Southern Vietnam in 10 Days: A Foodie’s Itinerary Guide

Southern Vietnam is one of Southeast Asia’s most rewarding destinations for anyone who eats with intention. The food here is bolder and sweeter than central or northern Vietnamese cooking, shaped by the Mekong’s abundance, French colonial history, Chinese immigration, and Khmer influence. In ten days, you can move between the chaotic energy of Ho Chi Minh City, the slow waterways of the Mekong Delta, the seafood-rich shores of Phu Quoc, and the breezy coastal towns of Mui Ne and Vung Tau — eating something genuinely extraordinary at almost every stop.

Day 1: Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City — First Tastes of Saigon Street Food

Most international flights land at Tan Son Nhat Airport in the morning or early afternoon. After checking into your hotel in District 1 or the increasingly popular District 3, resist the urge to sleep and head straight out to eat. Jet lag is easier to shake with a bowl of hu tieu in hand.

Hu tieu is the dish that separates Saigon from Hanoi more than almost any other — a clear, slightly sweet pork broth served over rice noodles with shrimp, minced pork, offal if you want it, and a tangle of fresh herbs on the side. Look for stalls in District 5 around the Chợ Lớn area, where versions influenced by Teochew Chinese immigrants tend to be the most layered in flavour.

In the afternoon, walk Ben Thanh Market not necessarily to buy but to observe. The food stalls inside are tourist-priced but provide useful orientation — you’ll see fresh turmeric, lemongrass, galangal, banana blossoms, and dozens of unfamiliar aromatics that will appear in dishes throughout your trip.

For the evening, head to Bui Vien Street or the backpacker district not for the bars but for the snack vendors working the edges — banh trang nuong (grilled rice paper topped with egg, dried shrimp, and spring onion), skewers of quail eggs, and glasses of nuoc mia (fresh sugarcane juice). It’s a low-key but genuinely delicious introduction.

Day 2: Ho Chi Minh City Deep Dive — Markets, Pho, and Hidden Alley Eats

Saigon’s breakfast culture rewards early risers. Be out by 6:30am to find the best pho bo — southern-style beef pho is noticeably different from the Hanoi version, served with a heap of bean sprouts, fresh basil, hoisin sauce, and chili on the side. The broth is richer and slightly sweeter. Pho Hoa on Pasteur Street has been operating since 1960 and remains a reliable benchmark.

Mid-morning, take a ride to Tan Dinh Market in District 3. Less trafficked than Ben Thanh, this wet market is where local cooks shop. Watch vendors butcher whole fish, bargain over bundles of rau muong (morning glory), and display trays of fresh rice cakes. If you can communicate even loosely, the vendors here are often happy to explain what they’re selling.

Lunch should be com tam — broken rice, the dish that defines working-class Saigon eating. A proper plate arrives with grilled pork chop, shredded pork skin, a steamed egg meatloaf, a fried egg, cucumber slices, and a small bowl of nuoc cham for dipping. It’s cheap, filling, and deeply satisfying. The best spots are often unmarked family kitchens with plastic stools on the footpath.

Spend the afternoon at the War Remnants Museum or the Reunification Palace to absorb historical context — the food story of this region is inseparable from its political history. By evening, find a bia hoi corner (open-air beer spot) and order rounds of snacks: boiled peanuts in salt and star anise, crispy tofu with shrimp paste, and sliced green mango with chili salt.

Day 3: Ho Chi Minh City to Mekong Delta — River Food and Floating Markets

Leave HCMC early — no later than 6am — to reach the floating markets of Cai Rang near Can Tho before the morning trade winds down. The journey by road takes roughly three hours. At Cai Rang, wholesale boats sell fruit and vegetables in bulk, hanging samples of their produce from bamboo poles as a kind of advertisement. The market is most active between 6am and 9am.

From the floating market, take a smaller boat into the canal network. Delta cooking reveals itself along these waterways: vendors on narrow boats sell banh tet (sticky rice cakes stuffed with mung bean and pork, wrapped in banana leaf), fresh coconut, and bowls of bun nuoc leo — a Khmer-influenced noodle soup made with fermented fish paste, shrimp, and pork that is far more complex than its murky appearance suggests.

