Private speedboat day: Saigon to the delta canals

This is the trip for travellers who have one day for the delta and want to spend as little of it as possible in a vehicle. The boat leaves from the city centre, so the city traffic that adds an hour or more to a road trip simply does not apply. You sit in the open air on the way out, see the Saigon River from the water, and turn into the smaller waterways where the city gives way to fish ponds and coconut palms.

It suits couples and small families, business travellers with a single free day, and anyone who gets restless in a car. It also suits people who have already seen Ben Tre or Cai Be on an earlier visit and want a quieter side of the delta. The canals the published speedboat days use are in the Thu Thua area, in the former Long An province, now part of Tay Ninh province. This is the upper edge of the delta: smaller water, fewer visitors, and none of the wide brown Mekong branches you reach by car.

Be clear about that last point before you book. If the picture in your head is of a broad river with islands of coconut palms, the car day to Ben Tre or Cai Be fits it better, or the boat-out, car-back version below, which reaches the Tien River at Thoi Son in the afternoon.

These times follow the shape of the published speedboat timetables we have checked, adjusted for a private boat that does not wait for anyone. Your quote may move the start earlier in the hot months, or later when the tide makes the canals easier to enter, and it says why.

The speedboat cannot reach the wide Tien River and come back in a comfortable day, so we offer a version that uses both. The morning is the same: speedboat from Saigon, sampan in the upper-delta canals, an early lunch. At about half past one a private car meets you on the delta side and drives you to Thoi Son, the islet in the Tien River between My Tho and Ben Tre. A published two-day speedboat itinerary gives about one hour and twenty minutes for a similar road leg from the Thu Thua area to the islet.

On Thoi Son you take a second private sampan along a small canal under water-coconut palms and see the river that the morning canals feed into. The car then takes you back to Saigon; the same published itinerary allows about two hours for the drive from the islet to the city. Expect to be back at the hotel around six, and later on a Friday or before a holiday.

This version is a long day of about ten hours, and the speedboat does not wait for you to come back, so it costs the boat charter plus a full-day car. It is the one to choose if you want both the speedboat ride and the Mekong proper in one day.

If you want to compare what a speedboat day costs and how it runs, the clearest public figures come from operators who print their timetables. One Saigon operator, Les Rives, publishes an eight-hour Mekong Delta speedboat day: pick-up at 08:00, the boat leaving Bach Dang pier at 08:15, about one hour and twenty minutes to the delta, canals in the Thu Thua area, and the boat back at the pier at 15:30. Its listed price is from VND 3,099,000 per adult and VND 2,399,000 per child aged 4 to 12, on a shared boat carrying no more than 15 guests.

Those are the figures for a seat on a shared boat. A private charter puts the whole boat, crew and fuel on one party, and the price reflects that. The pricing page explains the difference in more detail.

Tide

The Saigon River and the canals off it rise and fall with the tide every day. At very high water, low bridges on small canals can close a route to boats; at very low water, a narrow canal can be too shallow. The highest tides in Ho Chi Minh City usually come in the tenth lunar month, which falls in November or December. We check the tide for your date and set the departure and the canal around it; the plan you receive says which.

Weather

Light rain does not stop a speedboat. Strong wind or a heavy storm does. If the forecast for your day makes the river unsafe for a small open boat, we tell you the day before and offer the car version or a different date. In the rainy months of September and October we keep the afternoon return as early as possible, because storms tend to build later in the day.

Luggage

Speedboats are for day bags: a small backpack or tote each, a camera, a hat. There is no locker and the boat can be wet. If you are checking out of your hotel that day, your suitcases go to the next hotel or the airport by car, and we quote that as its own line. This is our rule, not a published regulation; it exists because climbing down onto a moving pontoon with a suitcase is how people get hurt.

The boat charter is the largest part of the price, and it is charged by the hours the boat is yours. The second-largest is the car, when the boat-out, car-back version needs a full-day vehicle. The pricing page shows how a quote is built, and the how to book page explains confirmation and changes.