Vietnam and Cambodia: Day Tripping - Can Gio - HCMC

Can Gio is a small coastal town around 50km south of HCMC. While the town itself has very little to offer, it makes for a nice day trip out of HCMC and a chance to have a dip in the South China Sea and munch on some fresh seafood!
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If your keen for a local experience and a break from the craziness of HCMC, here are the details!

Getting There
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Getting to Can Gio is really easy. Head to the southern end of Ton Duc Thang Street in District 1 and cross the new brigde to District 4. Continue along Huyen Tan Phat Street until you came to a set of lights, turn left. Go a few hundred meters and follow the main road around to the right in to Ditrict 7.

Stay on this road and you drive on through District 7 and Nha Be District, eventually you will reach the ferry to Can Gio. Catch the ferry and when you arrive in Can Gio, follow the only road 30 odd km and you will reach Can Gio! The 50km takes around 2 hours total.

The Town
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The town itself has little to offer, other than seafood and beach. That said it's not a bad place to cruise around to get some photos of locals, markets, mangroves, beach etc.

Along the beach, there is a small paved road that runs for a few kilometers which is full of restaurants serving up seafood and cold drinks.The beach itself isn't the cleanest, but the water was OK - I did have a swim and can still type this two day on!

The seafood is fresh and tasty. Menus are in Vietnamese and English, most of the prices are market price/per kg, so ask when you order how much stuff is.

A number of resorts are located along the beach and you can get day tickets which includes use of the private beach, pool, change rooms etc. Vina Pearl Resort was 75,000VND per/person. We stuck to the beach as it was packed. We visited on a Sunday, if you can head down through the week and beat the local day trippers that journey south on weekends.

3km before reaching the town there is Monkey Island, basically a mangrove swamp full of monkeys and crocodiles. Entrance is 35,000vnd and it is, in a word, crap! Lots of locals feeding angry and mistreated monkeys all in a stinking mangrove swamp! Skip it and hit the beach (pic's below).

The Good Oil

Can Gio doesn't really rate on my "must see" list of Vietnam.

But that said it was a really nice drive and made for a good day trip out of HCMC. The seafood was really nice and even though the beach was a bit dirty, it was nice to swim in the salt water.

All in all, worth a visit. Nice drive, good food and ok beach.

Photo's below!

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Keen for a motor bike adventure?

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If you would like to visit Can Gio, Cu Chi Tunnels or the Mekong Delta on a motor bike, email Adam for a quote.

Adam knows a number of local motor bike drivers in HCMC and can help you arrange an adventure of a life time! All the drivers are friends of Adam's and are safe, slow and English speaking.

So don the leathers, slick back the hair and polish up the sandles! There's no more excuses!

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