“Every man and his dog runs a travel agent in Saigon offering tours to the Mekong Delta,” explains Travelfish. These include “all manner of options available from one-day tasters to week-long extravaganzas,”but before you signing up, “remember the Mekong Delta is really easy to travel independently -- and inexpensively.”
If you’re taking a day trip from Saigon, Ben Tre is the “best option,” advises Rusty Compass. Ben Tre “retains an authenticity lost in nearby My Tho,”and the bridge connecting Ben Tre and My Tho “puts the town within easy reach of Saigon for day trippers.”
That’s because Ben Tre has “some of the Mekong Delta’s most breathtaking scenery,” says Rough Guides. “Famed for its fruit orchards and coconut groves, the province has proved “just as fertile a breeding ground for revolutionaries, first plotting against the French, and later against the Americans,” and was one of the areas seized by the Viet Cong during the Tet Offensive of 1968.