A full week in Saigon is a rare and genuinely rewarding thing. It’s enough time to move past tourist mode — to develop a favourite café you return to every morning, to learn which market has the best version of a particular dish, to stop checking Google Maps and start navigating by memory. This itinerary gives you a structured framework for the week but builds in deliberate unscheduled time, because the best week in Saigon is the one where you make your own discoveries.

Days 1–3: The essential Saigon

Follow the 3-day itinerary: Day 1 for historical sites and District 4 evening, Day 2 for Cu Chi Tunnels, Day 3 for Chinatown and local market exploration. These three days establish your foundation in the city — the history, the geography, and the basic food landscape.

Day 4: Mekong Delta day trip

Full day south of the city on an organised My Tho tour. Return by early evening. Have dinner near your hotel — after a full Mekong day you won’t want to travel far. The cơm tấm stall closest to your accommodation is the right answer.

Day 5: Thao Dien and District 2 — expat Saigon

A deliberate contrast day. Grab to Thao Dien in District 2 — the neighbourhood where expats, long-term residents, and Saigon’s international community live. It’s a different city: tree-lined streets, excellent international coffee shops, bakeries, and restaurants that wouldn’t be out of place in Melbourne or Copenhagen. Visit the riverside area for morning coffee, have lunch at a modern Vietnamese restaurant (Anan Saigon is worth the occasional splurge: 300,000–600,000 VND per person), walk the neighbourhood in the afternoon, and return to District 1 for a quieter evening.

Day 6: Phu Nhuan and Binh Thanh — local Saigon at its most ordinary

Deliberately unglamorous. Take a Grab to Phu Nhuan District and spend the morning walking the residential streets, eating bánh mì from a cart, visiting a neighbourhood wet market, and drinking coffee at a plastic-stool café that charges 15,000 VND. In the afternoon, walk south through Binh Thanh to Bà Chiểu Market. Evening: a quán nhậu (alleyway bia hơi restaurant) in Binh Thanh — ask your hotel or any local to point you to the nearest one. This is the most local day of the week and often the most memorable.

Day 7: Free day — your Saigon

No itinerary. Wake up when you wake up. Go to the café you’ve identified as your favourite over the week. Revisit the one thing you want to do again — whether it’s a dish you want to eat one more time, a market you want to return to, or a neighbourhood you want to walk without a schedule. Have a proper lunch, buy anything you want to bring home from the right place (spices from Binh Tây Market, coffee from a specialist roaster, lacquerware from a reputable shop), and spend the evening at the best meal of the trip.