Arrive in Can Tho by early afternoon and check into a guesthouse close to the river. The city has a relaxed pace compared to HCMC. Lunch here could be lau mam — a fermented fish hotpot that is an acquired taste but deeply regional. If you’re new to mam (fermented fish), start with a smaller portion alongside the abundant fresh herbs, banana blossom, and water lily stems that come with it.

In the evening, walk the Can Tho riverside night market for grilled corn, banh xeo (sizzling crepes stuffed with shrimp and bean sprouts), and sweet che dessert soups made from coconut milk, taro, and tapioca.

Day 4: Mekong Delta — Homestay Cooking and Village Snacks

Book a night at a Mekong Delta homestay — several family operations around Vinh Long or Ben Tre offer cooking classes as part of the stay. These aren’t polished culinary schools; they’re home kitchens where you’ll learn to roll fresh spring rolls (goi cuon), make coconut candy, and prepare elephant ear fish (ca tai tuong), which is deep-fried whole and served standing upright, traditionally eaten by wrapping morsels in rice paper with herbs and dipping in sweet tamarind sauce.

The orchards around Ben Tre are worth exploring specifically for fruit. The delta produces an extraordinary variety: pomelo, jackfruit, rambutan, longan, dragon fruit, and the infamous durian, which is significantly cheaper and fresher here than anywhere you’ll find it exported. Local vendors sell sliced fruit from bicycles and boat docks throughout the day.

Afternoon snacks in the delta often involve coconut in some form — coconut rice cakes, coconut milk poured over shaved ice, or worms from the coconut palm grub, which adventurous eaters can try fried or alive at certain markets. Even if you skip the grubs, the sheer volume of coconut-based food in Ben Tre earns it the nickname “Coconut Kingdom.”

Day 5: Phu Quoc Island — Seafood, Pepper Farms, and Fish Sauce

Fly from Can Tho or return to HCMC for a short flight to Phu Quoc. The island sits in the Gulf of Thailand and has a food identity built on three pillars: fresh seafood, nuoc mam Phu Quoc (the island’s celebrated fish sauce), and Kampot-adjacent pepper that grows on the northern hillsides.

Visit a fish sauce factory in the morning — Khai Hoan is one of the more accessible. The process involves layering anchovies with salt in enormous wooden vats and fermenting them for over a year. The smell is confrontational but the resulting sauce, which carries a UNESCO geographical indication, is genuinely different from supermarket versions: more umami, less harsh, with a faint sweetness.

Pepper farms are clustered in the Duong Dong area. The pepper here — both black and the prized red pepper — is used fresh in dishes like goi ca trich, a raw herring salad dressed with lime juice, young coconut, and green pepper directly from the vine. It’s extraordinarily fresh and one of the more unusual dishes you’ll encounter in the south.

For dinner, head to the seafood restaurants along Dinh Cau Night Market. Order grilled scallops with spring onion and peanut oil, stir-fried clams with chili and lemongrass, and whole grilled barramundi. Prices are reasonable compared to what the same quality would cost elsewhere.

Day 6: Phu Quoc — Beach Grills, Night Market, and Tropical Fruit

Spend a slower day on the island focused specifically on casual eating. Mornings on Phu Quoc belong to bun quay — a local noodle dish where thick rice noodles are spun or “wound” by hand into the bowl, then topped with shrimp, squid, or fish in a light, peppery broth. It’s found almost nowhere else in Vietnam and is worth seeking out specifically.

Afternoon beach clubs along Long Beach or Sao Beach typically have grills running by 2pm — fresh corn, sweet potatoes, and skewered seafood cooked over charcoal. The quality is consistent and the setting obvious. What’s less obvious is the fruit vendor circuit: motorbike sellers carry sliced green mango with shrimp salt (muoi tom), a tangy-sweet-umami snack that becomes addictive within about thirty seconds of trying it.

Return to Dinh Cau Night Market for the evening but focus on the dessert stalls this time: kem trai dua (ice cream served inside a young coconut), grilled banana with coconut cream, and sweet mung bean cakes. Walk the full length of the market slowly — the vendors at the far end tend to be less crowded and equally good.

