Can Tho Travel Guide

Updated October 2026

Overview and Things to Consider

Can Tho is the Mekong Delta's capital in everything but name. It sits on the south bank of the Hau River, the bigger of the Mekong's two main branches, about 170 kilometers southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, and locals still call it Tay Do, the western capital. It's a university town, a rice-trading town and a port, and it looks like one: concrete shophouses, a long riverfront promenade at Ninh Kieu, a Khmer pagoda and a Chinese assembly hall a few blocks apart. Tourism is a side business here, which is most of the appeal.

You'll love Can Tho if you want the delta at its own speed. Sleep in town, get on a boat at 5 a.m., eat noodles on the water, and spend the afternoon on back roads between fruit orchards. You'll hate it if you came for sights. There are maybe three buildings worth a detour, the nightlife is beer and karaoke, and from May to November the afternoons belong to the rain. The 1992 film The Lover used the Binh Thuy ancient house as a set, and that's about as glamorous as the city gets.

The 2026 moment is about distance shrinking. Since the My Thuan 2 Bridge and the My Thuan to Can Tho expressway opened on December 24, 2023, the road from Saigon is expressway nearly to the Hau River, and the onward expressway to Ca Mau opened in stages through January 2026. On paper the city also got enormous. A National Assembly resolution of June 12, 2025 folded Hau Giang and Soc Trang provinces into Can Tho, so the Bat Pagoda in Soc Trang, 60 kilometers away, is now technically inside city limits.

One thing is overrated, and it's the thing everyone comes for. The Cai Rang floating market is real but smaller every year, around 250 to 300 boats against 500 to 600 a few decades back, and most of them now carry tourists or sell food and fruit to visitors. Go anyway. Just go at dawn, and treat the market as the start of a morning on the canals rather than the whole point of the trip.

How Can Tho Got Here

The land around Can Tho was Khmer before it was Vietnamese, and the Khmer name for the area, Prek Ruessei, means bamboo river. Vietnamese control came through the Mac family of Ha Tien, who in 1739 organized the south bank of the Hau as a district called Tran Giang. It became a fortified rear base against Siamese and Cambodian armies, and the Siamese failed to take it when they attacked Ha Tien in 1771. By the 1830s there were markets by the landings on the Can Tho and Binh Thuy rivers and near the mouth of the O Mon.

The French made it a provincial seat on February 23, 1876, and Can Tho grew rich on rice shipped out of the delta by water. The Duong family built the house at Binh Thuy in 1870 and gave it its French-Asian facade in a 1904 to 1911 remodel. When Saigon renamed the province Phong Dinh in 1956, Can Tho stayed its capital, and during the war the town held South Vietnam's IV Corps military headquarters, and Mau Than Street, the long road through the student quarter, is named for the Tet Offensive of 1968.

Since 1975 Can Tho has been reorganized again and again. It became a centrally run city on January 1, 2004, the Can Tho Bridge replaced the Hau River ferries on April 24, 2010, three years after an approach span collapsed during construction and killed 54 people, and the 2025 merger made it a city of about 4.26 million people. The urban core you'll visit is much smaller: Ninh Kieu, Cai Rang across the river, and Binh Thuy to the north.

Getting There and Around

Almost everyone arrives by road from Ho Chi Minh City. Buses leave Ben Xe Mien Tay, the Western Bus Station, around the clock, and Vexere's route page lists 529 trips a day on the Saigon to Can Tho run, about 192 kilometers and 3.8 hours. Phuong Trang (FUTA) is the default choice at 195,000 dong (about $7.50) from Mien Tay, with departures from midnight onward. Ba Chau, Bao Ngoc and My Duyen run 170,000 to 199,000 dong from the same station, Ba Chau and My Duyen from numbered ticket windows, and limousine vans such as MEKO, Tu Tien and Ngoc Diem cost 260,000 to 400,000 dong and leave from District 10, the An Suong junction or National Route 1A in District 12.

Flying in mostly isn't an option. Can Tho International Airport (VCA), 9 kilometers northwest of the center, had no international flights at all in 2025, and Tuoi Tre reported in February 2026 that its Saigon route was suspended and several domestic routes ran only intermittently. What it does have is a handful of domestic links, mainly to Hanoi, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Con Dao and Phu Quoc, the last revived by Vietnam Airlines in October 2024. If you're flying from overseas, land at Tan Son Nhat in Saigon and take the bus.

