Review: Is a Mekong Delta Tour in Vietnam Worth It?
Back in November 2016, I spent three weeks travelling through Vietnam, both solo and with friends. One of the first things my friends Emilie, Jonathan and I did was join a two day one night Mekong Delta tour from Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon).
This tour was the part of our time in Saigon that I was most looking forward to. I had visions of floating through markets while buying fresh fruit and steaming noodle bowls from old ladies on boats. But that wasn’t exactly the experience we got…
We booked our Mekong Delta tour through our hotel for only $34 CAD ($25 USD) per person. And while it was a cool experience, it was obvious that we were following a very well-trodden tourist route through the Mekong Delta.
Below I’ll review my experience on a Mekong Delta tour in Vietnam, the pros and cons, and whether I think this kind of tour is worth it. Plus I’ll share how you can go on a better Mekong Delta tour than I did!
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Day 1: Honey tasting and canoe rides on the Mekong Delta
Our tour operator picked us up nice and early from Ho Chi Minh City for the start of our Mekong Delta tour.
We boarded a bus for our first stop, My Tho. The bus was air conditioned and one of the tour guides gave us a bit of a history lesson as we rode, which was nice.
When we arrived in My Tho, we boarded a boat to one of the smaller islands in the Mekong Delta.
Our tour guide had mentioned that each of the islands was named after a magical creature but I can’t remember which island we were on. I think it was Unicorn Island? Let’s go with that!
Our first stop was to try some local honey in tea. The honey, flavoured with longan fruit, was actually really delicious!
But the experience didn’t feel quite as authentic sitting with a bunch of other tourists and being pressured to purchase the honey after the tasting.
After tea, we were guided over to a long row of little rickety canoes and told to get in one – I was sure I was going to tip it getting in.
Once I got over my fear of tipping the boat, I relaxed and enjoyed floating down the river in a traditional boat with towering green leaves on either side.
But again, the river ride was flooded with tourists. And as we neared the pier where we would be getting off the boat, the rower sitting behind me started patting my back and whispering, “Give money, give money.”
While I absolutely understand a tip-based service industry and often wrestle with the disparity in wealth between rich foreigners coming into lower cost of living areas, this situation really turned me off.
I didn’t know we would be expected to tip and felt very rushed and confused about the process.
Day 1: Candy, shrines and local fish lunch
It was then time to get back onto our big boat and head to a different island. Once there, we watched a demonstration of how they make coconut candy.
It was pretty cool to see the process and how the candies were made from hand. Unfortunately, I don’t actually like coconut, so the tasting wasn’t too thrilling for me.
But I could see the appeal! And my friend Emilie snacked on the coffee coconut candies she bought all trip long.
Next, it was time for lunch! My friend Jonathan and I decided to upgrade from the standard lunch to indulge in the famous elephant ear fish.
And thank goodness we did! The standard meal was so bland with tough tofu or pork. But our fish was delicious! It was so fresh and melted like butter in my mouth. And I loved that we got to try something local.
After lunch, we walked around the little island where there were some shrines, cool gardens, an alligator pool and lots of little markets.
Staying overnight on the Mekong Delta
One more boat ride took us to yet another island where we enjoyed some fresh fruit and some traditional music. And then it was back to the buses!
The people who had only signed up for the one day Mekong Delta tour boarded a bus in My Tho back to Saigon while the six of us who had opted for the overnight tour boarded a smaller bus headed for Can Tho.
It was a long and bumpy drive that eventually brought us to the most terrible hotel. But before we passed right out on the bed (which was all I wanted to do), we went out for dinner and a bit of exploring.
Jonathan found us a local vegetarian restaurant that was as un-touristy as it gets. There was no English on the menu and only one person in the restaurant spoke enough English to help us pay.
We ended up just asking her to bring us four bowls of whatever she wanted. And it was delicious!
