Explore Cai Rang Floating Market & Son Islet Day Tour from Saigon with Vietnam Private Tours. Custom handcrafted itineraries, expert local guides, and luxury private service.
Cai Rang Floating Market & Son Islet Day Tour from Saigon
Experience the adventure of a lifetime from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho in the verdant Mekong Delta. Get ready for floating markets, lush islets and the people who proclaim their daily lives on the river.
The day starts early (around 4-5 AM) with a pick-up from your hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. Once you are settled in for your three-hour journey south, enjoy the views of rice paddies and palm-fringed canals as they fly by your window with the sunrise.
The first stop is Cai Rang Floating Market, the busiest market in the Delta, you will be on a private boat, navigating the colourful produce barges as vendors call out to sell their products. Enjoy a “floating” breakfast of steaming shaken noodles and rich “braised” Vietnamese coffee right there on the water.
Once on shore, visit small family workshops to watch the technique used to sun dry silky hủ tiếu rice noodles and to sample the famously sweet pineapple sliced fresh for you.
You will continue your cruise to the peaceful Son Islet on the Hau River. Here you can:
Visit a floating fish farm and enjoy a playful koi-fish foot massage.
Walk pathways through orchards, pick seasonal fruit and brave a traditional bamboo monkey bridge.
You will pop rice, mould sticky-rice cakes as well as see to the lively “jumping snakehead fish” all while sitting with island families who welcomed you into their homes.
At midday you will be presented with a generous home prepared Mekong lunch – it is the “flying menu” because each household prepared their specialty and you have directly supported community tourism.
After a nice rest, we boarded our vehicle for a comfortable ride back to Ho Chi Minh City, which will take approximately 3 hours. You will arrive at around 5 PM with fresh perspectives, tastes and unforgettable experiences of the Delta.
The area around Can Tho and therefore around Cai Rang Floating Market is also a wonderful place to explore by bike. You can cycle down peaceful canal paths to quiet villages, get a close-up view of daily life in the Delta and generally eat good food and meet hospitable people. If you are interested in combining your visit to the Lak Lake area with a guided cycle tour, let me know as we are very happy to customize a tour for you!