Entry is the same as anywhere in Vietnam. UK citizens get 45 days visa-free, as do Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and a growing list of other EU states, with Belgium, the Netherlands and several others added on August 15, 2025 under a waiver that runs to August 14, 2028. US, Canadian and Australian passport holders need an e-visa, which since August 15, 2023 has been available to every nationality for up to 90 days, single or multiple entry, at $25 or $50, through the official Vietnam e-visa portal. An e-visa ties you to the entry and exit points you name on the form, so list the Chau Doc river border if you might leave for Cambodia that way. Passports need six months' validity and two blank pages.

In town, Ninh Kieu is walkable and everything else is a ride. Grab operates in Can Tho for cars and motorbike taxis, Mai Linh runs metered cabs, and motorbikes and bicycles rent from hotels. Boats leave from Ninh Kieu wharf for Cai Rang, about 30 minutes downstream. If you rent a motorbike, both GOV.UK and Canada's travel advice warn that crashes are common and often fatal and that the license rules are strict. Canada says you need a Vietnamese license for anything over 50cc and suggests hiring a driver if you're going by car.

What's Changed Since 2016

December 24, 2023 is the date that changed the trip. The My Thuan 2 Bridge and the 23-kilometer My Thuan to Can Tho expressway opened together, joining the Trung Luong to My Thuan stretch opened in 2022 and finishing an expressway from Saigon to Binh Minh, just across the Hau from Can Tho. Even so, Vexere still lists the bus at about 3.8 hours.

The road kept going. The Can Tho to Hau Giang expressway opened on December 22, 2025, and the Hau Giang to Ca Mau section on January 19, 2026, so the delta's far south is now a fast drive. The second Can Tho bridge that would carry the expressway itself across the Hau isn't built yet. In town, the 600-meter Tran Hoang Na steel-arch bridge over the Can Tho River opened on February 6, 2024, linking Cai Rang to downtown Ninh Kieu.

June 12, 2025 redrew the map. The National Assembly merged Hau Giang and Soc Trang provinces into Can Tho, making it a municipality of about 4.26 million people over 6,360 square kilometers. For a visitor, the practical effect is that Soc Trang's Khmer pagodas and the Nga Nam floating market now count as Can Tho, and you'll see new ward names on maps and bus tickets.

The riverfront got wetter before it got drier. Can Tho finished nearly 9,200 billion dong of dikes, pumps and tide gates in July 2024, and in October 2024 king tides still put close to a meter of water on Hai Ba Trung and the streets behind Ninh Kieu wharf, through an older kilometer of embankment the project didn't fix. The Ninh Kieu walking street, closed in June 2025 after its operator lost money, reopened on November 29, 2025, now on Saturday and Sunday evenings only, with don ca tai tu music and cai luong opera excerpts.

The floating market has a plan and fewer boats. VnExpress reported in July 2026 that the city launched a nearly 30 billion dong project to draw up a conservation plan for Cai Rang, with a core zone kept for traditional cargo boats, limits on motorized tour boats, and a buffer zone of tourist routes. Writing the plan takes about three years, and once approved it runs to 2050. The count it cited, 250 to 300 vessels, compares with 500 to 600 a few decades ago, and an April 2024 VnExpress piece blamed roads, falling freshwater flows and upstream dams.

What the Usual Advice Gets Wrong

"See the Mekong Delta on a day trip from Saigon." Cai Rang trades from about 4 a.m. and the tourism board's own page says the best window is 5 to 7 a.m. A day trip leaving Saigon after breakfast can't reach Can Tho, 3.8 hours away, before the market has thinned out. Sleep in Can Tho the night before, or you'll see a river with a few fruit boats on it.

"Cai Rang is a wholesale river market of hundreds of boats." It was. VnExpress's July 2026 report on the city's conservation plan counts 250 to 300 vessels against 500 to 600 decades ago, and most now serve tourism or sell food and fruit to visitors. It's still the largest floating market in the delta and worth a dawn, but expect a working river with visitors on it, not a traffic jam of cargo boats.

"Fly straight into Can Tho International." The name oversells it. Tuoi Tre reported that Can Tho ran no international flights in 2025 and that its Saigon route was suspended. International travelers land at Tan Son Nhat in Saigon and ride the bus. The airport makes sense only if you're coming from Hanoi, Da Nang, Hai Phong, Con Dao or Phu Quoc.

