If tourists to Saigon don’t choose the traveling form by the tour, they can still enjoy their trip as comfortable as possible by several public transport options such as buses, ferries and personal vehicles: taxi, cyclos, motorcycle taxi.
Motorbikes are used widely in the HCM city. However, most of tourists opt for taxi, motorcycle taxi or cyclos to getting around Ho Chi Minh City.
Ben Thanh Market – the symbol of HCM City
Taxi
Taxi is likely the top choice when traveling anywhere because you can both avoid the harsh heat and move quickly especially it carries many people and relatively safe in comparison with other vehicles. Now, there is a new service to book trip by Grab or Uber quickly and economically. Choose taxi so you are enjoyed Saigon in a unique way.
Nowadays, HCM City has over 30 active taxi companies. The biggest numbers of taxi are Taxi Mai Linh (08.38 38 38 38), Taxi VinaSun (08.38 27 27 27), Taxi of Saigontourist (08.38 464 646), Phuong Trang (Phương Trang) (08.38 18 18 18), Hoang Long (Hoàng Long) (08.38 68 68 68)…
Bus
Bus is the cheapest public transport in Ho Chi Minh City. When coming to HCM City, you had better have at least once times the experience of sitting on buses and moving around the city to see the crowded streets.
If you get in a bus on sprinkling rainy afternoons and sit by the window to look out the bus, everything is blurry but they are beautiful and romantic. When travelling Saigon, don’t miss the opportunity to experience this exciting transportation.
The bus system in HCM City runs widely with about 120 routes in the inner city and nearly 20 intercity routes going through neighboring areas such as Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, Vung Tau, from 5:30 a.m – 5:30 p.m except some routes run up 9:30 p.m.
Buses usually concentrate in the Ben Thanh Station (Ham Nghi street, District 1), the Cho Lon Station (No.86, Trang Tu, District 5), Mien Dong Station, Mien Tay Station, An Suong Station, Cu Chi Station (AH1, Cu Chi Town, Cu Chi District), District 8 Station (397 Highway 50, 5, 8 HCM City)…
The inner buses are supported the cost of 5.000 VND, 6.000 VND and 7.000 VND/ a turn. The intercity buses aren’t supported so cost is calculated after km, ranging from 7.000 – 25.000 VND/ person/ a turn.
Getting around Ho Chi Minh City
Motorcycles, bicycles
The most common vehicles in HCM City is still motorbike due to its convenience, easy to weave into the small ways and alleys.
There are 2 main forms of movement by motorbike in Saigon: motorbike taxi and rental motorbike. Motorbikes usually run much and after groups in the Mien Dong Station, Mien Tay Station and Saigon Station.
However, there hasn’t been an official management team for this transportation form. In addition, it is very easy for tourists to see motorbike taxi has a single operation near to market, at the junctions or crossroads.
Once choosing motorbike taxi, you just need to say the address and be assured sitting behind your friendly driver to come to the location you want.
The stories of very Saigon-style real life shared on the way will be one of memorable things in your traveling trip. Sometimes, Saigon take tourists pull back just because of these tiny and cute things like that.
In case you would like to enjoy a trip to Saigon in a free style, rental motorbikes or bicycles will be the interesting options for sure. Tourists can rent motorbikes at hotels or rental motorbike shops on the streets of city.
The rental price is about 100.000 – 120.000 VND/ motorbike/ day, 150.000 – 200.000 VND/ a rental motor-scooter/ day and you have to be self-refueling. Normally, the rental price of bicycle is cheaper than a half but this depends on which kind of bicycle you rent.
With this form, although everything is new on the strange streets in Saigon, that’s also an interesting thing. Sometimes, turn into an alley to satisfy your curiosity, why not? However, you need to pay attention that it is very easy to get lost between crowded Saigon streets so be careful.
Cyclos – nice memory when getting around HCM City
A lot of tourists think of this kind of transportation when travelling Saigon for sure. Cyclo is popular with both home and outside tourists.
Visit the city by this means, you can see the crowded means on the streets through each slow rotation of cyclo even occasionally, riders will stop at Saigon Notre-Dame Cathedral or Independence Palace to take pictures of. Traveling in Saigon by cyclo is a not bad idea, right?
Now, cyclo in HCM City runs after groups, teams. They are usually managed after tour by the combination of tourist companies. However, tourists can still find out cyclos in areas near to Ben Thanh market, tourist areas and museum.. This kind is usually covered as well as has number plate so in the event of the relating problems, tourists can contact the support force via the phone number: 08.39 250 000.
Ferry
Though Saigon has many bridges as well as tunnels across rivers but now HCM City still has 2 active ferries. The Cat Lai Ferry (Nguyen Thi Dinh, Thanh My Loi Ward, District 2) which gets a continuous operation 24/24. This ferry takes passengers from District 2 to Nhon Trach District, Dong Nai Province.
The ticket price for pedestrians and bicycles is 1.000 VND/ a turn, the ticket price for passenger running motorbike is 3.000 VND/ a turn, the ticket price for small car under seven seats is 15.000 VND/ a turn, the ticket price for car over 30 seats is 30.000 VND/ a turn, the ticket price for truck under tons is 25.000 VND/ one.
The Binh Khanh Ferry (Phu Xuan Commune, Nha Be District) takes passengers from Nha Be District to Can Gio District with 4.500 VND/ a turn for pedestrians and bicycles, 23.000 VND/ a turn for car under 7 seats, 46.000 VND/ a turn for car over 30 seats, 39.000 VND/ a turn for truck under 3 tons.
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