Vietnam · Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) · Ho Chi Minh City
Cần Giờ, Ho Chi Minh City — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Cần Giờ is the outlying coastal district of Ho Chi Minh City, set apart from central Saigon across the Saigon River.
About Cần Giờ
Where to stay in Cần Giờ
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Cần Giờ keeps few rooms of its own. Most visitors base themselves across the water in the central quarters of Ho Chi Minh City and cross to this district for the day, since the hotels, restaurants, and transport of Saigon cluster inland rather than on its seaward edge. District 1 does the heavy lifting.
Its blocks around Bến Thành Market and the backpacker lane of Bùi Viện Street hold the densest run of beds, and they suit travellers who want the whole city on their doorstep before a trip out to Cần Giờ.
About Cần Giờ
What are the main landmarks in Cần Giờ?
Cần Giờ carries none of the famous set-pieces of the city core. The district's draw is its own scale and quiet, a sprawl of some 704 square kilometres of low, watery ground that sits apart from the crowded blocks of Ho Chi Minh City. Its draw is the river and shore.
To find the built sights that fill guidebooks, travellers turn back toward central Saigon, where Bến Thành Market anchors the streets of District 1 and the Saigon River threads the whole city together.
What is the history of Cần Giờ?
Cần Giờ has always been the edge of the city. While central Saigon grew into the busy core of Ho Chi Minh City, this seaward district stayed a thinly settled stretch of water, marsh, and low ground far from the trading streets that made the port. Distance shaped it.
The Saigon River that carried commerce up to District 1 emptied instead through Cần Giờ toward open water, leaving the district a rural counterweight to the dense city that spread inland behind it.
Where is Cần Giờ?
Cần Giờ is the seaward district of Ho Chi Minh City, a low tropical spread of roughly 704 square kilometres where the Saigon River drains away from central Saigon toward open water.
More areas in Ho Chi Minh City
Updated July 2026