"Walk the Ninh Kieu walking street any night." Since its November 29, 2025 reopening the 800-meter pedestrian stretch of Hai Ba Trung runs on Saturdays and Sundays only, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. The riverfront park is there all week, but the closed-to-traffic street and its music are a weekend thing.

"Can Tho is a one-night stopover for the market." Since the 2025 merger, the Bat Pagoda in Soc Trang, about an hour away by local bus, and the Nga Nam floating market are both inside the city. Add Phong Dien's orchards and the Binh Thuy house, and Can Tho easily fills three days without repeating a boat ride.

Ideas to Consider for Your Visit

Have you thought about doing the floating market on a shared hotel boat instead of a private tour? The Ninh Kieu 2 hotel's tour desk runs a sunrise Cai Rang boat from 5 to 7 a.m. for 100,000 dong a head in a group, and a longer 7 to 11 a.m. trip that adds an orchard and a workshop making hu tieu noodle sheets, for the same price. Buy a bowl of hu tieu from a boat kitchen alongside and coffee from a vendor who ties up to your hull. On Saturday and Sunday mornings from 6:30 to 7:30, there's don ca tai tu, southern chamber music, on the water.

Go upstream to Phong Dien, about 17 kilometers from the center where the Can Tho River meets the Hau. Its floating market meets from about 4 or 5 a.m. and breaks up by 7 or 8, and unlike Cai Rang it sells household goods, fishing nets, woven baskets and breakfast as well as produce. Phong Dien is also the home of banh hoi heo quay, fine rice-vermicelli mats with scallion oil and crisp roast pork, which the city tourism office lists among Can Tho's signature dishes. A French family profiled by VnExpress in September 2025 did the Phong Dien market by boat, then rented a motorbike and spent the day riding through villages and rice fields.

The Binh Thuy ancient house is the best building in the city. The Duong family built it in 1870 and remodeled it between 1904 and 1911 into a five-bay house with Corinthian columns and plaster grapes and squirrels on the walls. It sits in the heart of the old Long Tuyen village in Binh Thuy, a Grab ride from downtown.

Take the local bus to Soc Trang, about an hour away, for the Khmer Mekong. The Bat Pagoda on Van Ngoc Chinh Street, a Khmer temple founded in 1569, keeps a colony of fruit bats with wingspans up to 1.5 meters in the trees around the courtyard. Wikivoyage suggests arriving about half an hour before sunset to watch them leave. The Clay Pagoda in the same town is crammed with thousands of statues installed by one monk over 60 years, and if you can be up at 5 a.m., the Nga Nam floating market is 50 kilometers further on.

Eat in the old Xuan Khanh student quarter along Mau Than Street, where Can Tho University's students live and eat. It's a better meal and a better watch than the riverfront, with Quang Duc Pagoda as a landmark and duck hot pot (vit nau chao) and seafood hot pot alleys nearby. For a sit-down Mekong dinner with live music, Nha Hang Trong Huu in Ninh Kieu's 91B residential area serves grilled snails with green pepper, grilled snakehead and clay-pot hot pot, with free don ca tai tu every day led by People's Artist Trong Huu. Dishes run 10,000 to 429,000 dong.

The Part Most Guides Miss

Can Tho's best hour is the ride back from Cai Rang, not the market itself. Ask the boat to come home through the small canals instead of retracing the main river. Small rowboats with outboards get into channels the big tour launches can't, and that slow water is where the delta makes sense, past riverside houses and the hu tieu noodle workshops that the French family VnExpress followed in 2025 stopped at. Most visitors stand on a deck, photograph the bamboo poles hung with sample pumpkins and pineapples that advertise what each market boat sells, and head straight back for breakfast. Spend the extra hour, and agree on it before you leave the wharf.

Where to Base Yourself

Ninh Kieu riverfront. The obvious choice and the right one for a first visit. You're a few minutes' walk from the wharf for a 5 a.m. boat, Ong Pagoda and the Khmer Munirangsyaram pagoda on Hoa Binh Boulevard, the night market, and the weekend walking street. Green Sunshine Homestay, 0.7 kilometers from the center, lists dorms from about $4. The catch is the October king tides, which have flooded Hai Ba Trung and the streets behind it.

