Five days is when Saigon stops feeling like a place you’re visiting and starts feeling like a place you understand. The first two days cover the essentials — history, famous sites, street food orientation. Days three through five take you deeper: into the Mekong Delta, into Chinatown, into neighbourhood coffee shops where you drink slowly and watch the city operate. By day five, you’ll be navigating by mental map rather than Google Maps, and you’ll have opinions about which cơm tấm stall is better than which. That’s the five-day version of knowing a city.

Day 1: History and orientation

Follow the 1-day itinerary exactly: War Remnants Museum (early), Reunification Palace, Notre Dame and Central Post Office, Jade Emperor Pagoda, sunset rooftop, dinner in District 4. This day establishes the historical and geographical framework for everything that follows.

Day 2: Cu Chi Tunnels day trip

Full day outside the city. Depart by 8am on an organised tour to Ben Duoc (the less-visited, more authentic Cu Chi site). Return by 5pm. Low-key evening — street food near the hotel and early sleep. The tunnels are physically and emotionally demanding.

Day 3: The Mekong Delta

The second major day trip. Depart by 7:30am for My Tho (the closest Mekong Delta town, 70km south). A good organised tour includes: boat journey along narrow river channels between coconut palm islands, visit to a coconut candy workshop (genuinely interesting, not just a tourist trap), lunch at a riverside restaurant featuring Mekong Delta river fish, and return to Saigon by 6pm. The Mekong landscape is flat, green, and utterly unlike the city — even half a day there recalibrates your sense of what Southern Vietnam is.

Day 4: Chinatown and District 4

A full local neighbourhood day. Start in District 5 (Cho Lon) with a dim sum breakfast, walk through Bình Tây Market, and have a roast duck lunch on Châu Văn Liêm. Afternoon: rest and coffee in District 3. Evening: the full District 4 experience — arrive at Vĩnh Khánh Street at 6pm and spend three hours eating snails, grilled squid, and drinking bia hơi with whatever group of locals will have you at their table. This is the best evening of a five-day visit.

Day 5: Slow Saigon — neighbourhood, coffee, and street food walk

The final day should be deliberately unscheduled. Start with a proper phở breakfast at Phở Hòa Pasteur (260C Pasteur, District 3) at 7am. Then: walk. No specific destination. Head into Binh Thanh, or walk the back streets of District 3, or spend two hours at a coffee shop reading. In the afternoon, do the self-guided street food walk from District 1 through to District 3. End the day at bánh xèo for dinner and a rooftop bar for the final sunset over Saigon.