Plus, it only cost a whopping 17,000 dong each, which is about $1 Canadian ($0.70 USD). After dinner, we walked along the night market for a little while until we decided to call it a night.
But it was not going to be a good night at this hotel. The wifi didn’t work, there were ants crawling everywhere and the air conditioning stopped working in the middle of the night. Needless to say, I did not get a good sleep!
My Mekong Delta tour wasn’t the best experience. So don’t make the same mistake as I did. Check out the newest and best rated tours of the Mekong Delta here!
Day 2: The real floating market of the Mekong Delta
The next morning was another early one. After a bad sleep and mediocre breakfast, we walked down to the pier to meet our new group and board a boat bound for the floating market.
In my head, I was imagining the Mekong Delta floating market to be a bunch of narrow small boats with people selling local wares or fresh fruit. I was thinking we would get into little boats and float through an idyllic marketplace on the river.
I had that all wrong.
Instead, we were on a big boat with about 30 other people and floated around a huge river with lots of huge boats. The boats were selling fresh fruits and vegetables, but only to other vendors who would then take the products and sell them on land.
So it was more of a warehouse than a little marketplace like I had pictured. But it was still a really cool experience!
We learned that the big selling boats would attach the item they were selling to a mast and hoist it up. That way, buyers could see from a distance what the boat was selling. So if you were selling pineapples, you’d have a pineapple on a mast hanging above your boat. Genius, right?
Day 2: Island hopping and heading back to Saigon
After doing a few laps of the market, our boat sailed over to another island where we watched a family make rice noodles and rice paper by hand.
After that, everyone went on a bike ride around the island while I, a non-biker, played with the resident puppies. We then enjoyed some fresh fruit before cruising back to Can Tho.
From there we started our long journey back to Saigon. We stopped for lunch along the way and made it back to the city around dinner time.
Final thoughts: Is a Mekong Delta tour in Vietnam worth it?
Overall, it was definitely a cool experience to do the Mekong Delta tour in Vietnam. We packed a lot into two days and took part in lots of fun activities, like trying traditional snacks and seeing the floating market in action.
But it was also a little underwhelming. I think I had built up the floating market in my mind too much, which is silly because I’m sure if I had researched it ahead of time, I would’ve known what to expect.
Plus, the hotel we stayed at really was awful. Which I guess is what you get for only spending $34 CAD ($25 USD) on a two day tour!
It was very obvious that all of these types of Mekong Delta tours take the exact same route. Our group was constantly trailing behind and being followed by other groups doing the exact same things we were doing. So some of the authenticity and charm was lost.
If I was heading back to Vietnam this year, I would still go on a Mekong Delta tour. But I would do my homework and spend a little more money to go on a smaller tour that was more off the beaten path, rather than following in everyone else’s footsteps.
That being said, I’m still glad I went on the tour that I did back in 2016. While there were a few negatives, it was overall an enjoyable experience and great start to our time in Vietnam!
Hi fellow Vancouverite! Thank you so much for your article on Mekong tours. My husband and I would like to do a 2d/1n tour of the Mekon Delta. From your link, I see there are a variety of 2d/1/n tours with differing stops. All the tours of course are “touristy”, however is there one that you would recommend as hopefully being more authentic?
Thanks for checking out the post! Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell as (in my experience) most of the tours follow the exact same route. I think your best bet would be reading recent reviews to see if anyone mentions more authentic or less touristy aspects of a particular tour. It might also be helpful to remember that just because something is touristy, doesn’t mean it’s inauthentic. As fas I could tell on our tour, all of the places we visited were real small businesses run by locals, who were just taking advantage of tourism in their area (as they should!). Sometimes I find that experience a bit nicer as a tourist, since I’m entering into a space where I’m welcome and where the people hosting me are profiting. As romantic as it sounds to just stumble into an unknown hidden gem with locals who are seem to always be happy to host strangers, I try to think of how I’d feel if some tourist came poking around my workplace/home uninvited. Food for thought!