialised city, it also serves as the cultural centre for the surrounding rural areas. The nice thing about this city is you can get the best of both worlds: comfortable accommodations in the city centre, with easy day trips available to head out and see the picturesque agricultural communities. There aren’t the dance clubs and cocktail bars you find Ho Chi Minh City, but the nightlife is still vibrant. It takes approximately four hours to get to Cần Thơ from Ho Chi Minh City by bus. Be sure to book a tour of the city’s floating markets if you’re in town.

The Cần Giờ Biosphere Reserve, protected by UNESCO, is valuable for its rich mangrove forests and wetland ecosystems. This biosphere reserve also helps to protect the region from corrosion – without it, a lot of rich agricultural land would wash out to sea. There are many tours available to the biosphere reserve, and since it’s so near to Ho Chi Minh City, it makes one of the best Vietnamese destinations for a day trip, or a starting point for your trip through the Mekong River Delta.

For those of you making your way between Vietnam and Cambodia, Châu Đốc is an easy stop along the route. It’s known for its religious and ethnic diversity, which includes Khmer, Chinese, Cham and Vietnamese people. Like most of the Mekong Delta, the surrounding areas are lush with rice paddies and spectacular rural scenes. For a real treat, stay at the Victoria Nui Sam.

Head to Sao Beach on Phú Quốc, a Vietnamese island just off the coast of Cambodia, if you’re looking for a quintessential tropical beach paradise – it has crystal clear waters, white sand and swaying palm trees. The picturesque beach takes its name from the Vietnamese word for “starfish” as the waters used to be full of white starfish at sunset. The south of the beach is often crowded with tourists, but the north is much quieter (and cleaner), and is ideal for snorkelling, swimming and strolling along the shoreline. There are a number of beachside restaurants, as well as the Paradiso Beach Club, which offers showers, massages, a restaurant and a bar.

This lush island, the largest of four in this part of the Tiền River, with about 1,200ha (3,000 acres), is crisscrossed by canals and waterways. It’s best known for its natural beauty and abundant fruit trees, including rambutan, longan and sapoche that line the shore and supply many of the markets in Tiền Giang province. You can explore the island by boat, before visiting the orchards and spending an afternoon relaxing in hammocks. The island’s historic homes are another attraction: Mr Tam’s house, open to visitors, is an exemplary model of a traditional home, with antique furnishings and a bonsai garden. To reach Thoi Son island, catch the bus from Ho Chi Minh City to My Tho, then take a 45-minute boat ride on the Mekong River.

The Mekong Delta isn’t just about the rivers – many of the tours also explore the nearby islands in the Gulf of Thailand. Phú Quốc is Vietnam’s largest island and is a relatively unknown tropical paradise where you can immerse yourself in wild nature, deserted palm tree-lined beaches, and forested mountains. More than half of the island’s northern region is protected as a national park and was declared a Unesco Biosphere Reserve in 2010. Here, there are plenty of opportunities for hiking, camping and bird-watching – and the possibility to see rare wildlife, such as long-tailed macaques, silver langurs, slow lorises and hornbills.

There are plenty of floating markets in the Mekong Delta but the biggest and most impressive is Cai Rang, which is 6km from Can Tho towards Soc Trang. The best time to visit is early morning before the boatloads of tourists arrive, so plan to get there around 6am. There are hundreds of vendors crowding the river, selling an astonishing array of fruits and vegetables, as well as clothes and wholesale food products – look at what’s hanging from the long pole above the boat to see what it’s offering. The smaller boats sell food, coffee and souvenirs to tourists.

It’s a mesmerising sight, in bougainvillea-laced gardens by the Songgo river near Mỹ Tho city. The main structure, raised in the early 20th century, glitzily weds French-rococo mansion and Confucian prayer hall, opening onto an atrium that holds a Gongshi (scholar’s) rock encrusted with a miniature temple. Cloisters ring with giant bronze bells, effigies of scholar-saints sit shrouded in incense and two huge Buddhas bask in the grounds. Recommended by Alex Robinson.

A decade ago, this beautiful sight in the small town of Cai Be was as big and busy as its counterpart Cai Rang. It’s quieter nowadays and you’ll need to arrive early for the best of the trading as people finish business before mid-morning heats up. For ease, visit from HCM City (an hour’s less travel time than from Cai Rang) and you’ll still get those snaps of locals balancing on barely-there dugouts as they buy bags of baguettes from bobbing barges. Recommended by Alex Robinson.

The Mekong Delta delivers an intoxicating mix of drifting serenity and floating-market mayhem, the best way to absorb it all being a two-day cruise aboard a sampan. There are loads of tours to choose from, including plenty that set off from Ho Chi Minh City and drift through the Mekong’s tangled backwaters, canals and floating villages, taking in Cai Be and Cai Ro markets along the way. Cabins and dining rooms, under palm-thatch canopies, are airy and cool at night. Bring plenty of repellent. Recommended by Alex Robinson.

There are so many wonderful dishes to try in the region, and even some you would consider weird. 70% of fruits consumed in Vietnam are grown here, so make sure you fill up on as much dragon fruit, pomelo, coconut, mango, rambutan, jackfruit, banana, mangosteen and durian as you can. By the way, you can even eat these fresh from the tree if you pay a visit to a local orchard. Some popular ones include Cai Be Orchard, Phong Dien and My Khanh. A tour of a fruit garden is a great help to support these farmers’ hard work and livelihoods. Recommended by Piumi Rajapaksha.

Sóc Trăng is home to the largest population of Khmer people outside of Cambodia, which is why this city has an interesting cultural feel to it that’s different from the Vietnamese cities in the area. The best examples of Khmer culture are the Clay and Bat pagodas, both famous for their intricate designs. This city may not have many flashy things to do, but those who prefer a relaxed experience will enjoy the calm vibes here, especially in the rice paddies that surround the city. If you’re in the area around November or December, be sure to check out the Oc Om Boc festival.