Private car day to Ben Tre or Cai Be

This is the day for travellers who want the delta of the photographs: a wide brown river, islands of coconut palms, narrow canals running off it, and family workshops on the banks. That landscape starts at the Tien River, the northern Mekong branch, and the fastest comfortable way to reach it from Saigon in a day is a private vehicle on the expressway.

You spend about four hours of the day in the car, split into two runs of about two hours. That is the honest cost of this trip, and we do not hide it. In exchange you travel door to door with nobody else, you stop when you want, and the day starts when you are ready rather than when the last hotel on a coach route has been collected. It suits older travellers, families with children who nap in a car more easily than on a boat, and anyone who prefers air conditioning to spray.

You choose one side of the river for the day. Ben Tre is quieter and greener, with canals that run deep into coconut groves. Cai Be has more river traffic, the remains of a floating market, and an old village of wooden houses. We will help you choose when you send the form; the notes below show what each side gives.

The distances are road kilometres from central Saigon. The times are ranges that include getting out of the city, which is the slowest part of every drive south. The road beyond the city is expressway: the Ho Chi Minh City to Trung Luong section opened in 2010, and the Trung Luong to My Thuan section continues towards Cai Be. On the Ben Tre side, a second Rach Mieu bridge opened to traffic on 19 August 2025, and the temporary ferry stopped the next day, so there is no longer a ferry queue on this route.

Friday afternoons, Sunday evenings and the days around public holidays and Tet are slower. When your date is one of those, the quote moves the return earlier or warns you that it will be later.

Each side has its own page with seasons, costs on the ground and when to skip it: Ben Tre and Cai Be.

For one or two travellers we use a sedan; for three or four, a 7-seat car; for five to eight, a van fitted with fewer, larger seats, which in Vietnam is often called a limousine. That word also appears on shared buses between Saigon and the delta, so when we say limousine we mean a vehicle for your party only, and the quote names the class.

The car day has no luggage limit beyond the size of the vehicle, which makes it the right trip if you are checking out of a Saigon hotel and heading somewhere else afterwards. Tell us how many suitcases there are; we choose the vehicle around them, and the bags stay locked in the car while you are on the boat.

The vehicle and the boats are the main costs; the guide and lunch come next. The pricing page explains how a quote is built, and how to book covers confirmation, payment safety and changes.