Day 7: Return to Ho Chi Minh City — Banh Mi, Broken Rice, and Vietnamese Coffee Culture

Fly back to HCMC and use the afternoon to explore the city’s café culture properly. Vietnamese coffee is brewed through a small metal phin filter, dripping slowly over sweetened condensed milk. Egg coffee (ca phe trung), more associated with Hanoi but increasingly available in Saigon, involves a whipped custard of egg yolk and condensed milk that sits on top of the espresso like a warm foam. Cafés in the Tran Dinh Xu area tend to be less performative about it than tourist-facing spots.

Spend time at a serious banh mi shop — not a convenience store version but a proper pavement operation where the baguette is baked fresh and slightly different from French bread: thinner crust, airier interior, slightly rice-flour in character. The filling combinations in Saigon often include pâté, headcheese, pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber, cilantro, and chili. Banh Mi Huynh Hoa on Le Thi Rieng Street is widely considered among the best in the city.

In the evening, settle into a com tam restaurant for a second pass at the broken rice experience — this time paying closer attention to the individual components and the way the nuoc cham is balanced. Good nuoc cham is a study in acid, sweet, salt, and fish flavour in precise equilibrium.

Day 8: Day Trip to Mui Ne — Seafood by the Dunes

Mui Ne is four to five hours from HCMC by bus or sleeper train. The coastal town is known for its red and white sand dunes but for food travelers, the draw is the morning fish market at Mui Ne Fishing Village, active between 6am and 8am where boats unload directly onto the beach. The catch — squid, tuna, red snapper, mantis shrimp — goes immediately to local restaurants or market stalls.

Lunch in Mui Ne means banh canh cha ca — thick, udon-like noodles in a broth made from fish cake and annatto oil that turns it a deep orange-red. It’s a Binh Thuan province specialty rarely found this fresh elsewhere. Several family restaurants along Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street serve it with crispy shallots and a lime wedge.

The evening here is casual — grilled seafood platters at one of the beachside restaurants with the sea breeze and a cold Saigon beer. Mui Ne doesn’t try to be sophisticated, and that’s exactly why the food feels honest.

Day 9: Vung Tau — French-Influenced Baking and Coastal Snacks

Vung Tau sits two and a half hours southeast of HCMC and was a significant French colonial resort town. That history persists in the food: proper bakeries selling butter croissants, flaky meat pastries (pate chaud), and crusty bread that is noticeably more European in texture than the Saigon baguette. Banh Vung Tau, a type of dense steamed rice cake, is the town’s other signature and sold wrapped in banana leaf at markets and ferry terminals.

The seafood culture here is quieter than Mui Ne but equally fresh. Look for ghe rang muoi — salt-roasted crab cooked with garlic and chili — and grilled oysters with scallion oil at the beachside stalls near Front Beach. The pace of eating in Vung Tau suits a penultimate-day slow-down: take your time, order multiple small dishes, and watch the fishing boats.

Day 10: Final Day in Ho Chi Minh City — Farewell Feast and Last Market Wanders

Return to HCMC by morning speedboat or bus and use your final day to revisit what struck you most over the past nine days. A last morning walk through Tan Dinh Market is worthwhile now that you recognise the ingredients you’ve been eating all week — the galangal going into hu tieu, the banana blossoms destined for salads, the fresh turmeric used in banh xeo batter.

For a final lunch, lau — Vietnamese hotpot — is the ideal communal send-off. Choose a sour tamarind-based broth (lau chua) loaded with fresh fish, prawns, tomatoes, pineapple, and taro stems. The meal expands at its own pace as you add ingredients gradually, eat slowly, and finish with the concentrated broth ladled over rice noodles.

If your flight allows, spend the late afternoon at one of Saigon’s rooftop bars not for the cocktails but for the view of the city at dusk — the motorbike streams below, the market stalls lighting up, the smell of charcoal and fish sauce drifting up from street level. Southern Vietnam gives itself most fully to people who eat without rushing, and ten days here barely scratches what’s possible.

📷 Featured image by JinHui CHEN on Unsplash.