Xuan Khanh and Mau Than Street. The student quarter around Can Tho University suits a longer stay. Food is cheaper, the cafes are full of students rather than tour groups, and evenings are local. It's a Grab ride rather than a walk to the wharf, which matters when you're catching a dawn boat, and the long, traffic-heavy Mau Than road isn't pleasant to walk.

Binh Thuy. For the cheapest bed and a quieter river. Can Tho Riverside Hostel, 2 kilometers from the center, lists dorms from about $3 with breakfast, and the Binh Thuy ancient house is nearby. You'll rely on Grab or a rented bike for everything else, and early boats mean an extra ride to the wharf or arranging a pickup with the hostel.

Realities to Be Aware Of

Can Tho is about as cheap as Vietnam gets. Hostelworld lists dorms at $3 to $6 a night, a coffee runs about 10,000 dong, and a shared sunrise boat costs 100,000 dong. A budget traveler stacking those prices with street noodles and a bus ticket out can keep a day in the low tens of dollars. A guided half day by motorbike and boat with Hieu Tour, a local operator, is $58, and a full day to Vinh Long is $128, so mid-range spending mostly goes on guiding, not beds.

The safety story is road traffic and petty theft. GOV.UK warns of bag-snatchers in tourist areas and says to hold bags on the side away from the traffic, and Canada adds thieves on motorbikes and bag slashing in crowded markets. Both say motorbike crashes are common and often fatal, and GOV.UK notes you need a 1968-convention international permit plus your home license, third-party insurance and a helmet. Any alcohol in your blood when riding can mean a fine or jail. Canada also warns about methanol in unregulated rice wine, so stick to bottled beer and branded spirits.

At the wharf, agree the boat price, the route and the return time before you step aboard, and say whether you want the small canals. Wikivoyage's advice to negotiate still stands, and a boat operator described in a 2024 VnExpress piece quit partly over tourists complaining the trip was a waste of money. Booking through a hotel desk or Hieu Tour avoids most of it.

Dengue is a daytime risk in Vietnam, worst around sunrise and sunset, which is exactly when you'll be on the river, so bring repellent for the boat. Canada describes Vietnamese society as conservative, and the pagodas and the Duong family's altar at Binh Thuy expect covered shoulders and knees. Never hand over your passport as a deposit, GOV.UK says, which matters when renting a motorbike. Drug penalties are severe, up to the death penalty.

If Can Tho Is Part of a Longer Trip

Can Tho is the natural middle of a delta loop. The usual order is Saigon to Can Tho by bus, two or three nights here, then west to Chau Doc, 117 kilometers and about three hours by bus, and into Cambodia by river. One speedboat company runs Chau Doc to Phnom Penh for $40, about four hours plus two at the border as of January 2025, and Cambodia sells visas on arrival there for $36 but doesn't accept its own e-visa at that crossing. From Phnom Penh it's an easy run on to Siem Reap.

Going the other way, Vietnam Airlines brought back ATR turboprop flights from Can Tho to Phu Quoc five days a week in October 2024, though Tuoi Tre says the route has run only intermittently since. South, the new expressway makes Ca Mau, the bottom of the country, a fast road trip. If you're stringing Vietnam into a longer Asia route, Can Tho fits best between Saigon and Cambodia, or as the last stop before flying north to Hanoi or on to Bangkok from Saigon. For a multi-country trip with open-jaw flights, AirTreks can route you into Saigon and out of Phnom Penh, so you never backtrack.

Yearly Things to Consider

Two seasons and the river decide everything. December to April is dry, with January to March getting under an inch of rain a month, and that's the best time to be on the water. The rains build from May and peak in September at almost 18 inches, the wettest month on the record. The tourism office's own page says the market is best from 5 to 7 a.m. all year, so the season changes your afternoons more than your mornings.

The counterintuitive part is the wettest stretch. September and October bring the most rain and the October king tides that swamp Ninh Kieu, but mornings on the water still work, and the VnExpress Marathon chose mid-September for its 2025 debut. Avoid Tet unless you want it. Lunar New Year falls on February 6 in 2027. The Water Culture Festival filled the wharf from December 27, 2025 to January 1, 2026 with boat parades and a drone show.

