Ho Chi Minh City

It is French colonial influence - rather than 60s American – that still abounds in Vietnam’s largest city, once known as Saigon. Wide, elegant boulevards and colonial-era buildings pepper the landscape along the banks of the Saigon River (just 60km upstream from the South China Sea). Slowly, as the city reinvents itself, the skyline is changing for the better.

Must See:
The War Remnants Museum is a festival of captured American technology from the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 70s – which chronicles the bitter conflict from a local perspective.

Must eat at:
Sample a fusion of the new Asia – and the new Vietnam - at Cafe Zoom in the Phnam Ngu Lao area. It serves an eclectic mix of traditional and modern, Asian and international, to a diverse crowd.

Must be there for:
The ‘Liberation’ of Saigon is marked in the public mind with grainy film of helicopters on the roof of the American Embassy. In Ho Chi Minh City, at the end of April, it’s marked with a public holiday.

Well-travelled tips:
· Ho Chi Minh City offers a unique bar crawl of no fewer than four rooftop cocktail bars, namely the Rex, the Sheraton, the Majestic and the Caravelle. Relish the view as you knock back you favourite tipple!
· Testing out your haggling skills at the Chinese market is an extraordinary experience – massive, crowded and literally overflowing with everything you could possibly imagine.

Visas:
British citizens need a visa to visit Vietnam. For full information, please visit http://www.vietnamembassy.org.uk/consular.html