Saigon Retro Walk

Meals: not included | Accommodation: not included

In the morning, we will meet our guide in the hotel lobby around 7:45 am and head to Tao Dan Park. Covering 10 hectares, the park is an ideal urban green space in Saigon; the perfect spot for bird lovers, for a promenade, and for some chit-chat with locals.

Afterward, we will visit the Reunification Palace, a blend of traditional and modern architecture, that used to be the presidential palace of South Vietnam until the Reunification in 1975. The building now functions as a museum, where the former state rooms, presidential office, and library can be visited, together with the living quarters of the president’s family and the underground bunkers.

From the palace, we will take a stroll around some major samples of beautiful French Colonial architecture like the City Hall, the Opera House, Notre Dame Cathedral… The City Hall has witnessed many political events such as the protests in 1937 and 1950 when workers demanded jobs and higher wages and various meetings. We will also have a chance to visit the Opera House, one of the most prominent landmarks in Saigon, built in 1897 by the French architect Eugene Ferret. After that, we will have a short walk to Notre Dame Cathedral, which is a mixture of Neo-Roman and Gothic, representative of the influence the French made on Vietnam during their invasion. Our retro walk will end around 12:30 with a refreshment at a local coffee shop.