The Best Ho Chi Minh City Tour for Purists! | XO Tours Vietnam

A fun ride to the most popular tourist attractions in Saigon. Learn the history of each famous site from the unique perspective of our guides.

The “XO Sights of Saigon” tour stands out as one of the few remaining “pure” city tours in Ho Chi Minh City, avoiding irrelevant stops (e.g. food and coffee stops) designed to stretch out the itinerary.

Every other Ho Chi Minh City tour we’ve found is either a boring bus tour that only take you to the main tourist attractions and provides very generic historical information or student-led tours lacking in-depth knowledge and include lots of “filler” stops. They also have a lot of dead time, where everyone is just standing around waiting to go to the next stop.

At XO Tours, we make the most of your time by only taking you to locations where the history isn’t easily discovered on your own. Our passionate guides will share fascinating stories about each stop and illustrate how they all connect.

The ‘XO Sights of Saigon’ tour is led by tourism majors and teachers who undergo months of study and training before they are allowed to guide. And unlike other Saigon scooter tours that are led by unlicensed student “guides”, we won’t fill the tour time with food and coffee stops to compensate for a lack of knowledge.

The only food we offer on this tour are light snacks to keep you cool and refreshed. If you’re interested in trying Vietnamese food, we recommend booking one of our evening tours.

The “Sights of Saigon” tour offers a good mix of both famous attractions and lesser known markets and sites that the big Ho Chi Minh City tours cannot go to. Some of the places we visit on this tour are The Central Post Office, The Notre Dame Cathedral, The Reunification Palace (outside only), The Secret CIA Building, Tan Dinh Market, The Burning Monk Memorial, Ho Thi Ky Flower Market, The Hidden Weapons Arsenal and The Ten Thousand Buddhas Pagoda, etc.

On this tour we’ll provide a deep dive into the history of some of Saigon’s most famous locations (with historical photos!), that many travelers have seen in movies, documentaries and school books but never knew the full story behind.

We can easily cover the same number of sites in 3.5 hours that would require a full day on most other Ho Chi Minh city tours. Our pace is still very leisurely, so you will not be rushed. At each stop, you will be allowed to get off the bike and walk around so you will have plenty of great photo opportunities. We also won’t take you to the typical tourist traps to try sell you overpriced souvenirs.

We only run the “Sights of Saigon” tour in the morning, when the weather is coolest. The local markets are also busiest in the mornings so it’s the best time to experience all the hustle and bustle!

How many people in a group?

Please note that this tour is offered on a join in basis, so there may be other guests joining you on the tour. Our maximum group size is 8 people. For guests that do not want to go in a group, we also offer a private tour option for an extra charge.