Cai Rang Floating Market from Ho Chi Minh City: One Day or Two, and What You Actually Get
4 min read
The short answer
Cai Rang sits near Can Tho, a long way south of Saigon, so seeing it means either one very long day or an overnight stay. The one-day option is the Mekong Delta tour with the Cai Rang floating market and Son Islet: €62.80 per person, 4.7 / 5 from 798 reviews. The two-day tours take a different route: they stop at Vinh Trang Pagoda, My Tho and Ben Tre on the way down, spend a night in Can Tho and reach the market early the next morning without a pre-dawn start from Saigon.
The one-day tour
The page lists a 12-hour day. Hotel pickup is at 5:00 AM and only in Districts 1, 3 and 4 (Binh Thanh is excluded). The itinerary gives about 2.75 hours in the van to the market and about 3 hours back. The boat reaches the market at about 7:30 AM and you are back in Ho Chi Minh City around 6:00 PM. On the page, the market stop includes breakfast and coffee on the boat, a visit to a pineapple boat, and a rice-noodle workshop. After that the tour moves to Son Islet for a fish farm, fruit orchards, a monkey bridge, pop-rice making and a rowing boat “tide permitting”. Lunch is a shared community-style meal. Guide language is English and Vietnamese. The standard group is up to 20 people, and a private option for up to 12 exists.
The tour is timed to reach the market early in the morning, which is the reason for the 5:00 AM start. If you are bad with early mornings or long bus days, read the next section.
The two-day tours
- The Mekong Delta and Cai Rang two-day tour (€60.10) picks you up at 7:30 to 8:00 AM on day one, visits Vinh Trang Pagoda and My Tho, sails the Ben Tre canals by sampan and overnights in Can Tho. On day two the page has you up at 6:00 AM for the floating market, then a noodle workshop, bánh xèo making and a return to Saigon at about 4:30 to 5:00 PM. The page lists two lunches and a hotel breakfast; hotel accommodation applies “if option selected”. Tips and extra meals are not included. If your hotel is outside the pickup area, you meet at the operator’s office at 123 Ly Tu Trong Street, District 1, by 7:30 AM.
- The two-day Can Tho floating market tour (€69.75) offers a “With Hotel” package (3, 4 or 5 star, arranged by the operator) and a “No Hotel” package where you book your own stay, with private or small-group options. Pickup is in central District 1. It says it reaches the market before sunrise and has no shopping stops. For the No Hotel option the page suggests staying near Ninh Kieu Wharf because of the early boat pickup. Dinner is not included. The page lists it as not suitable for pregnant women, people with back problems or mobility impairments, wheelchair users, non-swimmers and people over 95.
Lunar New Year and holidays
The one-day page says that from 5 to 9 February 2027 many traders go home for Lunar New Year, the market becomes very quiet, and the operator replaces the itinerary with a My Tho and Ben Tre tour (pickup then at 7:30 AM, Districts 1 and 4 only). If the floating market is the point of your trip, avoid those dates. The Can Tho two-day page adds a hotel surcharge of 450,000 VND per person, payable on site, on 23 to 25 December, 30 December to 1 January and 3 to 11 February 2027.
Who should pick what
- Short on days, fine with a 5:00 AM start: the one-day tour.
- Want the market without a pre-dawn drive, and a night in Can Tho: one of the two-day tours.
- Not especially interested in the market: the nine-hour My Tho and Ben Tre trips are easier; see Mekong Delta day trip from Saigon for how they compare.
Want to combine the delta with the tunnels? Cu Chi and the Mekong Delta in one day covers that. All 73 options are listed under Mekong Delta tours, from €13.56.