Ideas for Itineraries

3 Days in Can Tho

Arrive from Saigon by afternoon bus and walk the Ninh Kieu riverfront at sunset, with Ong Pagoda and the Munirangsyaram Khmer pagoda on the way. Next morning, take a 5 a.m. boat to Cai Rang, eat hu tieu on the water and come back through the small canals and a noodle workshop. Sleep through the heat, then Grab out to the Binh Thuy ancient house in the late afternoon. On day three, ride a motorbike or take a car to Phong Dien for the smaller market, banh hoi with roast pork and an orchard lunch, then catch a late bus back to Saigon.

5 Days in Can Tho

Do the three-day version, then add Soc Trang. Take an early local bus, about an hour, see the Clay Pagoda in the morning, have lunch on Vo Thi Sau Street, and wait at the Bat Pagoda until the fruit bats lift off before sunset. Sleep there or ride back. On day five, either sleep in for once and spend the day eating along Mau Than Street in Xuan Khanh, or, if it's a weekend, end with the walking street on Hai Ba Trung and live don ca tai tu at the wharf.

1 Week in Can Tho

A week lets Can Tho become a hub. Spend four nights here doing the market, Phong Dien, Binh Thuy and Soc Trang, including the dawn Nga Nam floating market if you're willing to start in the dark. Then bus three hours west to Chau Doc for two nights, with Sam Mountain at the edge of town and the Tra Su bird sanctuary a moto ride out. Finish with the morning speedboat up the river to Phnom Penh, about six hours with the border.

2 Weeks or More in Can Tho

Two weeks suits a slower delta. Base yourself in Xuan Khanh for the first week, where meals are cheap, and do one river trip early each morning: Cai Rang, Phong Dien, the small canals, a day trip to Vinh Long. Use weekends for the walking street and the Truc Lam Phuong Nam Zen monastery. In week two, loop south on the new expressway to Ca Mau, or fly to Phu Quoc for a few beach days, before heading for Chau Doc and the river crossing to Cambodia.

Sources

What this guide is built on. Every page below was read for this guide; prices and rules were checked in October 2026.

• Cần Thơ, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Cần Thơ (history and administration), Wikipedia (Vietnamese) (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Can Tho, Wikivoyage (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Vé xe khách từ Sài Gòn đi Cần Thơ, Vexere (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Vietnam's Mekong Delta int'l airport still awaits a global air link, Tuoi Tre News (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Flights from Can Tho to Vietnam's largest island to resume next month, VnExpress International (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Cái Răng Floating Market, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Lập đề án bảo tồn 'di sản sống' chợ nổi lớn nhất miền Tây, VnExpress (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Chợ nổi 'chết chìm', VnExpress (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Du khách Mỹ mua trái cây, ăn hủ tiếu trên ghe chợ nổi, VnExpress (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Thư giãn tại chợ nổi Cái Răng trước VnExpress Marathon, VnExpress (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Chợ nổi Cái Răng, Can Tho Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Chợ nổi Phong Điền, Wikipedia (Vietnamese) (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• 5 đặc sản Cần Thơ thơm ngon lạ miệng thu hút thực khách, Can Tho Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Nhà hàng Trọng Hữu, nghe đờn ca tài tử giữa lòng thành phố Cần Thơ, Can Tho Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Can Tho Travel tours, Can Tho Travel (Ninh Kieu 2 Hotel) (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Hieu Tour Vietnam, Hieu Tour (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Hostels in Can Tho, Hostelworld (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Vietnam travel advice: entry requirements, GOV.UK (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Vietnam travel advice: safety and security, GOV.UK (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Travel advice and advisories for Vietnam, Government of Canada (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Visa policy of Vietnam, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• North-South Expressway East, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Cần Thơ Bridge, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Bridge ready to enter service across Can Tho River, VnExpress International (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Cần Thơ mở lại phố đi bộ bến Ninh Kiều, VnExpress (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Bến Ninh Kiều kín người xem Lễ hội văn hóa sông nước Cần Thơ, VnExpress (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Lý do bến Ninh Kiều ở Cần Thơ 'chìm' trong triều cường, VnExpress (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• French family on a backpacking trip in Can Tho, VnExpress International (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Chau Doc, Wikivoyage (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Soc Trang, Wikivoyage (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Chùa Dơi, Wikipedia (Vietnamese) (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Nhà cổ Bình Thủy, Wikipedia (Vietnamese) (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Grab locations, Grab (accessed Oct 3, 2026)
• Tết, Wikipedia (accessed Oct 3, 2026)